Cable Matters 4 Port USB 3.0 Switch USB Sharing Switch for 4 Computers and USBA Peripherals - Button or Wireless Remote Control Switching - Includes a USBC Adapter for USBC USB4 and Thunderbolt 4

I have four computers at my desk, two laptops, and two desktops, and two main displays (in addition to lap top displays). I wanted to able to switch between all four computers, and fully utilize both main displays with each computer, without paying 100s of dollars for a more modern KVM switch with full HDMI pass-through for TWO displays.If you are not aware, Displays can be used through USB 3.0. A USB 3.0 path straight to a USB to HDMI converter, will allow that PC to utilize the display. Furthermore, "DisplayLink" based USB to HDMI converters exist, and allow the conversion of one USB3.0 path to two displays. This was amazing when it first came out, and is still amazing to me today. You can run a display over USB 3.0. There are other chipsets (e.g. Magic Control Technology Corporation) but as far as I can tell only DisplayLink chipsets would work with all types of operating systems.So, why do you care. With a USB hub sitting in this little dongle, you can connect your keyboard, and pass through to your DisplayLink USB to HDMI dongle. Actually, you can connect any USB device to this little switch (I connect a full USB hub) and any device on the other side (hard drives, anything). With this bit of information, you can almost do a full KVM replacement.There are some obvious caveats here. I doubt you would get full display performance through a USB 3.0 connection to your machine. But for work purposes (documentation, writing code, browsing) this is more than sufficient. And for the kind of gaming I am interested in, not really a problem.In the picture attached you can see one USB cable coming out the front left going into the SIIG Hub (which supports two displays via a DisplayLink chipset. You can buy cheaper DisplayLink devices to avoid the expense of a hub). The other USB cable coming out goes to my hub, which has a wireless keyboard and mouse dongle, and any drives (I have a DVD drive) I want to control. Press the button 1-4 and seamlessly switch between computers. Out the back 4 micro usb connectors do a USB 3.0 connection to each of the computers (the port on the far-back right is the USB-C power supply for the switch).Setting up DisplayLink on a Linux machine is non-trivial, and with Ubuntu 18.04 I couldn't get it to work. With Ubuntu 20.04 the normal install programs worked ok, though I used a "debian" install script which configured things properly. DisplayLink absolutely works with Mac and Windows and is trivial to install, so I have two windows PCs, a Mac, and Linux machine, all going through this switch. With the remote or hitting a button, I switch between machines. Awesome.So what's missing. Well, there's no audio pass-through with this type of setup, something you might get with a KVM switch; you would have to work with audio over USB, which seems to be about $12. Display outputs may be limited, as well as display refresh rates. It is relatively easy to get most of the machines working with DisplayLink, but getting Ubuntu to work was very difficult.Overall, really happy with this, and was able to dump my old 1 display SIIG KVM switch.

I love this thing.It comes with everything you need to get hooked up and started. You get all the appropriate cables, including a USB A to USB C dongle, nice! It comes with a very basic remote which honestly is great. It lets you switch between outputs (1 through 4).I use this for a Windows laptop, a Windows PC, and a MacBook Pro. I can easily switch my mouse, keyboard, headphones, and microphone to either one of those with a tap of the button on the remote. It all works flawlessly. I do split screen on a Samsung 49” widescreen monitor with two of my devices and whenever I want to change from my MacBook to my Windows laptop, all I do is press a button. It’s so convenient.As you might imagine, cable management is a concern. If you’re good at cable management, it won’t be an issue for you to tuck the excess cables away neatly.For those with a SecretLab Magnus Pro table, you can hide those cables in the cable tray in the back and keep your USB switch in there too. The remote can still pick up the signal even though it may seem like there are too many obstacles.I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone. It’s made productivity so much more efficient for me when I’m in the work zone.

I had high hopes, but like other reviews have reported, this device repeatedly disconnects/reconnects USB 3.0 devices such as the Brio webcam when the host device is a Windows system.After I wrote my original review, the Cable Matters Support Team reached out and proactively sent me a standalone USB-C power cable + 5W AC adapter, and a special USB 2.0 extension cable to help resolve my issue. I really appreciate that level of support!With the USB 2.0 extension cable in place, I no longer suffer from the repeated connect/disconnect of the Brio webcam, but since it is forced to USB 2.0 it is not able to use USB 3.0 transfer speeds which limits its ability to use 4K video streams. Fortunately, I don't require those today so this device is working out, even if it isn't at its full potential.Overall: I love this class of device; I like having the buttons to switch directly to a device and having support for 4 upstream devices is great (I have 3 upstream devices that I switch between daily). The downstream port placement is "OK". I'd like to have some of those facing out the back of the device so that desktop cable management is a bit nicer (you can see some wires needing to do a u-turn in the photo).I would happily pay a bit more for a version of this device that fixed the underlying issue with the Brio and that had 10 total downstream ports; some on the back (alongside the upstream ports) and some facing the front, as that would help cut down on desk clutter; I have a second hub plugged into this one and it would be nice to consolidate and simplify my desk area.

I wanted to switch a single keyboard and mouse between multiple computers, all of which already have their own monitors. This works great, as I no longer have to have multiple keyboards on my desk. There can be a delay of a second or so when switching, but not so much that it is problematic.The thing to emphasize here is the customer service. One of the cables had a defect and would not fully plug in. I sent a quick email describing the situation, and had a replacement cable in my mailbox a few days later. Adding Cable Matters to my list of preferred manufacturers.