USB performance questions

[iNewbie]

hi,
I'm trying to connect a bunch of USB devices to an iMac. (24 inch 2.33)

I have 2 belkin hubs with 7 ports each. I have 3-4 hard drives plus printers, iphone, iPod, etc..

My main question is for the hard drives is it better to keep them on the same hub or should they be "balanced" between the two? Should I chain the hubs together or put each one in a port on the iMac? Does it make a difference?

I'll mostly be working with video on the drives and while I might edit from the local hard drive I'll be moving a lot of data from drive to drive and want to get the best copying speeds.

Also does anyone know if there's an app which can show USB performance?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

This advice is based on what I think you're trying to do...

Load balancing is only necessary when you're creating a disk RAID array, i.e. all work together as one virtual HD. I assume you're not doing this based on your description, otherwise you're looking at some greater expense and setup.

Chaining makes no difference, it's a pass-thru deal in your case.

I know iStats allows real time graphical drive monitoring so you can gauge performance that way. For USB port monitoring I can so far only find Windows software galore, I'll keep looking.

Anyone else, please chime in and help out if you can.

 

[andy.barron]

Do you have the option of firewire 400/800 anywhere in the equation ?

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

Great suggestion - the new iMacs support 400 and 800. I have one of the late 2006 iMac and have my G-Tech 250G connected via the 400 port, come to think of it.

Instead of all those drives, maybe look into one or two newer external drives with much larger capacity and of course FW800 - talk about fast and efficient.

Of course nobody here is asking you to spend extra $ or toss your existing drives. We're just thinking out loud.

-jim

 

[iNewbie]

Do you have the option of firewire 400/800 anywhere in the equation ?

I do... This iMac actually has both... but I'd prefer to not buy a firewire drive right now. I have quite a little collection of USB 2.0 drives... Curse those Black Friday deals!! I am thinking about putting one or two on an airport extreme but of course that performance will even be slower...

 

[iNewbie]

Great suggestion - the new iMacs support 400 and 800. I have one of the late 2006 iMac and have my G-Tech 250G connected via the 400 port, come to think of it.

Instead of all those drives, maybe look into one or two newer external drives with much larger capacity and of course FW800 - talk about fast and efficient.

Of course nobody here is asking you to spend extra $ or toss your existing drives. We're just thinking out loud.

-jim

As I said in the other post... I'd like to make due with what I have... just trying to set it up the best way I can. I guess the real question is if the 3 USB ports on the back of my iMac have seperate "controller chips" then it would be better to split the drives up as much as possible... That's what I was told at work... I'm not a real hardware nut...

Maybe the only way to find out is to do some big copy tests.....

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

If you're going to use a hub, make sure it's a powered hub if you run out of ports on the back. This prevents alot of potential problems. Newer hubs also support FW400/800 which is beneficial to you in performance if your drives support it. The cables are inexpensive these days.