Good powered USB hub recommendation?

I have a lot of powered USB devices that have flaked out in the past hooked up to various generic (Belkin, etc.) “powered” USB hubs. When hooked directly to my laptop, they’re fine, but I’m now approaching critical mass (PocketPC, keyboard, mouse, GuitarPort, audio interface/keyboard) and need something that doesn’t require daisy chaining into my keyboard, etc.

Can anyone recommend a powered USB hub that can provide enough juice to these devices?

Check out the 3 year bump…so, yeah, I’m back in this predicament since my MBP only has two USB ports and I’m trying to connect multiple devices to it. I’m using a BT keyboard, and will probably get a BT mouse, but that still leaves only two ports open for external HDD, MIDI keyboard, and dongles.

I’ve actually tried this and it’s not very good.
Unless all your USB-wires are pure white, it will also look like shit once it’s actually in use.

Any hub with it’s own power supply should do the trick. It’s the simplest piece of technology and I’ve never had problems with even the simplest noname chinese piece of plastic.

For your laptop you might consider a powered docking station permanently wired on your desk. It also make working on the laptop more pleasant. Both Targus and Logitech has some good choices.
For just a powered hub, I use this.

More comedy options:


I’ve got an i-Rocks flash card reader that I bought for reading SDHC cards on my MacBook but I also use it as a powered USB hub and it works great. It only has 3 USB ports since it isn’t a dedicated USB hub, but that’s more than enough for my needs. It is optionally powered – you can plug it into the wall to get more juice for USB devices, but if you’re just using it as a card reader or for other light USB tasks, you can use it just off the power from your computer’s USB port that it plugs into.

that’s the problem though. brian mentioned he’s had bad luck with ‘generic’ (belkin/kensington etc.) usb hubs but there’s not really any name-brand stuff since they’re all made by the same taiwanese oems.

i’m not sure if he plugged the hubs he used in with the ac adapter though.

that’s the problem though. brian mentioned he’s had bad luck with ‘generic’ (belkin/kensington etc.) usb hubs but there’s not really any name-brand stuff since they’re all made by the same taiwanese oems.

i’m not sure if he plugged the hubs he used in with the ac adapter though.

You really need an AC adapter if you’re going to be plugging in arbitrary things.


http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-13651-FoodHub+et+FoodDish+USB+by+SolidAlliance.html

I actually use this:

It has worked well, and it’s powered.

Otherwise I’d grab the Belkin. I’ve used one at home for years, and never had problem.

I’m a fan of this Belkiin:

Two on the top, five on the side, a cord holder, and easily stackable (although I haven’t used it in tandem with a second hub). Think I found it through a review on Everything USB which you should try to hunt up if you get a chance–I believe the reviewer pretty much plugged everything they had into one hub and it worked fine. But you should double-check if you’re interested.

That’s the one I use. Works well, doesn’t look like crap — recommended.

I ended up with a D-Link 7-port and it seems to be solid so far. Two hard drives and a MIDI keyboard plugged into it, with a POD Pro Live and probably a keyboard and mouse eventually as well. Oh, and a Wacom tablet and Pro Tools dongle.

Unfortunately work on my setup is halted since my M-Audio FireWire Solo doesn’t seem to work very well with my Macbook Pro, which is pissing me off to no end.

Had that D-Link 7-port hub and it died on me after a year or so. Didn’t completely die, just started taking forever to talk to the PC, so it was a bitch to troubleshoot my USB boot problems.

Replaced it with a Cables to Go 7-port I got from Amazon that’s been great. Has one of those bright blue LEDs that I know everyone loves.

Ooooooooooooooooh! And it comes with a flashing light and dematerialization sound? Sold.

After a year my D-Link hit critical mass. Three hard drives, a MIDI keyboard (RemoteSL 61), and a Lexicon Alpha audio interface, and it flakes out. It’s a very insidious kind of flaky though, because devices sort of silently disappear/don’t work/aren’t seen by the computer.

The D-link is powered and plugged into the wall BTW.

I read some reviews that said that at 4 devices it starts to reach the limits of what it can handle, and sure as hell, I have 5 devices plugged in. I was running into problems with my RemoteSL not being recognized, so on a hunch I plugged it straight into the laptop and it magically appeared.

I then plugged it into the HUB, and it disappeared. I unplugged a hard drive…and it came right back. Bah.

So I need to either find the mythical super reliable 5+ port USB hub or I may break down and buy a new USB HDD to replace my 2 of my 3 current ones.

Wow, eerie, this post is one day off from a year from the last posting…and almost exactly four years from my original one.

Heeey.

You should post more often. I use this:

This handles 7 with no problems either:

I ended up ordering a Cables 2 Go 7-port (which gets good reviews, including DennyA’s above) and I’ll put that on my second laptop USB. This will let me then distribute the load thusly:

USB A - RemoteSL, HDD 1, HDD 2, Lexicon Alpha
USB B - Mouse, HDD 3, iPhone

Don’t think I’ll coalesce my HDDs until I can find a decent NAS RAID solution. HDD 1 is my Time Machine drive, and HDD 2 and HDD 3 are mirrored 500GB drives that store my media files.