If you’ve been reading this blog for a few months, you may notice that I’ll review gadgets that I’ve bought from Amazon from time to time. This includes headphones, a USB solid state drive, a Bluetooth label printer, a Bluetooth thermometer, energy monitoring smart plugs, a Zigbee dongle and a multi-device wireless mouse. And today, I’m reviewing a Steetek KVM switch (sponsored link).
KVM switches have been around for many years – KVM standing for Keyboard, Video and Mouse. They allow you to have one keyboard, mouse and screen connected to two or more computers, which you can switch between. Older models had to include all manner of ports – RS232 serial ports, parallel ports, PS/2 ports for keyboards and mice, and VGA or DVI ports for screens. Nowadays, thanks to standardisation on USB, modern KVM switches are much more simple.
This Steetek model is designed to switch between two computers. It comes with two USB-A to USB-B cables to connect to each computer, but you need to provide your own HDMI cables. On the front are four USB 2.0 ports, so it also doubles as a USB hub. Note that the picture on Amazon’s web site suggests that there are two USB 1.1 and two USB 2.0 ports, but they’re all labelled as USB 2.0 on the KVM switch that was delivered to me.
Once set up, there’s a single button at the front, which you press to toggle between the two computers, and two LEDs, which illuminate depending on which computer is in use. It can support 4K Ultra HD screens (3840 × 216 resolution) and audio over HDMI, so you can use it for (for example) games consoles as well as computers. The KVM switch does not need any external power, and there are no drivers to install. That being said, the lack of external power means that the USB ports will only be really useful for connecting keyboards and mice, and not any high-power devices like phones.
It’s also nice and compact, measuring just 11 cm (4 1/2 inches) wide, 6 cm (2 1/2 inches) deep and only an inch (2.5 cm) high, so it doesn’t take up much space on my desk. I’m using it to switch between our home Windows laptop, and the Raspberry Pi which runs Home Assistant. As mentioned, there’s no need to install drivers and so it works fine, even when the two computers are very different. It costs about £20 at the time of writing.
There are lots of other KVM switches available, offering external power and connections to more than two computers. There are also some Thunderbolt KVM switches, such as this one (sponsored link), which are even simpler to set up. Because Thunderbolt uses USB-C connectors for data and video, you only need one USB-C connection to each device rather than separate USB and HDMI connections. However, you’ll pay a premium for these, as they cost several times more than this more basic one. And neither of my computers support Thunderbolt.
