Tom's Hardware KVM Roundup

nexex writes: "Tom's Hardware has a new article with a review of several KVM switches. I have considering buying a KVM switch as I seem to collect/use more & more computers, I feel left with little choice :) While I have several friends who have taken the plunge, they have all spent wildly different amounts on them. Granted price plays a great factor on the features you get, but how do you know which one is not going to end up letting you down? If you end up with el cheapo, you will most certainly end up regretting it, as this device will be carrying the signals of your primary input and output to your systems."

Another Linksys KVM switch

[kidblast]

I bought a different Linksys KVM switch than the one on Tom's Hardware. I think its called the PS2KVMSK or something. It is much cheaper at about $50 dollars, including all the necessary cables. Ive found it to be a great value and is extremely convenient because it has keyboard-activated switching. The switch is signaled by two quick CTRL key presses. One thing to note though is that if you are playing games that use CTRL frequently, there seems to be a lag between the CTRL keypress and the action in the game. Other than that it performed flawlessly and was definitely worth the money.

IOGear and USB support

[Osty]

I've been using the IOGear 2-port KVM switch reviewed in the article for several months now, and I have to say I love it. I use it to share between XP and Linux, and neither machine has ever had a problem with the USB devices. I did run into a slight problem with the video causing snow and jitters in X11 (no problems at all in XP), but adjusting the modeline (dumped via xvidtune, changed the polarity of the hsync) made the problems disappear. For anybody who wants to get away from PS/2 systems, or uses Macs, I really do recommend IOGear.

The only thing I could wish for is the OSD/hotkey support of IOGear's 4-port model, but I can live without that. Also, Tom's price was a bit high. I bought mine for roughly $100 at a local computer store.

I used one of these

[vsync64]

At my previous employer [wego.net] I had one of these to switch between my laptop (Sony Vaio Z505, mmm) and my tower (HP Kayak, bleh). I'm almost positive it was the GCS124U [tomshardware.com], but it didn't have the OSD stuff they mentioned in the review. I remember that the one thing which annoyed me about the KVM was that there was no way to jump past the 2 empty slots, and there wasn't any way to switch via a keystroke or anything but the Big Button. Then again, I was running Slackware, so maybe it required some sort of special software. Other than that, it was a really solid unit, and I highly recommend it.

You can see my setup [quadium.net] right before they laid us all off. And of course they kept the KVM and the shiny laptop... :(

Interesting but...

[kawaichan]

I have five boxes at home but Terminal Service is much better than KVM, it's cheap, requires no hadware and no physical installation (I hate wires).

Inova

[NoInfo]

The guys at Inova [inova-inc.com] have a KVM switch not reviewed in this article. In addition, they claim that it doesn't just switch the KeyboardVideoMouse, but all your silly devices. There's a small, pleased review of it here [internetwk.com].

Re:Not a very exciting review

[Osty]

There had to be some ghosting at 1600x1200... so talk about that stuff then.

Why would there have to be ghosting at 1600x1200? Is it not possible that all those units were capable of supporting 1600x1200 and higher without any problems? I currently use one of the switches in the article, and use Cybex and Belkin switches at work all the time, and I run in 1600x1200 on nearly every machine I use. I've never had any ghosting problems from quality switches. Perhaps it could've been mentioned that there were no visual problems, but how interesting is that when that's the expected case?

Apex

[Scrag]

I use 8-port Apex KVM switches at work, and they have some nice features; they also have a few flaws. These KVM switches arent the cheap ones found in this review, but if your looking for higher end equipment I might be able to give some useful nformation.

The switches are only KVM, no sound, no USB. To change screens, you press the print screen key. It brings up a menu, and you can choose between any of your machines. The machines can all be named, so you know exactly what machine you are going to. Another nice feature is that you can chain them together for more than just 8 machines on the switch. My only real complaint is that sometimes the menu doesnt get erased when you switch machines, so you have to bring it up again and get rid of it. I havent had any problems with screen resolutions, keyboards or mice. Definitely worth looking into for a setup with more machines than two.

Exploit the monitor's A/B switch?

[crucini]

Background: Good KVM's are expensive. Cheap KVM's are awful. Many monitors now have a built-in high quality A/B switch. Many KVM users spend 95% of time on a workstation, and occasionally have to flip to a "headless" box to make a BIOS change or something.

Why not buy a cheap KVM, attach a cheap keyboard to it, and plug it into input B on the monitor? Then most of the time you have high quality video from the workstation to input A. When using the KVM, you probably don't care about quality. Of course, there is the danger of typing on the wrong keyboard.

Personally, I just use the monitor A/B both at home and at work. The B cable goes on whatever box I'm fixing/setting up at the moment. Once the box has networking, there is no need for KVM.

Great KVM

[justletmeinnow]

4 port IOGEAR MiniView [buy.com] (Not the same MiniView in Tom's review) $106.95 with cables.

I've had this for over a year and I've never had a single problem with it. We struggle with the OmniView and others at work all the time, my Linux boxen always lose mice, or experience pointer wig-outs on the others, but never on the Iogear. It also has the best monitor quality I've seen so far.

Just my 2 cents...

Belkin and Fostex solution, and cables

[lostguy]

Some time ago, I was looking [google.com] for a solution to a cross-platform KVM integration issue, tying some SGI gear and my PC to a single console.

My problem arose because the SGIs use a sync-on-green signal through 13w3 plugs, while PCs typically don't. I was lucky in that most SGI kit made in the mid-90s and after uses PS/2 mice and keyboards. I further complicated my situation by wanting to tie the sound from the different boxes together.

Eventually [google.com], I bought a Belkin OmniView SE 4-port PS2 KVM switch, and some adapters. To handle the sound, I bought a cheap Fostex digital mixer from musiciansfriend.com[1], wired it all up, and today, I am the proud owner of a monstrous rat's nest of cables and boxes that pipe sound from multiple machines into one set of speakers.

It would have been a hell of a lot easier and cheaper just to buy three sets of speakers. I'd be careful when evaluating a KVM+Sound switch, verifying that sound is mixed from all channels, as it is almost a necessity to be able to hear output from a non-focused computer.

As it is, I'm ecstatic about the Belkin gear. I have the OmniView SE here at home, and the OmniCube at work, and with decent cables, I can drive the monitors at 1900x1200 without any difficulty. I found this to be just about the most important piece of the kit -- with cheap cables (the kind you can buy for $10), the video starts bleeding and exhibiting static above VGA resolution. Don't waste your time with the cheap cables, spend the extra $10 or so and get the decent ones.

[1]: I am intentionally not making that a link because the bastards are almost as bad as x10 for daily emails once they have your address.

Re:Too much $$.

[snake_dad]

Have you tried tight VNC? [tightvnc.com]?

Re:Belkins are good

[iCEBaLM]

Only negative I've found is that I need to have the Win2k box selected while it boots, otherwise the wheel mouse isn't detected... the rest of the mouse works, just not the wheel.

Control Panel -> Mouse -> Hardware -> Properties -> Advanced Settings

Change "Wheel Detection" to "Assume wheel is present".

-- iCEBaLM