USB extended

treeman

treeman

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I need more USB ports than the 4 On the iMac, so thought I'd get one of those things that gives me more ports.
Just wanted to check that I presume it makes no difference what type I get? Some seem a lot more expensive than others, also some seem to need a separate power supply. :shrug:
 
I would recommend getting one with it's own power supply if you're hanging anything more power hungry than a keyboard, mouse etc on it.. That way you can plug in cell phones, USB disks etc without the iMac seeing too much power drain on a single port (it will disable devices if the power drain is exceeded).
 
Powered hubs are better as the amount of power that is available from the host ( Computer ) port is limited to around 500mA. an un powered hub will have to split this across however number of additional USB ports the hub has. A powered one will make the full amount available to each port.

Also remember that although you may four or more additional ports on with a hub, the data rate is limited to the bandwidth of the original host port. So if you are using this to run several hard drives, the transfer rate could be slow compared to running them from the USB connections from the iMac.
 
I should have explained further.

I will only be using one of the extender ports at a time, it's just that I can't be doing with plugging and un-plugging stuff continually.

So I presume a non-powered one will be fine, could really do without adding any more to my elec sockets!!
 
Remember the extra hub will use one of your existing sockets, so you will be using two of the new ones, just to achieve a gain of one.
 
treeman said:
So I presume a non-powered one will be fine, could really do without adding any more to my elec sockets!!
Click to expand...

Depends on what's on the other end. If it's a non powered hard drive I'd go for a powered one to be safe. Also if it's a card reader. However a printer on the other hand should be OK
 
Powered hubs really are the best. If you're short of plugs then this is probably ideal. 7 USB ports (all powered) and 3 power sockets. I've got one and I think it's great.
 
treeman said:
I need more USB ports than the 4 On the iMac, so thought I'd get one of those things that gives me more ports.
I should have explained further.

I will only be using one of the extender ports at a time, it's just that I can't be doing with plugging and un-plugging stuff continually.
Click to expand...
? confused you want more or not?
If you plug ion a lead to one of the USB this means you have the same.
If you plug in a hub you will have one less then how many are on the hub.
You want more yet you say you will only be using one port at a time but cant be un-plugging
Are you saying you want many things plugged in but only one thing will be working at any one tiome?
What things are you plugging in? so printers don't like being on hubs I have found in the pasted.
 
Chaz Photos said:
? confused you want more or not?
If you plug ion a lead to one of the USB this means you have the same.
If you plug in a hub you will have one less then how many are on the hub.
You want more yet you say you will only be using one port at a time but cant be un-plugging
Are you saying you want many things plugged in but only one thing will be working at any one tiome?
What things are you plugging in? so printers don't like being on hubs I have found in the pasted.
Click to expand...

I'll explain, I've 4 ports and of those only three are likely to be running at the same. ( card reader, external HD, and tablet). Other ports needed for, printer, iPhone, colour profiler.

So wouldn't a non-powered, one do? :)
 
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