Connecting a Laptop and Desktop to 3 monitors

Question

I have a laptop that has an HDMI input (just 1). I also have a desktop which has 3 DP and 1 HDMI. Currently, I'm using converters from DP to HDMI as my monitors have problems with DP for some reason. All in all, I can use HDMI everywhere. I have my desktop filled up with all 4 ports. 3 DP ports (converted to HDMI) are connected to my monitors and 1 (HDMI) is connected to my HTC Vive. Now I do a lot of my gaming on the desktop and that is the main purpose, so I would like not to sacrifice performance by using some hardware that will add latency. As for laptop its here for web development, however, I find myself when developing having a need for more than 1 screen. I also like my desktop keyboard and mouse a lot better than my laptop components.

I would like to avoid having to unplug things from my desktop to hook up my monitors and keyboard. But even then, my laptop only has 1 HDMI spot where desktop has 4. Please also keep in mind the laptop has a dedicated GTX960 card so I am hoping it can handle 3 monitors, or even 2 will do just fine.

What I want to do is basically be able to start using my laptop and "switch" my monitors to display the laptop input. Can I accomplish this somehow? I was looking into KVM Switches but I look at the hardware I don't see how I can hook up more than one monitor. Maybe I'm looking at bad examples.

I'm not that familiar with KVM switches or for that matter any hardware that can help me accomplish this, so if you can provide me with some basic setup steps of how I would accomplish this using any hardware you can think of, I would greatly appreciate it.

As for budget, I'd like to keep it under $250 but if its more than that I will consider it.

Answer 1

I have the same setup, except with a GTX 970. I use a cheap-o VGA kvm and it works great.

This HDMI KVM is what your are looking for.
Sea Wit HDMI KVM Switch - 2 Port KVM Switcher Supports 1080P 4Kx2K

The setup is very easy, have one cable from your GPU plug into HDMI 1, and another from your laptop plug into HDMI 2... Then what ever monitor you want to use to switch between desktop/laptop... plug that monitor into HDMI out. Then simply plug in your mouse/keyboard into the KVM.

I keep my laptop on the left side of my desk, so I use my left monitor and leave the other 2 connected to the desktop. I kept my KVM on my desk for a while, but realized that I just hit scroll lock 2 times and windows would automatically switch the kvm for me, so now its tucked behind the desk.

Let me know if you have any other questions, I'm sure there are cheaper options out there... but this one has good reviews, even if their marketing seems a bit hyped.

Answer 2

For the time being, until I hear a better solution, I came up with a workaround... I am using TeamViewer to get on my laptop and do work there. One monitor is feed from laptop, while the other 2 are from desktop. If I need to copy things over, I can easily achieve that as TeamViewer lets you copy text. Images I can do via shared drive or directly access the drive from desktop to laptop. Furthermore, I have setup to have access to my websites on laptop from my desktop via browser. Now I can hit a page on desktop and debug on laptop.

I Posted this to let you all know what my workaround is at the moment so anyone who may like this may use it.

Answer 3

I have the same issue and have found the hardware search especially frustrating. The closest I've found is a two-screen DP and USB KVM.

I can also echo the remote desktop alternative solution, and found Chrome Remote Desktop worked pretty well, even when mixing OS. You can enable copy+paste and command key capture, dedicating one of your screens for the work environment and your home machine on the others for browsing, slack, e.t.c... It's less versatile, but both cable and wallet-damage free.