usb---pc-1 or pc-2???

256MB RAM, 800 MHZ and up, 20 gb HD. Description of a computer I might
buy.

The position has two USB slots.

Is there any way of telling if they're the old PC-1 slots? I recall some
older pcs have the PC-1 instead of PC-2 USB input.

rb wrote:
> 256MB RAM, 800 MHZ and up, 20 gb HD. Description of a computer I might
> buy.
>
> The position has two USB slots.
>
> Is there any way of telling if they're the old PC-1 slots? I recall some
> older pcs have the PC-1 instead of PC-2 USB input.
>

Since there are only two USB jacks, that suggests an early
USB implementation, meaning they are USB 1.1 rate. USB 1.1 is
suitable for a USB keyboard and USB mouse, for example. So
those USB ports can still be used. You could even plug a
flash memory stick in there, but the transfer rate would be
limited to about 1MB/sec or so.

If the computer is an HP/Dell/Gateway/Emachine, you might be
able to look up the hardware characteristics, based on the
machine model number.

If the computer is home built, the key information in that case
would be the motherboard make and model number. Then you can look
up what I/O capabilities it has.

And you can also plug in a PCI card, and add USB2 capability
to a machine with an add-in card. Some of the cards are about
$10 or so.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815104216

You also have to consider the OS that will be used with the
machine. While you can get a USB mass storage driver for Win98,
that doesn't mean that every USB function you can dream of
will work smoothly in Win98/Win98SE. An OS more modern than
that might help. Or one of the free Linux or Unix distributions
can release a lot of the capability in the hardware.

Paul

Thanks.

"rb" <rbig@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:ddPcj.51858$L%6.47207@bignews3.bellsouth.net. ..
> 256MB RAM, 800 MHZ and up, 20 gb HD. Description of a computer I might
> buy.
>
> The position has two USB slots.
>
> Is there any way of telling if they're the old PC-1 slots? I recall some
> older pcs have the PC-1 instead of PC-2 USB input.
>
>

An 800mhz machine is old enough that it's probably USB1
but if there is a free PCI slot, a USB2 card could becheaply & easily added.

If you are doing large data transfers to an external HD...
USB1 will be horribly slow...
but for other devices it may not be too bad

It has USB 1.1; the older standard.

--
--DaveW
"rb" <rbig@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:ddPcj.51858$L%6.47207@bignews3.bellsouth.net. ..
> 256MB RAM, 800 MHZ and up, 20 gb HD. Description of a computer I might
> buy.
>
> The position has two USB slots.
>
> Is there any way of telling if they're the old PC-1 slots? I recall some
> older pcs have the PC-1 instead of PC-2 USB input.
>