ATEN 8-Port 17.3" DVI Full HD LCD KVM Switch (USB)

Product Overview

AI-generated summary

For the money (£2,226.90 ex-VAT), you’re not buying “a KVM switch” so much as you’re buying a very specific bit of infrastructure: a rack-friendly, enterprise-style way to manage multiple DVI Full HD sources from one console. If you’ve got a specialist workflow—think control rooms, security/monitoring setups, or broadcast/edit environments—where you genuinely need eight separate computer feeds and you can standardise on DVI/KVM over one operator station, the ATEN makes a lot of sense. ATEN generally holds up well in real deployments (reliability, sane switching, and fewer “mystery” issues than cheaper gear), and the USB support is typically the difference between “it works” and “it works properly with connected devices.”

That said, I’d be cautious. If your environment is modernising toward HDMI/DisplayPort, or you’re already deep into USB peripherals and OS-level behaviour (multi-seat, peripherals that are picky about enumeration), this is expensive “legacy” territory. Also, if you don’t truly need eight ports, the cost per managed workstation gets hard to justify. In short: buy it only if you’re confident you need eight DVI Full HD inputs and a robust, dedicated KVM appliance for continuous use; otherwise, you’ll almost certainly find better value with something that matches your current display/connection standards.