Dock station switching between desktop and laptop

Question

I'm setting my new desktop, I'll soon buy a new desktop machine, and i want to be able to switch easily from my (work) laptop to my (personal) desktop machine without having to unplug/plug all cables (monitor, mouse, keyboard, Ethernet, ...)

I think a dock would be the best solution (Dell WD19 for example) to do that, but I'm not sure about the requirements how to plug-it to the laptop and desktop in order to make switching between them smooth, my laptop has a thunderbolt port, should my desktop have a thunderbolt as well ? Is the dock station enough ?

Solution

You probably want to look at something like a KVM

It allows you to use the same keyboard/screens(video)/mouse with multiple computers. This gives you the added bonus of switching between machines, without moving a single cable.

Comments

[gronostaj]

This. Docking station will also be useful because it's easier plug just a single cable into the laptop. But docking a desktop is pointless, the docking station should be connected to the KVM instead.

[Hassan ALAMI]

thank you very much, haven't heard of KVMs before, please, can you recommand a KVM with a display port + HDMI + ethernet gigabit and at least 3 USB ports ?

[Randomhero]

If you are looking for a recommendation I would suggest you post on hardwarerecs.stackexchange.com