USB controller faster than on-board USB?

[VBboy]

I wonder if a dedicated USB controller card (PCI) is faster than the on-board USB adapter.. When my PC's CPU is "busy", it seems that the USB mouse and joystick slow down too. The dedicated PCI USB controller card would have its own chipset/CPU, so it wouldn't rely on the computer's CPU to do all the processing.

Does anyone have any experience with such USB PCI controllers?

Please let me know. Thanks!

 

[crzyc]

my mboard came with a dedicated usb controller. i thought that was weird? i like it cause i can keep 4 things hooked up at once and not need a hub. i don't use all those connections most of the time i am just to lazy to get back there.

not sure about performance though, sorry.

 

[VBboy]

crzyc,

I think your motherboard does have an integrated USB controller. The thing with 4 ports is simply a "pull-out" card that attaches to the back of the computer; you would have the same thing if your mobo had an integrated sound controller - you would have a metal plate with connectors, and it would connect to the motherboard.

 

[Mday]

not really. but if you do put in another controller, you can effectively use the bandwidth from the separate and onboard controller. by effectively, i mean that you can have different usb devices on BOTH controllers, for a combined max of 24 Mbps instead of the 12 that one can provide. this does not mean a single device gets 24 Mbps.

also, if that is a usb2.0 controller it will be faster ;-)