Recommend a KVM that is USB and HDMI or DVI, and is not flaky!

R

Red Squirrel

[H]F Junkie
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Seems most KVMs suck. I've went through so many but they all suffer from slow switching and locking up, having to unplug/replug etc...

I just want something that switches instantly and does not lock up. Budget is $500. I am willing to pay that if that's what it takes. 4 port would be nice but I only need 2 port. Basically I want something that will emulate the mouse, keyboard, and monitor to the attached PCs and do the switching in such a way that the machines don't even see it. Is there such KVMs?

Also I'd like it to support 4k as I eventually want to upgrade to 4k. Single monitor is fine. Oh and it needs to be fully hardware based, ex: buttons on it to switch. I don't want to have to rely on a piece of proprietary software.

Any suggestions? I am in Canada so needs to be obtainable here. Basically this is so I can switch between my main workstation (Linux) and gaming machine (Windows). No, I'm not dual booting or doing a VM, I want it to be native and dual booting sucks since I have to close all my work if I want to game. If it matters, both machines are actually in the basement and I have long cables running up, about 25'. Right now I'm using DVI but I imagine DP or HDMI is going to be more common to find and I'm willing to buy more cables.

Thanks in advance.
 
Have you considered hooking it all to your gaming machine and remote connecting to your workstation?
 
sharknice said:
Have you considered hooking it all to your gaming machine and remote connecting to your workstation?
Click to expand...

No I want pure native access to both machines, no work arounds. The gaming machine uses a lot of power because of the GPU so I only turn it on when I want to game.

My other option might be to just hook it up to the TV but I don't really know a proper way to game on the TV comfortably with keyboard and mouse. I'm exploring that option and might look at building some kind of TV tray/desk or something when it gets warmer out (my garage is not heated) but I rather just use a KVM. I just find it crazy that it's so hard to find an actual good KVM that is built for this era. Most of them are PS/2 and VGA, and the USB/DVI ones are flaky.
 
What monitor do you have? Usually they have multiple inputs and you can switch between them with one button. That would narrow your requirements down to just usb.
 
I was on the same boat and my solution were
1) Monitor has multiple inputs so ensure the monitor will take the output from both of your computers
2) I have two mouses, one for each computer and frankly because one computer is for work only and one computer is for gaming only so a gaming mouse for my gaming PC and a vertical ergonomic mouse for work PC
3) The input to my mechanical keyboard is via a detachable USB cable so I have two USB cables running from two PC to my keyboard and switch cable when I need to switch PC

Not really troublesome for me, I don't need to go to back of my desk to switch any cable when switching PC and the connection from PC to monitor, PC to keyboard and PC to mouse are all direct.
 
I also have the IOGEAR with 2 port DVI but it only supports up to 2k. Based on my experience with Startech and IOGEAR, I would go with IOGEAR. I am a little bit jaded this week towards them because of their driver support with add on cards, but my preference would still stand.
 
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