Universal Dock for Desktop, Laptop, and Mac

Question

I am looking for a universal dock of some kind that will allow me to connect my desktop, Windows Laptop, and Mac Laptop (not at the same time). The dock should allow for the support of at least three monitors, keyboard, and mouse. A nice to have feature would be the ability to easily switch between each device.

What are those called? Where should I start? If you already know of one that works, please list it in your answer.

Thanks

Answer 1

I'm not understanding what you are after. First, there is no "dock connector" on a Mac Laptop. If you have a new enough one you can use thunderbolt port as a "Universal connector." There are two or three thunderbolt docks that exist. You MAY be able to get three monitors to connect simultaneously if the MBP (Mac Book Pro) graphics card allows it.

You may be looking for a multi port KVM switch. Check here for recommendations. The catch is you will have to convert the connector on the MBP to whatever this uses (if the MBP has a thunderbolt connector). It also isn't a "universal dock," as it WON'T provide firewire or ethernet connections.

You could use a Universal dock with a KVM, and that MIGHT give you what you need. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Answer 2

Not to beg the question, but why do you need a separate dock for keyboard and mouse? Aren't most keyboards and mice these days (if not all) USB? So essentially for your keyboard/mouse all you'd need is a USB hub...

For the monitors: modern hardware should allow you to daisychain several DisplayPort displays off of a single DP port. But in case you don't have modern hardware and don't want to upgrade, you can buy an external monitor adapter depending on which connectors your monitors use (or more importantly, which connectors are available on your laptop, mac, and desktop).

If all of your computers have a DisplayPort, Mini Displayport, Thunderbolt, or Dual-Link DVI output, you should be good to use a Matrix Multi-Monitor Adapter. If one or more of your boxes ONLY has VGA or Single Link DVI output, you might not be able to map all of your monitors at their native resolutions, due to limitations in how much data can be driven over those more limited connectors.

Answer 3

They are called port replicators. I have had a lot of success with a Toshiba Dynadock that allowed me to connect an ethernet connection, VGA & DVI monitors (at the same time), HDMI, several USB 2.0 and 3.0 devices, analog audio out (headphones/speakers), digital audio out (toslink/optical), and connect them all to my computer with one USB connection. There's even a less-functional wireless version but the latest is still under $200:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ZGWJU2/?tag=hyprod-20&hvadid=19399867776&hvpos=1o1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6350980051795634128&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&ref=asc_df_B006ZGWJU2

As far as multiple computers, perhaps a software solution is what you are looking for: http://www.stardock.com/products/multiplicity/