Do people use KVMs nowadays?

jez9999 said:
Mine would be scrap metal, they're usually 5 or 10 years old by the time I don't want to continue using them.
Click to expand...
Even 5 or 10 year old stuff
Someone will buy it on MM
Use it for server
Or backup machine etc
Something like a 2600k is 10 or 12 years old
But can overclock to 5ghz
And be used for something
 
I never do a full upgrade and parts are replaced over time.

Last thing I got was my 9700K, 32GB of ram, mother board and power supply. This was back in 2019
 
Replacing the motherboard basically is a full upgrade. The RAM, graphics card and potentially even the case and PSU have to go along with it. Hard drive too if the old one's form factor's no longer supported. That's why I usually just consider a mobo replacement as a necessary full upgrade. And yeah, that does tend to leave me with a secondary machine I want to switch to with a KVM. Grrrr, why can't they be more popular?
 
This topic has caused my dreadful stress in researching, as most of the hubs/switches seem to have bottle necks i.e. graphics support etc. I ended up finding a nice Dell monitor which ticked the boxes for me and had enough ports and swaps over at the push of one button from my work laptop to my desktop. My keyboard switches from wired to bluetooth and the mouse switches ports.
 
Years ago I used too, but now I very rarely need to switch between two workstations at home. Although when i do, I curse the fact that I don't have one!
 
As already linked, level 1 techs do a lot of custom kvm stuff as Wendell got annoyed at the available options. For cheaper, order from China to get random configurations as they will cover a lot not niche product areas.

As to why they aren't used much anymore, have you looked into remote control options nowadays? Remote desktop, vnc variations, parsec.

As to having only one main pc. It's in the name. Main pc. You have one. Everthing else is not main pc. I have one main pc i use for stuff, and use that one, or often my phone, to vnc into desktops or web interface into software/services the other 7 machines/million VMs/switches/routers.

Then I have one smaller monitor, basic keyboard and mouse that I can easily carry to and connect up to any machine I use for initial setup or if I really have to access a machine bios.
 
I really like the KVM option to be able to switch at least one of my 2 main monitors between my main Windows system, secondary Linux system, and also my work laptop (extend to second monitor) - that's a must.
 
Interested in a budget option for my son to use his PC's Monitor, Keyboard & Mouse with his school Chromebook (can do HDMI & USB-C output)...
 
I don’t. But that’s mainly due to the monitor. Samsung G9. So I have my PC and 2 laptop docks for work and home laptops on diff inputs and a usb hub so have to manually move between them.
 
Upon further research, several things have come to my attention that I figured were worth noting:

1) The terminology used for the ability to switch multiple video inputs to multiple outputs independently tends to be "matrix", whether it's video-only or also incorporates USB/audio switching.
2) In the above terminology, the first number is typically number of inputs and the second is number of outputs. A 6x2 matrix would be designed for 6 video inputs, and 2 monitor outputs.
3) It might well be better and more cost-efficient for me to use 2 completely separate matrix devices, one just for DVI or HDMI switching (like https://www.amazon.co.uk/HDMI-Matri...mzn1.fos.d7e5a2de-8759-4da3-993c-d11b6e3d217f ) and one for the USB switching. I personally don't care about the audio switching.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom