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USB Downward Compatable?

Pghpooh

Pghpooh

Senior member
HI
Dumb question of the day.
My computer will be 4 years old this July. I have a Asus A7v133 motherboard in it. The USB is the older version of 1.1.
If I were to buy a new printer, or scanner or other USB item that is usb 2 wiill that item work on my system? Just taking a fast guess I wuld say yes.
BUT!!! There's always a BUT somewhere that messes things up.
Also, is there a USB adapeter card made to fit into a PCI slot on the motherboard that would give me the USB 2 capability??
Thanks
Pghpooh
 
Yes, USB is backward compatible.
And while USB 1.1 offers way lower data transfers (max 12 Mbps vs 480Mbps max for USB 2.0) I do not think you will even notice the speed difference for a printer, which does not use that bandwidth anyway.
In other cases (i.e. scanner), the difference might be noticeable / more important.
 
Yes, lots of cards are available to add usb 2.0 ports. Usual range is $10-40us online. Recently bought an Adaptec 4 port for $10us after rebate at Compusa. Put it in an old machine, works fine.
 
You can certainly get USB2.0 PCI cards, should be fairly cheap, too. As has been said, things are generally backwards compatible. One thing to note is those situations where speed does matter. Specifically, external burners. You will have to run them at lower speeds, and possibly(but by no means certainly) suffer buffer underruns from time to time.
 
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