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Thrax · Nov 30, 2003, 05:54 PM

Yes, I know, USB 2.0 is an evil, inferior, Intel technology and we should use nothing but FireWire for our high-speed, external devices, but unless you can convince peripheral manufacturers to make low-cost, high-speed FireWire scanners, I need a USB 2.0 card.

Browsing Amazon.com, I discovered that prices ranged from $13 to $65. Additional ports and and included software aside - the latter I do not care about, why would I pay $65 for a five-port USB 2.0 PCI card I can get a competing five-port USB 2.0 PCI card for $18?

Are cheap USB 2.0 cards like cheap RAM: buyer beware as it may turn out to be unreliable? If reliability is not an issue with the inexpensive cards, then why are people buying the expensive ones?

Thrax · Dec 2, 2003, 04:57 AM

So no one knows?

CIA · Dec 2, 2003, 07:54 AM

USB 2 is USB 2.....

cryon · Dec 2, 2003, 10:18 AM

They probably use more expensive components on the more expensive card (yes i'm clever

). I'd go with the cheaper one, don't think they would differ that much.

mbryda · Dec 2, 2003, 12:07 PM

Originally posted by Thrax:
but unless you can convince peripheral manufacturers to make low-cost, high-speed FireWire scanners, I need a USB 2.0 card.

Why bother? USB2 is backwards compatable with USB 1.1 and unless it says USB 2.0 High Speed (IIRC), it's going to be at USB 1.1 speeds anyway...

Landos Mustache · Dec 2, 2003, 12:16 PM

Do they BOTh support USB 2.0 FULL speed or just High speed?

SSharon · Dec 2, 2003, 02:44 PM

just to add in here a quick search at newegg.com for usb pci cards got some cheap results and many of them don't list mac support but if you look at their pictures it says mac os x support on the box. I would have bought one already but I don't want to pay $5 shipping on a $12 product if I can find it elsewhere. Also the ones I looked at (5 port) all said something like, "Provides five USB Root ports that support with high-speed 480Mbps,full-speed 12Mbps and low-speed 1.5Mbps."

Thrax · Dec 2, 2003, 04:58 PM

Originally posted by Landos Mustache:
Do they BOTh support USB 2.0 FULL speed or just High speed?

The manufacturer's Web site says Hi-Speed.

This is something I've never heard of before. What's the difference between USB 2.0 Full Speed and USB 2.0 Hi-Speed?

Seqiro · 08:41 PM

Originally posted by Thrax:
The manufacturer's Web site says Hi-Speed.

This is something I've never heard of before. What's the difference between USB 2.0 Full Speed and USB 2.0 Hi-Speed?

A loophole marketers exploited. Basically, it's technically acceptable to market your standard USB product as USB 2.0, because the USB 2.0 specification covers High-Speed USB (480Mbps), Full-Speed USB (12Mbps) and Low-Speed USB (1.5MBps).

According to USB.org, the correct terminology is supposed to be just Hi-Speed USB for the newer high speed devices and USB for the legacy devices. It wasn't really intended for USB 2.0 to become synonymous with Hi-Speed, but it did. So now the less-than-scrupulous marketers (redundant?) have a sneaky way of selling their legacy devices.

Seqiro · Dec 2, 2003, 08:29 PM

Originally posted by mbryda:
Why bother? USB2 is backwards compatable with USB 1.1 and unless it says USB 2.0 High Speed (IIRC), it's going to be at USB 1.1 speeds anyway...

Yeah but even the cheapest Canon scanner has Hi-Speed USB 2.0 support.

http://www.usa.canon.com/html/conCpr...;section=10218

Thrax · Dec 2, 2003, 08:52 PM

Seqiro, so what you're saying is that the $18 USB 2.0 PCI card that I mentioned in my previous posts will indeed support 480 Mbps?

I wouldn't call slower USB devices legacy. What's the point of making a 480 Mbps mouse? Still, it is misleading and I hope that the FTC cracks down on companies that market slow USB devices as USB 2.0.

CIA · Dec 2, 2003, 09:04 PM

What's the point of making a 480 Mbps mouse?

For speed's sake, nothing, but if it stops everything else on your bus from slowing down to usb 1.1 speeds, then I see the point. (Another example of USB's weaknesses...)

Thrax · Dec 2, 2003, 09:16 PM

The same thing is true about FireWire and SCSI. Just isn't as much of an issue with them because a drop from 800 Mbps to 100 Mbps isn't as painful as a drop from 480 Mbps to 1.5 Mbps.

In other words, keep your USB 2.0 devices on a different bus than your USB 1.1 devices.

Seqiro · Dec 2, 2003, 09:17 PM

Originally posted by Thrax:
I wouldn't call slower USB devices legacy. What's the point of making a 480 Mbps mouse?

Sorry, I'm still thinking in PC terms. My very first Mac should be on its way in a few days, and waiting for it is torture.

But on a PC, one of the things I would enable in the BIOS is "Legacy USB support", which is referring to the mouse and keyboard so that they work prior to Windows loading. No need to remind me why I'm switching to a Mac.

Basically though, as long as what you are buying says "Hi-Speed USB 2.0" on it somewhere, you should be all set.

ngrundy · Dec 2, 2003, 10:03 PM

the 'mac support' thing is a load of bollocks i swear. I've seen mac users buy realtek chipset based network cards for 80 dollars (AUD) just because the have the '- Macintosh Supported' on them. While the EXACT SAME CARD is 15 AUD missing that bit of writing.