MP 7,1 Peripherals recommendation for dual machines (Win+Mac)

[LEOMODE]

Want to pick some brains for people who must use both Windows and Mac at the same time in one setup.

Currently, I use a Mac Pro with dual boot (Windows and Mac), connected to one GPU in 3 monitors (DisplayPort to support 4K at 144hz in Windows/90hz in Mac). I also have many internal hard drives to store my stuff. Lastly, I have many USB devices that I connect. With my Mac Pro one machine, I'm able to link/use all these mentioned above.

So my question is if I were to get a separate Windows machine and Mac machine, how would I be able to seamlessly connect my additional hard drives, AND connect them into one single cable for my 3 monitors? What peripherals would I need to achieve this?

Because, if I were to use 2 separate machines, I would want to make sure I eliminate dual booting and still be able to connect my display (e.g. 2 monitors displaying Win10, 1 monitor displaying Mac, or switch on the fly) on Displayport cable AND share my additional drives AND share all my USB devices.

In a nutshell:

• Connect 3 displays in both machines (1+2, 2+1, 3+0, 0+3 setup)
• Connect multiple hard drives and achieve the same speed (not like NAS)
• Connect multiple USB devices (switch to Mac or Windows on the fly)

Thanks.

 

[profdraper]

Its not going to happen & therein madness lies ....
Montior switching: will give all sorts of nastly problems with refresh rates between the different systems (macos being the most problematic in my experience). Also many dubious switching devices about which claim (or omit) spec that doens't work as it should, read: you get what you pay for.
Shared HDs: forget it, the OS will not switch mounted things as expected & you also run the risk of damaging hardware; the only solution here is indeed to run a NAS.
USB switching: that 'can work' with the right switcher, but you may not be prepared to pay for the right device & which has enough neceessary ports, spec etc. Also depends om which flavour of USB & what speeds you may be expecting, USB2, USB 3, USB 4 etc.

Seamless? Absolutely not. Suggest you may want to do depper reserach beyond public fora & opinion, but if you really want two separate computers, most of that is going to need to be independent.

 

[LEOMODE]

Its not going to happen & therein madness lies ....
Montior switching: will give all sorts of nastly problems with refresh rates between the different systems (macos being the most problematic in my experience). Also many dubious switching devices about which claim (or omit) spec that doens't work as it should, read: you get what you pay for.
Shared HDs: forget it, the OS will not switch mounted things as expected & you also run the risk of damaging hardware; the only solution here is indeed to run a NAS.
USB switching: that 'can work' with the right switcher, but you may not be prepared to pay for the right device & which has enough neceessary ports, spec etc. Also depends om which flavour of USB & what speeds you may be expecting, USB2, USB 3, USB 4 etc.

Seamless? Absolutely not. Suggest you may want to do depper reserach beyond public fora & opinion, but if you really want two separate computers, most of that is going to need to be independent.

Thanks for your opinion and that’s what I kind of thought too. I guess it’s not easy and the only way would be to have a shared drive and turn both devices on at the same time but not physically connected simultaneously. So monitors would probably need to be connected separately and mice/keyboards have to be switched back and forth or use Logitech Flow (similar to a desktop/laptop dual setup).

 

[4wdwrx]

it is difficult but achievable with some changes.

Here is my thought and solution:

Monitors:
- 3 widescreen monitors with multiple input side-by-side PIP and DP multi-stream.

Internal drives:
- Create share with 10G ethernet between the PC and Mac. I believe there is a way network via Thunderbolt.

USB peripherals:
- USB switch.

 

[Stex]

@LEOMODE -- I agree with @profdraper that having a completely seamless setup is difficult. I have a similar setup as yours: cMP & Win PC plus 3 displays. The latter have multiple inputs (combination of DP and HDMI), so I connect each monitor to both cMP and Win PC. I switch monitors via their menu's input selector. I use Apple Magic Keyboard 2 and Magic Trackpad 2 connected via USB 2.0 to a (cheap) USB 2.0 switch. I decided to avoid Bluetooth - I tried it but it was not as reliable as I hoped for the shared keyboard and trackpad. The USB 2.0 switch works well, it even has an auto-switch function: when one machine is turned on it automatically switches to that desktop. And you can easily switch it back to the other desktop whenever needed (it has a physical switch button). I don't have to transfer too many files between both desktops, and when I do, I use either a flash drive or external SSD. I briefly used Apple's iCloud Drive app for Win but found it quite buggy and decided not to use it (if it worked better I would probably use it). My wokflows are fairly separate in each desktop (Apple's Pro apps and Affinity apps in cMP, Blender and Unreal plus gaming on Win PC), so this setup works for me. I don't anticipate needing a more robust solution to interconnect external drives to both desktops. If you ever find a good solution for the hard drives, consider updating this thread as I would be interested to know how you made it work optimally.

 

[Stex]

Here is my thought and solution:

Monitors:
- 3 widescreen monitors with multiple input side-by-side PIP and DP multi-stream.

I tried that option, it works but I found the (in my case LG) PIP apps very poorly implemented. But maybe they have improved those since I first tried, worth trying that option @LEOMODE.