Home Office

Set up for Laptop + Tower + Display

[limbo]

Morning folks.

I have a brand new MacBook Pro, an aging Mesh Tower and a 30" Dell display unit.

What set up do you have to dock your Lappy with ease?

I'm guessing there some decent hardware that'd let me plugin both the laptop and tower into the same display with switches to swap without removing cables - something clever using local network...

If so, anyone got a recommendations?

[Habtom]

KVM Switch [en.wikipedia.org]

[limbo]

Good work :)

[piatkow]

My solution was to take the drive out of the tower, put it in an HDD enclosure with a usb connection and just use the notebook which has a far higher spec anyway.

[phranque]

you might want to consider a KVMA (+ audio) switch if you are using external speakers.

[limbo]

Thanks

Anyone got one they'd recommend? I've spent quite a bit of time looking but most seem to be fairly unstable. Not looking for serious hardware-just a basic jobbie.

[MatthewHSE]

I've spent quite a bit of time looking but most seem to be fairly unstable.

I learned that the hard way. My KVM switch is utterly useless, seeing as how it sends the mouse pointer into unbelievably insane gyrations (complete with random clicks) upon switching back to the first computer after using the second. After a few instances of watching menus, panels and programs open willy-nilly, I unplugged the thing and haven't tried it since.

It would be handy if it worked though. So if anyone can point at a good KVM switch, I may get in line to buy it.