USB 2.0 is the new standard for USB. It runs at 480 MBps rather than the turtle speed of 12 MBps of the older USB 1.1 spec. Being that many devices now deal with enough data to make use of USB 2.0, its something that is very nice to have. External hard drives, digital cameras and other such devices will connect to a USB 1.1 setup and work, but the throughput would be frustratingly slow. If your PC is over, say, 2 years old, it is likely your PC runs USB 1.1 and not USB 2.0. Many older motherboards come with controllers for USB 1.1, but they do not support USB 2.0. This necessitates a motherboard upgrade in order to use USB 2.0. The work-around is to install a USB 2.0 controller as an internal expansion card. Once you instal the card and boot up, you can install the driver from the included setup CD and you will then be able to use USB 2.0 devices.

View our price comparison on USB controllers.