So yeah I've been using this keyboard for a bit over 6 years. Its so comfy to use and fits my hands really well. Granted I'm the only person I know of that is still rockin ps/2 anything anymore. I upgraded to usb mice about 5 years ago because sales and an old one breaking. Is there any down side to still using it or an upside to getting a usb gaming/mechanical keyboard? I do everything from gaming to coding on my current one so any advantages to going usb would be relevant to me.
There is no benefit to USB, in fact, much of it consists of drawbacks. PS/2 issues a hardware level interrupt whereas USB devices such as mouses and keyboards poll. This means that there will be added latency when using USB over PS/2. PS/2 also supports N key rollover, unlike USB.
However, with mechanical keyboards, it is slightly different. With a mechanical keyboard, you can type faster (usually) and the switches last much longer than rubber dome switches, the ones most likely to be in your current keyboard.
You could get a USB mechanical keyboard and get a cheap PS/2 to USB adapter (usually around $1), which would result in having the benefits of both PS/2 and mechanical keyboards.
Hey, nothing wrong with using PS/2. Still using an IBM Model M (circa 1989).
Serial can use N-Key rollover (mash as many keys as you like at a time). USB tend to reach a limit of 6-8, although my Ducky 3 has N-Key rollover features. (Yes I have two keyboards on the same system)
As you may know they function in a totally different way, but that's kinda irrelevant here.
If your a gamer who likes Macro's, you can get keyboards with extra keys. Or you can have some fancy smancy back-lighting.
If your PS/2 keyboard still works for you, stick with it. Your not really missing out..... unless its a membrane keyboard.... then you are missing out on some mechanical goodness!
Pretty sure PS/2 is actually better. I'm not really sure of any advantages of USB, though I would say that the connector is more durable.
The main difference is that a USB device get's polled by the computer a certain amount of times per second, most gaming keyboards boast a 1Ghz polling rate. Whilst with a PS/2 device, the device actually sends a hardware interrupt to the CPU. Therefore a PS/2 device has a much lower latency than USB, and also you can press every single key on a PS/2 keyboard at once, and they will all register.
I use PS/2 for my keyboard, and I think half of the people on these forums do, too.
Basically: It may be worth upgrading your keyboard, perhaps to something mechanical, but I'd stick with PS/2.
Hmm interesting. So then would it be worth investing in a decent ps/2 mouse aswell?
is it possible that a keyboard does not support ps/2. i have a usb keyboard but can noe get it to work with an adapter
Not really much to be added here, everyone covered it fairly well.
I just have to say though, I haven't really noticed much difference between using PS/2 and USB even using them side by side.. The latency difference between PS/2 and USB, to me at least, is nearly identical and I really don't see much benefit to the CPU interrupt over USB polling.
As for the N Key Rollover there are some USB keyboards that support it. Really though, I don't understand it. Never in a game or when typing have I been required to slap my keyboard and press every damn key at the same time. I really don't see how that is much of a benefit... I'll prob get flack for that but the 6-8 key rollover that many USB boards have is sufficient and even then I never press more than 3 keys at a time and even that is rare.
I think the keyboard itself has to support PS/2 for an adapter to work. I haven't tried it myself, but I bought a new keyboard a few weeks ago on sale (my first mechanical, yay!), and in digging up info online about whether or not I could use a USB to PS/2 adapter with it, that was most of what I found.