Hello, I’d like to keep my work laptop out of hearing range and in my network closet. This is my first time setting anything up like this, and I’m not sure if a KVM is the right tool for the job. I was looking into fiber runs for I/O from here as well:
Any recommendations on how to keep the closet cool is also greatly appreciated!
They’re not cheap, but an optical USB-C cable could work depending on the distance needed. How far away is the closet from the desk? You’re going to be a little limited on what the laptop can output. USB4 is 40gbps which is plenty but degrades over distance.
I have a thunderbolt 5 dock that’s compatible with my computer. I have 3 external Gen 4 NVME drives that need to be plugged in, as well as a 4k 120hz monitor over DP, and some light USB peripherals for equipment in my space.
Edit: Forgot to include the distance; Unfortunately the house I’m in doesn’t have conduit in the walls. Despite the network closet being prerun with CAT5 (yes, not CAT5e), they’re apparently stapled to the studs. So the run needs to leave the closet, into my living room, around a fairly large hall, up the stairs, down another hall, into my room against the back wall. I’m gonna need a lot of cable it seems.
How far from the dock will the laptop be?
Sorry, forgot to add this originally.
That’s a bit of a distance, yeah. I almost wonder if you’d be better off with a jetKVM or some other KVM over IP setup instead of a direct connect.
Interesting… I’d really like to keep the thunderbolt dock at my desk but I understand if that’s not an option. I am planning on running a bunch of CAT6 to that room anyways, so if I can keep it wired that would be ideal.
Getting bandwidth over that distance is gonna be rough. Cat6 stops at 10gbe and that’s not gonna handle Thunderbolt speeds. 
Figures, so then at the very least I can run a generic hub to a wired KVM for the lighter USB 2.0 devices in that room and keep the SSD’s plugged into the Dock which will live in the network closet.
Edit: Do you recommend any KVMs for this application? Latency matters unfortunately.
Check out Jeff Geerling’s video/writeup. Some solid options for remote controlling from a distance.
Thanks for the rec! I happen to have a spare Pi5 I might turn into a KVM.
Do you have a pi4 instead? For various reasons, you’ll want to use a pi4 over a pi5, if you can.
I don’t… I think I skipped that generation unfortunately and only have a pi3 B+ that used to be a dedicated DNS server.
I forgot to mention, despite the lack of display support which I can technically just offload to a fiber run, all the devices I have support aggregated connections across multiple ports so I can technically get 20gb between the office, homelab, and network.
In case you were curious, HeyOptics just got back to me. Here’s a quote from their sales manager:
“We currently only have HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4 and USB 3.0 pure fiber MPO cables.
Moreover, our USB 3.0 is not backward compatible with USB 2.0 or 1.x.0 etc.
But we have the USB 2.0 fiber extenders.”
I’ve done this at the fraction of the price that you are being quoted
HDMI optical at £55 for 20metres (i use 3 on workstation)
Cat5e for USB2 £55 + cable (4 ports per Cat5e run ) (I use 2 )
You need to realise a lot of USB3 fibre cannot support USB2.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’m N.A. based, and it seems I’d have trouble with shipping. Apart from that the cables aren’t nearly long enough for me, unfortunately. I’d need a separate run of a fiber trunk which is why I was looking into “heyoptics” in the first place.
50 metres for not much more money