adding usb2 to laptop

catch22

Now that everything is made for USB 2 how can I go about getting the benifits if my laptop uses USB 1? Thanks

Browntoa

the usb on a laptop is normally built into the motherboard, so there is nothing you can do

wobbley

You can use PCMCIA card if you have the appropriate slots on your laptop (nearly all do). I have one with Firewire and USB2 on and it works fine. Expect to pay £15 - £30 depending on the make.

MercilessKiller

catch22 wrote:

Now that everything is made for USB 2 how can I go about getting the benifits if my laptop uses USB 1? Thanks

You don't really need USB 2 just yet.

At the moment the speed difference from USB 1 to USB 2 is rarely seen home use wise.

It hardly speeds up printing/scanning... even file transfer from camera devices isn't that different!

Just save your cash By the time you NEED usb 2 you'll be needing a new laptop

catch22

So, USB 2 is actually over rated and doesn't work 40x faster than USB1? I did wonder...

Rex_Mundi

There are three different speeds for USB devices.

USB 1.0......1.5Mbps (low speed USB)
USB 1.1......12Mbps (full speed USB)
USB 2.0......480Mbps (hi speed USB)

USB 2.0 will work with all of these speeds, but if your device is marked as USB 2.0 hi speed. It will indeed work up to 40 times faster than USB 1.1 if you have a USB 2.0 connector on your computer.

MercilessKiller

Rex_Mundi wrote:

There are three different speeds for USB devices.

USB 1.0......1.5Mbps (low speed USB)
USB 1.1......12Mbps (full speed USB)
USB 2.0......480Mbps (hi speed USB)

USB 2.0 will work with all of these speeds, but if your device is marked as USB 2.0 hi speed. It will indeed work up to 40 times faster than USB 1.1 if you have a USB 2.0 connector on your computer.

Yes, it is that faster..

BUT

You won't notice it unless your doing much data transferring from pc to pc through usb, or pc to external storage device....

And even then, its not exactly SLOW with usb 1.0.. does the job

Rex_Mundi

If you wanted to transfer 1GB of data to or from your MP3 player or camera through USB. It would take (running at full speed).

1GB=8192Mb

USB 1.0....8192Mb/1.5Mbps=5461 seconds or 91 minutes

USB 1.1....8192Mb/12Mbps=682.6 seconds or 11.4 minutes

USB 2.0....8192Mb/480Mbps=17 seconds

I don't know about you, but that looks like a massive difference to me. With MP3 players or cameras nowadays. It's not unreasonable to want to transfer this much data.