Upgrading to USB

[seano]

I'd like to upgrade to USB, but am wondering if it is worthwhile. I have an older (2 years) system, 133MMX Pentium Packard Bell. What is involved in upgrading? What is the approximate cost? Will this upgrade affect my peripherals?
Sincere thanks,
Seano.

[CMonster]

Upgrade to USB - hmmm? Very loaded questions.

If your motherboard has a USB port then it depends on what additional devices you would like to hang on your computer. You will not see a speed or performance increase in the rest of your system, and those devices which might give slightly higher performance on the USB will be somewhat held in check by your older, slower, motherboard chipset and CPU.

If your motherbopard does not have a USB port it would be better to buy a new motherboard than to buy one of those PCI USB cards.

The way I see it, USB is good if you have so many devices attached to your computer that you are running out of IRQs, or you are constantly removing and adding devices.

AS for cost, it can vary greatly depending on what hardware you have now, and what operating system - you might have to upgrade your operating system as well. And then there is the hardware itself - what will you get? ..a USB printer, scanner, keyboard (why), CDROM/CDR, modem, network, etc?

'How much do you want to spend today?'

As for hardware expense: if everything is up to date then an adapter from the board to the back of your case costs about $10 + the cable(s)...from there it is really up to you.

You might do better to wait a while and get a new machine when USB devices are more common and less costly.

[kwai]

some usb (semi-)myths:

1) you can hot swap devices (ie plug and play while the system is still on)
nope, still gotta power down for some

2) you can supply power to all your devices thru the usb connection.
yeah right.

3) you can use osr2.1
so far every device i've seen requires win98.