Powered USB Hub - Bad Idea?

[harrisonjr98]

I have a new Asus GL502VS in the mail and it has a 1070 in it, so I want to be able to come home and "dock" at my desk for some gaming after work. My plan is to do my two monitors via the laptop's mini display and hdmi outputs, and then all of my desk usb devices through something like this: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VDVCQ84/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A294P4X9EWVXLJ

I know in the past days of USB 2.0 and whatnot, people always said that a single hub would bottleneck 7 or so devices because of the lack of throughput. Now with 3.0- and additional wall power to the hub- is this still something to worry about? For reference, I would NOT be plugging in storage devices to the hub. Likely a keyboard, mouse, DAC, microphone, audio interface, midi keyboard, and some other stuff like that.

 

I once had a friend tell me his USB hub "fried" his port, too- though again, this was in the USB 2.0 days. Was that bullshit?

 

Thanks for any help guys! I love this forum

[Guest]

I personally had no problems with my USB 3.0 powered ports... except it died. Maybe of bad quality but 2 ports is dead out of 4 after a year. But if the hub is something with huge positive reviews like yours I would not worry much, mine was from a local Walmart

 

I only plugged my phone and some controllers and peripherals so can't tell how strong will be limited

[PeachyUwUSenpai]

you bought a a good quality hub and this hub only has 7 transfer ports so you won't hit a bottleneck  you should be fine 

[harrisonjr98]

7 minutes ago, Alaradia said:

you bought a a good quality hub and this hub only has 7 transfer ports so you won't hit a bottleneck  you should be fine 

Thanks!

[SCHISCHKA]

get a hub with a seperate power supply; a power brick. I had one with an internal power supply and I had to replace the whole thing when it developed could whine. I saw a nice hub a while ago with switches on it; i can't seem to find it on sale anymore

[PeachyUwUSenpai]

1 minute ago, SCHISCHKA said:

get a hub with a seperate power supply; a power brick. I had one with an internal power supply and I had to replace the whole thing when it developed could whine. I saw a nice hub a while ago with switches on it; i can't seem to find it on sale anymore

did you even read his post...... the one he linked has a power brick........

[SCHISCHKA]

5 minutes ago, Alaradia said:

did you even read his post...... the one he linked has a power brick........

correct i did not click the link

[APasz]

USB2 is about 35ish Mb/s or about 300ish Mbit/s which is enough  to handle a few basic devices like a keyboard, mouse, simple DAC then you'll start having problems.

USB3 is about 3/4ish Gb/s or about 30,000ish Mbit/s which is enough for your keyboard, mouse, advanced DAC, MIDI and a drive or three.

USB3.1 is about 8/9ish Gb/s or about 70,000ish Mbit/s which is enough to handle double USB3 plus some.

I say ish quite a bit because there are a lot of other factors that limit real world speeds.

 

Anyway all those stories of melting/exploding/faulty hubs are generally from unknown brands trying to do it as cheaply as possible.

In a lot of countries powered USB hubs don't quite fall under high voltage electrical safety law, rather they fall under low voltage safety law which is a bit more lax.

So just keep your head on a swivel and check reviews.

[harrisonjr98]

1 minute ago, APasz said:

USB2 is about 35ish Mb/s or about 300ish Mbit/s which is enough  to handle a few basic devices like a keyboard, mouse, simple DAC then you'll start having problems.

USB3 is about 3/4ish Gb/s or about 30,000ish Mbit/s which is enough for your keyboard, mouse, advanced DAC, MIDI and a drive or three.

USB3.1 is about 8/9ish Gb/s or about 70,000ish Mbit/s which is enough to handle double USB3 plus some.

I say ish quite a bit because there are a lot of other factors that limit real world speeds.

 

Anyway all those stories of melting/exploding/faulty hubs are generally from unknown brands trying to do it as cheaply as possible.

In a lot of countries powered USB hubs don't quite fall under high voltage electrical safety law, rather they fall under low voltage safety law which is a bit more lax.

So just keep your head on a swivel and check reviews.

And I won't see latency from the keyboard and mouse over 3.0? i would go for 3.1 but I can't seem to find any that look reputable.

[APasz]

1 minute ago, harrisonjr98 said:

And I won't see latency from the keyboard and mouse over 3.0? i would go for 3.1 but I can't seem to find any that look reputable.

Latency will be fine for usb 3 and 3.1 USB2 is generally fine.

Usb3 is enough for most people.