Moving computers to another room. How should I connect displays and USB?

[Alfa147x]

With the first warm day of the year we realized all of our homelab equipment and two giant desktops makes the office unbearably hot while the rest of the house is peachy.

Between the two desks we have two desktop machines (OS X), 5x 24" monitors and a few USB based auxiliary devices. I recently consolidated my Vmware server and 2 ReadyNAS devices into one server.

We're thinking about coming up with a reasonable setup in the family room to house all the compute and networking. The family room is directly below the master bedroom (we turned it into our office). Any idea how feasible it would be to keep the displays in the office and just move the heavy heat machines down one level?

If I went with something like this: HDMI Extender Using CAT6 Cable - monoprice I'm at $90 which is reasonable. Any better solutions?

Also any solution to USB devices? Keyboard and mouse are key but when moving over photos from my camera I've used a USB 3.0 card reader. I can always plug that in downstairs at the desktop if needed.

Just looking to brainstorm a few ideas

 

[Aestr]

I did something similar a few months back. I have limited desk space and needed to fit a laptop as well as two monitors. I've done the Monoprice HDMI extenders before and they work okay, but interference was an issue at times. This time I just ran HDMI in the walls. I also use a 25' USB 3.0 extender and a 3.5mm audio cable. All of these go to jacks in the wall so that it has a nice clean look.

I was worried about lag, especially when playing games but I haven't noticed any change at all.

 

[whitey]

PCoIP zero client and gigE ethernet FTW:-D

 

[StammesOpfer]

If you could do a thin/zero client that is easy. Or if your cable run is short enough then HDMI extenders and USB extensions w/hub would work. It ends up being a lot of cables but works. Otherwise you start looking at KVM extenders (not KVM Switch). These can be Fiber or Cat5/6 and can go longer distances and fewer cables but can be fairly pricey even used on ebay.

 

[Alfa147x]

If you could do a thin/zero client that is easy. Or if your cable run is short enough then HDMI extenders and USB extensions w/hub would work. It ends up being a lot of cables but works. Otherwise you start looking at KVM extenders (not KVM Switch). These can be Fiber or Cat5/6 and can go longer distances and fewer cables but can be fairly pricey even used on ebay.

Thanks! I'll start looking into KVM extenders. Hopefully I can find something affordable because it seems like the best option. If that doesn't work I'll then look into various HDMI / USB extenders.

 

[Alfa147x]

Crap the Monoprice adapter maxes out at 1080p so i can't use those...

 

[Neth]

Linus in one of his videos used a Thunderbolt cable and hub.

Amazon.com: Elgato Thunderbolt 2 Dock with Thunderbolt Cable: Computers & Accessories

Expensive, but seemed to work for him.

 

[StammesOpfer]

Thought that looks like a sweet idea even at $200 since you can do optical thunderbolt cables.... But a 10m thunderbolt cable is $300.

 

[Alfa147x]

Thanks everyone for the input. I think we're just going to get a portable AC unit for the room