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Comment by rozularen | Hacker News Reader

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rozularen

With the following constraints how would one manage to have the less amount of cable dangling around?

1 PC (personal use, desktop or laptop)

1 work laptop

2 Monitors

Keyboard & Mouse

Be able to connect the work laptop with only 1 cable and switch keyboard mouse and monitors to it

Maybe should I look for a KVM switch instead?

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I use a Dell D6000[0] to drive 2x 1440p monitors, my keyboard and mouse via a single USB-A/C cable swapped between personal and work machines. It does it all via DisplayLink software so it adds a little load to the computer, but not noticeable. I've used it with Dell laptops, Surfaces, can even power (slowly) a MBP.

My desktop doesn't support Thunderbolt, which rules out the vast majority of solutions I've looked at.

[0] https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-universal-dock-d60...

I would look into usb switcher for peripherals and dock for the laptop. Manually change displays using on screen controls.

Having video switching gets real expensive and only a few KVMs support high refresh / high resolution displays.

My setup is a little different but it's reliable and simple: Dell UltraSharp U3417W has built in usb hub. I can connect pc and laptop to this monitor and switch between them with monitor button. Connect keyboard and mouse to monitor (and connect upstream usb cable to pc/laptop) so your keyboard and mouse move with your monitor switch. This setup only use one monitor but it's enough for my use. I have another regular 1080p monitor that always connect to one machine.

Is there an additional constraint to "not unplug things from your personal machine"?

If not, and you can get two machines with Thunderbolt, a TB dock solves this. I have my monitors, keyboard, mouse, ethernet, etc all plugged into a TB docking station. Then a single TB cable I swap between my work machine (Macbook Pro) and personal machine (Razer Blade).

You could use a wireless mouseand keyboard that support being connected to multiple computers. I have a Logitech MX Anywhere mouse that works really well, and I know there are keyboards that do that too.

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