Having my PC tower in a different building and getting DP and USB to my normal desk

Hardware Hub
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Hi all,

So I’m currently building an outbuilding in my garden that will house my home lab and a bunch of my other nerdy goodness!

For the networking I’m running a 12 core singlemode fiber cable and a couple of Cat6 copper runs as backups from the main network cabinet in my house.

I only have a plan for 4 of the 12 fiber cores so far:
1 - My internet is through a leased line that comes in on standard OS2 also, so I’m planning on coupling that incomer to one of the 12 cores and having all the ISP equipment in the new building too.
2 - I deploy some small GPON networks in office buildings etc. so I have a GPON lab I run from home for testing, configuration etc. So another one of the 12 cores will be for GPON.
3&4 - A pair in the 12 core will be a 10G link going to the main switch in the house from the new building.

So now you know the background, onto my hopes :slight_smile:

I currently have my desktop PC at my desk in my office connected to my main switch via 10G over multimode fiber.

One thing I’d really like to do with the new building is to move the desktop tower out there and transplant it into a rackmount case to keep it out the office - purely a space saving measure, and it would also be great to be able to use that machine in the lab! But, I’d like to be able to use it at my desk as if it was there of course - not just using a laptop with parsec etc.

I just run 2 monitors - one 144hz 1440p and another 60hz 4k - both over DisplayPort.

I’ve seen Linus with his Thunderbolt docks and running optical DP cables through walls but that’s not going to be practical in this situation - about 75m between my desk and the lab.

I’m wondering if there’s any way I can get 2 DP 1.4 signals to my desk and some USB ports (I don’t need many) over some of my 12 core fiber cable.
I’ve come across this on Aliexpress so far:
USB 3.2 Over Fiber

It uses standard SFP+ modules to get a single 10G USB 3.2 link to what is essentially a 4-Port hub over a substantial distance. It looks quite enticing and exactly what I’m after for the USB side of things!

I run an AMD 7950X3D and I’m honestly not sure what I’d be looking at for the thunderbolt side of things if that’d even be an option worth considering.

I cannot seem to find anything of a similar nature for DisplayPort. I realize that I wouldn’t be expecting an SFP+ connection as that doesn’t carry nearly enough bandwidth for DP 1.4, so maybe something with QSFP ports, or even something proprietary as I’d rather not have any compression on the signal. If moving to HDMI makes more sense instead then that’s fine as both of my monitors support that.

This is very much a luxury more than a necessity so if it’s not possible, or the cost is astronomical then that’s okay. I just want to see what options I have if any.

Many thanks all :slight_smile:

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My first question is climate control in this outbuilding. Such configurations generate more than enough heat on their own, much less in a non-climate controlled outbuilding.

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It’s going to have AC. This is something I was very worried about too

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I think you got in too deep with original idea of extending DP/USB over fiber and neglected the much saner alternative:

Just use RDP/VNC or ssh for your remote access needs. Why is it not the go to option here? Think about it. It offers everything you actually want, just not in the way normal home user thinks it can be done.

Extending DP over fiber is costly but doable, as long you keep it sane. 4k or 120+ hz signal is way outside general intended use case.
Transparently splitting dp signal over multiple lines to get around bandwith issues? Not happening. It absolute pain in when done even over normal distances ( old 4k panels received two display streams to work around bandwith limits).

I would focus on deployment clean and high performing fiber uplink and then optimizing your rdp config.

Anywhere else there is booth pain, unknown factors and guaranteed high costs.

1 Like
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This topic just reminded me that I still have a pending project in the works: to connect my I/O hubs between two rooms.

Interestingly, there’s a USB4 active optical solution announced since 2022. I looked just a few months ago but missed it. They have versions for lower USB revisions as well.

The limit is 15 meters, which isn’t a lot if you are crossing buildings.

Did not see… 😵
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If it were HDMI, you could easily convert that and run SDI 12G over fiber. HDMI-to-SDI 12G converters are 100-ish €/$

If you want to do this over ethernet, you can look into NDI (and NDI appliances like a Kiloview N60) or Blackmagic Teranex

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Yeap, hdmi extension is primary use case for larger media and conferencing installations, hence “easy” availability.

Still fiddly and expensive as fuck.

This is kind of problem that does not have sane hardware solution yet, unless @wendell et al decides to prototype and custom order one from china.

Theoretically doable, just no one has productized it yet. Since there is little to no market and issue is usually tackled by rdp :slight_smile:

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For display port, the cost is astronomical, you would need an ikron usb over fiber unit, about 1k and 2x display port extenders over fiber like these:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1729338-REG/analog_way_ext_dp12_opt_displayport_1_2_over_fiber.html
2.2k each…
For HDMI the costs are more reasonable but expect to pay 700-1k USD per extender, cheaper ones will not be able to support your resolutions …

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It’s been a while since I’ve looked at what’s available, but for DisplayPort, wouldn’t the following be reasonable? DP2.1 (80 gbit) terminations for $200 to attach to MPO fiber cable: 8K DISPLAYPORT FIBERPLUG® | Extender DISPLAY PORT Terminations for any

Personally I’d hit up Wendell or whoever does the video cable testing, and see about sending the parts to them to verify it does what it says.

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**MPO Connectors**
- 12 fiber MALE PC type standard MPO (with pins)
- Use 6 Fibers 1 to 6 TYPE-A Straight on the main cable (not inverted)
- Compatible with MULTIMODE Fiber Optics OM3 OM4 OM5 (cannot work on single mode fiber - see our KVM or SDI product for single mode

I think that requires 12 fibres per connection?