KVM Switch

Antony101 · 28 Dec 2012 at 02:45

I now have to PCs in my room however using two mice and two keyboards is a pain and I don't really have the room for it.

I was thinking of getting a KVM to link the two up but some of them seem to be expensive and there seems to be lots of different features.

Can anyone recommend a basic KVM for linking up two PCs to one mouse, keyboard and maybe a monitor, two if possible.

bremen1874 · 28 Dec 2012 at 03:41

PS/2 or USB?
VGA or DVI/DP/HDMI?
Audio or not?

For most things running one of the systems headless and accessing it over the network using a remote desktop connection of some sort is easier. It depends on what you're using the systems for.

Antony101 · 28 Dec 2012 at 03:50

PS2 Keyboard, USB Mouse.
DVI and HDMI monitors.
Audio if possible but not a must.

The spare system will barely be used, it would just be nice to get it all up and running and working. May use it as a server.

oneofmanyjoes · 28 Dec 2012 at 04:58

i put one of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aten-CS-6...g_KVM_Switches_KVM_Cables&hash=item2ebaddf94b

in my mums living room, works well as far as i can tell

you can get usb one, and dvi. and probably ps2 and usb

or you could get a ps2-usb mouse thingy

if you want usb and ps2 and dual monitor its gonna get expensive

do you need dual monitor or would one be good enough for switching and leave the other on on your main comp

Antony101 · 28 Dec 2012 at 05:05

One would be fine, two preferred obviously but I'd rather save the money.

kthula666 · 28 Dec 2012 at 05:47

I use

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Belkin-Sw...g_KVM_Switches_KVM_Cables&hash=item51a535f304

Might be better going for cheap usb keyboard

makes for less cables

one cable to each pc with vga and usb

Antony101 · 28 Dec 2012 at 06:10

kthula666 said:
I use

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Belkin-Sw...g_KVM_Switches_KVM_Cables&hash=item51a535f304

Might be better going for cheap usb keyboard

makes for less cables

one cable to each pc with vga and usb

I have a PS2 to USB for my MK-50 somewhere.

I'm guessing HDMI KVMs are expensive?

Gammawolf · 28 Dec 2012 at 13:24

Antony101 said:
PS2 Keyboard, USB Mouse.
DVI and HDMI monitors.
Audio if possible but not a must.

The spare system will barely be used, it would just be nice to get it all up and running and working. May use it as a server.

If this is the case then I'd just use RDP. Anything else really is a waste of money

Antony101 · 28 Dec 2012 at 16:19

Gammawolf said:
If this is the case then I'd just use RDP. Anything else really is a waste of money

Is RDP something like that Synergy program? Because that stopped working when I tried to install something or ran another program.

Joshct · 28 Dec 2012 at 16:33

Something i've always been curious of: (sorry for the hijacking but it might be relevant to you also)

Will a KVM introduce any additional response time to video? If you're switching between two pcs regularly they're fantastic, but i've always wondered about people that get low response time monitors and then use a KVM for convenience.

Gammawolf · 19 Jan 2013 at 01:07

Antony101 said:
Is RDP something like that Synergy program? Because that stopped working when I tried to install something or ran another program.

RDP is all provided in Windows, no need for installing additional software. In a nut shell, you enable it on the machine you wish to connect to, making sure that the machines are all on the same network and can reach each other. Then it's simply a case of running mstsc.exe on your main machine, point it to the IP of the server, and fill in the username and password that you would use to log in to that server and voilà!

On a side not i've no idea about latency and KVMs!