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Tom's Hardware KVM Roundup

Posted by michael on from the too-many-computers-not-enough-time dept.

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."

5 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Get VNC by jackb_guppy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If have nine machines - I have 1 spare monitor and keyboard for base boot and load. Once loaded VNC all the way - even with linux.

    Nice to be able to use any machine any where in the house with touching it.

    1. Re:Get VNC by MikeFM · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My experience with those switches has all been bad. We had them in an apartment I usda have and they were a pain. And I've had more expensive versions at several jobs and all were also pains. I'd honestly rather just just network to the other machines and run apps remotely. I do keep an extra monitor etc around in case I need to install some hardware on another computer.

      --
      At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
  2. Too much $$. by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Here's a less expensive solution.

    It can't do everything (it irks me that I can't log onto my 2K box through it), but it also doesn't limit you to a few feet away.

  3. Audio switching by Chris+Pimlott · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm surprised Tom is so exciting about audio switching. Most decent speaker setups will take more than 1 input signal, so you can have both (or more) boxes hooked up to the same speaker at once all the time. It's nice to be able to play a CD or something from my other box while I'm using the first's drive.

  4. What about picture quality? by Hank+the+Lion · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In the article, Tom has concentrated on go/no-go tests.
    In a product that can influence picture quality tremendously, I would have liked to see something more than "It ... produced a good picture " (with no mention of the resolution tested) in case of the CS-USB21H , or no mention of picture quality at all in case of the GCS124U KVM .
    It would have been really helpful to see characteristics like 'amount of reflections' or 'actual measured bandwidth'
    This would have helped me more on deciding which unit is right for my purposes than describing the computer systems that were used in detail. What is the use of specifying the brand of CD-writer or the amount and brand of RAM that were used? I cannot imagine that these have any influence on the performance of the KVM switch.