Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

Re:Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with you... by elric on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @07:52AM (#35438145)

I wish there were Thunderbolt 4 "KVMs". I have my laptop connected to my TB4 ThinkPad dock, which takes care of charging the laptop, attaches an external display over DisplayPort, has keyboard & mouse, external speakers, and has wired ethernet. When I switch to my desktop, I have to unplug the laptop from the dock and attach the desktop to the dock. It's a minor inconvenience, but it is an inconvenience, and it messes with the cable management.

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Re:Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with you... by farco12 on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @09:44AM (#35439475)

A tb4 kvm would be nice. I use a dock with my 2 laptops primarily to split video and USB to use with a kvm I share with my desktop so I don't have to switch out mouse, keyboard, and headset between everything.

I will say my favorite accessory has been my particular KVM that allows me to switch between my dock and desktop with a special keyboard command. Beats fiddling directly with the many buttons I had to press on my monitor to switch video inputs previously.

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Re:Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with you... by lotam on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @10:13AM (#35439948)

I had the exact problem, and found and expensive but clean solution: I bought a U2723QE Dell screen, acting as a Hub. All my devices and RJ45 are plugged to the screen.

My laptop uses the charging USB-C port. My desktop requires 2 cables: 1 DP cable (so I can chain another screen) and 1 usb-c cable to the usb-c upstream port.

Whenever I want to switch, I just need to change the input source on my screen, between DP (desktop) or USB-C (laptop). All USB devices and internet are automatically routed to the right computer.

It works like a charm, really happy with this (but once again, that's an expensive screen)

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