Re: How much would this cost?
 

Heyyo,

is firewire even faster than USB2? I dunno, but anywho, don't you guys remember floppies? they made a 2mb floppy disk, but no one bothered to change from their 1.44mb floppies, and 2mb floopies vansihed of the face of the earth. I'm not saying firewire will vanish, but yeah, It's not that widely used. I only know like, 3 PC's that have firewire, and that's only cause of their digicams. I know IMacs seem to have firewire and USB (dunno if it's 2 or 1) as a standard..

Re: How much would this cost?
 

vid cams use firewire.. since usb is too slow.. usb2.. I dont think its out..

Re: How much would this cost?
 

Quoted from "21st - Why FireWire is Hot! Hot! Hot!":
FireWire provides a high-speed serial bus with data transfer rates of 100, 200, or 400Mbps.


Quoted from "USB 2.0, Hi-Speed USB FAQ":

USB 1.1 allowed a maximum transfer rate of 12Mbits/second.

USB 2.0 has a raw data rate at 480Mbps, and it is rated 40 times faster than its predecessor interface, USB 1.1, which tops at 12Mbps. Originally, USB 2.0 was intended to go only as fast as 240Mbps, but then, USB 2.0 Promoter Group increased the speed to 480Mbps in October 1999.

That's why I don't understand this:
???:( I mean, USB 2.0 is a wide-spread standard already, I have 6 USB 2.0 ports on my MoBo, and the text snippet above says it was cranked up to 480 Mbps as early as 1999 - that's almost ancient history measured in computer lifetime terms.... what do you mean? And on a side note, it's still faster than the more "modern" FireWire if these numbers are correct.
[Note that I don't intend to advertise pro-USB here; I don't have any FW experience and it might very well be that FW is better and more reliable - just interpreting some numbers here...]

Oh, and here's something more that might be interesting:

As an aside, USB mice and keyboards need only 1.5Mbits/s to function.

Now I guess that a lot will depend on the costs of manufacturing and implementing USB or FireWire chips... nobody will make FireWire keyboards if a USB 1.1 chip (which would already offer 8 times the bandwidth that's needed for running a keyboard) comes cheaper than a FireWire chip... Only in the high-bandwidth range (external drives or storage devices, photo or video cameras) there's the choice to make between USB 2.0 @ 480 Mbps or FireWire @ 400 Mbps...

Re: How much would this cost?
 

USB 2.0 is one thing byt USB2 is a whole new project.

Re: How much would this cost?
 

Heyyo,

USB2 isin't a complete project? you mean, it's supposed to get even faster? cool, plus USB2 ports are backwards compatible to USB1.. so if they do make something like a USB3 port, I bet I'd be the same deal. For me, I think that wireless technology is still in development, cause I think the fastest wireless router is only 48mbits is it? well, something low like that...

But what I was wondering for usb keyboards, is if it supports more buttons to be held down at 1 time. I think the max for PS/2 keyboards is 3-6 is it? I dunno... but if anyone has a USB keyboard, plz tell me how many buttons you can hold down at once.. If it's more than a PS/2 keyboard, it's already better by half the usefullness of a PS/2 keyboard. (if you ask my why? sometimes me buds are too lazy to bring over comps, so we just cram all together on 1 keyboard n' mouse, n' a gamepad playing serious sam 1 & 2 it's annoying when your buds purposely hold down keys to make you fall into pits. Makes you wanna hold down a lot of keys when keelers are running at them. :P )

I don't think there's too much advantage to Mice though, unless the new laser technology requires more bandwith than what PS/2 provides. I know optical mice seem to do good on PS/2 (but not my crappy mouse.. don't buy that turbo gamer (aka. mitsuko) keyboard n' mouse combo... I warned you. ;) ).

Re: How much would this cost?
 

@ Adrian: Ah, ok. Hey, I didn't even know they were developing a new USB port... I don't really see the need, either. It's no use to change standard ports every 2 years, especially when the current oneas aren't even maxed out. Just like with PCI ans AGP, in the long run there might be some cheap & easy low-speed ports on future MoBos (for printers, scanners, webcams, mice tec.), and maybe one or two high-speed ports for vidcams and external drives...
@ MarD: Hm... my kb & mouse (both Logitech) are USB by default, but they already came with a PS/2 adapter attached to the USB plug, and I left it like that. (try to adjust your BIOS settings with a USB keyboard, ha ha) If you can plug USB into PS/2 that easily, I can't imagine that there is a different limit concerning how many keys you can push at the same time, but I have really no idea, sorry.

Re: How much would this cost?
 

No problem.

I work at a computer shop :D

Anyways umm they were making USB2 for transfering information from one hd to another. also for macs for video transfer.

The external HD is sticking with Firewire. Personally i like USB better than firewire (cause i only have 2 firewire ports rofl) i have 8 usb..lol

Re: How much would this cost?
 

Okay i finally think i know what i want. I'm getting an HP a600n for 550$. I want a custom pc but it's my parents buying the computer so they don't really trust me. But here's the problem now the vid card. As you guys know i'm low on cash (or i mean parents). Here's my choices

1st choice: ATI radeon 9600 pro for 139$
2-asylum 256mb 5200 Geforce 129$
3-geforce 5500 overclocked 99$

i have a very low knowledge of video card so plz help! I just want a comp. ready for hl2 sooooo bad! My budget for the vid card is nothing over 140$ so plz ne suggestions

Re: How much would this cost?
 

Heyyo,

I highly suggest the 9600 Pro. That Nvidia Geforce 5200 is PURE CRAP. The ATI 9000 Pro could kick the 5200's arse easily... that's a sign dude... and trying to make that 5200 a 256mb video card? lmao, that's hallarious... it still makes the card crappy, and you'll barely see an increase in frames, if any... On the benchmark the 5500 isin't shown, so just look at the 5600 for a guess... I used to own a 5600, but I sold it off cause the card sucked, n' I bought a 9600 Pro.

Also, the source engine (the game engine HL2 is built on) is optimized for ATI cards, making the gap between those 2 nividia cards, and that ATI 9600 Pro, even bigger.

want proof? check this benchmark out, it shows many different cards benchmarked on many different games the 1st game is ut2003:

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...ournament_2003

Re: How much would this cost?
 

thank you for that link, that was a lot of help. And for the Hp i'm getting here's the cpu specs:

Processor Manufacturer: AMD
Processor Class: Athlon XP
Processor Speed: 2.08 GHz

that's a good couple right? a600n and 9600 pro?