USB or PS/2 for mouse?

[ATIFanboy]

Mouse supports booth USB and PS/2 which should i use? I heard that PS/2 is faster...

 

[Peter]

USB. There's the myth that PS/2 has an "adjustable poll rate", but that's only because PS/2 is the much more brainless port, requiring the user to balance mouse smoothness against I/O bandwidth used. USB is the much more efficient port, has no such issues and lets the mouse do its best without hogging ridiculous amounts of system I/O bandwidth.

 

[hytek369]

i just use PS/2 because it won't take up a USB port, not that it matters. i think USB's benefits are unnecessary with standard mice

 

[ATIFanboy]

Could you give more info about it?

 

[LED]

There's proggies to speed up the PS2 rate for 1 Mouse and Linux Code as USB is theoretically faster, whether it needs the OCable speed is debatable as I have felt/seen much difference.

 

[corkyg]

USB - because you can hot plug it if necessary. PS/2 can't do that.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: corky-g
USB - because you can hot plug it if necessary. PS/2 can't do that.

Sure it can! I mean, it might damage the port and the mouse, but you can do it if you want to. 😛

I switched to USB from PS/2 for my mouse (without changing the mouse) and I think that the movement got smoother. That, and as Peter said, the PS/2 port is an ancient piece of junk.

 

[13black]

I think you will find that a lot of the software for the media keys etc won't work when connected to PS2.

 

[Satariel]

PS/2 has a 200hz refreshrate while USB have a 125hz refreshrate. There is this big debate going on that say that the PS/2 refresh fluctuates while the USB one is steady. Others say both fluctuate, I say try what you like but for me the PS/2 port is more steady. Also you get an additional slider with the logitech drivers that allow you to choose 200hz refresh, this slider is not present with USB.

 

[Peter]

See above. I explained already what this "refresh rate" hype really boils down to, and why the choice is absent with USB.

 

[Satariel]

Originally posted by: Peter
See above. I explained already what this "refresh rate" hype really boils down to, and why the choice is absent with USB.

Yeah but then you are stuck with 125hz aren´t you?