USB 2 device

slojo

I recently bought a USB 2 device (card reader) but my computer only has USB 1 ports. I understand that USB 2 is faster than USB 1.

Is there anything I can do to take advantage of the additional USB 2 speed? I see USB 2 hubs for sale in ebuyer and elsewhere - would these help? If the hub would itself be plugged in to a USB 1 port then logically the speed would only be USB 1 rather than USB 2?

Techno-newbie so keep it simple please!!

shrek101

Hi you can get pci usb 2 device (easy to plug into computer, 10 mins work at most) which will do the trick. Not sure of the exact costs but cant see there being much more than a tenner.

Try Ebuyer.co.uk

Patr100

If you are not shifting large amounts of data eg from an external disk - there's probably little to be gained time wise from a card reader whose capacity is likely to be only measured in MBs rather than GBs. i wouldn't bother for the sake of it but if you plan to use more USB2 external devices eg hard disk or DVD writer. then fitting a USB2 card would be useful

and yes, a USB2 Hub would ony run at the lower USB1 speed if plugged into your existing USB1 slot.

shrek101

I think even cameras, and mp3 gain quite a lot by the faster speeds. I use a mp3 player with wma files (2 to 3 mb) it only has a 1.1usb interface on the player but the camera is usb2 4-5mb files and they transfer much quicker and they are over 50% bigger, so for the price of a usb2 usb pci card I think the cost is worth it. But that depends on what you want to do with the pc.

slojo

Thanks for the replies everyone.

At this stage I will be using USB to transfer pictures/short videos from digital camera to computer, and music from computer to ipaq.

How difficult would it be (for a complete novice like myself) to fit a USB2 card to the computer?

blinky

Quite easy. Turn off computer. Open computer Remove blanking plate for a PCI slot. Put card into PCI slot. Close computer. Start computer, insert driver disk if requested.