USB 2 & Motherboards

[Craig E]

Even in the best of Hard Drive reviews on the Web, when the USB ports are stated, it is never mentioned if they are USB 1 or USB 2. I am looking at new Pent 4, AMD XP, and NVidia motherboards but am hard pressed to find which USB standard is being used.

I don't want to use a PCI slot for a USB or firewire board not to mention the extra $80-$100. But I would like to connect new printers, scanners, and external hard drives up to the new computer when they come out in USB 2 form.

Any ideas out there on who is making USB2 motherboards?

[Andy]

to my understanding, if they don't say which version it has, i take it as it has version 1

[zeradul]

I concur.

Don't make your mobo descision on whether or not it has USB 2.0 or not... because not many do have it.... and believe it or not you won't need it as soon as you think.,.. And at the point that you do, you will be able to snag a USB 2.0 PCI card for 20$ And it will probably have firewire ports on the card as well. I personally think it will be quite a while until you'll need USB 2.0 in a desktop ...

Printers will never use USB 2.0... There just isn't that much being sent to a printer that fast.... and as far as Hard drives, and Burners, both of which are avaliable in faster and cheaper internal models... so why on earth would you want an external HD?

If you really want a HD to be mobile, get one, and then a 20$ removable drive bay.

[Craig E]

Yes Z,

Your are right but it sure would be nice to unplug an external HD clone of my main HD from my "USB 2" connection and take it on the road to a friend and there--- plug it into his USB 2 connection so we could exchange files, pictures, etc. or even have him boot to my drive and then make maintenance changes before returning home. Of course the right drivers would have to be loaded when away from my comnputer for it to boot "in" some else's box. But it sure beats lugging a computer around, even if it is a laptop. Better to just take the plug n play drive.

Craig E

[Albinus]

If I say "USB" it refers to USB 1.1, if I say "USB 2" it means USB 2.0 :)