Anyone use a KVM?

[Zerileous]

I want to find a KVM that connects to at least my laptop via USB-C. I want to be able to sit at my desk, plug in one cable, and use all my peripherals (charging the laptop would be a nice bonus).

The first reputable model I found is herehttps://www.amazon.com/SABRENT-2-Port-Type-C-Delivery-USB-KCPD/dp/B07Y2HKN37. Only problem is it costs about double what I think it should. Sure a 60w charger would cost a good $20-30, but this is still steep. Also I would DP but at this point it's not a big deal.

Finally will the USB-C output on my board display anything, or will I also have to switch inputs on the display? I would almost prefer one USB and one traditional connection, but I'm sure that's asking a lot.

Edit: I've had some more caffeine and thought about this some more. I didn't phrase above well, I am almost certain the USB-C on my board won't display. I'm not sure if there is a way to merge the DP out from the GPU with the USB HIDs (I'm imagining like a y cable that has a DP plug into the GPU and a USB plug into the board, and somehow the video signal goes out to the monitor via KVM and the inputs come in through the USB side). Alternatively I could use a USB-C hub like this https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Upgraded-Delivery-Pixelbook-A83460A2/dp/B07ZVKTP53/ with the laptop, and use a traditional KVM from there (2x USB A and HDMI/DP). This seems more clunky but I am skeptical that a single device can handle both a USB-C only connection and a USB A + HDMI/DP connection.

The goals is really just to be able to sit down and use my laptop 2-in-1 as a reader and write and multitask on my large monitor. I could simply sync everything through Google drive and keep them separate, but it seems like it would be a lot easier to be able to copy / paste between the two systems.

EDIT 2: This is what I've come up with. It won't run my monitor at 60Hz even, but I've aparently been using a display at 4k30 at work for a while without noticing. I don't think the laptop is even capable of outputting video above 4k30 and by the time I spent enough money on a KVM to do better, I think I could just switch outputs on the monitor if I want a higher refresh rate (rare gaming session).

 

[don256us]

Are you sure you want a KVM? Seems like a USB Dock might be the thing you want. Maybe. If your machine doesn't display out via the USB-C then you have an issue either way.

To copy/paste via KVM is not something that I see happening. Did I read that part wrong? A KVM just allows multiple machines to use the same resources of keyboard mouse and video as you already know. It's like taking those away from one machine to use on another without unplugging them and manually doing it. But it's the same thing as if you did.

Docks are expensive so I'm not helping in that respect.

 

[Zerileous]

I am going to try out using cloud/synch services (i.e. one drive) first. Backstory is I have a laptop for school and was hoping to take advantage of my desktop peripherals when at home. But if I can get my documents to sync in real time (or close enough to real time) then I can just use my desktop at home and have the laptop on my desk using it as a reader. For copy/paste, if I wanted to pull something from an article I was reading on the laptop into a word document I was editing using my better peripherals (regardless of which computer they are attached to). As long as my reference management software (zotero) can synch I can probably get by with just loading the article on my desktop.

Sorry the OP was so scatterbrained. The laptop does but its just 4K30Hz or 1080p 60Hz. The desktop does not (unless maybe I put in a G CPU but by then I'm spending more).

In other words my main goal is typing easily and having the screen real estate of a 27" 1440p when studying at home, without just using them as a dock and mothballing my desktop.

 

[Nebulous]

I remember using a KVM switch when I had multiple folding rigs. It was pretty simplistic and the switch had ps/2 for both mouse & keyboard and VGA input for screen. I was able to connect to 3 rigs since it was a 4 port switch. Worked pretty good too. I think I may have gifted the switch many moons ago.

 

[stompah]

Would using VNC work for you?

 

[unsafesteagle]

Honestly , a must have for administrative purposes. Find my desktop needs organized without a kvm in the first place. So dual rigs makes it a necessity.
Rackmounts are even more dependent on kvm.

Right now im using a 4 port usb switch for dual windows rigs.
10' usb cables and 5 volt power to the switch.

 

[Zerileous]

So far I'm doing okay without it. For the most part I can sync my sources and my documents across platform and it is much easier to just write on the desktop. I think I try to make things more complicated in my head a lot of the time lol. I'll keep posted if I decide it's not a good solution.