Thoughts on this setup?

The black lines are just USB A connections, except the Steam Deck-->Steam Deck Dock connection, which is actually USB C. I'm thinking about getting a second monitor later on, but that might complicate things. I don't know really how switches work yet.

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I would go with a decent amp or preamp for switching audio, a router in switch mode for ethernet, leave the video switching to the monitor and then just use a switch to switch keyboard/mouse

I wouldnt trust the latency a switch would introduce into internet and they can be a little noisy for audio. A router isn't very expensive

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a router in switch mode for ethernet

Uh, fam... You just buy a switch. Not the nintendo type. A 5 port gig desktop switch. One of these will do you:

https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/5-port-switch/

Also:

Is audio out via USB even worth it?

If you want the best audio quality a dedicated USB dac is going to give you much better quality than any shitty on-motherboard soundchip. For example, this one is kinda nice:

https://www.smsl-audio.com/portal/product/detail/id/548.html

This one is better, but a bit excessive:

https://www.smsl-audio.com/portal/product/detail/id/797.html

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Switches are more expensive locally here than routers but ur right

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Really? Those TPLink 5 port switches are like $7 each.

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Leafland has some bizarre surcharges on shit idk why, every time i needed a switch i ended up getting a $30 D Link router because the switch was like $75 or more:marseyshrug:

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I actually was JUST replying to ur post using memoryepxress. There's actually a $12 D link 4 port switch if u sort by cheapest

![](/images/16727091948091176.webp)

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For the small difference in cost it's not really worth going with less than GigE if you're doing any sort of network backups or moving files around.

For consoles and stuff - not my area of expertise - I'd guess FE is fine unless your upstream connectivity will reliably deliver more than 100 and you're downloading tons of updates.

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Would it matter if ur running cat5 vs cat6 or nah?

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or preamp for switching audio

by the way, if you want an interesting sort of preamp I got one of these a while ago to see what it was like.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000319567439.html

It's pretty neat looking and works well.

![](/images/16728008519518936.webp)

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My n1gga are u actually running thermionic valves in tyool 2023

e:

Holy shit theyre real toobs. Do u have a cct diagram? Why 3 channels? What's the freq range?

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It's a Marantz 7 preamp clone. Ancient circuit diagram's available, just google it. Left tube is a rectifier. Not sure what the right three do. It's two channels, each tube supports 2 channels afaik. (12ax7 tubes)

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Thanks for the advice I might try that instead. I hadn't taken latency into consideration and the audio quality might take a hit, which isn't ideal.

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You don't want to run your ethernet through a USB changeover switch/KVM switch. Those USB changeover switches are only designed for mouse and keyboard switchover and usually don't support USB3 so you won't get decent speed. (USB2 is slower than GigE.) Also ethernet-via-USB incurs a CPU penalty. leading to higher latency and jitter.

You won't lose audio quality or increase latency if you're passing digital audio via a passive USB changeover switch.

This is a janky setup though and you may have issues with the computer seeing the USB audio/ethernet adapter keep disappearing and reappearing. That's how you end up with 'Ethernet Adaptor (23)' in your control panel and inexplicable network issues.

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Yeah I've been looking into it some more and it seems like the best option would be to use a small switch for sharing Ethernet between devices (I have another computer for work which can take advantage of this as well). If I end up getting a KVM switch for USB/Display port stuff, it won't be used for ethernet or audio.

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Yeah use a dedicated ethernet switch and keep the machines plugged in. Then you can use wake-on-lan to turn your PC on from your phone which is good if you're super lazy.

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