Whats with the USB Trend?

[Gomer]

Beg to differ about the gameport solidsnake. I have a Gravis Exterminator that has throttle, analog flippers, a hatswitch, analog stick, D-pad, and about 10-11 buttons... all through the gameport. I can daisy chain at least two of them off the port as well.

[tarek]

hmm so im now thinking is it faster to have my cable modem via usb which i currently have or through an ethernet card?
wat other option might i have?
and personaly i like usb alot its easy safe and fast!!!!!!!1

[Solid Snake]

Well the Xterminator probably uses some kind of compression or multiplexing but as far as the hardware goes, it's limited. You might be able to use two of these but you can use an unlimited amount of USB gamepads.

[NeoStarO1]

I used to in the past had my cable modem hooked up via usb port and it gave me nothing but headaches. Lost drivers all the time. Lost connectivity all the time. Since switching over to ethernet never had a connectivity problem at all.

My main uses to usb are cams, and temporory connection, I don't do anything dedecated on this ports at this time.

Interesting discussion, I see the opionion is about 50/50 both ways.

[Gomer]

I wasn't saying that USB isn't good, I was just saying that it is possible to run decent pads through a gameport. That exterminator rocks BTW.

[Geotpf]

I have a USB ADSL modem, works great. I think the reason that manufactuers like it is that the connection and cables are really cheap to produce (for printers and the like, compared to parelell). Now, I think that they game me a USB DSL modem to make it harder for me to share my access with more than one computer, but since I only HAVE one computer, it's fine.

[cadetstimp]

With USB retailers can make one model of a harware device that works on "all" pcs. Because of this hardware manufacturers can make more money with USB stuff than with specific interface hardware (i.e. lower cost to develop a product that will have a wider market to sell to)

[SEALTEAMTHREE]

I think a line needs to be drawn on USB devices. Mice, keyboards, game controllers, scanners and printers are fine, but when you get into something that either has a better standard, such as speakers or a monitor, or something that will eat up CPU cycles, such as the creative Extigidy, its time to call it quits. I recall a thread about the device (Extigy sucks!!!!!!) where the poor guy that bought it took a 50% hit in CPU usage when playing an MP3! Thats nuts!

[AuraEdge]

When you try to make internal devices with large amounds of I/O external, thats what happens - High CPU usage and not a full implementation of the original.

Take, for example, The extigy and TV tuners...They are just much better as internal devices. Why do you think we havent seen an external graphics card yet? (although, if they did that right, it would be beyond cool for my laptop). Even external USB harddrives are choked by its small bandwidth. This may all change by the time USB 2.0 rolls over. While the bandwidth provided by USB 1.1 is beyond sufficient for most external periphial devices, there are still others, usually ones that were meant for internal use, that push the limits of the bus.

[Herb]

The CPU usage of the Extigy must be related to the bloatware Creative attaches to all its devices. I've the same with operating the Creative jukebox through USB with Playcenter.

If I run my USB-radio to USB MSS80 I have 2%CPU. The additional USB stereo Headset driven by a low profile player sucks 14%. That's on a PII/400 right now.