Which is better - PS/2 or USB mouse?

[Dyakson]

Title says it all really...

Which is better, a mouse running on PS/2 or USB?

Or does it make no difference?

[reno]

Personally, I've never been a fan of USB mouse/keyboard. If there's already a port for it on your computer, then why waste your USB bandwidth?

[Tiggs]

Its ever so slightly easier to plug something into a USB port than it is to plug it into a PS/2 port. Other than that theres no real difference.

[Sand-Man]

PS2 not very hot swapable, USB hot swapable. Plan and simple.

[Lagmeister]

In the long run it doesnt matter in the slightest, if you can get a decent PS/2 mouse then theres no problem really, unless you have the hand eye coordination skills of an recently sodomised chimp then there really isnt much of a difference in plugging them in.

[rob.nunn]

PS/2 doesn't require drivers... but nor does USB from Win2k onwards.

USB might be a problem if you wanna use DOS stuff also, but who does?

[Mozzer]

PS2 not very hot swapable, USB hot swapable. Plan and simple.
I don't know if what I'm saying is re-wording what Sand-Man said or something entirely different but here goes anyway:

USB mice you can plug in any time. But PS/2 will only work if it was plugged in at boot.

[Lagmeister]

Thats basically what hot swapable means

[TX_101]

I use ps/2, simply to save my USB ports for other things.

I also found that Ubuntu has problems with optical ps/2 mice, but apart from that I'd say that they are pretty much equal to USB performance-wise.

[reno]

tell me again.. what's the point of unplugging your mouse and keyboard while you're using your computer?

[Borzoi]

I noticed nobody pointed out that with most USB mice you get a converter thing so you can plug it into your ps/2 slot and also USB has a faster connection than a ps/2 connection. Using the ps/2 slot would probably be better though so you have extra USB slots to plug in other stuff you might get.

[Nocashvalue]

And usb takes up a tiny tiny bit of processor powah :3

[Meatwad]

tell me again.. what's the point of unplugging your mouse and keyboard while you're using your computer?

I do it all the time.... Simply because I like to make out with my PS/2 ports.

[Borzoi]

I do it all the time.... Simply because I like to make out with my PS/2 ports.

Is that what you do to help you think?

[Paradigm^]

Is that what you do to help you think?What are you on eaxctly?

PS/2 all the way for me, for the same reasons as reno. Although it is annoying sometimes if you're having a fiddle* and it falls out the back. Or if you're doing some tinkering and forget to plug it in until after you've booted up.

*not like that you dirty fuckers

[Youlikeyams?]

I find PS/2 much faster and better to use, even compared to USB2.
I had a USB keyboard once and it was a lot slower than a PS/2 connection. PS/2 is a lot more suited to keyboards and mice.

Plus it frees up USB ports for other shizzle.

[budrick]

I find there's not much difference these days. I'm not averse to using a PS/2 mouse, simply because the port is there and if you're installing an arcane operating system it's a little more likely to be picked up than a USB mouse.

On the other hand, I use a USB mouse these days because they really do JustWork, the ability to hot-swap is extremely useful and I have two USB hubs so get more cable length.

Swings and roundabouts. In normal operation, you really won't notice the difference.

[Cheechy]

I prefer usb for a different reason.
I have an uber responsive mouse for gaming, and technically you'll get a faster response rate from USB :D

[Paradigm^]

Surely nothing noticeably different though?

[Al]

I even convert my USB mouses to PS/2, simply because I want my USB ports. That the PS/2 can't be hotplugged is neither here nor there; only once have I crashed a computer by unplugging a PS/2 device while it was on, and I only did that because I needed the keyboard for another computer. Most of the time it comes out happily and doesn't notice. :p

PS/2 FTW. Apart from Cheechy's reasons. Say, Cheechy, what uber-fast mouse do you have and how much did it cost?

[Cheechy]

Most modern pc's have like 6 usb ports now, so it's not really an issue hogging one for a mouse these days :)

dougie - Current mouse is a Razer Viper. I'll go for the new razer las0r mouse next year. (current - http://www.atruereview.com/razer/index.php)

[The Grim Reaper]

rofl, i googled it, and the best i could get was this
http://www.firingsquad.com/features/faceoff/1-usb/default.asp

....the rich and mighty, or namely those who could afford Pentium II systems or AGP Socket-7 motherboards....

I think it might be a little bit old.

[da-geezer]

dougie - Current mouse is a Razer Viper. I'll go for the new razer las0r mouse next year.

the Razer's are still king of the mice kingdom? I remember back in the Q3A days when the Razer Boomerang was the l33test mouse you could have. And at seventy quid, you had to have a pretty l33t wallet too.

On something even more offtopic, I bought a "3M Gaming Mouse Surface" for fifteen quid off Gameplay about two years ago and it was shit. It started to bubble and crease like when you put banners on your window incorrectly.

[Kiwi Man]

I like PS/2 because some games (like the crappy one I made) can't detect USB things.

To save myself, if I program everything that happens when you use the PS/2 mouse to happen also when you use a USB mouse, my game can handle a USB mouse.