What Hub to use?

[theipodgod16]

i need more usb ports. Im buying a powermate, and all of my ports are already taken. On ebay, some are going for as little as 5 dollers. They say that the hubs arent powered. Does this matter? im just gonna connect my dig camera, isub, and powermate to it. Do i need to spend extra money on a powered hub?

[Westside guy]

Yes. A USB device can only get 500ma at most from the bus. So a bus-powered hub can only draw that much, just like any other device. But the devices you put on that hub may each be looking for up to 500ma - short answer is, the hub may not be able to supply the power needs of all the devices.

Simple math: 4 ports x 500ma max current = potential draw of 2 amps

Edit: Just looked this up. If your hub is bus-powered, devices connected to it are limited (by the USB spec) to drawing 100ma or less. So that's another argument for getting a hub with an external power supply. Even if you don't think you'll ever have that many devices connected, if any one of them wants more than 100ma it won't work.

[crazzyeddie]

I would say yes, because there have been cases of people's USB ports being burned out from constant draw from USB devices. A powered hub requires no power from the computer, and therefore would eliminate the risk of this problem.