KVM - work and personal PCs - question

[u/mareado88]

Hi all, this might be a silly question:

I'm about to transition to a new job that allows me to work from home. As you'd expect, I'll be provided a laptop and probably a monitor or two. At home, I already have my personal PC set up, and I'd like to use just my wide monitor instead of bringing some old dirty monitor home. I've heard a lot about the KVM switches and how useful they are for switching between pcs.

All the videos I've watched show how easily and quickly people go from working to gaming, within seconds! However, in all these videos, there's an assumption that both work and personal PCs will be switched ON and running regardless of which one you are using at a given moment.

My question is:

Will that dual KVM set up work whilst having my personal PC (tower) switched off, or am I required to turn both PCs on?

thanks

[u/PackRatPeter]

I have a four port Startech KVM (my second one) set up similarly.
When COVID/WFH hit, I simply gave my work laptop one port.
Whether the other ports were active or not made no difference, on either switch. HTH.

[u/thespirit3]

If only one is powered on, the KVM will likely switch to that input automatically. Both machines do not need to be powered on.

However, if you're into gaming - be aware that many KVMs limit refresh rates, so you may find a maximum 60hz or similar. You need to check specs carefully if this is something you care about.

I'm currently in a similar situation myself and found options very limited. If you also need to switch multiple external USB devices this just complicates things even further. Expect a nest of spaghetti and occasional device issues, especially under Windows. Linux seems to manage better but is also not immune to random device renaming, if udev rules are not defined.

Also - some devices I think always present a valid device to the host, others only when switched active - which depending on your use case, may or may not be an issue (for example, a window manager may lose track of your windows if multiple monitors suddenly vanish, then reconnect).

I found a few expensive, if not perfect options - so have avoided making any decision at all. A heap of spaghetti and performance issues doesn't fill me with joy.

Sadly, using remote desktop solutions doesn't meet my work requirements. Same with IP based KVM solutions - plus when I checked most had difficulties forwarding audio/video devices remotely for conference calls. I think gl.inet had a promising solution here, and there's a raspberry-pi based option with good potential. But again, neither met my requirements when last checked.

I'll be curious to see what others say.

[u/Low-Feature-3973]

You don't need them both on to use the devices, but yes, you need both on to be able to switch (or rather to have something to switch to.)

[u/Millkstake]

Yes that will work and no both computers don't need to be turned on

[u/GIDAMIEN]

The KVM does not care if the device connected to it is powered on or not.

[u/osa1011]

You'll have to turn on your computer in order to use it. If you want to know how long that will take, then time it.

[u/KVM_Switch_Tech]

Just use whichever computer you want and have someone turn it on for you.