Usb 2? - What teh teh?

[WhipThisFez]

I'm looking for external hard drive and whenever I look up those with USB connections, they are all listed as USB 2.

Is USB 2 any different than regular USB?

[Hummercash]

yah there is a difference between usb and usb2.
usb2 is very similar to firewire tho...


USB 2.0

1.5 Mbit/s 12Mbit/s 480Mbit/s supported.
USB controller is required to control the bus and data transfer.
Cable up to 5 m.
Up to 127 devices supported.
Power supply to external devices is 500 mA/5V (max).
Full compatibility with USB 1.1 devices.


FireWire (IEEE1394)

100 Mbit/s 200Mbit/s 400Mbit/s supported.
Works without control, devices communicate peer-to-peer.
Cable up to 4.5 m.
Up to 63 devices supported.
Power supply to external devices is 1.25A/12V (max.).
The only computer bus used in digital video cameras.

Read more about them here.

i use both firewire and usb2 devices... both are very fast, but the cool thing about usb2 is that you will be able to plug in all your old usb1 shit into the same ports.

either way you will need to buy a pci card for them to work, so i suggest you get a combo card that has both firewire and usb2... Adaptec makes one.

and if you run out of usb1 ports, u can always plug them into the adaptec card

[WhipThisFez]

How do I find out if I have a USB 1 or 2?

[AdolescentMasturbator]

You most likely don't have USB 2. Only the most recent motherboards have it onboard. Whatever you do, do not get a usb 1.1 hard drive. It will be painfully slow. Definitely go USB 2 or Firewire.

There is also a third option. You can buy a usb2/firewire enclosure and stick a normal ide drive in there and make it an external.

Link 1
Link 2

The first one only supports 3.5 drives so you might want to get the second one even though it inly supports usb 2.



Edited By AdolescentMasturbator on April 20 2002 at 4:50

[WhipThisFez]

. Only the most recent motherboards have it onboard

How recent?

[AdolescentMasturbator]

I'm not sure. It's probably only a few months. I'm looking for an Pentium 4 Motherboard and most don't have it. I do know early May the new ones will most likely.