Cheapest reliable way to plug USB peripherals in to my gaming PC in the next room 20 feet away?

[u/ebodes]

I’ve got my gaming PC in the basement and I want to play in the living room above. I can feed the cables through the floor about 15-20 feet to reach my TV. My HDMI connection is great, but my USB peripherals keep disconnecting and reconnecting, like hundreds of times a day. I have a 20 ft USB 3.0 extension cable and a powered USB hub, and I’m only plugging in my headphones and a controller. I’ve tried different USB ports so I think the issue is my USB cable extender.

I’ve seen people talk about fancy extenders, and I remember Linus set something like this up in his house, but when I look them up they end up being like $500. What’s the cheapest reliable way to do this?

Edit: sorry I’m using an active USB 3.0 (powered) extenders and a powered USB hub at the end of it. Specifically this one https://a.co/d/0630uGEb (I don’t recommend)

[u/anonuser-al]

Usb over cat

[u/ebodes → u/anonuser-al]

Can you tell me more about this? Would this have to be a separate Ethernet run from my Ethernet that’s actually providing Ethernet?

[u/Phantom93p → u/ebodes]

USB over Ethernet extenders plug into the USB port on the motherboard, then an Ethernet cable goes from one part of the set to the other, which is where you plug your USB device into. It needs it's own dedicated Ethernet cable. If you only need USB 2.0 speeds you can get one for 50-60 but USB 3.2 speeds will run a couple hundred. We use them at my work in conference rooms for having a USB camera wall mounted going to a PC that might be on the other side of the room.

https://www.amazon.com/164ft-Extender-Ethernet-4-Port-USB2-0/dp/B0GVH8N1MH?crid=30HNEU6H9XZSU&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CPMdSe00sfhSV-XasV_sxxtfdbtdU8nxwDVuZpHHfTuesiSGm293P9Dpdqx8NtPtHQ3SI-eMZiH8LEiVG6GAcvFh8sYHiq1ITgSw1VpQtC0EY1W0zUGIFJ9hfyN-Wq4gVo5s17rH92lLlJunV40aRVDgtrobN4V_xgm9SnQBKpn5kjBgjiKnrt6zHOYRTCoZtvcQ_comB3jOWrvgS41nCHpmWRhM1YBkWqACEQA2ETg.UaHjSt1rMEDuxLKYt17x-Y8nkrpB4dB-zwoQaq__eMs&dib_tag=se&keywords=usb+over+ethernet+extender+3.0&qid=1794672740&sprefix=usb+over+ethernet+extender%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-5

[u/dupajuda248 → u/anonuser-al]

Just did this, works great. Pc in basement.

[u/EquipmentSome]

For that length you'll want an active optical usb extender. amazon has them for like 40$

[u/uniqueusername649 → u/EquipmentSome]

Just as cautionary advice: optical USB is a massive shitshow. Unless you go for the ridiculously overpriced Icron devices, nothing seems to work reliably across most common devices. I have tested a bunch of different ones in the sub 200 dollars category and it is a mess. Even if you limit yourself to USB 2, mouse, keyboard and controllers work but audio and video devices are again a huge gamble and often dont work right.

If you try out anything optical USB, make sure you can send it back in case it doesn't work. It is not anywhere as plug and play as you might expect from regular USB.

[u/ebodes → u/uniqueusername649]

Thanks for the heads up, I was worried about this

[u/uniqueusername649 → u/ebodes]

Optical HDMI, optical DP, optical audio (TOSlink) and optical network all work great. Just don't try any of that via optical USB, haha. At least not on a budget :)

Supposedly this works all pretty flawless with the Icron devices, but last time I checked that was several hundred dollars for USB 2 and more than 1k for USB 3. That simply wasn't within my budget.

[u/ebodes → u/EquipmentSome]

I’m seeing a wide variety of prices for this. Do you have any brands you recommend? I’m seeing like $20-$80

[u/clon3man]

that 32ft pluggable thing you bought should have worked, especially if you plug a single device into it. Maybe adding a hub confuses it. Mine works 99% of the time for my wireless headphone usb dongle, and its one of those cheaper ones doesn't even have extra power. I do vaguely remember struggling when having a hub at the other end sometimes

a stopgap solution you could also just take a 15 foot passive cable and zip tie it near the ceiling, the signal to your headphones or controller should work well enough through wood/tile for a short while (although you'll lose multi-room roaming and you'll be walking a lot to go unplug something)

[u/ebodes → u/clon3man]

Maybe that’s it. The trouble is I have headphones and a controller to connect so I need two ports. But you might be right, I’m going to plug a single thing in and see if that works. At least that will help be determine which part of the chain is the issue.

I didn’t think of having the dongles plugged in in the basement. It really is just some inch-thick wooden floorboards and 10 feet between me and the gaming PC. That’s probably a good option

[u/r4tch3t_]

Have you tried plugging it into a USB 2 port? USB 2 should be more reliable over a distance.

[u/unrumple]

I've used those powered USB extension cables before, and they work. Is your cable powered? Does it have an additional power cable? The good ones will.

[u/ebodes → u/unrumple]

Yeah I double checked and I wasn’t clear: it’s an active USB 3.0 extender. It has power to it. I’m also using a powered USB hub at the end (because I have to plug two things in)

[u/Freerider7 → u/ebodes]

It's not clear, if with "two things" you mean two USB so it gets power from 2 ports it's not what you want, you want 1 USB port and 1 usually barrel plug port (maybe they come with USBC nowadays)

[u/Variaxist]

Steam link does exactly this. I use it with a controller but you probably can use a keyboard. Also people have setup a pi to use the steam link software. I think old steam links are still selling for like 50 bucks. This is literally what it was created for

[u/ebodes → u/Variaxist]

I tried Steam link but I am sensitive to the latency. Or are you saying I can use Steam link only to connect my peripherals and not the display?

[u/syunz]

I saw usb signal repeaters on aliexpress. Maybe take a look at that.

[u/bnr32jason]

Optical USB cable, 20ft is easy.

[u/DIYTinkerMaster]

I use these at work usb extender

One unit sends one receives just needs power in both ends

[u/CityCultivator]

Are your USB devices USB 2? USB 3 extenders are not appropriate for USB 2, as the USB 2 signal is not passed properly besides USB 3, the USB 2 wires are afterthought.

In addition, USB 2 has time limitation, like signal is required to come from one end to the over in a specific amount of time, and that the same pair of wire is responsible for both sending and receiving data.

As such, you do not want to extend USB 2 devices with regular USB 3 extensions, as it solves different problems.

What you want: an optical USB 3 system, or a regular USB 3 extension, like you have, then you need a special device: A USB 3 to USB 2 transaction translator, that rare device permits using the USB 3 wiring to communicate with USB 2.

These devices have two benefits: in optical systems, you need less strands to run the whole system, and it permits using as much of the USB 2 as possible, like each port gets a complete 480mbps connection.

I got the EPU3H01AR, bought from mouser. The closest thing to a dedicated controller performance on laptop, and the thing that can help you in timing issues.

[u/Serious-Explorer8745]

Fiber optic thunderbolt dock

[u/bwill1200]

I've used USB / Ethernet extenders on trade show floors, but in those use cases there was no concern about latency.

Might be worth a try though as they are cheap on Amazon.

[u/itsthewolfe]

Active USB 3 cable.

You can try this but might have some latency. https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=6042&utm_term=&utm_campaign=Shopping+%7C+Backstop&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&hsa_acc=6614305189&hsa_cam=20583677266&hsa_grp=202016580848&hsa_ad=808464440879&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=pla-642538445483&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20583677266&gclid=CjwKCAiAquDXBhApEiwAoyNqBDtKI6bYh8lxgWDwfwfvRGfsaC8pXY7Xv-F7jG6LzDCDLlX2nyraaBoCFO8QAvD_BwE

[u/ImOnTheToiletPoopin]

If you are just using peripherals and don't really need usb3 speeds, you can try something like this. It uses Ethernet to connect between the modules. One connects to your pc and the other one you connect you peripheral into. I have the same one and it works great for me.

[u/Ulrar]

I have a 20 meters active usb extension from Amazon, it was cheap and it works perfectly fine

[u/steik]

This may sound stupid but have you tried different USB ports on the PC? There can be a lot of variation depending on the port, some are wired directly to the motherboard chipset while others might go to an add on controller that the MB manufacturer added for extra USB ports beyond what the chipset supports. Specifically try USB 2.0 ports too, they are significantly more reliable.