PS2 or USB mouse for gaming

[no_shame]

I am building a puter for my brother in law. I bought him the Explorer Intellimouse and was wondering which is better all around for gaming and for reliability "PS2 or USB" mouse. I know you can tweak your ps2 sample rate and I have noticed reliability issues with USB. Any input would be helpful.

[Szech]

I like PS/2 personally, because it doesn't take up a USB port. And my understanding is that all the USB devices share the bandwidth.

[Dash]

I love my USB Razer Boomslang 1k because it doesnt take up a PS/2 port. And why not go USB if your only gonna use a few USB perhiperals, If you turn up the PS/2 sampling rate, it uses more CPU power. USB is 125hz, pretty light on the CPU too. Ps2 default is 40hz.

[This message has been edited by Dash (edited 08-17-2000).]

[OuTpaTienT]

And just what do you use that free ps/2 for Dash? Or is it wasted?

Cranking up the sampling rate on the ps/2 is no more taxing on a CPU than is just using the USB. In both cases, no human could ever tell the difference.

PS/2 really has no "default" rate. It's default rate is whatever the OS sets it to be. For example, with WindozeNT the ps/2 default rate is 80hz. But default rate is meaningless because you can set it to be whatever rate you want it to be up to 200hz.

Seems foolish to just let the port go to waste.

[Warthog]

I use USB because I can http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif. If you have a zillion USB peripherals, then don't.

I have none.

Warthog

[AuraEdge]

I read soemwhere that USB@125hz puts less CPU overhead than a PS/2 mouse@80hz..is that true?
I have a USB scanner and mouse, and im not playing FPS's while im scanning, so its all good for me.

I got a funny reason why I use USB over PS/2 tho....My friend once fried a motherboard by yanking out this PS/2 mouse by mistake...

[OuTpaTienT]

AE, I believe the strain put on a CPU from the USB is determined by the device and it's drivers.

I've seen a comparison of forcefeedback steering wheels and the load they put on the CPU. Although many of the wheels were USB they all put different loads on the CPU (with Logitech's wheel being the best by far).