I am writing this review to enlighten folks to the uses of a KVM. I have personally purchased two of these, one for a customer and one for myself. In both cases they are extremely easy to setup and use, and it may save you a boatload of money if you wanted a separate computer for a server, etc.
Why did I buy this KVM?
for a customer…
About a year ago a customer wanted a newer computer with faster processor, video, etc. to run autocad 2004 engineering software. His current setup was not sufficient for the full functionality of ACAD 2004, yet he could not give up the existing computer. He had several architectural software programs on the computer that could not run in Windows XP, and ACAD 2004 will not run with anything other than XP Pro. Dilemma, yet what to do?
I researched networking options, which were somewhat expensive and required separate mouse, keyboard and monitor along with access point and either wired or wireless connections. The customer had no need to have the PC’s at two places in his house, and he would only use one at a time. I found this switch, and bought it. It worked great!
for myself…
I had recently taken my personal computer about as high as I could with a P4 system, and decided that I wanted to build an AMD system. I had a few parts laying around, and needed to buy a few more. I have no real reason to keep two computers in my house, so did not see the computer staying for the long haul. More than likely I will either sell this as a system to the right person or simply part it out on an online auction site. In any case, I had no desire to purchase the keyboard, monitor and mouse for this, as I will not be needing it. I already had a
D-link wireless router and a wireless network card, so no problems hooking it up to the internet either.
This is another perfect reason to have a KVM. If you were going to set up a home server on your network, this would work as well.
So what is it?
This
Keyboard
Video
Mouse (
KVM) switch has a central hub that is smaller than the palm of your hand that allows you to share your keyboard, video and mouse between two computer systems. This is achieved with a 15 pin video connection and two PS/2 connections for each computer. You will insert your active keyboard, monitor and mouse connections into this central hub. On this hub is also two LED lights, green in color, that will indicate to you which computer you are actively using. If you were to scan between computers, you would see the LED’s flashing. Other than that, there is very little to notice about the hub, other than the fact that it is a bright yellow-green in color; very trendy! It will not look like an eyesore or an ancient box on your desktop, if you choose to place it there.
There are also two sets of three cables, one each of mouse, keyboard, and monitor connection. This is how the switch talks with each computer. Once you connect these into the computer connections, you can turn on both computers, boot up and start using your switch.
But what about software?
There is no software associated with this KVM switch. It is completely controlled via keyboard hotkeys! You can hit [scroll lock] twice in a row to switch between computers. You do not have to be speedy to do this, as it will still register if you have a lag of up to two seconds in my own trials. You can also set up the switch to scan between computers, which I did do just to see. Honestly, I cannot think of any reason to do this, so I shut it down right away and went back to manual switching.
Does it work with any and all hardware?
This is designed to work with analog monitors, no DVI connections allowed! More than likely if you have a monitor with a DVI connection, it came with a DVI to analog dongle. Any newer video cards should also have one of these included. This makes it compatible with the DVI only monitor…
The switch does not work with a serial mouse, and will only work with an AT keyboard if you have an AT to PS/2 adapter. These are not expensive and easy to find, if you need one. The switch only supports video resolutions of up to 1920 X 1440, but for me that is not an issue. My LCD monitor’s native resolution is 1280 X 1024, and therefore I cannot use the 1920 X 1440. Something to keep in mind, though, if you need better!
My experiences
I bought this switch a year ago for $28 after rebates through Best Buy, and this year recently for $19.99 after rebate at another online store. You can pay upwards of $45 if you are not careful, so look for the rebates at the office supply stores and electronic superstores.
In both cases, this installed instantly and had no issues whatsoever. I really like the idea that I can have two systems set up through one keyboard, monitor, and mouse. This works well with my wireless Logitech keyboard and wireless optical Logitech mouse, as well as my NEC LCD1760v. If it works with this, I do not see that it will be an issue for most folks to use.
I really appreciate the fact that the utility is all hardware oriented and does not require software. This makes it intuitively easy. It also comes with a
3 year warranty, so as long as you remember to send in your card, you can be assured that the switch will work or they will replace/repair it!
The systems I use this with are as follows:
Pentium 4 system
Abit IS7-E motherboard
Pentium 2.6c processor
Corsair PC4000 TwinX XMS 1024MB DDR memory
eVGA.com 5900SE
Western Digital 80GB SE Harddrive
Seagate 120GB Harddrive
AMD System
Abit NF7-M motherboard
AMD 2500 processor
Corsair PC3200 TwinX 512MB DDR memory
ATI Radeon 9600XT video card
Western Digital 160GB harddrive
You can find reviews to the Pentium system by clicking on the components, and the AMD system is still in the evaluation steps.
Final Recommendation
If you need to control two computer systems with different (or the same) operating systems but don’t have the need for an additional monitor, keyboard, and mouse, this is a very user friendly switch at a low cost.
I hope this helps you to make your decision, and please rate or leave a comment. Feel free to write as well!
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