Why do PS/2 connectors still exist on newer motherboards?

[Cyber2B]

If you don't know these connect a mouse or keyboard. However now its all USB.

Reason why they should remove it because they could fit more USBs or possibly wifi

[Omega]

Legacy compatibility, so think stuff like MS-DOS and older versions of Windows or other OSs which might not support USB input devices.

[nullable]

Sometimes it takes a long time for legacy inputs to die. My motherboard only has one ps/2 port. They're usually cheap to implement so it's not like you're really paying a lot for some old port no one is going to use.

This happens with everything. Printer ports took forever to die. Same with the classic 15pin gameports controllers often used. Two ports that existed for years after USB was pretty much the norm.

Although I am surprised that ps/2 had hung around for quite as long as it has.

Reason why they should remove it because they could fit more USBs or possibly wifi

Reality is they would just remove it and save the $1.50 per unit instead of adding more ports or a whole new feature. You're almost certainly not giving up USB ports or wifi because of that ps/2 port. Not when you can get motherboards 6-10 USB ports, with wifi and a ps/2 port anyway.

[_I_]

Originally posted by Omega:

Legacy compatibility, so think stuff like MS-DOS and older versions of Windows.

^ this

so people with the old mech ps2 mouse/keyboards can use them
usb has to go thru the usb hub, ps2 goes directly to the chipset with its own interrupt

[Snow]

Originally posted by Omega:

Legacy compatibility, so think stuff like MS-DOS and older versions of Windows or other OSs which might not support USB input devices.

This can even happen to BIOS in some cases even with legacy USB turned on. But there's more to it.
The truth is there's just nothing to replace it with yet. USB works by polling the hardware at certain rate, and despite how frequent that happens - there still is a delay. PS/2 works by sending hardware interrupts, making the PC acknowledge the inputs immediately. These days - u're unlikely to see any notable difference, but there still are some gamers who prefer PS/2 way just because of that difference. PS/2 also supports NKRO, which allows to press a lot of buttons simultaneously. Some fighting games or local co-op games did require that feature back in the day, and some might still need it Yet again, these days USB keyboards manufacturers implement various workarounds to solve the issue, but in some cases using a good old PS/2 KB laying is just a simplier solution.
PS/2 is not just useful in many cases, but also superior in some way. Oh, and I am writing this using PS/2 KB aswell. I really prefer turning on the PC by pressing the spacebar rather than going all the way down to press power button on the PC. USB keyboards can't do even that lol.

[CursedPanther]

Originally posted by Snow:

PS/2 also supports NKRO, which allows to press a lot of buttons simultaneously. Some fighting games or local co-op games did require that feature back in the day, and some might still need it Yet again, these days USB keyboards manufacturers implement various workarounds to solve the issue, but in some cases using a good old PS/2 KB laying is just a simplier solution.

A very good point. This reminded me of once using a friend's cheap USB keyboard many years ago that just wouldn't take a third simultaneously pressed key input no matter what. Manufacturers have indeed solved this problem pretty much nowadays.

[Cyber2B]

Originally posted by Brockenstein:

Sometimes it takes a long time for legacy inputs to die. My motherboard only has one ps/2 port. They're usually cheap to implement so it's not like you're really paying a lot for some old port no one is going to use.

This happens with everything. Printer ports took forever to die. Same with the classic 15pin gameports controllers often used. Two ports that existed for years after USB was pretty much the norm.

Although I am surprised that ps/2 had hung around for quite as long as it has.

Reason why they should remove it because they could fit more USBs or possibly wifi

Reality is they would just remove it and save the $1.50 per unit instead of adding more ports or a whole new feature. You're almost certainly not giving up USB ports or wifi because of that ps/2 port. Not when you can get motherboards 6-10 USB ports, with wifi and a ps/2 port anyway.

I'm talking about budget motherboards, h310m, b350, anything that cots below $100 CDN.

Sure you could get a better motherboard with more USBs but that = more $$$$

Considering I only play video games, I cannot see a reason to even purchase the higher end boards.

[_I_]

cheap is often for office pcs, many offices dont want to spend the extra $$ for new keyboards if they upgrade the pc

[Cyber2B]

Originally posted by _I_:

cheap is often for office pcs, many offices dont want to spend the extra $$ for new keyboards if they upgrade the pc

Seems stereotpyical. Also a office PC can be cheap and effective gaming PC buy simply changing the PSU and adding a GPU.

I'm cheap because I don't want to spend more then $500 for device to play games?

[_I_]

cheap office pc is around $200
pentium g, bx10 board, 8g ram, tiny hdd/ssd

cheapest 1151 board has lpt, com, ps2 ports and vga
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zN66Mp/gigabyte-ga-h110-d3a-atx-lga1151-motherboard-ga-h110-d3a

a good office pc can be converted to a low-mid end gaming rig with psu and gpu

[Cyber2B]

Originally posted by _I_:

cheap office pc is around $200
pentium g, bx10 board, 8g ram, tiny hdd/ssd

cheapest 1151 board has lpt, com, ps2 ports and vga
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zN66Mp/gigabyte-ga-h110-d3a-atx-lga1151-motherboard-ga-h110-d3a

Oh, I buy local

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-desktop-computers/edmonton/uniway-west-customized-gaming-computer-core-i3-i5-i7/1411169528?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

Just add a GPU and i'm done.

Forgot to add that in, Toyota was recently throwing their computers away which were Dell Optiplexes that had i5s in the landfill, they were working computers though but since BC is quite a luxury in Canada they pretty much don't care.

BIG NOTE: Prices are in CDN, forgot that Steam is mostly American users

[Snow]

Originally posted by Fiora Laurent:

Forgot to add that in, Toyota was recently throwing their computers away which were Dell Optiplexes that had i5s in the landfill

There's a lot of this going on in China all the time. U can get pretty much anything from aliexpress and taobao for a ridiculously low price in some cases. Especially older Xeon processors, it's a really popular way to build a PC in Russia these days. Also because of how cheap server CPUs and RAM are, companies like Huanan started making 1366/2011 mobos.

[Cyber2B]

Originally posted by Snow:

Originally posted by Fiora Laurent:

Forgot to add that in, Toyota was recently throwing their computers away which were Dell Optiplexes that had i5s in the landfill

There's a lot of this going on in China all the time. U can get pretty much anything from aliexpress and taobao for a ridiculously low price in some cases. Especially older Xeon processors, it's a really popular way to build a PC in Russia these days. Also because of how cheap server CPUs and RAM are, companies like Huanan started making 1366/2011 mobos.

I'm talking about for Free. Sure you could get them on online for cheap. But I was simply providing an example.

People can benefit from the wealthy. Toyota was willing to throw away working computers because they were getting a upgrade according to my uncle who works there.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Fiora Laurent:

I'm talking about budget motherboards, h310m, b350, anything that cots below $100 CDN.

Sure you could get a better motherboard with more USBs but that = more $$$$

Considering I only play video games, I cannot see a reason to even purchase the higher end boards.

I don't think that changes anything, in your OP you said removing the ps/2 could enable them to put on more usb ports or add wifi. Which isn't the case. And on cheap boards, removing the ps/2 port probably won't save much cost, get you any improvements, or lower the retail price noticeably.

Regardless how you want to re-frame your argument against the ps/2 port, cost probably just isn't a compelling reason, it's just not an expensive feature. There's no particular benefit in removing it. Either enough users still need it, or it's just the port that won't die and it's inconsequential to keep including it, take your pick. I've also seen a dozen legacy features slow vanish from motherboards over the past 20 years, so it'll happen when it happens. It's a non-issue really, I mean I don't need a ps/2 port, I think it's pretty silly. But no one's life gets better with it gone either.

[HypersleepyNaputunia]

I think ps2 less laggy, usb gets buggy sometimes depending