AvocentCybex SC940 Secure KVM Switch - 4 Computer(s) - 1 Local User(s) - 3840 x 2160 - 2 x PS/2 Po

Was truly unimpressed with this KVM. It cannot handle 3840x1600, from any card I fed it through, which means this switch will emulate (not communicate) its display settings with the computers. Vertiv (the new parent company) never could come up with the solution for this, and requested I RMA (to which they called almost daily to determine if I'd returned the forms yet, 3 weeks). They were persistant, if not helpful. Off-shore company now (Malaysia, I think?) Don't know how much longer this firm will be on the shortlist of GSA suppliers for secure KVMs, but we'll see...

Let's start with the major talking point -- at the time of this review, this KVM switch is just under $1,500 which is some pretty serious cash to spend on any KVM switch. This leads one to think, "what's so great about it?" or "what am I getting with this that all the other, much cheaper switches aren't going to give me." I will attempt to answer...1) First and foremost, the main feature of this switch is that it is "secure". This is something that certain businesses will likely be interested in, but at the consumer level, I find it highly improbable that anyone is going to shell out a lot of extra money for the security features that are built in, which include things listed in the description (dedicated peripheral port (dpp) that supports cac and additional types of Authentication devices, such as facial recognition and fingerprint readers and which can be configured such that USB peripherials are blocked while still allowing smart authentication devices, etc.) as well as intrusion detection switches (if you try and open the box or tamper with it in other, similar ways, you'll trip a switch that will disable the device). NOTE: While I'm absolutely certain that this does increase the cost of production, I have a hard time it increases it as much as the price tag would suggest. Again, this says to me that it is a business class device because businesses will spend a lot more money on things like this than consumers every will.2) 4 port, dual monitor, HDMI switching. While it is true that you can find other 4 port, HDMI KVMs and you can find other 4 port, dual monitor (not HDMI) KVMs, there really are not a lot of other options for 4 (or more) ports AND dual monitor AND HDMI. There's a good reason for this: most video cards do not have 2 HDMI outputs (more on this later) so that makes this sort of a niche product and I think they are exploiting that just a bit here. Anyway, HDMI switches tend to cost a bit more than DVI or VGA and dual monitor switches are always more (sometimes significantly) than their single monitor counterparts. Speaking of, there is a single monitor version (still HDMI and 4 ports) of this same product and, although it is still expensive, it is much less.* If neither of these features are solid requirement for you, then you are going to want to pass on this switch and get something cheaper. *3) You also get "lock" indicator lights (caps lock, num lock, scroll lock) in the top right corner that visually indicate the state of the keyboard (more on this later, too).4) Nice, big, easy to see and operate manual switch buttons. I don't know if there is a way to switch inputs with a hotkey on your keyboard--nothing in the instructions mentioned it, but personally, I'm not a big fan of those, so I'm fine with hotkey-absence.5) PS/2 inputs as an option (gets converted to USB when being sent to the computer). PS/2 is becoming harder to find and if you have an old keyboard that you like that uses PS/2, it's a nice feature.6) Bling. That's right, you get some fanciness in the form of a blue light strip across the top that looks pretty snazzy. ...although, I have to point out that this is the sort of feature that is much more targeted to personal devices and not business class devices, so it's odd that it's on something that is obviously geared toward businesses.REASONABLE IMPROVEMENTS:At this price point, I would expect it to do everything I could dream. It doesn't. I dreamed up a few things that I think it could improve on, most of which seem pretty reasonable to me1) Use the latest specs. This supports HDMI 1.4, not 2.0. While 1.4 is going to be good enough for almost everyone, would it REALLY cost that much more to go ahead and support 2.0? I mean, if I'm going to spend nearly $1,500 on a peripheral, I'm going to want it to be relevant for as long as possible. In 5-10 years, I predict that HDMI 1.4 will not be around except in legacy devices. I don't want my expensive KVM to be one of those "Legacy" devices--I want it to still be current. The same can be said for USB 2.0 instead of 3.0, 3.1, or USB-C. The uplinks to the computers are all the old-and-on-its-way-out 2.0.2) Accept DisplayPort (DP) inputs. BONUS: offer DP outputs. From what I understand, converting back and forth between HDMI and DP is pretty simple and going from DP to HDMI is especially trivial. As noted above, most video cards do not have 2 HDMI outputs, although it is quite common to have 1 HDMI and 1 DP. That means in order for me to use this switch with one of these more common cards, I have to convert the DP output to HDMI before plugging it into the KVM. It would be really nice if I could just plug the DP into the switch directly and have it convert the signal to HDMI on its way out. That would mean that for each computer input slot, we would need 4 monitor input ports, but only a maximum of 2 could be used at any one time. That's fine, this is big enough that it should have plenty of room for that if they just make a few minor adjustments to port locations. For the bonus, on the output side, we could also choose to connect to a pair of HDMI monitors, a pair of DP monitors or one of each. I think it would make it so much more compatible.--> 2.5) Also offering DVI would be totally awesome, but now I think my "dreams" are becoming a bit less reasonable...3) There are NO cables provided except for the power cord. While not necessary, at this price point, I think it would have been a nice gesture to include at least 1 set of HDMI, USB and audio cables.QUIRKS (why it lost a star):* I tend to use a Logitech mouse with a unifying receiver. It appears that I cannot use it with this KVM. Whenever I tried, BOTH the keyboard and the mouse were totally dead--I had to unplug from the KVM and go directly to the computer in order to interact with the computer at all. When using a PS/2 mouse or a wired usb mouse, there was no such problem* My keyboards' "lock" indicators were wonky. I tried this on a PS/2 keyboard and a (wired) USB keyboard. In both cases, the caps lock light would never light up on the keyboard itself. It DID correctly toggle on the KVM switch and the behavior was correct according to what was on the switch (when it was on, it typed in caps), but I got nothing on the led built into the keyboard. My num lock light DID light up on the keyboard, but was backward from what was indicated on the KVM (the KVM was correct, the keyboard was wrong). The scroll lock light on the keyboard lit up and agreed with what was on the KVM, but I wasn't really sure how to test it to see if it was correct or not...OTHER OBSERVATIONS:* Uses 2 watts of power at idle* Runs cool and silent (which is worth mentioning since it is a business class device--it seems like business class devices tend to include fans that run way too loud)* Is fairly large at about 13.5" x 5.25" x 2.25" and hefty at over 3 lbs.* I was able to plug in both a PS/2 keyboard and a USB keyboard at the same time and both correctly registered and were functional. I even tried typing with my left hand on one keyboard and my right hand on the other and it worked... mostly--I did get some weird double letters here and there, but I can't imagine why anyone would want to do this, so who cares (just as likely an issue on the computer itself). When I used just one or the other at a time (although both were plugged in) it worked fine and that's all anyone should care about.

This Emerson switch is built to de-clutter your desk. The concept of a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) is to allow you to take four computers and plug them into one box, so that all you need is one monitor, one mouse, and one keyboard to use all four systems.This particular model also has support for Common Access Card (CAC) technologies. You would buy this CAC-enhanced switch if you need to be able to support biometric authentication, such as a fingerprint reader or retinal scanner.In the box you get: the switch, a power cable, labels, and an instruction sheet. Emerson offers PDF downloads of manuals on their website, if you need more thorough explanations of the technology.This switch has a security feature that past generations of KVMs did not have. In past years, you could bypass a workstation lock and access any other computer connected to the switch simply by pressing one of the buttons on the front panel of the switch. This newer technology locks out the switch buttons once the workstation attached to the switch (active computer) is locked. For example: If you are working on computer 4, lock your workstation, and walk away, no one can access your other computers simply by pressing the 1, 2, or 3 button.This particular model is tailored for highly secure environments. NIAP compliance means that this device has been assessed for use in US National Security Systems. If you are a contract worker and your secure environment contract ends, you can bypass the CAC function by simply switching it off.