Desk Setup

[cyb]

Hey there,

since now I'm working from home I need adapt my Desk, cause it's also the same i use for gaming.

Which Devices I already have but I'm not happy with it:

2 external Monitors (27")
3 Laptops
1 macbookpro and 2 Windows Laptops (1 Dell and 1 Thinkpad)
when i Game i usually use the MacbookPro or the Dell Laptop.

Now I need the Setup, that i can connect all devices to external Monitors and use them very easy.

I was thinking about to buy 2 other External Monitors and connect the MacBook Pro to 2 of them together with the ThinkPad, and let the Dell connected still to the first 2 Monitors I already have.

Until now I didn't buy any more Device, because I don't still know what to do..

any suggestions?

 

[Zloth]

I don't really understand the purposes here. Three laptops?? I would assume one laptop for whatever it is you're doing while out away from the desk and, if needed, a desktop for everything else.

The number of monitors depends on what you're doing, too. An extra can be handy when gaming if you find you often want to look up things while playing, though I can't think of any use for a third. Basically, just keep an eye on how many windows you've got open. If you're switching between a lot of them often, you might want more monitors. (Also consider just making multiple desktops, though. )

 

[cyb]

I don't really understand the purposes here. Three laptops??

yes... its not funny but it's how it is..

I would assume one laptop for whatever it is you're doing while out away from the desk and, if needed, a desktop for everything else.

for the biggest part of my work its my macbook pro... there i do DevOps stuff and Development mainly... and other stuff too
the one of the other 2 laptops is a need, cause:
1. the one is for the company I'm employeed, i need sometimes to test something or get some informations and for this i need to connect to the Network with VPN, and this actual Type of VPN is only running on Windows, there is right now no Client or Support for macos (otherwise i will turn this one off ).
here i also game sometimes star citizen or wow.. depending
2. the second one is for an specific customer which I work also to test and do some stuff which needs to the connection to the Network and the VPN (on this one the VPN Used would be available for Mac... but this is a very more big Company and each device which get connected to the VPN needs to be accepted by the IT and they need access to the device too, so here i don't want to use my "private" macbook, and i think they would anyway not accept it. I already tryed to get at least the environment of this laptop access to the first one used in the company I'm employeed, but this was difficult too... after several month's trying.. we did give up.

The number of monitors depends on what you're doing, too. An extra can be handy when gaming if you find you often want to look up things while playing, though I can't think of any use for a third. Basically, just keep an eye on how many windows you've got open. If you're switching between a lot of them often, you might want more monitors. (Also consider just making multiple desktops, though. )

yeah well if I'm playing then I need 3 Monitors (1 is until now always my Ipad Pro).

1 for playing, 1 for the stuff I'm waitfing for like testing on remote servers or local stuff don't matter.. ant the other one for browsing and messaging, etc.. the usual stuff.

When I play on windows I open the macbook pro and use this as third display for communication stuff like messaging and browsing...

When i play on macbook then i have my Ipad Pro as third display.

Less than 2 Monitors no way... I'm thinking about 1 more so that I don't need the Ipad Pro, but I'm also thinking about an 4 Monitors setup... to have at least always at least 2 Devices (laptops) the content visible..

I change from Device to Device and Back more than 5-10 Times a Day depending what I'm currently doing..

So until now. I'ts not really funny but before I start to buy monitors and test it.. maybe also with KVM Switches.. I'm searching for Ideas..

So to summarize... I'm searching for Ideas to setup 2-4 Monitors with 1 macbookpro and 2 Laptops, so that I don't need to be changing always the cable entry from the Monitors to the used Device (unplug, plugin).

I would be nice if I would have an Switch where i can say... this 2 Monitors this Device and 1 or 2 other Monitors the other Device.. cause when I'm gaming I would like to select the correct Device to the Monitor on Front of me...

 

[Brian Boru]

I'm searching for Ideas

It's a long time since I did anything like this, but for what it's worth here are the 4 relevant techs I know of:

Physical KVM
Software KVM
Docking stations
Remote access software

You very likely know all these already, and software like TeamViewer, DisplayFusion, Multiplicity. Also software which splits a screen into regions—eg built into Windows 10—or which preserves and preloads designated apps to their own segment of a screen.

2017 article:

How to Connect Multiple External Monitors to Your Laptop

Multiple monitors are awesome.

www.howtogeek.com

[forum Insert Link not working atm]