Multiple monitors,keyboards and mouse on One Computer? How?

[kojakfull]

Hi, I wanted to run a small network on my office. But I want to use only one high end CPU and it should be able to use by 5 other monitors,keyboards and mouse. Each have it's own OS installed. How can I do this?
I heard that buying KVM switch will do the job but i dont know which software to use on this and how to set it up.

Also, what CPU specs I need in able to run 5 other units?

Hope you can give me tips on this.

Regards

 

[PhilFrisbie]

You cannot do it. Just purchase five normal desktop PCs and call it good.

 

[kojakfull]

Seriously? I saw someone doing what i wanted already. So im sure there's a way to do that.

Need expert input here.

Thanks a lot..

 

[choucove]

Running five concurrent yet all independent sessions on a single desktop computer is something that takes a bit of work to do, and unfortunately there's almost no way that it's cheaper than just going with five separate computers. This is because 1) your single physical machine still has to be powerful enough to handle the demand from all five of those concurrent sessions instead of just one session each, and 2) the additional licensing and possibly specialized hardware necessary to accomplish this can be quite pricey.

What kind of tasks do you need to do on these computers? Basic web browsing and word processing? You can look into a Multipoint server for a basic configuration, but from my limited experience working with it it's rather limited in its flexibility and functionality. You can also look into setting up virtual machines that all run in either VMWare Workstation or VirtualBox, and do remote desktop connections to the virtual machine you want to run, but this is going to again be pretty complex and require a decent amount of performance capabilities depending upon what type of work you are needing to do on your computer.

And this is not going to be a very "pretty" way of doing it, it's going to be kinda complex for someone who has not worked with virtualization or setting up this type of configuration. Your best bet for functionality and budget may be just all individual workstations. Not to mention the higher risk of downtime at your business you will experience if you run ALL your sessions from a single computer. If that computer goes down, everyone is done, no work can be done till that one computer is back up and going.

 

[kojakfull]

Best answer selected by kojakfull.

 

[PhilFrisbie]

While what choucove brought up is interesting, it is not a solution for a business. By the time you purchase hardware suitable for real business use, and not children playing simple games and browsing the Internet, and you purchase the Windows licenses at FULL price (no educational discount for you!), you will not save much money and you now have a SINGLE point of failure.

Multipoint Server is really about keeping schools from dumping Windows for a cheaper, more secure, and easier to maintain Linux which runs great on older hardware. I stand by my original answer; thanks for reading this far!

 

[choucove]

I think Phil and I are on the same page. What I meant to state in my explanation was that Multipoint Server by Microsoft CAN do physically what Kojakfull was requesting. However, it's intended for a very select market with very select functionality, and that doesn't always translate to the best configuration for a business environment and doesn't always work out to the best cost either.

 

[PhilFrisbie]

Yes, we are in agreement!

 

[thiyagu kirubanandan]

laro

 

[JuliasJam]

There is a software called TeamPlayer that I have used which does exactly what you describe. I have a high end CPU and wanted my kids to do their online homework while I was looking at my recipes and making dinner. I'm a former IT professional doing the stay-at-home mom thing...can't keep me away from gadgets and software, though!

I have multiple monitors (HD tvs, really) set up in my kitchen and just extended my desktop to their screens. Activate TeamPlayer and, voila!, you have more than one mouse, each independently controlled. It's quite cool. The pointers are each a different color, to differentiate between them, and the main pointer has a little dot right by it. In the trial version, which is free for a few months, you can have up to 3 (as I recall). They can all operate on the same screen or on different screens on the extended desktop.

It worked perfectly and when my trial expired, I had planned to buy it. Unfortunately, the price point for us was too high, around $600. This was about a year ago, so maybe the price has dropped. For that amount of money, though, I just bought a few android tablets and called it done. Too bad, I really liked the other solution.

 

[tytylegion]

Ur going to need a PC most likely custom build with a at least 2 graphics cards And a crap ton of ram 16 to 32 GB or more running VMware or some other virtual machine Software Its best to jest set up it like this but no basic user can do this by him/her self I'll be glade to help in any way
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