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USB AND FIREWIRE ON ONE CARD

The days of serial and parallel connections are all but gone. Today's modern peripherals connect to your computer via USB and FireWire. If your computer still doesn't have either of these standards, you can now get both of them in one card that works on both PC and Macintosh computers. Adaptec's DuoConnect card plugs into any one of your computer's PCI slots and in return gives you 4 USB and 3 FireWire ports. And the USB portion now supports the current 1.1 and the newer 2.0 versions of USB. The DuoConnect is one of the first to offer this multi-platform dual standards ability in a single card and should prove to be invaluable to anyone looking to add both interfaces to their aging computer. It's also Windows XP compatible. $155.99

Don't forget the SCSI

While USB and FireWire are the latest to communicate with your peripherals, SCSI is still hanging around. And if you find yourself with an older peripheral such as an external hard drive you'd like to hook up to your new sans SCSI computer, Adaptec has the answer. The USBXchange is an integrated cable adapter that lets you connect a SCSI device to your computer via a USB connection. This is an ideal way to offload important data from any legacy devices you may still have or to squeeze out some additional life span to an aging piece of equipment. Simply attach the SCSI end of the cable to the peripheral and the USB end to any available USB port.

I would have preferred to see a FireWire to SCSI cable since the transfer rate would have been almost forty times faster but nonetheless, the USBXchange got the job done as I was able to transfer the valuable data from my old external SCSI hard drive to my new computer that did not come with a SCSI interface. The USBXchange works with the slower USB 1.1 standard, comes with a SCSI adapter that lets you attach it to a 50 or 25 pin SCSI plug, and works with PC and Macintosh computers. It also supports the new Windows XP. $75.

www.adaptec.com

USB comes to CD

It seems like the two modern computer connections, USB and FireWire are making inroads to other consumer electronic products. For example, FireWire is the preferred way to transfer video from a digital cam corder. Most of these camera's DV (Digital Video) connectors make use the high-speed FireWire connection standard. Most portable MP3 players have a USB port (Apple's iPod is the first to use FireWire) but the Onkyo's Executive Shelf System DW-S500 home CD player is one of the first home stereo systems to offer a USB port. The port allows users to connect the stereo CD player to a computer. Once connected, you can listen to your computer's MP3 files, online radio stations, streaming audio and other computer sounds directly through the Onkyo's amplified high quality speakers. The Executive Shelf System stands upright and features slim speakers, a backlit vertical CD player with a motorized door, 30 AM/FM presets, FM auto-scan, a three-mode timer and a full function remote control. $400

www.onkyousa.com