Remember when the only cables you had coming out of the back of your computer were for a keyboard/mouse, monitor, power, printer? I do, I also remember never having trouble because the cable was in adequate.
But then USB 1.1 was replaced by 2.0 and things got a little confusing, which brings me to my point. Much like wiring a good speaker system the wire you use makes all the difference. I have bought the 2 dollar cables from websites, and also the 60 dollar cables from stores. For the most part I can’t tell the difference, except with a few things. Scanners, external hard drives and card readers.
So I have some advice from my own experience to impart to you all, if you want to know it, read on.
First when buying a cable for any device that you want quality and speed with, buy a cable from a well known brand, and keep it as short as you can. Also buy the gold plated ones and such. I use and buy the better and more expensive cables for devices such as:
- External Hard Drives (some of these especially my mobile LaCie drive will not run off a cheaper cable, as those cable tend to not supply enough power to the drive. When I plug in the power supply it works, but at a slower speed).
- Card Readers: you are transferring pictures, that you love, and that you want to be of high quality, why cheap out on the cable? Also power is a concern here.
- Scanners: Power is not an issue, but quality is a big issue, so is speed, spend more.
For things such as non-photo printers I will tend to buy the cheaper cables, I mean text can only looks so good. For photo printers I would buy a better cable.
One thing to remember is that I have only tested this in my head, meaning that there is no proof or data to back up what I am saying. Just my own experiences, does anybody else have data?
