IOGEAR 4-Port DVI KVMP Switch with Audio and 4-USB 2.0, DVI-D KVM Cables GCS1104 (Black)

by Iogear

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 13 x 8.5 x 4 inches ; 5.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002RCTNKW
• Item model number: GCS1104
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #29 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > External Components > KVM Switches
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2009

Product Description

Capacity: 4-port

IOGear's DVI KVMP Switch GCS1104 charts a revolutionary new direction in KVM switch functionality by providing an interface for today's digital monitors while integrating a 4-port USB KVM switch with USB 2.0 peripheral sharing capabilities. As a KVM switch, the unit allows the user to access four computers from a single USB keyboard, USB mouse, and monitor, and also share among the computers USB 2.0 peripherals such as external hard drives, printers and scanners. This Switch is backed up by IOGear's 3 Year Limited Warranty

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Should Never Have Waited So Long - Neither Should You, December 21, 2010

By 

Zzyzx Oh "Zzyzx Oh" (USA, East Coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: IOGEAR 4-Port DVI KVMP Switch with Audio and 4-USB 2.0, DVI-D KVM Cables GCS1104 (Black) (Personal Computers)

The box is much heavier than I expected. To my surprise, most of the
volume and weight is cables. The actual switch is not the typical plastic
you get on consumer-grade equipment, and is stackable with little
rubber feet that fit into insets on a second (or third or fourth) unit.

Fit and finish is superior, although the unit I opened had one spot on the
rear edge where it looked like the paint was chipped in handling but
that is only noticed upon close inspection under reflected light.

Pushing all the buttons and connectors and everything is solid. Really nice.

Power is supplied by a cube, That cube is 5.3V at 2.4 amps for 13 watts.
That's like running a CFL all day, so you might want to power this off.
The DC end is an elbow, so it can swivel in front of the USB jack, or not.

There are four very heavy cables, about two meters in length. The
ends differ only in the USB form-factor, with one the square USB and the
other flat (for connection to the computer). There is no "main cable", as you
are expected to supply your own speakers, mic, keyboard, mouse, and monitor feed.
The audio plugs are color-coded purple and green and have nice caps attached in case you don't
wish to use them. The audio lines are molded to the main video cable cover
on the outside and on opposite sides of the video cable. This is nicely done,
since you have only a single cable in the middle and the cables split away
from the video about ten inches from the end. That would give almost 20"
of distance from video to audio outputs on the source computer. The switch end
has a shorter end split, but you really need very little there. The back portion of the
manual suggests if you have a VGA computer you will only use the USB and audio
portions of the supplied cables and you'll use your own VGA cable with a DVI adapter.

There is an Installation Guide that is printed in one of those tiny fonts and covers
multiple products. No surprises on the install at all.

Front panel LED's indicate whether a KVM device is there or has focus,
and separately whether the USB link has focus on the USB sharing bus.
Usage instructions tell how to switch KVM and audio separately if you so choose.

There are some unexplained things about AutoScan (which I assume to be USB related)
and a pretty extensive list of HotKey interactions. It will also do Mac and Sun
emulations from a PC keyboard. Not qutie sure I can keep all that in my head.
There are pages and pages to read here, and it really makes it clear why there are
so many comments in the reviews because people didn't get this part.

The one negative is the firmware looks to require Windows for its upgrade utility.

I added my MacMini Server in a few seconds, and things went well. A couple of keystrokes and my PC-oriented keyboard was doing Mac emulation. Adding my Ubuntu Linux box took a bit longer as it didn't seem to want to push the NVIDIA ION graphics through the switch, but eventually this resolved itself. Maybe they had to get acquainted or something, but it's working fine now. I have two more systems to add, and by then the cables off the back will probably need duck tape to hold them on the desk. Did anyone mention the supplied cables are massive? And heavy? Oh, yeah, I did.

So, now I'm happily switching back and forth from my real computers to my Mac and the audio keeps playing on my one great set of speakers and the USB devices are all there. So, this is my favorite buy in 2010 by a mile. Maybe I'll get a second for my other desk.

Ten thumbs up (if you've seen me type, you know I'm ten thumbs.)

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works at 1920x1200 resolution, March 21, 2010

By 

S. Hansen (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: IOGEAR 2-Port DVI KVMP Switch with Cable GCS1102 (Black) (Personal Computers)

I need digital only, no analog. But, I need high resolution for a big monitor. Some older DVI-D KVM switches do not work at 1920x1200 resolution. This one does. It is reliable and robust.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Does what it claims, mostly. Some caveats for the emptor., February 15, 2010

By 

J Clear - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: IOGEAR 4-Port DVI KVMP Switch with Audio and 4-USB 2.0, DVI-D KVM Cables GCS1104 (Black) (Personal Computers)

I am generally satisfied with this KVM. I'd just like to point out some bumps in the road that aren't obvious.

The first thing I had trouble with was that the computers were not recognizing the buttons on my Trackball Explorer when it was attached to the USB Mouse port of the KVM. It would work in one of the USB peripheral sharing ports and if I converted it to PS/2 and attached it to the PS/2 to USB converter I use for the keyboard. A reasonably prompt response from IOGear support with instructions on how to disable the mouse emulation got me working in the mouse port (essentially making it one of the peripheral sharing ports). However this means that all the computers see the mouse as being disconnected and reconnected as I switch away and come back. Mostly this is no more of annoyance than extra console and log messages.

I was replacing an IOGEAR MiniView Extreme Multimedia KVMP Switch with Cables (GCS1734), which also has external power supply like this switch, but would run just fine off of USB power from any of the PCs if it's external power was switched off. So I was a bit surprised when I shut off the power supply that the new KVM shut down, too. Admittedly an assumption on my part, but something to watch out for if you're upgrading from similar equipment.

One ongoing complaint is that the KVM's firmware upgrade process is still dependent on having a Microsoft Windows PC, even though they make an unqualified claim of Mac, Sun, Unix and Linux support. And from what I can see from the documentation, there should be little technical reason for the restriction as the KVM appears to present itself as a USB mass storage device when in upgrade mode, which all modern OS can write to. Hardly something that needs a fancy GUI interface. However, I can verify that this KVM functions otherwise with Mac and FreeBSD, and hardware as old as an ABit AX5.

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