So I went hunting for a switch, I found a few cheap ones but when I read the reviews most seemed poor as they either couldn’t handle high resolutions or lost clarity. Then I began looking at more expensive models and they all tended to be made by one manufacturer, Belkin. Now expensive doesn’t always mean good so I had a look around for reviews and they seemed well worth the money. So a few emails later and I received a 4port KVM switch. But it isn’t an ordinary switch, it’s whole desktop switch. It has ports for a monitor/keyboard/mouse as per normal but not only that it has USB and audio switching. This certainly is one impressive switch just looking at the features.

Now all those ports are impressive but furthermore Belkin has spent a lot of time working on this switch and it’s paid off big time. The switch can handle a whopping 2048*1536@85Hz through a 400MHZ bandwidth now that’s big enough for anyone. More importantly at such high resolutions the picture remains clear.

Belkin have loaded the KVM with features and future proof ideas. For example when the switch arrived I did wonder why there was a power supply port but no power supply. I got straight on to them expecting it was a mistake by them and they’d send out a power supply. Well I was told it didn’t require a power supply, still I wondered why they’d put a slot for one in anyway. After a chat to the Belkin technical manager of the KVM range I found out. It is merely there in case a monitor is built that drains too much power, so far they haven’t found one but well better safe than sorry. So the unit takes power from your PS2 wires, I wasn’t too keen on this as I use a Logitech cordless desktop but my fears were put to rest. It works a treat, I’ve tried it with every keyboard and mouse I can find but it always works fine.

Another great feature is the flasher cable. Again I wondered what this was for but luckily common sense and a manual helped me figure this out. It may look like an RJ45 port but it’s not. It’s a firmware flash adaptor. Another future proofing tool, you can flash the firmware much like you flash a motherboards BIOS to keep it working for a newer CPU or to fix a bug. The flash cable on the KVM allows it to keep up to date with the latest peripherals. I like these little future proofing tools, the KVM is pricey so you don’t want to have to get rid of it just because a new monitor is incompatible.

The audio switching is a nice feature, though its not too much use to me. It can only hand a maximum of 2.1 speakers so there’s no option of using my old FPS1000’s on it. However If I bought in a set of cheap flat panels or a quality pair of headphones this would be very useful. The PCs I have at the moment are don’t really require sound. But it’s a nice feature and I can see it being useful for gamers wishing to use their headphones on multiple PCs for those late night CS games when you can’t be bothered to go unplug your headphones from your old PC to your new GF3 equipped monster. Along with the Speakers you can also switch microphones, I expect again useful for gamers using Roger Wilco.

USB switching, another nice touch again not so useful to me but I can see others using it, a good example being a USB mouse.

Now sadly I’m not in possession of a good monitor so my resolution tests were a little limited to about 1024*768 however I did manage to get a nice Sony for an hour and I switched it to the max and no trouble or loss of clarity.

Switching between rigs is very easy, just press the nice looking silver buttons and the orange light indicates which PC is currently being used. One minor problem, the switch beeps every time you change this does get annoying but I’m sure there’s an option to turn this off but I haven’t found it.

The cables are neatly hidden which makes it look far tidier and easier to manage. It doesn’t look out of place sitting on my desk next to my network switch. It’s a good design and won’t look out of place on most desks. The MS optical explorer mouse springs to mind as a perfect partner to the KVM.

Right lets get down to a conclusion. The full name of this product is the Belkin SoHo 4port KVM Switch (code is F1DS104T). I haven’t been able to track down a price but I’ll make a news post as soon as I do.

Pro’s:
• Handles 2048*1536@85Hz
• Audio and USB switching
• Flash Upgradeable firmware
• Covered with a 5 year warranty
• Sleek Design

Con’s:
• No surround sound support

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