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Good powered FireWire/USB hub?

eji

eji

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 8, 2004
404
66
INW
Can anyone recommend a good powered USB/FireWire hub?

There was a great deal on Woot for one of these about two weeks ago, and I'm kicking myself for not snapping it up. I'd like it to be self-powered and offer about 4 USB 2.0 ports as well as 4 FireWire 400 ports (with one 800 thrown in to boot, if possible).

I've got my FW devices daisy-chained at the moment, but with movies on one external HD and music on another it gets annoying to have to turn them all on just to get to the last one in the chain. Plus my iSight saps the power from my iMac's built-in FW, causing the Finder to do funny things if I'm accessing an external HD at the same time as I'm using the iSight.
 
I third it, even if its not self powered. maybe this should be under buying advice?
 
I need a fw 400 @ least right now. Nothing I own is fw 800 i don't think except my external and that's connected via 400.
 
I personally don't need the FW, but have a few too many USB 2.0 items in need of a powered port, and the imac only has 3 on the back, and I do not believe the ones on the apple keyboard are powered.
 
I've been using this one from ADS and it's great although I'd prefer a different way to route the cables because cables kind of take over a desk easily.
 
I was under the impression if you daisy chain 3 or 4 firewire drives the speeds get cut? I need the most speed I can get since I'm dealing with audio and video. I figured a hub would help. if not, let me know.
 
DEXTERITY said:
I was under the impression if you daisy chain 3 or 4 firewire drives the speeds get cut? I need the most speed I can get since I'm dealing with audio and video. I figured a hub would help. if not, let me know.
Click to expand...

A hub just helps with routing the wires. The data connection is the same if you daisy chain or use a hub. OK, a hub can provide power to each port but that does not make it faster. It just spares you from using a bunch of wall transformers for each device.
Firewire is a serial data bus that is shared by all the connected devices. If you need more speed you need multiple FW interfaces built into the computers (not just multiple plugs that are internally wired together) Same for USB.
 
thanks for clearing that up. Appreciate it. as long as i'm still running the same speed with my 3rd or 4th hard drive as the one plugged directly into the computer, then I'm ok. yeah all the wires suck but thats the least of my problems besides having to have them all on in order to see the 4th one. thats the most annoying thing.


thank you.
 
I haven't checked this thread in a while, so I wasn't aware of all the new posts.

@hotboiled: Sorry, but that LaCie Huby is fugly. Really fugly. Plus, you're right. It is expensive.

@bousozoku: That one from ADS is right along the lines of what I was looking for. Not too expensive (looks like it's between $30-40, though I'd rather it was around $25 because I'm a cheapskate) and it fits my 4 USB / 4 FW / self-powered descrip exactly. Thanks!
 
Has anyone scoped out a FW800 + USB hub yet?

@AppleGuy08 - need the ports for my external hard drives and USB peripherals. Some of the drives are FW800 and some are older (FW400). I just want one hub that does it all instead of having to purchase 2 or 3 separate ones. less is more i guess.
 
Dredging up an old thread to see if anyone has experience with any of the newer USB/FW hubs? I havent found one with FW800, but I dont need that.

Just something thats powered with USB2.0 and FW400 port(s)...
 
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