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I just bought a Belkin KVM switch at Fry's for $60.00. It has VGA video, USB keyboard/mouse, and Audio out/in ports. They seem to be out of stock at most online places but Fry's seems to be able to get most anything, which is the only reason I ever go there because the customer support/sales staff is terrible.
It's a nice compact unit with built in cabling for two systems, so nothing extra to buy (some don't come with the cables). They had some nicer 4 port ones in a nice looking desktop package and built in cable management, DVI and other stuff, but I didn't need that many ports and didn't want to fork out $150.00 for one.
Anyways, I opened it up, plugged it all in to my PC and Mac Mini using an Apple Pro keyboard, a Microsoft 5 button thumb trackball with scroll wheel, and an Altec Lansing 2.1 speaker system. It works like a champ. No set up and no drivers (unless you want software switching on the PC, which I didn't bother with since you can't do it with OS X anyways)-- it works right out of the box and everything seems to be functional including the sound up/down keys and the CD eject button (sound keys work in XP as well, but not the eject).
It has a button on top with built in LEDs to show you which system is currently on, and to switch back and forth you just tap the button and it switches. There is a slight delay after the switch before the keyboard and mouse will work. This takes about a 8 seconds on the Mac and about 5 seconds on the PC (and is associated with a couple of de-doop sounds that you get when you plug in a USB device on XP, the Mini is silent when this happens). You also can't switch back again for another 15 seconds or so (maybe a built in feature to prevent accidentally switching back while you still have your finger on the button).
It seems to be a nifty little device that works well and it acts for the keyboard and mouse like you just plugged them in to the computer, so there are not any emulation problems like I've seen on other KVM switches-- some of the PS2 ones emulate the keyboard and mouse to the computer all of the time (you can't always unplug PS2 devices and get them working again after you plug them back in), and this can cause loss of functionality with some keyboards and mice.
I'd like it to have a seprate switch for the audio (leave iTunes music playing while using the PC for instance), but it doesn't.
All and all it seems to be a great solution for sharing a USB keyboard, mouse, monitor, and speaker system between a PC and a Mac, although it is about twice as much as your average PS2 KVM switch without the audio capabilities.
Also, I now notice that video on my Mini is much dimmer than on the PC, but it's not bad enought to be a problem. Oh well.
If anyone has any questions about it I'd be glad to try and answer.
Edit: If I boot the Mini up without the switch being set to it, the video defaults to a lower resolution and requires that I "detect displays" in order to get it back to the resolution I want (easy to do with the display preferences icon on the top bar). Also, for more than basic two button and scroll wheel functionality with the MS optical trackball, it does need the MS intellipoint driver for Mac. So since I wanted to use the other buttons I installed it and I now have all the options.
It's a nice compact unit with built in cabling for two systems, so nothing extra to buy (some don't come with the cables). They had some nicer 4 port ones in a nice looking desktop package and built in cable management, DVI and other stuff, but I didn't need that many ports and didn't want to fork out $150.00 for one.
Anyways, I opened it up, plugged it all in to my PC and Mac Mini using an Apple Pro keyboard, a Microsoft 5 button thumb trackball with scroll wheel, and an Altec Lansing 2.1 speaker system. It works like a champ. No set up and no drivers (unless you want software switching on the PC, which I didn't bother with since you can't do it with OS X anyways)-- it works right out of the box and everything seems to be functional including the sound up/down keys and the CD eject button (sound keys work in XP as well, but not the eject).
It has a button on top with built in LEDs to show you which system is currently on, and to switch back and forth you just tap the button and it switches. There is a slight delay after the switch before the keyboard and mouse will work. This takes about a 8 seconds on the Mac and about 5 seconds on the PC (and is associated with a couple of de-doop sounds that you get when you plug in a USB device on XP, the Mini is silent when this happens). You also can't switch back again for another 15 seconds or so (maybe a built in feature to prevent accidentally switching back while you still have your finger on the button).
It seems to be a nifty little device that works well and it acts for the keyboard and mouse like you just plugged them in to the computer, so there are not any emulation problems like I've seen on other KVM switches-- some of the PS2 ones emulate the keyboard and mouse to the computer all of the time (you can't always unplug PS2 devices and get them working again after you plug them back in), and this can cause loss of functionality with some keyboards and mice.
I'd like it to have a seprate switch for the audio (leave iTunes music playing while using the PC for instance), but it doesn't.
All and all it seems to be a great solution for sharing a USB keyboard, mouse, monitor, and speaker system between a PC and a Mac, although it is about twice as much as your average PS2 KVM switch without the audio capabilities.
Also, I now notice that video on my Mini is much dimmer than on the PC, but it's not bad enought to be a problem. Oh well.
If anyone has any questions about it I'd be glad to try and answer.
Edit: If I boot the Mini up without the switch being set to it, the video defaults to a lower resolution and requires that I "detect displays" in order to get it back to the resolution I want (easy to do with the display preferences icon on the top bar). Also, for more than basic two button and scroll wheel functionality with the MS optical trackball, it does need the MS intellipoint driver for Mac. So since I wanted to use the other buttons I installed it and I now have all the options.