Aten CS52A - KVM

A KVM (keyboard Video Mouse) switch has generally been considered to be the domain of server rooms and sysadmins. However, in these technologically advanced times, many of us have two computers at home. If you often motor your chair from one monitor to another in the same room, or have a tangle of cables on your desk as two keyboards fight it out for your valuable desk space, the Aten CS52A is for you. An entry-level KVM switch, it lets you control two computers with one keyboard, monitor, and mouse. It also
has audio support, so you need only one set of speakers as well.

The setup is easy enough, since you just have to plug in the various wires. The keyboard can be connected through a PS/2 port, but you’ll need to have a USB mouse. Once everything is connected, you simply press a button on the wired remote, and control switches from one PC to another. It’s slightly surreal, but works quite well. We had no issues using the switch, and mostly you just forget about its existence. Games, movies, and the usual range of office tasks worked fine. There’s no support for DVI, so you have to use the VGA input. You can plug a USB hub into the USB port and connect other devices as well.

This is a niche product, but if you are in this particular niche, you’ll find it quite useful. At a low price of Rs. 3,000, it makes sense to pick it up rather than buy a pair of monitors, keyboards and mice, and deal with the resulting confusion. Aten also has a DVI model, but that costs a little bit more.

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