I usually

Subject: I usually
Name: SickOfItAll
Date: 1/17/2002 10:42:28 AM (GMT-7)
IP Address: 208.1.79.30
In Reply to: Had another thought posted by Ben
Message:

Disable all built in ports except for COM1 (not that I use it, but its nice to have at least 1 serial port ready for use "just in case"). Since all my plug in devices are USB, I don't need LPT or COM2, and this frees up 2 more IRQ's for other devices (sort of, see my IRQ sharing discussion below).

The USB controller is included in the IRQ sharing table, so I can't stress enough that you need to refer to the mb documentation to get a better picture of which slots are sharing and which aren't.