Unpowered USB Hubs

[desura]

What are the limitations for these things? Basically they'd be fine for like Mouse/kb/flash drive, but for like recharging the ipod just stick with a computer usb port?

 

[corkyg]

I can see no sound reason for un unpowered hub. All USB ports disseminate power. When additional ports are required over and above those on the mobo or chassis (laptop,) a powered hub is usually needed for reliability and to take some of the load off of the built-in ones. Hub ports are normally used only when on-board USB ports are all used.

 

[styrafoam]

They are so hit and miss I don't even consider them usable for the most part. Self powered things like printers and scanners will usually work, but after that it's a guessing game.

 

[Cerb]

What are the limitations for these things? Basically they'd be fine for like Mouse/kb/flash drive, but for like recharging the ipod just stick with a computer usb port?

Yes. I use unpowered hubs regularly, but never for anything like charging, or for anything that can be performing a lot of data transferring. I treat the hubs as a way to keep the main USBs free for those devices, like my phone, and external HDDs (modern PC problem: I only use one internal slot, but often need a USB hub, even with 12 exposed USB ports!). FI, my mouse, AIO printer, and joystick all share an unpowered hub, while everything else gets a direct port.

 

[cubby1223]

It's funny when someone buys an unpowered usb hub to connect their new external hard drive which requires two usb connections to supply power.

 

[lagokc]

I really wish they had anticipated power requirements when they made the USB standard and made 5A standard across all non-mobile devices :/

 

[Puffnstuff]

Unpowered puts additional strain on the host mb port and isn't worth it. For a little bit more money you can have a powered port that will not draw from the mb plus can be used for things like recharging or powering peripherals.

 

[Throckmorton]

It's funny when someone buys an unpowered usb hub to connect their new external hard drive which requires two usb connections to supply power.

I haven't seen a drive with 2 USB plugs in many years.

BTW what about USB 3.0? It provides 5amps which should be enough to power several hard drives on an unpowered hub right?

 

[BrightCandle]

One of the main points of an external hub is that you get to have a higher power output for better device charging. Unpowered hubs can be useful for basic peripherals on a port limited laptop but otherwise I don't see much use for them.

 

[bruceb]

Only time an unpowered USB Hub is good, is if you are using it with a laptop running on battery and all you are connecting are things like a mouse or flash drive. For anything else, buy a powered USB Hub .. Belkin makes excellent ones and they are not very costly. They come in many sizes, as regards physical size and number of ports on them.

 

[mdbusa]

So can I assume that the poor reception Im getting from my logitech wireless headphones is beacause I have the receiver connected to an unpowered 3.0 usb hub?

 

[BrightCandle]

I don't get good quality power output from a powered USB hub. Its better than direct from the computer but not by much. They all produce noise in a USB charged AMP I have which is a Fiio E6.