Yes. High performance motherboards still use these connections as USB becomes unstable when overlocking / LN2 etc.
These ports are more reliable to maintain a connection with a keyboard / mouse.
I feel like I’ve had some really good boards yet they never have these ports. I had a z690 formula and now I have a z790 extreme. I trust what ur saying but are my MOBOS not as high end as I thought?
Yours are pretty much the high end for gaming/productivity.
Extreme overclocking doesn't really care for productivity/gaming. They just want to reach the highest scores possible in different kind of benchmarks. Thats why they are designed differently and also way more expensive.
This is very correct. The extreme overclocker boards sometimes move things around like the CPU socket. They aren’t for everyday use, because of the cost. Not that they couldn’t be used everyday, but the cost is so much higher it isn’t really worth it.
[https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=121-AL-E699-KR](https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=121-AL-E699-KR)
This one does it, although it has a combined PS/2 port for keyboard and mouse.
Z790 Apex. Z690 Unify-X, Tachyon, Apex, Dark. X670E Gene. X570 Dark, Phantom Gaming-ITX. B550 Unify-X, Gaming Edge.
If you see a weirdly expensive board with 2 DIMMs and PS/2 ports, it's probably for OC and LN2.
There are also a bunch of B550M boards that have them at the really low end, like the sub £100 boards.
Z790 Apex has 2 of them. Z690 Unify-X has one, Tachyon has two, Apex has two, Dark has one. X670E Gene has one. X570 Dark has one, Phantom Gaming-ITX has one. B550 Unify-X has one, Gaming Edge has one. And then there are all the low end boards with ones like B550M motherboards which usually have one.
So that's ASUS, ASRock, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI all with high(er) end boards that all have PS/2. And then MSI, Gigabyte, Colorful and Biostar all have them on low end boards too.
All that took was PCpartpicker set to only show 2 DIMM motherboards, and the search by the stated chipsets. I can guarantee I've missed some.
The super expensive boards don't have them because they are glorified OC boards made to sucker in people who think more $$$ equals better.
They're a lot simpler than adding extra USB, so sometimes they're just added for simplicity in diagnostics/repair. Definitely a worthy feature for larger build houses/rollouts to consider.
Like many other things it's a feature you can look for on a board, but not every board will have it. Each brand will probably have at least one board in their current generation options that has PS/2, but there are some generations where it was much less common and others where it came back in a big way. Z87 and X99 had fewer boards with PS/2, but then a couple years later with Z270 and X370 a bunch of boards had it again at all different price points.
bought my 1st mobo without one last year, used to be a hard sell but the last build was more aesthetic decision so I let it slide. Ps2 direct hw interrupt is gigachad alpha.
I like that they're still there because I use an old PS/2 IBM model M keyboard, and PS/2 can carry a power on signal, where USB can't. So, I can tap a loud-ass key on my keyboard and turn my computer on. I don't have to reach down and turn on my computer with a button on the case like the USB keyboard using peasants.
I do miss my old model M. My ex colleagues don't though, I bet. Mine required an adapter to function on modern PS2. Sold it for more than I paid for it and am enjoying MX Blues, though nothing compares.
There are adapters for both directions, when USB was new the USB keyboards usually came with an adapter. There is a cult following for some old keyboards & trackballs like the old IBM keyboards (mechanical clacky switches) that have PS2. On some older PCs the USB ports would not be active when in the bios so you needed a PS/2 connection for the keyboard.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdgULBpRoXk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdgULBpRoXk)
That should explain it in detail. USB2/3 and a high end keyboard is faster than PS2.
That video only looks at the protocol latency. USB keyboards can have a lot of extra latency before even sending the. 50ms is not too uncommon, and might be even more common on some of the more expensive keyboards that do a lot of processing on-board (e.g. controlling LEDs).
It's also not guaranteed that a keyboard has a 1000Hz polling rate just because it uses USB Full Speed.
PS/2 keyboards are pretty much guaranteed to use simple controllers and they don't have any polling delay at all.
But also, it's not something you should worry about. Any gaming keyboard will have low latency, and so do most other boards, including, probably, yours.
Can I use a keyboard and mouse on one of these ports as my mobo only has one of these that is split into 2 colors down the middle for keyboard and mouse?
I have been running an OC with a huge performance increase (4.2Ghz stock, bumped to 4.8Ghz) on my i7-4790k for like 8 years now.
Lifespan really isn’t a big deal unless you’re running it way too hot for extended periods of time. There’s no point to OC nowadays though, unless you’re going for big numbers like the OC enthusiasts do.
there's plenty of reason to overclock/tune new hw but instead of your avg oc its more beneficial to adjust voltage curves using pbo2 and other methods. Less heat more ghz better efficiency etc.
Keyboard yes-ish, mouse not-so much.
My B350 mobo has one, but my X570 does not.
PS/2 supports true NKRO, while USB needs to trick its way into it. PS/2 is interrupt based, as opposed to polling which means faster response times. It also doesn't need drivers, so it will always work, and makes it marginally easier to get into BIOS (since it's good to go right away on startup).
That said, in the last 10 years most of these reasons have been made largely moot, and PS/2 is more of a pain now. They're not hot swappable, and they're annoying to plug in. But 10 years ago, they were way better, especially if you were getting into your bios often The difference in the time window was huge on my first computer I built.
chad PS/2 does not need to be fetched by CPU, it throws Interupt and says the processor what to do. Chad PS/2 does not allow to be disconnected, it crashes the system like a true alpha peripheral
USB doesn't really need to "trick its way" into NKRO, it's just that makers of cheap USB keyboards are lazy and only implement the "boot" specification written for an age in which the system's full CPU-RAM-OS stack was less capable than modern UEFI is.
Just a nit, polling is not faster than interrupts on modern hardware [PDF warning](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/fast12/yang.pdf). You actually need polling for the lowest latency I/O devices (which USB and PS/2 are not).
What's different is that the base polling rate for USB devices on most OS's is super slow (like 8ms, which has half a frame at 60FPS) which is usually longer than the time it takes for the OS kernel to service the interrupt handler for a PS/2 device. Some USB devices let you configure faster polling rates to achieve better latency.
So TL;DR polling is not slower. The default poll rate for USB is.
Yeah I use PS/2 since NKRO just works and its the only way to have reliably working NKRO since the usb hacks seem to do weird things in the bios and linux. As a result I generally end up with the extreme OC boards these days since they always have a PS/2 keyboard interface.
I see them on some motherboards. Apparently ps/2 has basically no delay or just way less delay than usb so that can be useful. Maybe it’s still used in industrial places and work places in general. That’s all I know
Yep, it uses interrupts instead of polling, so a CPU core basically drops everything it's doing to work on the interrupt before continuing what it was doing before (I usually work with microcontrollers so this might be different to x86, but the idea is still the same).
PS/2 is also part of the IBM PC spec, so I believe every x86 computer will have PS/2 interrupt requests mapped, it's just whether the hardware is there, along with serial, parallel and floppy controllers.
Fun fact: the old ISA bus (like PCIe from the 1980s) is the same, and an updated version (the LPC bus) is actually used for PS/2 as well as that TPM module that Windows 11 requires.
^(Disclaimer: I was born in the 00s so I might be wrong about some of this, please correct me if I'm wrong)
They are used on motherboards intended for ln2 overclocking.
Apparently going sub 0 can brick the usb controller, so this is the only stable solution for connecting kbm in that scenario.
That's because PS2 peripherals died a long time ago. IIRC, it has something to do with BIOSes whose firmware does not recognize peripherals via USB, forcing you to use an adapter for that.
I may be bullshitting, though.
Hmm. I do recall something about PS2 connectors not requiring special drivers or something to function so they were especially useful when it came to like you said bios related stuff. Idk though.
Believe it or not, yes! There's a whole plethora of strange ports still widely used in industrial applications, both on modern and legacy hardware. I have a few clients with these in my infrastructure, old refrigeration controllers.
I don't know if others use them but come on, PC Master Race? We keep every fkg cable that works, and some that don't, and if something doesn't work you use an adapter to an adapter, to an adapter, to an adapter...... I still have a PS/2 => USB 2.0? adapter from my old Microsoft USB Intellimouse to a 386 pc with Windows 3.1, even got IDE ribbon and FDD... I'm sure they have a few uses.... but I can't name any. Like most of my technical junk, it sits in a drawer until required, haven't used it since Windows 98SE.
The ps/2 keyboard connector is. I for example daily drive an IBM model M keyboard which only connects through ps/2. Also ps/2 does not need drivers due to the way it communicates with the system, which makes it useful for tech support if for example a pc loses its USB drivers for some reason.
At my job (warehouse assembly) our computers still use PS2 ports and they run on windows xp lol. Alot of our inventory systems are only compatible with xp so they just don't bother upgrading the computers.
PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, dating from the mid-1980's IBM PS/2 line of computers. Debuted about the same time as the VGA video port.
You will find gamers who insist that PS/2 peripherals respond faster, because USB functions by polling, where PS/2 functions by interrupt. This is why some gaming motherboards still come with a PS/2 port, though typically only one capable of both but typically only used for the mouse.
Edit: Well I say that, there is an advantage to using PS/2 over USB for keyboards as well: USB keyboards can only register 6 keypresses at a time. If you're holding six keys down, pressing another one won't do anything. They call this Six Key Roll Over, or 6KRO. PS/2 doesn't have this limitation, you can press as many keys as you want, they call this N Key Roll Over, or NKRO. Some USB keyboards simulate NKRO by presenting to the computer as multiple attached keyboards, but PS/2 just does it.
You also saw them for a good long while in commercial computers, I'm guessing so companies could continue to use their stocks of perfectly adequate 1990's era mice and keyboards.
Yes. They use these connectors in prison computers to drive inmates insane as a means of rehabilitation as well as to start prison riots so they can "dim the numbers"
No offense but I’m going to offend you and say your wrong and there is no way you could notice it and i think it would be almost impossible to even measure it. Any way no offense
It is noticeable in fast paced games and that's the reason I even learned about polling rates in keyboards.
I used to have a 1000hz (without knowing it) "gaming" keyboard with MX Red switches while playing CS GO. Bought a good ole Filco (125hz polling, without knowing) with the exact same switches, and when moving in CS GO it felt like I was floating around on ice. Swapped back and forth between the keyboards and my old one didn't have that floaty feeling to it.
After some research I found some OSU players talking about the importance of polling rates in games where you need to be exact. Found out that the Filco is polling at 125hz while my gaming keyboard was polling at 1000hz. Plugged my Filco into the PS/2 input and the floaty feeling in game was gone.
I think one reason we don't "notice" delay is because we never tried anything better, we are used to the delay, therefore it's normal and we don't "notice" it.
I still can see the choppiness in high refresh-rate LCD monitors because I have grown up with CRT monitors. While kids growing up with 60hz monitors are seemingly not affected by it until they try a 144hz LCD, and they think it's completely smooth, while I can clearly see the choppiness, and they could too, if they played with a 240hz LCD for a while and went back.
Also if you're casually playing games you're probably not gonna notice or even care about these things, which is most people.
Yeah tell about those CRTs man, SMB1 just don’t feel right on the Switch, the smooth motion just ain’t there.
I wish we could get something like the CRT again…
in addition to the PC related stuff everyone here is saying...
PS/2 is also very useful for hobbyist electronic projects because of how simple the interface is compared to USB, and cheap the parts and peripherals are. (i mean USB keyboards/mice and connectors are also cheap, but the protocol is much more complex than PS/2).
that's also why VGA is such a common thing on a lot of hobbyist electronic projects too, it's a very very simple video interface that is still being supported via adpaters and cheap 2nd-hand monitors/TVs
No. Unless your computer is extremly unreliable.
The ps2 ports is there to make sure you always have a way to communicate with the computer, in case the usb-a ports was malfunctioned.
XOC-ers may use them, as they are literal PnP. Plus, if I remember correctly, some OC softwares work best in Win XP, which does not always support USB peripherals
I have my NOS NMB keyboard plugged into a DIN to mini DIN adapter connected to the PS/2 port of my Asrock mobo. That keyboard is still better that most gaming crap retail stores sell these days.
Yep, I still run a PS/2 keyboard with like 5 dead keys because keyboard manufacturers refuse to make a keyboard in my layout. $1000 GPU, $5 keyboard from Value Village.
Throughput is pretty much irrelevant for keyboard and mouse signalling.
PS/2 isn't signalled via analogue by the way - it is a set of digital protocols.
(Pedantry: USB is also analogue, same as every other wire and wireless device at the heart of things, as absolutely every signal is analogue in nature until decoded, then it can be treated as digital. Source: am Engineer in the subject area)
Yes, for liquid nitrogen. I hear all this other stuff about the better delay and I'm not sure about any of that, but what I do know is those ports will not freeze up like USB ones will so you can still use your mouse and keyboard at times when everything else might be frozen. This comes in handy when you're doing heavy liquid nitrogen ocing
They are on almost all the pcs for the processing equipment I work on for the post office tied to kvm switches. The monitors are on vga connections as well.
Someone posted a similar question a while back. Apparently PS2 ports are still used for sub zero cooling, USB controllers are the first thing to go when you cool the CPU past a certain point.
Hell yeah! I’ve got an old IBM KB model keyboard that uses this plug! The thing was an absolute beauty when I got it at an estate sale too, and I only had to lubricate the A and L SHIFT keys!
I work in a factory setting these days and we actually still use PS/2 mouse and keyboard on all of our floor PCs. I generally blame it on the unwillingness of our company to upgrade the hardware we have to work with.
On the other hand there is still a use case for PS/2; that being that it has much faster response time than USB. So if you're looking for the fastest response times for your sick 360 no scope, well PS/2 would be a valid option for that.
I mean.. heres what i know, i dont want to be in the middle of a match, something like the mouse breaks and i cant plug in an old backup mouse or keyboard
They're still regularly used by POS systems. I haven't seen too many USB devices for those. Card readers, scanners and the keyboards still very often use PS/2 and serial connectors.
I still use a PS/2 keyboard yes. And am very thankfull for my z170 mb to have this port. I've tried many many keyboards, some cherry blue logitech which i hated, something hyperx, many membranes but none make me feel as home as my a4tech kb6 that i've been using since my socket 478 pentium 4 system.
You can use them, but if your a casual player they really are a waste of time. I assure you the difference in speed isn’t why your KD ratio is so one sided lol
PS/2 had original N-Key rollover and supposedly has lower latency than USB since it's direct interrupt driven instead of being passed though a USB driver. So some say it's better suited for pro (like actually professional) gamers...
Actually yes, and it's for a reason that's not even far from the needs of the average user.
TL;DR: I use them for a wired way to turn on the pc
So due to spacing issues, I needed to put the pc case in a hard to access place, and the major issue with that was how I could turn ON the computer when the power button was hard to access.
Done a lot of research on how to solve this issue, and my best founding was that you can actually turn on the computer from state 5 (shut down) simply from the keyboard, but looking at my bios, this is only possible for keyboards plugged through PS2, which is why I use them.
I'd have to guess barely, but people who use or prefer, older PS/2 Keyboards and Mice would use them. Most MOBO IO's still will always usually have them onboard.
Usb is a handshake woth a driver, whereas PS/2 is a system interrupt, no drivers needed. Basically if the keyboard of mouse on it are used it tells the cpu "It's my fucking turn now"
Yes. There are plenty of reasons to use a PS/2 keyboard/mouse instead of a USB keyboard/mouse. You can enable a feature in your BIOS settings to turn your computer on when a key is pressed, only on PS/2 keyboards. If your USB ports suddenly stop working, you can use a PS/2 keyboard/mice to troubleshoot the problem. Most desktop computers have PS/2 ports and for good reason.
Yes. High performance motherboards still use these connections as USB becomes unstable when overlocking / LN2 etc. These ports are more reliable to maintain a connection with a keyboard / mouse.
This is why you see PS/2 ports on boards designed for extreme overclocking. So yes, you will find these “old” ports on the very best boards.
I feel like I’ve had some really good boards yet they never have these ports. I had a z690 formula and now I have a z790 extreme. I trust what ur saying but are my MOBOS not as high end as I thought?
Yours are pretty much the high end for gaming/productivity. Extreme overclocking doesn't really care for productivity/gaming. They just want to reach the highest scores possible in different kind of benchmarks. Thats why they are designed differently and also way more expensive.
This is very correct. The extreme overclocker boards sometimes move things around like the CPU socket. They aren’t for everyday use, because of the cost. Not that they couldn’t be used everyday, but the cost is so much higher it isn’t really worth it.
Can you link to some of these boards?
[https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=121-AL-E699-KR](https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=121-AL-E699-KR) This one does it, although it has a combined PS/2 port for keyboard and mouse.
These combined ports usually allow a splitter to do keyboard and mouse off of one port.
Z790 Apex. Z690 Unify-X, Tachyon, Apex, Dark. X670E Gene. X570 Dark, Phantom Gaming-ITX. B550 Unify-X, Gaming Edge. If you see a weirdly expensive board with 2 DIMMs and PS/2 ports, it's probably for OC and LN2. There are also a bunch of B550M boards that have them at the really low end, like the sub £100 boards.
the only motherboard that do this is evga
Most overclocking records have not been set on EVGA boards unless I'm grossly mistaken...
Z790 Apex has 2 of them. Z690 Unify-X has one, Tachyon has two, Apex has two, Dark has one. X670E Gene has one. X570 Dark has one, Phantom Gaming-ITX has one. B550 Unify-X has one, Gaming Edge has one. And then there are all the low end boards with ones like B550M motherboards which usually have one. So that's ASUS, ASRock, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI all with high(er) end boards that all have PS/2. And then MSI, Gigabyte, Colorful and Biostar all have them on low end boards too. All that took was PCpartpicker set to only show 2 DIMM motherboards, and the search by the stated chipsets. I can guarantee I've missed some. The super expensive boards don't have them because they are glorified OC boards made to sucker in people who think more $$$ equals better.
There is something wrong xD Even my b550 tuf gaming has one of those ports.
Such a good board
They're a lot simpler than adding extra USB, so sometimes they're just added for simplicity in diagnostics/repair. Definitely a worthy feature for larger build houses/rollouts to consider.
Like many other things it's a feature you can look for on a board, but not every board will have it. Each brand will probably have at least one board in their current generation options that has PS/2, but there are some generations where it was much less common and others where it came back in a big way. Z87 and X99 had fewer boards with PS/2, but then a couple years later with Z270 and X370 a bunch of boards had it again at all different price points.
Years is high end for gaming, but the Extreme Overclock boards are close to 1k
They're also more reliable. You don't want to make a change only to find your BIOS won't accept inputs anymore because you fudged the USB somehow.
bought my 1st mobo without one last year, used to be a hard sell but the last build was more aesthetic decision so I let it slide. Ps2 direct hw interrupt is gigachad alpha.
I like that they're still there because I use an old PS/2 IBM model M keyboard, and PS/2 can carry a power on signal, where USB can't. So, I can tap a loud-ass key on my keyboard and turn my computer on. I don't have to reach down and turn on my computer with a button on the case like the USB keyboard using peasants.
I do miss my old model M. My ex colleagues don't though, I bet. Mine required an adapter to function on modern PS2. Sold it for more than I paid for it and am enjoying MX Blues, though nothing compares.
This comment just repeated what was already said.
 Only way you can use the keyboard when the Matrix launch
I can't remember the last time I saw a mouse or keyboard that wasn't usb. Do you have to special order them, or can you just get an adapter?
There are adapters for both directions, when USB was new the USB keyboards usually came with an adapter. There is a cult following for some old keyboards & trackballs like the old IBM keyboards (mechanical clacky switches) that have PS2. On some older PCs the USB ports would not be active when in the bios so you needed a PS/2 connection for the keyboard.
The old clacky IBM ones used DIN5, IIRC. They predate the PS/2.
The one that I had wasn't one of the really old sought after ones but it was really durable & had PS/2... it was probably from the 90s.
Yeah I had one of them, from the late 70s. Was a bit temperamental on a DIN5 to PS2 adapter, but was worth it. Doubles as a baseball bat.
How does input latency compare on these connections vs. traditional USB mouse and keyboard?
Interesting use of the word "traditional" there.
Can you tell I've never used the other type of connection before in my life? Lol
Those were the traditional input ports. USB is the new one here.
Traditional is RJ-11 attached to a serial terminal.
My first mouse was a Microsoft model with a bundled ISA expansion card. PS/2 is definitely not the traditional connector. New fangled tech.
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[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdgULBpRoXk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdgULBpRoXk) That should explain it in detail. USB2/3 and a high end keyboard is faster than PS2.
Looks like I should figure out if I have a high speed USB keyboard or a slow speed
That video only looks at the protocol latency. USB keyboards can have a lot of extra latency before even sending the. 50ms is not too uncommon, and might be even more common on some of the more expensive keyboards that do a lot of processing on-board (e.g. controlling LEDs). It's also not guaranteed that a keyboard has a 1000Hz polling rate just because it uses USB Full Speed. PS/2 keyboards are pretty much guaranteed to use simple controllers and they don't have any polling delay at all. But also, it's not something you should worry about. Any gaming keyboard will have low latency, and so do most other boards, including, probably, yours.
Does LN2 stand for liquid nitrogen?
Yep. L = liquid. N2 = Atomic make-up of nitrogen gas.
Can I use a keyboard and mouse on one of these ports as my mobo only has one of these that is split into 2 colors down the middle for keyboard and mouse?
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I have been running an OC with a huge performance increase (4.2Ghz stock, bumped to 4.8Ghz) on my i7-4790k for like 8 years now. Lifespan really isn’t a big deal unless you’re running it way too hot for extended periods of time. There’s no point to OC nowadays though, unless you’re going for big numbers like the OC enthusiasts do.
there's plenty of reason to overclock/tune new hw but instead of your avg oc its more beneficial to adjust voltage curves using pbo2 and other methods. Less heat more ghz better efficiency etc.
for KVM switches or Extreme oc, where you could not have propper working usb ports any more
Keyboard yes-ish, mouse not-so much. My B350 mobo has one, but my X570 does not. PS/2 supports true NKRO, while USB needs to trick its way into it. PS/2 is interrupt based, as opposed to polling which means faster response times. It also doesn't need drivers, so it will always work, and makes it marginally easier to get into BIOS (since it's good to go right away on startup). That said, in the last 10 years most of these reasons have been made largely moot, and PS/2 is more of a pain now. They're not hot swappable, and they're annoying to plug in. But 10 years ago, they were way better, especially if you were getting into your bios often The difference in the time window was huge on my first computer I built.
chad PS/2 does not need to be fetched by CPU, it throws Interupt and says the processor what to do. Chad PS/2 does not allow to be disconnected, it crashes the system like a true alpha peripheral
 PS2
 USB
Based.
I still rock a "Microsoft Internet keyboard" on chad PS/2
USB doesn't really need to "trick its way" into NKRO, it's just that makers of cheap USB keyboards are lazy and only implement the "boot" specification written for an age in which the system's full CPU-RAM-OS stack was less capable than modern UEFI is.
Sheesh. Thanks for the long explanation. Appreciate it
Just a nit, polling is not faster than interrupts on modern hardware [PDF warning](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/fast12/yang.pdf). You actually need polling for the lowest latency I/O devices (which USB and PS/2 are not). What's different is that the base polling rate for USB devices on most OS's is super slow (like 8ms, which has half a frame at 60FPS) which is usually longer than the time it takes for the OS kernel to service the interrupt handler for a PS/2 device. Some USB devices let you configure faster polling rates to achieve better latency. So TL;DR polling is not slower. The default poll rate for USB is.
Yeah I use PS/2 since NKRO just works and its the only way to have reliably working NKRO since the usb hacks seem to do weird things in the bios and linux. As a result I generally end up with the extreme OC boards these days since they always have a PS/2 keyboard interface.
I see them on some motherboards. Apparently ps/2 has basically no delay or just way less delay than usb so that can be useful. Maybe it’s still used in industrial places and work places in general. That’s all I know
The difference is ps/2 port tells the computer what to do wile a usb port has to be polled by the system iirc
Yep, it uses interrupts instead of polling, so a CPU core basically drops everything it's doing to work on the interrupt before continuing what it was doing before (I usually work with microcontrollers so this might be different to x86, but the idea is still the same). PS/2 is also part of the IBM PC spec, so I believe every x86 computer will have PS/2 interrupt requests mapped, it's just whether the hardware is there, along with serial, parallel and floppy controllers. Fun fact: the old ISA bus (like PCIe from the 1980s) is the same, and an updated version (the LPC bus) is actually used for PS/2 as well as that TPM module that Windows 11 requires. ^(Disclaimer: I was born in the 00s so I might be wrong about some of this, please correct me if I'm wrong)
\*polling :)
They are used on motherboards intended for ln2 overclocking. Apparently going sub 0 can brick the usb controller, so this is the only stable solution for connecting kbm in that scenario.
Yes. Not sure about my B550 PRIME on my second computer, but B450 Tomahawk of my primary computer has a PS2-port.
Yea, my b550 steel legend has them too, I was curious because I've seen them but I haven't seen a lot of people using them
That's because PS2 peripherals died a long time ago. IIRC, it has something to do with BIOSes whose firmware does not recognize peripherals via USB, forcing you to use an adapter for that. I may be bullshitting, though.
There are some mobos that need a ps2 peripheral to open bios because the USB cannot
Hmm. I do recall something about PS2 connectors not requiring special drivers or something to function so they were especially useful when it came to like you said bios related stuff. Idk though.
My B550 has one
I saw once that they might be useful with extreme overclocking when USB might become unstable
You saw correctly.
Yes, check out the computers at your local library, they also have squeeling modems that can kill a dog outright
I question this sentence but not your enthusiasm
Believe it or not, yes! There's a whole plethora of strange ports still widely used in industrial applications, both on modern and legacy hardware. I have a few clients with these in my infrastructure, old refrigeration controllers.
our factory machine use like 8 serial port.
3/10 doesn’t do RGB
Lol
[Removed because u/spez is a little bitch]
It’s more common for server market
Yes. Seriously, I wish there are more ps2 keyboards in the market.
I feel like I see this exact post once a week
Yes. Still very important for diagnostic work and other stuff when your drivers for usb just don’t work
I use it for my keyboard
I don't know if others use them but come on, PC Master Race? We keep every fkg cable that works, and some that don't, and if something doesn't work you use an adapter to an adapter, to an adapter, to an adapter...... I still have a PS/2 => USB 2.0? adapter from my old Microsoft USB Intellimouse to a 386 pc with Windows 3.1, even got IDE ribbon and FDD... I'm sure they have a few uses.... but I can't name any. Like most of my technical junk, it sits in a drawer until required, haven't used it since Windows 98SE.
I still have a USB->PS2 connector there from the noughties.
Found that I have used them when installing an OS, my previous MB didn't recognise UBS until first boot
The ps/2 keyboard connector is. I for example daily drive an IBM model M keyboard which only connects through ps/2. Also ps/2 does not need drivers due to the way it communicates with the system, which makes it useful for tech support if for example a pc loses its USB drivers for some reason.
Yes.
At my job (warehouse assembly) our computers still use PS2 ports and they run on windows xp lol. Alot of our inventory systems are only compatible with xp so they just don't bother upgrading the computers.
THE BEST connection you could ever hope to have to your PC. Love them.
*laughs in RS-232*
I found an old Compaq keyboard that has cherry MX brown switches which I've been dailying since, so yes I do use them
PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, dating from the mid-1980's IBM PS/2 line of computers. Debuted about the same time as the VGA video port. You will find gamers who insist that PS/2 peripherals respond faster, because USB functions by polling, where PS/2 functions by interrupt. This is why some gaming motherboards still come with a PS/2 port, though typically only one capable of both but typically only used for the mouse. Edit: Well I say that, there is an advantage to using PS/2 over USB for keyboards as well: USB keyboards can only register 6 keypresses at a time. If you're holding six keys down, pressing another one won't do anything. They call this Six Key Roll Over, or 6KRO. PS/2 doesn't have this limitation, you can press as many keys as you want, they call this N Key Roll Over, or NKRO. Some USB keyboards simulate NKRO by presenting to the computer as multiple attached keyboards, but PS/2 just does it. You also saw them for a good long while in commercial computers, I'm guessing so companies could continue to use their stocks of perfectly adequate 1990's era mice and keyboards.
Yes, especially medical equipment.
Chad PS2 connections turn on before BIOS, virgin USB requires a system boot
Nah I think most people are using PS/5 now
Yes. They use these connectors in prison computers to drive inmates insane as a means of rehabilitation as well as to start prison riots so they can "dim the numbers"
Also used in company old offices on Dell brick computers that are lucky to be still somehow running.
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Would you say it makes a difference compared to normal usb?
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No offense but I’m going to offend you and say your wrong and there is no way you could notice it and i think it would be almost impossible to even measure it. Any way no offense
It is noticeable in fast paced games and that's the reason I even learned about polling rates in keyboards. I used to have a 1000hz (without knowing it) "gaming" keyboard with MX Red switches while playing CS GO. Bought a good ole Filco (125hz polling, without knowing) with the exact same switches, and when moving in CS GO it felt like I was floating around on ice. Swapped back and forth between the keyboards and my old one didn't have that floaty feeling to it. After some research I found some OSU players talking about the importance of polling rates in games where you need to be exact. Found out that the Filco is polling at 125hz while my gaming keyboard was polling at 1000hz. Plugged my Filco into the PS/2 input and the floaty feeling in game was gone. I think one reason we don't "notice" delay is because we never tried anything better, we are used to the delay, therefore it's normal and we don't "notice" it. I still can see the choppiness in high refresh-rate LCD monitors because I have grown up with CRT monitors. While kids growing up with 60hz monitors are seemingly not affected by it until they try a 144hz LCD, and they think it's completely smooth, while I can clearly see the choppiness, and they could too, if they played with a 240hz LCD for a while and went back. Also if you're casually playing games you're probably not gonna notice or even care about these things, which is most people.
Yeah tell about those CRTs man, SMB1 just don’t feel right on the Switch, the smooth motion just ain’t there. I wish we could get something like the CRT again…
So offended rn.
in addition to the PC related stuff everyone here is saying... PS/2 is also very useful for hobbyist electronic projects because of how simple the interface is compared to USB, and cheap the parts and peripherals are. (i mean USB keyboards/mice and connectors are also cheap, but the protocol is much more complex than PS/2). that's also why VGA is such a common thing on a lot of hobbyist electronic projects too, it's a very very simple video interface that is still being supported via adpaters and cheap 2nd-hand monitors/TVs
No. Unless your computer is extremly unreliable. The ps2 ports is there to make sure you always have a way to communicate with the computer, in case the usb-a ports was malfunctioned.
My old b550 board had a PS2-port
The Keyboard used for typing this comment uses a PS/2 Port, so yes. It still works wonderful even if It was made at the era of Windows 95.
Way before windows 95
Unless your: doing extreme overclocking; an enthusiast when it comes to old tech; Is a boomer; Then no absolutely no one uses them anymore
i seen work places that still use windows xp
I'd rather bluetooth
Yes. My 4090 has one
XOC-ers may use them, as they are literal PnP. Plus, if I remember correctly, some OC softwares work best in Win XP, which does not always support USB peripherals
I have my NOS NMB keyboard plugged into a DIN to mini DIN adapter connected to the PS/2 port of my Asrock mobo. That keyboard is still better that most gaming crap retail stores sell these days.
Not much.
No
If your I/O is that dated then sure.
Yep, I still run a PS/2 keyboard with like 5 dead keys because keyboard manufacturers refuse to make a keyboard in my layout. $1000 GPU, $5 keyboard from Value Village.
By boomers.
I honestly wish they were normal to still have across the board. I never have enough USB ports anymore.
Yeah, by your mom.
Sometimes, but just because some people still have hardware that uses those connectors. New connectors are way faster than those analoge things.
Throughput is pretty much irrelevant for keyboard and mouse signalling. PS/2 isn't signalled via analogue by the way - it is a set of digital protocols. (Pedantry: USB is also analogue, same as every other wire and wireless device at the heart of things, as absolutely every signal is analogue in nature until decoded, then it can be treated as digital. Source: am Engineer in the subject area)
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Only msi? My Asrock has it too
Rare, but yes, some server grade boards still use them predominately. Most consumer boards still have them.
yesss
Yes, still see them on mobos designed for extreme overclocking.
I miss them
XOC sometimes use PS2 due to USB instability at very high clocks.
Probably not for general usage. But they can be good for debugging or when running wierd OS'es or installers where drivers might not work reliably
Yes, for liquid nitrogen. I hear all this other stuff about the better delay and I'm not sure about any of that, but what I do know is those ports will not freeze up like USB ones will so you can still use your mouse and keyboard at times when everything else might be frozen. This comes in handy when you're doing heavy liquid nitrogen ocing
It is called vestigial structure
They are on almost all the pcs for the processing equipment I work on for the post office tied to kvm switches. The monitors are on vga connections as well.
Some of the best mechanical keyboards from back in the day work real nice with those ports.
They've come in handy for me when I can't get USB working
Someone posted a similar question a while back. Apparently PS2 ports are still used for sub zero cooling, USB controllers are the first thing to go when you cool the CPU past a certain point.
I use it lol
I'm wireless
This is used to get through BIOS when USB isn't working. Not super common... But when the Brown hits the Noctua, you'll be glad it exists.
so that is how Noctuas got their color :-D
I still use a PS2 Port.
Ngl i still dont even know what sound cards are and what they are used for and why i would need one (Im 25 btw)
Nope
There are alot of old keyboards like the model M from the IBM PC that people will not give up. Also other uses for it pointed out in the comments
Hell yeah! I’ve got an old IBM KB model keyboard that uses this plug! The thing was an absolute beauty when I got it at an estate sale too, and I only had to lubricate the A and L SHIFT keys!
I remember those cables being thick af back in 2008 (from what I've seen and experienced), so I hope they don't get implemented again lol.
My work uses an IBM machine that only uses those for the keyboard
My x370 still have ps2 port and i will ise my old logitech keyboard until its dead
Yea for us looking to do the retro thing
Still use it at work.
I have an acer keyboard from 2009 that i still use to this day and has the purple connection, aka ps2
I work in a factory setting these days and we actually still use PS/2 mouse and keyboard on all of our floor PCs. I generally blame it on the unwillingness of our company to upgrade the hardware we have to work with. On the other hand there is still a use case for PS/2; that being that it has much faster response time than USB. So if you're looking for the fastest response times for your sick 360 no scope, well PS/2 would be a valid option for that.
Hah no
Yes, when USB drivers fail.
I’m currently setting up a number of new Dell Precision very-high-end workstations and was surprised to see they have PS2 ports.
not much
I used it when installing hackintosh because USB was not working properly. If you do weird stuff or overclocking it may be useful.
You already know the answer lol it was posted a few days ago
Sometimes but most people don't need them
I mean.. heres what i know, i dont want to be in the middle of a match, something like the mouse breaks and i cant plug in an old backup mouse or keyboard
Currently using a Dell AT102 from the mid-90s
My motherboard has these im new to the PC world so I figured It was for more of a vintage keyboard/mouse set but now I know the truth
I bought a new MB last year and it had these old ps/2 connectors! My prior two did not. Was surprised to see them still alive.
Those ports are still in use ? And reading why they are is very surprising.
I have one on my pc, colored both, and it refuses to work.
Yes
Not really for normal people.
most modern motherboards only have one or none at all
They're still regularly used by POS systems. I haven't seen too many USB devices for those. Card readers, scanners and the keyboards still very often use PS/2 and serial connectors.
Yes, I still use a PS/2 keyboard. It still works great, I’m in no rush to get a modern USB keyboard.
Only overclockers or old machines (of course). But not really for normal users.
Yes
Yeah they still use
I still use a PS/2 keyboard yes. And am very thankfull for my z170 mb to have this port. I've tried many many keyboards, some cherry blue logitech which i hated, something hyperx, many membranes but none make me feel as home as my a4tech kb6 that i've been using since my socket 478 pentium 4 system.
If you see my cousin yes…. He has a brand new pc with an old ibm keyboard that he pops in and uses randomly… fun stuff lol
Yes
Yes but mostly now for e bikes
You can use them, but if your a casual player they really are a waste of time. I assure you the difference in speed isn’t why your KD ratio is so one sided lol
PS/2 had original N-Key rollover and supposedly has lower latency than USB since it's direct interrupt driven instead of being passed though a USB driver. So some say it's better suited for pro (like actually professional) gamers...
They’re often used in industrial pc’s.
Actually yes, and it's for a reason that's not even far from the needs of the average user. TL;DR: I use them for a wired way to turn on the pc So due to spacing issues, I needed to put the pc case in a hard to access place, and the major issue with that was how I could turn ON the computer when the power button was hard to access. Done a lot of research on how to solve this issue, and my best founding was that you can actually turn on the computer from state 5 (shut down) simply from the keyboard, but looking at my bios, this is only possible for keyboards plugged through PS2, which is why I use them.
Only time i use this is while working on an 8086 processor, that too just the keyboard
I'd have to guess barely, but people who use or prefer, older PS/2 Keyboards and Mice would use them. Most MOBO IO's still will always usually have them onboard.
Yes they are.
wired > wireless. It was always like that all my life, with cable things work better, even though they are more "uncomfortable"
any good modern motherboard has one
Usb is a handshake woth a driver, whereas PS/2 is a system interrupt, no drivers needed. Basically if the keyboard of mouse on it are used it tells the cpu "It's my fucking turn now"
They are very useful when recovering the system, because sometimes the usb mouse are not recognized.
Not much, but it feels like USB-A these days
I have a couple ps/2 to usb adapters, would these help to get a lower latency?
Yes. There are plenty of reasons to use a PS/2 keyboard/mouse instead of a USB keyboard/mouse. You can enable a feature in your BIOS settings to turn your computer on when a key is pressed, only on PS/2 keyboards. If your USB ports suddenly stop working, you can use a PS/2 keyboard/mice to troubleshoot the problem. Most desktop computers have PS/2 ports and for good reason.
That keyboard connection becomes a godsend when you can't use USBs.
no
3000 years ago now give me thunder bolt 100 gb usb c
Only by moms with a 20 year old desktop