Hey, i've just built myself a new HTPC with the antec fusion case. My living room was looking to much like a hardware store so it was time to look at my needs and redesign my PC habit around this (including my girlfriends demands!).
Anyways, with everything built and ready to go, I realised that I perhaps overlooked a few things before I dived head first into this!
The problem is, my new PC is at the centre of my living room bellow my TV and beside the rest of my a/v equipement. My issues are that where I sit is on the opposite side of the room, 4m away from my computer. My plan was to have my monitor next to where I sit and use it for general computing purposes and my TV for HDTV viewing.
To run all the leads hidden neatly to my desired seating position, im looking at 10m per cable. There are also some extras I would like next to me but im not 100% sure if it will all work!
Anyways, here are a list of questions that I can think of:
1. I currently have a 5m VGA cable. Since I need 10m, should I buy a 10m cable or just a 5m extension cable? I really dont want to sacrifice quality but an extension is by far cheaper because of the size I need.
2. I cannot afford to buy a long range wireless keyboard so I planned on using my current one attatched to a 10m USB extension. The longest I can find is 5m though so does this mean 10m of USB cables wont work or will 2x 5m extensions attatched together work?
3. I also wanted some extra usb ports next to where I sat for flash memory etc. Would 10m of extension cable work along with a powered USB hub?
4. Keeping with the 10m USB extension and powered hub idea - Would it be possible to attach an external usb dvd drive to this?? This is the one I think is least likely to work, but the though of having to get up and walk to the other end of my living room everytime I want to burn something or whatever scares my lazy ass! I have a spare NEC 4570 so thought I could hook it to a caddy and have it sitting next to me for sheer lazyness! If this may or may not work, what possible implications may I face?
Well these are my burning issues for now so if anyone can take the time to help me I would greatly appreciate it!
1st yes u could buy an extension (gold pins so no quality loss)
2nd yes it will work if they sell gold plated usb cables (the heads) then make sure u get those if not well it still could work
3rd yes I adding a 2 5m cables + a usb hub will work only thing is make SURE u buy a usb 2.0 hub (since there r hubs that r 1.1)
4th yes u could attach a usb hard drive just remember dont put 2 much things on the hub ex never put 2 usb hard drives u could use 1 hd and the keyboard/mouse + bluetooth adapter whatever or mem stick
Thanks for your reponse elokito, its a bit of a relief to hear such a positive reply.
My main concern was the distance over the usb, 10m is a long way and considering the longest usb extension cable I could find was 5m, I thought that maybe the usb standard would not allow distances over 5m!
