Limits of USB hubs.

On Sun, 26 May 2019 14:40:49 -0700, Ken Blake
wrote:

On Mon, 27 May 2019 07:31:27 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:

On Wed, 22 May 2019 17:58:29 -0400, Paul
wrote:

Peter Jason wrote:


Thanks, I have ordered one, and I'll report back.

It was delivered last week. It's about a foot long and looks well
made in brushed aluminium. Sadly it comes with a separate transformer
instead of the combo with the wall plug, so adding to desk clutter.
Dust is a concern so I use it on its side. I have plugged in many
external HDDs & thumb drives and their performance is unaltered from
previously. So far so good.



Glad to hear that, but let me ask a question, just out of curiosity.
Why do you need so many USB ports? Under what circumstances do you
have so many things plugged into them?

I have 7 USB ports on my computer case--four in the back and three in
the front. Two in the back are always in use (keyboard and mouse) and
I sometimes use one other for am external hard or thumb drive. I can't
remember ever using more.

I like using the Logitech mouse and keyboards that use the unifying
receiver. Instead of having a separate USB receiver for each mouse or
keyboard, you have one receiver that can connect to up to 6 mice or
keyboards. That really helps when you're using a laptop or some other
PC that doesn't have that many USB ports.

I use the K780 keyboard and M720 mouse, both devices themselves can
connect to 3 different PC's, tablets, or smartphones either through a
Logitech unifying USB receiver or through a BlueTooth connection. So I
can use this mouse keyboard combo on 3 different devices. Right now I
have it set up for my laptop, my smartphone, and this Surface tablet.

Switching which devices is easy. With the keyboard the F1, F2, and F3
keys select which channel is being used, and the mouse has a button on
the side that changes channels. With the Logitech Options software
installed you can enable "Flow" and then just putting your pointer
along one (user definable) edge of the screen automatically switches
both mouse and keyboard to another device.

On Sun, 26 May 2019 16:32:31 -0700, Ken Blake
wrote:

On Mon, 27 May 2019 09:17:24 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:

On Sun, 26 May 2019 14:40:49 -0700, Ken Blake

[...snip..]


8/ A "probox" 8xHDD external storage.
the rest spare for now.



OK, we're all different. To me, most of those things would be used one
at a time and I wouldn't have them all plugged in at once.

But I'll make two comments:

1. I never charge my phone in a USB port. It's much faster to plug it
into a wall power outlet.

Me either, I have a Google Pixel 2 XL and it charges much faster using
the power adapter that came with it over using a USB port on my
laptop. Right now my phone is plugged in and it's at 68%. It's
reporting that it will be fully charged in a little over 15 minutes...

2. If you keep your backup drives plugged in all the time, as far as
I'm concerned you're taking an unnecessary risk. It is always possible
that a user error, nearby lightning strike, virus attack, even theft
of the computer, can cause the loss of everything plugged in.

My backup drives aren't plugged into my laptop, they're attached to my
home LAN. My NAS boxes are next to the router which are in a separate
room from all the computers.

On Sun, 26 May 2019 14:40:49 -0700, Ken Blake
wrote:

On Mon, 27 May 2019 07:31:27 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:

On Wed, 22 May 2019 17:58:29 -0400, Paul
wrote:

Peter Jason wrote:


Thanks, I have ordered one, and I'll report back.

It was delivered last week. It's about a foot long and looks well
made in brushed aluminium. Sadly it comes with a separate transformer
instead of the combo with the wall plug, so adding to desk clutter.
Dust is a concern so I use it on its side. I have plugged in many
external HDDs & thumb drives and their performance is unaltered from
previously. So far so good.



Glad to hear that, but let me ask a question, just out of curiosity.
Why do you need so many USB ports? Under what circumstances do you
have so many things plugged into them?

I have 7 USB ports on my computer case--four in the back and three in
the front. Two in the back are always in use (keyboard and mouse) and


I forgot the other two always in use: printer and scanner.


I sometimes use one other for am external hard or thumb drive. I can't
remember ever using more.

In article , Ken Blake
wrote:

Glad to hear that, but let me ask a question, just out of curiosity.
Why do you need so many USB ports? Under what circumstances do you
have so many things plugged into them?

I have 7 USB ports on my computer case--four in the back and three in
the front. Two in the back are always in use (keyboard and mouse) and


I forgot the other two always in use: printer and scanner.

usually that's the same device, and these days, a printer is usually on
the network so that more than just one computer can use it. a lot of
printers have wifi so no need to run a separate network cable.

In article ,
says...

On Mon, 27 May 2019 07:31:27 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:

On Wed, 22 May 2019 17:58:29 -0400, Paul
wrote:

Peter Jason wrote:


Thanks, I have ordered one, and I'll report back.

It was delivered last week. It's about a foot long and looks well
made in brushed aluminium. Sadly it comes with a separate transformer
instead of the combo with the wall plug, so adding to desk clutter.
Dust is a concern so I use it on its side. I have plugged in many
external HDDs & thumb drives and their performance is unaltered from
previously. So far so good.



Glad to hear that, but let me ask a question, just out of curiosity.
Why do you need so many USB ports? Under what circumstances do you
have so many things plugged into them?

I have 7 USB ports on my computer case--four in the back and three in
the front. Two in the back are always in use (keyboard and mouse) and
I sometimes use one other for am external hard or thumb drive. I can't
remember ever using more.

Let's see now ... my main system has 10 usb ports, 6 on back, 2 on front
plus card reader has one and keyboard has one also.

I use Mouse, Keyboard, usb 4 port hub, printer, 3 external hard disks
running 24/7 (with hub doing same with 3 more also 24/7 plus external
burner) , tv tuner, a joypad, with more as required (GPS device,
Flightstick, racing wheel etc.)

With all the ports I still only have one free on front to plug in backup
external hard disk when required or controller for games etc.

PC always has at least 8 hard disks showing in my Computer. 6 are
externals, add a mouse, keyboard, tv tuner etc. and I'm happy to still
have a free port.

I have a second 4 port powered hub if/when required to add more

On Mon, 27 May 2019 15:39:06 -0300, pjp
wrote:

Let's see now ... my main system has 10 usb ports, 6 on back, 2 on front
plus card reader has one and keyboard has one also.

I use Mouse, Keyboard, usb 4 port hub, printer, 3 external hard disks
running 24/7 (with hub doing same with 3 more also 24/7 plus external
burner) , tv tuner, a joypad, with more as required (GPS device,
Flightstick, racing wheel etc.)

With all the ports I still only have one free on front to plug in backup
external hard disk when required or controller for games etc.

PC always has at least 8 hard disks showing in my Computer. 6 are
externals, add a mouse, keyboard, tv tuner etc. and I'm happy to still
have a free port.

I have a second 4 port powered hub if/when required to add more

My recommendation for your very next purchase would be a computer case
that can accommodate all of the internal drives that you already have,
plus the 6 external drives that are permanently connected. That would
take care of what must be a huge mess of cables, adapters/docks, and
power supplies. :-)

My current mid-tower case has 8 3.5" bays and 4 5.25" bays that can hold
either 4 or 5 3.5" drives depending on the adapter(s) used, plus 3 m.2
slots, 3 PCIe slots that can accept drive adapters, and of course room
for at least one drive on the floor of the case. As a result, I have
zero external drives attached.

My server case has 15 3.5" bays, plus the usual PCIe slots and lots of
room on the floor of the case. There, too, no drives are attached
externally.

In article ,
lid says...

On Mon, 27 May 2019 15:39:06 -0300, pjp
wrote:

Let's see now ... my main system has 10 usb ports, 6 on back, 2 on front
plus card reader has one and keyboard has one also.

I use Mouse, Keyboard, usb 4 port hub, printer, 3 external hard disks
running 24/7 (with hub doing same with 3 more also 24/7 plus external
burner) , tv tuner, a joypad, with more as required (GPS device,
Flightstick, racing wheel etc.)

With all the ports I still only have one free on front to plug in backup
external hard disk when required or controller for games etc.

PC always has at least 8 hard disks showing in my Computer. 6 are
externals, add a mouse, keyboard, tv tuner etc. and I'm happy to still
have a free port.

I have a second 4 port powered hub if/when required to add more

My recommendation for your very next purchase would be a computer case
that can accommodate all of the internal drives that you already have,
plus the 6 external drives that are permanently connected. That would
take care of what must be a huge mess of cables, adapters/docks, and
power supplies. :-)

My current mid-tower case has 8 3.5" bays and 4 5.25" bays that can hold
either 4 or 5 3.5" drives depending on the adapter(s) used, plus 3 m.2
slots, 3 PCIe slots that can accept drive adapters, and of course room
for at least one drive on the floor of the case. As a result, I have
zero external drives attached.

My server case has 15 3.5" bays, plus the usual PCIe slots and lots of
room on the floor of the case. There, too, no drives are attached
externally.

I'm kappy with way things are. PC is in a corner table so lots of room
to hide cables behind monitors (dual monitor setup so plenty of room). I
wired it so there's enough plugs for everything without using too many
power bars, etc. Only thing off hand I can think of I don't do to ease
clutter is my surround sound speakers as that's three wires rather than
one. Used in another pc instead.

I don't believe I have a pc does more than 4 sata drives (plus an esata
connection. One is so old it also has one ide connector (not used
presently). I also have a stack of hard disks salvaged from various pcs.
I use a special usb cable accepts ide or sata drives and makes it a
"bare metal" external. I've found it very usefull many times, typically
filling up old 40 & 80 Gb drives with backups of backups of backups LOL
.

On Tue, 28 May 2019 02:33:24 -0300, pjp
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Mon, 27 May 2019 15:39:06 -0300, pjp
wrote:

Let's see now ... my main system has 10 usb ports, 6 on back, 2 on front
plus card reader has one and keyboard has one also.

I use Mouse, Keyboard, usb 4 port hub, printer, 3 external hard disks
running 24/7 (with hub doing same with 3 more also 24/7 plus external
burner) , tv tuner, a joypad, with more as required (GPS device,
Flightstick, racing wheel etc.)

With all the ports I still only have one free on front to plug in backup
external hard disk when required or controller for games etc.

PC always has at least 8 hard disks showing in my Computer. 6 are
externals, add a mouse, keyboard, tv tuner etc. and I'm happy to still
have a free port.

I have a second 4 port powered hub if/when required to add more

My recommendation for your very next purchase would be a computer case
that can accommodate all of the internal drives that you already have,
plus the 6 external drives that are permanently connected. That would
take care of what must be a huge mess of cables, adapters/docks, and
power supplies. :-)

My current mid-tower case has 8 3.5" bays and 4 5.25" bays that can hold
either 4 or 5 3.5" drives depending on the adapter(s) used, plus 3 m.2
slots, 3 PCIe slots that can accept drive adapters, and of course room
for at least one drive on the floor of the case. As a result, I have
zero external drives attached.

My server case has 15 3.5" bays, plus the usual PCIe slots and lots of
room on the floor of the case. There, too, no drives are attached
externally.

I'm kappy with way things are. PC is in a corner table so lots of room
to hide cables behind monitors (dual monitor setup so plenty of room). I
wired it so there's enough plugs for everything without using too many
power bars, etc. Only thing off hand I can think of I don't do to ease
clutter is my surround sound speakers as that's three wires rather than
one. Used in another pc instead.

I don't believe I have a pc does more than 4 sata drives (plus an esata
connection. One is so old it also has one ide connector (not used
presently). I also have a stack of hard disks salvaged from various pcs.
I use a special usb cable accepts ide or sata drives and makes it a
"bare metal" external. I've found it very usefull many times, typically
filling up old 40 & 80 Gb drives with backups of backups of backups LOL
.

You guys need a life.

In article ,
says...

On Tue, 28 May 2019 02:33:24 -0300, pjp
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Mon, 27 May 2019 15:39:06 -0300, pjp
wrote:

Let's see now ... my main system has 10 usb ports, 6 on back, 2 on front
plus card reader has one and keyboard has one also.

I use Mouse, Keyboard, usb 4 port hub, printer, 3 external hard disks
running 24/7 (with hub doing same with 3 more also 24/7 plus external
burner) , tv tuner, a joypad, with more as required (GPS device,
Flightstick, racing wheel etc.)

With all the ports I still only have one free on front to plug in backup
external hard disk when required or controller for games etc.

PC always has at least 8 hard disks showing in my Computer. 6 are
externals, add a mouse, keyboard, tv tuner etc. and I'm happy to still
have a free port.

I have a second 4 port powered hub if/when required to add more

My recommendation for your very next purchase would be a computer case
that can accommodate all of the internal drives that you already have,
plus the 6 external drives that are permanently connected. That would
take care of what must be a huge mess of cables, adapters/docks, and
power supplies. :-)

My current mid-tower case has 8 3.5" bays and 4 5.25" bays that can hold
either 4 or 5 3.5" drives depending on the adapter(s) used, plus 3 m.2
slots, 3 PCIe slots that can accept drive adapters, and of course room
for at least one drive on the floor of the case. As a result, I have
zero external drives attached.

My server case has 15 3.5" bays, plus the usual PCIe slots and lots of
room on the floor of the case. There, too, no drives are attached
externally.

I'm kappy with way things are. PC is in a corner table so lots of room
to hide cables behind monitors (dual monitor setup so plenty of room). I
wired it so there's enough plugs for everything without using too many
power bars, etc. Only thing off hand I can think of I don't do to ease
clutter is my surround sound speakers as that's three wires rather than
one. Used in another pc instead.


Agreed Problem is I live in middle of nowhere, Nova Scotia, Canada
and gas ain't cheap nor is car maintainance on my dirt road. Front end
parts required even now on car as I write.

The reason for so many drives is my multi-media collection. Huge number
of albums, movies, documentaries, music concerts etc. TV shows also but
complete series, e.g. 12 years of Big Bang, Murdoch Mysteries, Stargate,
multipule Star Trek series etc.. Only 3 over the air channels and I
won't pay cables charges so internet is kinda my tv also but I don't
like "streaming" so I download and keep a copy instead so I can watch it
repeatedly whenever I want to,

On Tue, 28 May 2019 21:41:57 +1000, Lucifer
wrote:

On Tue, 28 May 2019 02:33:24 -0300, pjp
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Mon, 27 May 2019 15:39:06 -0300, pjp
wrote:

Let's see now ... my main system has 10 usb ports, 6 on back, 2 on front
plus card reader has one and keyboard has one also.

I use Mouse, Keyboard, usb 4 port hub, printer, 3 external hard disks
running 24/7 (with hub doing same with 3 more also 24/7 plus external
burner) , tv tuner, a joypad, with more as required (GPS device,
Flightstick, racing wheel etc.)

With all the ports I still only have one free on front to plug in backup
external hard disk when required or controller for games etc.

PC always has at least 8 hard disks showing in my Computer. 6 are
externals, add a mouse, keyboard, tv tuner etc. and I'm happy to still
have a free port.

I have a second 4 port powered hub if/when required to add more

My recommendation for your very next purchase would be a computer case
that can accommodate all of the internal drives that you already have,
plus the 6 external drives that are permanently connected. That would
take care of what must be a huge mess of cables, adapters/docks, and
power supplies. :-)

My current mid-tower case has 8 3.5" bays and 4 5.25" bays that can hold
either 4 or 5 3.5" drives depending on the adapter(s) used, plus 3 m.2
slots, 3 PCIe slots that can accept drive adapters, and of course room
for at least one drive on the floor of the case. As a result, I have
zero external drives attached.

My server case has 15 3.5" bays, plus the usual PCIe slots and lots of
room on the floor of the case. There, too, no drives are attached
externally.

I'm kappy with way things are. PC is in a corner table so lots of room
to hide cables behind monitors (dual monitor setup so plenty of room). I
wired it so there's enough plugs for everything without using too many
power bars, etc. Only thing off hand I can think of I don't do to ease
clutter is my surround sound speakers as that's three wires rather than
one. Used in another pc instead.

I don't believe I have a pc does more than 4 sata drives (plus an esata
connection. One is so old it also has one ide connector (not used
presently). I also have a stack of hard disks salvaged from various pcs.
I use a special usb cable accepts ide or sata drives and makes it a
"bare metal" external. I've found it very usefull many times, typically
filling up old 40 & 80 Gb drives with backups of backups of backups LOL
.

You guys need a life.

They also serve who only stand & prate!

On Tue, 28 May 2019 10:54:41 -0300, pjp
wrote:

Agreed Problem is I live in middle of nowhere, Nova Scotia, Canada
and gas ain't cheap nor is car maintainance on my dirt road.

It might be cheaper to run your car on petrol due to greater
availability.