When you buy a new PC, you know from day one that it is going to be obsolete in a increasingly short amount of time. With processor speeds going through the roof, video cards and hard drives increasing in performance amazingly over the past six months, the chances are that state-of-the-art machine that's been sitting at home for the past six months pales in comparison to what's available now. There are certain parts of the PC that don't change much from one year to the next ie. Mouse, keyboard, monitor etc. that you don't need to buy again with a new PC. The only question is what do you do with that base unit that cost £1000 less now than a year ago? Throw it away? Stick it in a corner as the most expensive bookend known to man? The quest for the perfect answer has finally been resolved in the form of the Cybex Switchview!

Whilst switches allowing you to use multiple PCs on one monitor, mouse and keyboard are nothing new, they always tended to be expensive affairs restricted to companies with server rooms or testing labs as space saving devices. Indeed, we've got a couple of different switches that we use because they make life so easy. What makes the Cybex entry so impressive is that it's just so easy to use and available at a fantastic price. It does seem to have been designed for more general uses in mind, although it would cope with the demands of a multiple server environment just as successfully..

The Switchview is available in two different models; a two and a four-port version. The one we had a look at was the four-port - it looks exactly as you would expect with a PS/2 connector for you to plug in a mouse, one for the keyboard and then a SVGA connector for the monitor. It then has a further four (or two) sets of mouse, keyboard and monitor connectors for the connection of up to four separate PCs. There is also a power connector on the back but, and this is where the Switchview really comes into its own, you don't need an external power source because the Switchview will get it's power from the PC itself. No need for an extra power socket, no need for extra wires draped everywhere. The only time you would need an external power source is if you want to daisy chain Switchviews together. That's right; you can connect Switchviews together so you can run more that four PCs from the one console. The versatility is absolutely fantastic.

Switching between the PCs is achieved by pressing the a button; you can only cycle one way which may be a little annoying, but because your only talking about cycling through four settings, it only takes literally a second to get from one side to the other. The Switchview comes with all the cables you need so it really is a case of just plugging it in and getting on with it.