Virtual machines are software emulations of physical computers.
Virtual machines are software emulations of physical computers.
I assumed you were referring to eight distinct machines that needed to join your virtual environment at launch. Each one—preferably lightweight and not ideal when used alone—would normally have its own display, input devices, and peripherals. By leveraging a high-performance system and network, they could operate smoothly, quickly, and accurately, handling tasks through remote desktoping to the right VM without straining your primary machine.
Building on Omniomi's comments, I’d consider a Raspberry Pi and rdesktop for a thin client if the goal is just experimentation rather than a full professional deployment. These thin clients can be costly despite their simplicity. If you prefer connecting everything to a central host, there might be alternative methods—such as using a USB hub and video card for each VM. Each setup would allow the mouse, keyboard, and monitor to remain exclusive to that VM. This approach wouldn’t work with a Windows host since PCI-passthrough isn’t supported there.