I have an ASUS A8N32-SLI DELUXE mobo, AMD4800+ CPU, nVidia 7950GT, running WinXP Home. I encounter slowdowns and occasional freezes when using intensive graphics (like FSX), which appear to go away when I disable all the USB2 devices I have conencted (Logitech G15 keyboard, Logitech wireless mouse, external HD, and flight sumulation yoke and rudder pedals- the last 2 being connected through a USB external hub). If I was to disable USB on the motherboard and install a PCI card with USB2.0 connectivity, I'm wondering if this might help with this issue. I believe that by disabling USB on the mobo I am only disabling the on-board ports, and not the functionality that a PCI card would offer. I'm wondering what the trade-off might be by running USB2.0 connections through a PCI card compared to the on-board ports. Thanks- Bruce.

AFAIK I am not aware that USB ports can act as resource hogs only power hogs, however what you list doesn't sound to me as if your struggling to power all the attached devices. Your external USB hub is self powered I assume?Perhaps there is an IRQ conflict going on?Installing a PCI usb card may help but to be honest I would perhaps try before you buy if at all possible.

Thanks. Yes, the external hub is self-powered. I have read also where this particular motherboard (A8N, uses the n4 chipset) does exhibit issues like this with the on-board USB, which led me to experiment.Thanks again, Bruce.