Please help me organize my home office setup

1

Hi there. I have what I feel is a simple problem but I cannot find a simple solution for it. I want to share peripherals, including monitor, between my USB-C laptop and my desktop.

I have four peripherals:

USB-A Keyboard
USB-A Mouse
USB-A Wireless Headset (this isn’t necessary - I could accept this one being plugged directly into my desktop and not available for the laptop)
4k Monitor (DisplayPort or HDMI jacks, no USB-C)

I want both of my computers to be able to use these peripherals. My computers are:

Work Laptop - 2017 Macbook Pro, which has 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Gaming Desktop - Windows 10 with 12 USB-A ports, 1 USB-C port, and a 2080Ti graphics card with DisplayPort, HDMI, and VirtualLink output ports. VirtualLink is theoretically a USB-C port with DisplayPort HBR 3 video out and a USB 3.1 channel.

Ideally I would be able to switch between these two without unplugging or plugging any cables, but it’s not completely necessary. I could accept swapping out one USB-C plug when I want to switch between the computers.

The laptop is easier. One Thunderbolt port can output video on the same line where it inputs mouse and keyboard.

The desktop I don’t understand. I’m pretty certain that the USB-C port on the desktop can’t output video, and I’m less sure if the video card VirtualLink USB-C port can input mouse and keyboard. Has anyone done anything like this? Can it be done with Plugable products?

2

Hi Mason,

Thanks for reaching out to Plugable support! I’d be happy to help with that information.

In short it looks like things should work out for both computers using one of our USB-C docking stations.

As you mentioned, the desktop’s NVIDIA card has a USB-C port that supports Alt Mode and this article confirms that it will support data as well.

The Macbook Pro should also work with USB-C Alt Mode as well as Power Delivery via the Thunderbolt 3 ports.

For connecting a single 4K display, along with the USB peripherals that you mentioned, I would recommend the UD-CAM dock.

Unfortunately we do not have a switch for USB-C but you could just get an extra USB-C cable, USBC-C100, to make it a bit easier to switch between computers.

Thank you for giving us a chance to help!

Richard A
Plugable Technologies
https://plugable.com/support

3

This topic was automatically closed 20 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.