“You want a KVM swap.”
That is what my pal mentioned to me three years in the past after seeing a photograph of my double-laptop setup. I instructed her how all I’ve to do is swap over a few cords on the finish of my workday and I can take pleasure in my new gaming laptop in the identical area as my work laptop. She’s a fellow {hardware} reviewer, so she had a simple reply: purchase a keyboard, video, mouse (KVM) swap to do this precise step for me, no extra cord-swapping required. It sounded too good to be true.
I did not purchase one—I did not wish to add one more merchandise to my small desk, so I continued to manually swap my HDMI and USB cords between my numerous computer systems for a number of years. I obtained another gadgets to ease this course of—a tiny HDMI switcher I can conceal behind my monitor together with receiver-free Bluetooth units—however the actual reply was all the time a KVM swap. Till now. I switched my monitor to at least one with a KVM swap in-built, so it is a win-win. Much less desk litter, and no must plug and unplug cords once more!
A Desk to Rescue
{Photograph}: Nena Farrell
That is my desk circa April 2021. I turned an enormous co-op gamer over the pandemic since enjoying video games like Deep Rock Galatic and Stardew Valley was a simple approach to keep near my pals. Initially, I used to be solely a Nintendo Swap lady, however as soon as my habit to Animal Crossing: New Horizons ended, I moved on to PC video games.
That is after I obtained my first gaming laptop computer, however I wanted room on my desk for it and my work laptop. The cumbersome physique of a gaming laptop computer is decidedly much less snug away from my desk (and has worse battery life too), so I out of the blue wanted a everlasting resolution for my after-work gaming way of life.
A KVM swap was the clear reply. These allow you to plug in two computer systems or laptops—even when they run completely different working techniques—and join peripherals like a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. As soon as every little thing is related, simply hit the swap and you need to use the identical peripherals with both PC, no must unplug and reconnect them. There are tons of choices to buy one online, and so they’re often not too costly.
However you’ll be able to see my desk above. One other merchandise to suit onto the desktop was the very last thing I needed; I might somewhat have room for an additional candle or my mug of tea. KVM switches aren’t so large that this can be a large situation, however I let it cease me for years.
One Monitor to Rule Them All
Why get one thing further if I haven’t got to? The excellent news is that increasingly more PC displays have a built-in KVM swap, so you’ll be able to join two computer systems and your equipment to the monitor and swap as you see match. It is really easy! Nothing else is on my desk! It is the very best of each worlds. I want a monitor anyway, so why not get one which has the ability of a KVM swap inside?
It is solely helpful in case your keyboard and mouse have a 2.4-GHz USB receiver for connectivity, although. (These receivers often supply higher stability and decrease response instances than Bluetooth.) This Philips Creator Series monitor (learn extra about it in our Best PC Monitors guide) has each a KVM swap and an enter change choice. After I used it with receiver-free Bluetooth equipment, I solely wanted to modify the enter from the monitor as a substitute of utilizing the total KVM swap function.
