I have looked on the place with all the trees and they all seem to be cheap chinese imports - bought one before and had issues after 6 months of use. OC don't appear to sell any KVM switches. Are there any good quality suppliers worth looking at? Just need to connect Desktop and Laptop to same USB devices and monitor.
Good quality KVM switches?
- Thread starter piggeh
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- kvm dock kvm switch
Soldato
I doubt anything in the £15 - £40 range is going to differ hugely in interal build quality. If you do end up taking a punt on one, i'd suggest at least trying to go for one that doesn't have the cables built into the unit, you at least then have the option to swap out/replace the cables if they get damaged, stop working or you just want to swap in better quality cables.
You could have a look at some Belkin products (directly on their website or on that tree place), that's at least a brand you'll recognise (they've got some nice business grade KVMs, but also do stuff on the lower end to).
You could have a look at some Belkin products (directly on their website or on that tree place), that's at least a brand you'll recognise (they've got some nice business grade KVMs, but also do stuff on the lower end to).
I've generally used the ATEN brand - they do some lower priced stuff as well as the more expensive stuff. UGreen and StarTech are usually OK but nothing amazing. A lot of the other generic brands I've found to have some kind of issue of one kind or another such as latency or dodgy keyboard emulation, etc. etc. never mind reliability.
Soldato
Might seem a random question but have you checked if your monitor has a kvm feature, a fair few seem to have built in kvm's these days.
Depending on how often you want to switch screens another option to kvm is just have a second display input connected to the laptop and then use some software like logitech flow or microsoft borderless mouse to control the keyboard/mouse side of things (might need both devices on all the time though). You're just changing input for the display.
If you've got a logitech setup you could go even simpler and just use their 'switch device' buttons and a second dongle/bluetooth for the keyboard/mouse...
Depending on how often you want to switch screens another option to kvm is just have a second display input connected to the laptop and then use some software like logitech flow or microsoft borderless mouse to control the keyboard/mouse side of things (might need both devices on all the time though). You're just changing input for the display.
If you've got a logitech setup you could go even simpler and just use their 'switch device' buttons and a second dongle/bluetooth for the keyboard/mouse...
Yeah it doesn't unfortunately.
Soldato
I don't know what your screen etc is but you may need to pay a pretty high price for an aten with 4K 60hz support for example so as daft as this sounds it might be a cheaper option to change your screen to one with a kvm...
When I last looked into a kvm (I chose not to in the end due to a change of plans and because 4K 60hz support just wasn't really available) aten (as mentioned), adder, gefen and avocent were the brands that seemed to be the best regarded, but far from cheap though.
Soldato
My company has been using Startech KVMs for servers and classrooms and I think only one 16 port KVM had a failed VGA port after 10 years of daily service. I also used to have a lot of Belkin kit but haven't used them for a while.
I've used Ugreen KVMs off Amazon for personal use without issue.
I've used Ugreen KVMs off Amazon for personal use without issue.
When Covid hit I was looking at a way to use my desktop setup with my secure work laptop. Since I game I didn't want anything that would interfere with that and so the switches that support 2K gaming at 144hz were starting to look a bit pricey.
Ended up getting a Raspberry Pi 4, imported a HDMI-CSI adaptor from a chinese megasite and running PiKVM. I can control my work laptop from a browser with minimal latency from the comfort of my home setup.
A fun little project that cost around £60 at the time.
Ended up getting a Raspberry Pi 4, imported a HDMI-CSI adaptor from a chinese megasite and running PiKVM. I can control my work laptop from a browser with minimal latency from the comfort of my home setup.
A fun little project that cost around £60 at the time.