Kleene, Steven (kleenesj) wrote: > My concern is about support for three ancient peripherals that I like better > than the modern equivalents: > 1. A Northgate Omnikey 101 keyboard (from 2006) with a 5-pin DIN cable, > currently going via an adapter to a PS/2 port in the desktop;
I have one of these. 1. Most current desktop motherboards have a PS/2 port. Check the specs before you buy. 2. There are two kinds of PS/2 to USB adapters; one kind will work for you, and the other won't. You need an "active" converter, as opposed to a passive adapter, which assumes that the keyboard is of a new variety that just needs the wiring. The active ones tend to cost $10-20, and the passive ones $2-5. > 2. A Logitech M-MD15L three-button roller-ball serial mouse (from 2006); and You can get USB to RS232 serial adapters for about $10. > 3. An HP LaserJet 5MP printer from 1995 with a parallel-port connector. StarTech sells a $42 PCIe card with a parallel port and two serial ports. If you're getting a desktop, this might be your preferred path. Two other options: The 5MP has an expansion slot where you can put a network interface. HP J2552-60001 is the part number. Refurbs of these sell for about $75, which is about half the cost of a new laser printer which will have a network port, duplex, and be about 8x faster. StarTech also makes a $75 parallel printer network server, which is probably more available than the internal card, and can work on other parallel interface printers. -dsr-
