Can USB Hubs affect peripheral performance?

11
2013-08
  • Dan Rasmussen

    Like many laptops, mine has 2 USB 2.0 ports. I'm looking to purchase a USB hub for my peripheral devices. I'm also planning on purchasing a laptop cooler with two USB powered fans, which connects to a USB port but can extend the plug, so it doesn't use one up. (Sorry for the poor description; see the link for a picture.)

    My questions are these: Can one plug 'too many' peripherals into a USB port? Can I plug my fans into a port, then the hub into the fans, then my keyboard and mouse, mic, and webcam into the extender..? Is it possible to draw too much power from a port? Secondly, will a USB hub affect the performance of any of my devices? I'm mostly worried about my mouse and keyboard. I like wired mice because I've noticed some lag in my Bluetooth mouse.

    • Answers
  • John T

    Can one plug 'too many' peripherals into a USB port?

    Most definitely. There is always a power limitation somewhere.

    In general, most USB ports provide 500mA (500 milliamps) of power output per port. I'd check the peripherals you are plugging in for the required power draw of each and total it up.

  • Moab

    Yes, too may devices can overload the usb ports, Buy a hub that comes with a power supply of its own.

    example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817364017

    Package Contents One (1) 13-Port Hi-Speed USB 2.0 External Hub One (1) USB 2.0 cable One (1) AC power adapter


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  • Matthew Robertson

    How capable are USB hubs?

    I have an AirPort Extreme router with a printer attached (it's not powered by USB). I want to extend this and add two hard drives (one for Time Machine and the other for EyeTV recordings).

    Can a 4-port USB hub (I'm considering this one) achieve USB 2.0 speeds and power the hard drives? What difference would a self-powered vs externally-powered hub produce?


    • Related Answers
  • Radruler

    Ive run 3 external hds off a Belkin wall-powered hub and gotten the same speed as a direct connection, however my hard drives were all wall-powered as well. As a rule of thumb, it's definitely better to get powered USB hubs for any hard disk usage or heavy data access (bigger thumb drives, etc), while self/computer powered hubs are usually for mouse/keyboard and generally device inputs. There is no downside as far as I am aware of using a wall-powered hub, so if you have the extra cash, its always a good investment to go with external power. I personally use an old model of Belkin's hubs, and its served me well for almost 3 years now.

    tl;dr: Drawing usb power is bad for lots of data transfer, grab an externally/wall powered hub and you should be fine. Try and get the hard drives themselves powered too -- the less stress on the hub, the better.

  • Stefan Thyberg

    A self-powered USB Hub typically reinforces and repeats the signal so that you may have longer cables. It's definitely to be prefered when running heavy USB appliances such as harddrives.