Iogear Peripheral Sharing Switch Gus402 Review

I selected the IOGear GUS402 because I have two desktops with their own monitors, but wanted to share a keyboard and mouse between them. There are other cheaper usb sharing switches out there, but the alternatives had the button to change between desktops on the switch housing itself. Since my needs would require at least 4 cords coming in and out of the switch, keeping this button in reach would have brought with it more keyboard clutter on my desktop. This IOGear model has the button attached to a remote cord, which allows me to stash the usb sharing switch out of the way and just keep the remote button in reach. Ive been really happy with this switch so far. There are 3 cords coming out of the back of the unit a usb cord for desktop 1, a usb cord for desktop 2, and the cord attached to the remote button to switch between the desktops. The front of the unit has 4 usb ports and an optional micro usb input to us as an additional power input. The documentation does not explain the circumstances in which the power input would be necessary, but one can suppose that it would be to help power a energy hungry device I can confirm that it is not necessary with a keyboard, mouse, and Wacom tablet attached. Responsiveness is good on Windows 8, after clicking the button to switch desktops I get mouse and keyboard responsiveness in less than 1 second, which is plenty fast enough for me. The mouse is a wireless Logitech Zone Touch Mouse T400, with just the usb radio transmitter plugged in to the switch, and it works fine. I switch between desktops pretty frequently throughout the day, the responsiveness has been consistent. http://garyadair.com/923783