
Data Rate Comparison
Interconnect |
Maximum Data Rate |
USB 1.1 | 12 Mb/s |
USB 2.0 | 480 Mb/s |
Firewire (1394a) | 400 Mb/s |
Firewire (1394b) | 800 Mb/s |
10BASE5 Ethernet | 10 Mb/s |
10BASE-T Ethernet | 10 Mb/s |
100BASE-T Ethernet | 100 Mb/s |
1000BASE-T Ethernet | 1000 Mb/s |
RJ-11 telephone | 56 kb/s without DSL |
Parrallel | 150 kb/s |
Serial | 115 kb/s |
Data Interconnect Tips
- When wiring your house with Ethernet cables, make sure to use Cat 5e or Cat 6 to future-proof your wiring for the gigabit interface.
- The parallel, serial, and PS/2 interconnects are considered to be legacy connectors. USB and Firewire have slowly been replacing them.
- Look for motherboards with USB 2.0 sockets to take advantage of the faster speed.
- See the cables section for more information on, you guessed it, cables.
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