Any users of Hercules Game Theater XP?

[wesman6]

No, that's about the only thing wrong with it.

 

[Pariah]

Who cares then. What is someone going to do with 4 unpowered USB ports? Out of the 6 USB items I have, 4 have to be powered, and one of the 2 that doesn't needs to be plugged in directly anyway so the PS2 cable will reach. Using this thing would leave you with only one powered port on a typical PC, and would require you to buy a USB hub anyway. And why did hercules put the vast majority of the connectors on the back of the box? Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of not having to reach around things? Given the choice of taking up desk space or not, I think most people would go for not, if there was another option that didn't.

 

[wesman6]

I have an MP3 player, Microsoft Dual Strike gamepad, a Saitek Cyborg USB Gold joystick, and a USB Hewlett Packard 895Cse printer plugged into it. They all work fine without the power. I do have my Logitech RumblePad hooked into the onboard USB port. It, of course, has to be plugged into a powered source.

The reason is simple, aesthetic purposes. Most of the speaker connections are in the back so you don't have alot of wires all over the place. It keeps it a little less cluttered. It's not like you're gonna always be unplugging the speaker connections.

 

[nortexoid]

wesman, did u buy all those USB devices just to fill the ports up with?

i mean, just how many joysticks do u need?

and mike, again, why the hell would i have to use the thing to realize that its features are utterly useless to myself and numerous other people?...i didn't use that big thick rope i saw in the hardware store to know that i could easily strangle u with it...

settle down lass...minus the 'l'

 

[wesman6]

nortexoid,
No as a matter of fact, most of those devices only come with USB connections.
Let's see, I have one, count em', one joystick. I do have two gamepads. One is better for general games, the other is better for FPS games. I don't know if you read my response, but I do have an MP3 player and the Printer hooked up as well. The printer was a matter of necessity. I ran out of IRQs so that was my only avenue for the printer.
The point is, I can have those things hooked up without having to get under the desk to plug and unplug them. But, alas, that is not why I bought the card. It was just nice to have included.

 

[mikef208]

Nortexoid, did you forget to take your midol, your the one that needs to calm down. I was only saying that none of the ports on the breakout box are utterly useless. If you already have a USB hub, then sure you don't need the USB ports, but did Akaz say "How good is this sound card, not including the breakout box, since I already have a USB hub", no he asked how good the whole deal was. And as a user of the card and the box, i told him how kick a$$ it is. Plus the USB ports are not the only connections it has, it also has a game port, a headphone and microphone port, which puts your headphone volume right on your desktop, 2 line inputs on the front, coaxial and optical digital connectors on the back, RCA and regular speaker connectors for front, surround, center, and a sub. You don't get a much beeter break out box than this, unless of course the USB ports were powered. That is the only problem with this box, but you have a powered USB hub, so that don't really matter to you, but even the rest of the connections are worth what your paying for it. Have a nice day "lass"