Connecting legacy usb 3 extrral drives

[Dinky2]

Hi all
Just got myself an iMac 24” coming from an iMac 27”. I have 7 external hard drives, c connected to my old iMac via a powered USB hub. I am now looking for the best way to connect them to the iMac24 via USB-c. So I am looking at two 4-port USB hubs I can use to connect the external disks. Question is: do I need powered hubs or do the USB-c ports supply sufficient power to operate 4 drives?
Alternatively could I use my current powered 7- ports USB hub and connect it to the iMac USB-c port? The drives will not go any faster than 5Gbps anyway.

Could anyone give me some advice?

 

[Fishrrman]

If all 4 drives rely on "bus power" to run, that's probably too many for the Mac to handle on its own. One or two, ok, but more than that, I'd get a powered hub.

One powered hub with enough ports should do.

Is it really necessary to have all 4 drives connected and running all the time?

 

[Dinky2]

If all 4 drives rely on "bus power" to run, that's probably too many for the Mac to handle on its own. One or two, ok, but more than that, I'd get a powered hub.

One powered hub with enough ports should do.

Is it really necessary to have all 4 drives connected and running all the time?

Thanks. Yes, they should be permanently connected but will not necessarily be addressed all at the same time.
From your answer I get the impression I could use my current powered hub and connect it to a USB-c port via an adapter?

 

[Fishrrman]

"I could use my current powered hub and connect it to a USB-c port via an adapter?"

I don't see why not.
It probably won't be quite as fast as might be possible with a new hub, but since the drives are USB3 anyway, they'll probably still run without problems.

 

[CaptTee]

Other World Computing (OWC) mac sales.com has lots of hubs on sale this weekend. I bought this one last January when I moved from a i7 Mac Mini to a M2 Mac Mini as my primary machine. I use the i7 Mac Mini as a Media Server. https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB4HUB5PO/