Great switch, comes with cables

I've been building machines for myself and friends for years, somehow I always got along without a kvm switch. Now that I've got five functional computers that I use for various things from lan parties to repair visits I finally decided to buy a kvm switch. The purpose of a kvm switch is that you can easily switch back and fourth between any systems connected into it (usually one to four ports unless you pay a huge amount of money for it) using one common keyboard, mouse and monitor I use digital (DVI) input/output on my main system and didn't want to impair the quality by going back to vga video output. Most lower priced kvm switches are ps2 mouse and keyboard and vga video only. KVM switches with DVI ports (and that support usb keyboards/mouse) are pretty new, as are switches with shared usb ports, this unit has both and thus the price is somewhat premium. When shopping for a switch be sure to pay attention to whether it comes with cables and also pay attention to the warranty (this unit is 3 years there is at least one brand with a lifetime warranty).

What's in the box:
KVMP switch nice metal case
power adapter (apparently only necessary to power the shared usb ports)
four sets of cables that cover video, sound, usb connections for usb keyboard and mouse

Features:
4 ports for a possibility of three additional systems besides the main system.
Ports for sound and microphone for each system
Comes with cables--cables can be very expensive ($70.00 plus for one set for some switches). These are great, heavy, shielded and it incorporates all connections in one cable (only thing I'd like to see is for them to make them four different colors, they're all gray).
Indicator lights on each selector switch
Auto detect mode (must be setup)
keyboard controls (must be setup)
upgradeable firmware (done via serial connection, cable included software downloaded off web site)
Metal case, quite heavy
usb keyboard and mouse support
usb shared ports (2) (I believe a hub can be installed here for more devices) Note: USB 1.1 ports not usb 2
3 year warranty (you must have proof of purchase date)

Setup:
Plug your dvi monitor into the console plug (works fine with my dell flat panel)
Plug usb mouse and keyboard into ports on the front of the switch
Plug sound cables in appropriate plugs (color coded)
Pull out one of the sets of cables provided, and plug into port one and the other end into the primary system.
Pull out a second set of cables and plug into port two and the other end into the second system (repeat for two more machines if necessary).

Operation:
When only one machine is connected it automatically defaults to port one, you don't have to have a second system connected. To change to another machine push the switch, this unit allows you to change just video, or give the other system access to sound and shared usb as well, to just change video you press for a second, to change over to sound and usb port access press for longer, the indicator lights change inside the button according to what is accessable. In theory you can have a print job going on your desktop through a shared usb printer (connected to one of the shared ports) and switch just video etc to a second connected machine without interrupting the print job from the first system.

Everyday use:
This switch works as advertised with wired keyboard and mouse. I have a bluetooth mouse, so far it won't work on the usb mouse port it must be plugged into one of the shared usb ports to work, I guess this isn't that much of a big deal I just keep a wired trackball or mouse nearby to use the other systems however there should be a way to plug the receiver into the shared port and have it work on any of the the other machines plugged into it (may have to install the bluetooth stack on the other machines may be the issue), I may need to look for a firmware update or something will post on that later. The indicator lights on the push buttons are very useful, the only slightly annoying thing to deal with is the need to hold the button down longer when you want full sound/usb shared access to the switched system, I guess I'll get used to that. I haven't gone in and setup any of the keyboard hotkey controls. My particular motherboard doesn't have a serial port on the backplane (no one uses them anymore for the most part, at least not on home systems anyway), I guess it seems a silly way to do it, why not set it up over USB is the question in my mind. KVM switches can be very temperamental beasts from what I've heard, especially if you are running different refresh rates on your systems, most flat panels are 60 hz only so I would think that it would make that part of it a little more reliable (but maybe not too).

What I think of it?
My first switch I bought was a startech product, it may have been just a bad unit but I never could get it to work right using my own cables. This unit also came from Dell and considering that it comes with cables and was not that much more for four ports versus two on the startech, I think it's a better deal. I spent about fifteen minutes hooking this up and it worked right the first time under xp professional 64 bit. Apparently there are some kind of drivers being loaded on the secondary machines because xp did a lot of heavy disk accessing before I finally got access to the machine on first boot up. I also hooked a machine up running xp 32 bit home edition and it also worked great. I'm sure the big test here is going to be what happens when the machines are running a drastically different OS, will be working on a windows 2000 machine soon so I'll post more then. This is a great product, I only wish I'd seen the one on the iomega site that not only shares usb but ethernet too (wow talk about all in one) but I'm sure that one carries a hefty price tag so I probably would have ended up with this one anyway. So far I think this is a great product, if you've got a use for it and want top quality go for iogear.

update: Put another system together last night and loaded windows 2000 on it and did updates while simultaneously playing an online game on my desktop, how did I ever get along without this before? I do need to investigate why occasionally when switching back and forth the mouse doesn't respond for a few seconds, I'll probably end up calling iogear to see about firmware updates etc. Just got my logitech wireless replaced I also want to see if it fares any better than the microsoft 8000 on this switch because I really prefer the wireless mouse if I can get away with it. Oh well I guess I can't have everything can I.

update: More on the wireless mouse adventure. Using a msi bluetooth dongle the mouse works, however, it's jerky and drifts--I suspect this is because of the switch as it doesn't do this when just on the desktop, still not sure if the bluetooth dongle that came with it is bad or not. XP 32 and 64 bit automatically load the bluetooth drivers when it detects the msi dongle on the shared usb port. Windows 2000 did not automatically load the bluetooth drivers. Pluggged in my logitech G7 that uses 2.4 ghz transceiver and it fares much better plugged into the shared usb port and as long as the logitech software is installed on each machine it works fine--no drifting that I've noticed. This is probably due to how often those usb ports get polled and the fact that they're usb 1.1 and not 2.0 but the box for the 8000 doesn't mention usb 2 only on the box or anything.

update: Still love this thing, I use it constantly such as when I'm downloading updates on one machine and playing a game or doing something else on another, the only problem I've run into is that on one of the cables the metal plate at the end of the cable comes away from the cable sometimes, I'm a little afraid I'm going to end up straining some wires at some point, I've got extra cable sets so I suppose I'll just swap it out but I don't have the pull the cables off machine one all the time so it's just slightly annoying so far but I thought it was worth pointing out. As for the mouse issue, the Logitech G7 is the happiest of my wireless products living on the KVM switch, just have to be sure drivers get loaded on any machines I hook into the kvm switch because the mouse doesn't work on other machines without drivers installed.