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Background

After YEARS of waiting, I built the custom gaming PC of my dreams:

  • Intel i7 - 975 Extreme Edition 3.3ghz (overclocked to 4.0)
  • ATI Radeon 5970 2gb
  • Corsair 256 gb SSD Drive
  • 2 TB Sata II 3.0 7200rpm data drive
  • 12 GB Kingston Hyper-X (1600mhz) DDR3
  • Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

And so on. . .

Problem

I hooked this beast up to our home theater and settled in for a great gaming season only to realize a couple of drawbacks:

  • It's hard to accurately wax bad guys using a keyboard in your lap whilst reclined on your couch (and using a wireless keyboard).
  • It's hard to read the text on the screen (i.e. menus, etc). I find that a 1:1 ratio (screen diagonal inch to inch away from screen) is optimum, but using the home theater, it's more like 1:3 which has me squinting unless I sit on the coffee table.
  • The wife always seems to want the TV the same time I do and, unfortunately "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" and Battlefield BC don't mix.

I am losing the battle in the home theater room, but the PC has to stay there (long story). So, this leaves me with the option of playing in my home office which is about 30 feet away from the home theater. I am a software developer so I have a pretty decent set up in my office--multiple 1080p monitors, HP Envy 17 which can run games like Crysis in 720p with out stammering too much. Also, I can game very comfortably at my desk in the office.

Still, even though the set up in my office can run games well enough, I don't want to regress to that when I have worked YEARS for an awesome gaming PC that can run everything on ultra high settings.

My Question

What are my options for running my games on the beastly desktop in the Home Theater, but physically playing in my office about 30 feet away? A really long HDMI cable? LAN/RDC?

Details that May Help

  • We have an open crawlspace so running cable from HT room to office is no problem.
  • I already have networked the house with a LAN

3 Answers 3

1

Sure, you can try to extend display and peripherals to your office, but it's a bit like the tail wagging the dog.

I would argue the solution is either to move your new PC (you hint at a constraint with this) or to buy a monitor plus headset (so that smoking bad guys won't spoil your wife's inexplicable enjoyment of 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills').

Your gaming PC is decent (but not quite state-of-the-art), but in 6 months it will be merely upper-mid-range. So enjoy it while you can - don't make do with compromise solutions...!

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  • Woah woah woah mister--don't call HAL 9000 "not quite state-of-the-art". HA HA seriously though, what could make it better (some of the parts can still be returned). Nov 16, 2011 at 17:55
  • Nothing really... Sandy Bridge E is just coming out so that would be a step up, as would a GTX580 or 590, or a Radeon 5990...if you have more money than sense! But they will be out of date before you get them out of the box. You have a very good PC - use it properly... move the wife into the office.
    – CJM
    Nov 18, 2011 at 16:57
  • HA HA love it! Yes--it's off to the office with her. You are right, I am very pleased with the graphics as is so I guess that's the the whole point. Been playing Battlefield 3 and OMG. . . Nov 23, 2011 at 16:33
  • Had to pick this answer, because after exhausting research, there truly is no out-of-the-box solution to do what I am asking without sacrificing quality. Nov 27, 2011 at 19:40
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+10 meters HDMI as single link/-~$400 and viola

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  • Plus USB repeaters for the mouse and keyboard. I wonder if this will contribute to input lag. My guess is no.
    – surfasb
    Nov 16, 2011 at 8:44
  • Isn't true that the latest HDMI spec has some extra. . .er. . .pipes built in that could feasibly be used to transmit USB data (given the right circuitry on both sides to transmit and receive, of course)? Nov 23, 2011 at 16:35
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RDC will not work as the display lag is far too great. Max HDMI length is apparently ~49' so you be able to do it if you can do a straight run or add an extender.

You will also need to extend keyboard & mouse for control. Max USB length is only ~16' but you may be able to extend that with a powered hub. Or you could try a remote keyboard via ethernet setup but I suspect it will not work well for games. Max Bluetooth length is ~30' so that my be an option as well.

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