Reliable, sturdy USB 2 and 3 hubs?

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dgingeri

dgingeri

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My luck with USB hubs has not been good. I have purchased a couple dozen of them over the years, and they always give out or cause problems within a few weeks. Many were quite cheap (<=$10) so I didn't exactly expect much from them, but I have purchased a few that looked to be high quality, including a 16 port hub that cost me $80, that didn't last.

So, I need to get a USB 2.0 hub for my plethora of components: Logitech G510 keyboard, Logitech G700 mouse and it's wireless receiver, Razer Nostromo, UPS, and a flash drive I keep connected permanently for various reasons. I'd also like to attach my phones' (2 of them, one for work, one for personal) USB cables to it for charging as well. So, a total of 8 items.

I also need a USB 3.0 hub for my two backup hard drives (nightly backup for file storage and partition copies) and my external BluRay writer. All three have very short cables that make working on my system kind of annoying. So, I've prefer to just attach them to a hub and hook the hub to the system.

I'd prefer to get hubs with a decently long (>3 ft) cable and their own, included power supply. I'd like to get ones that will actually last for a while, too. Getting ones that could be fairly easily mounted to the support bar on the back of my desk with zip ties would be a nice bonus.

Does anyone have any recommendations?
 
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ubercake
There's an amazing Plugable 10-port USB 2.0 hub that's been very reliable for me. I have a couple of external drives, UPS, a Thrustmaster T-Hotas flight control, and an Xbox 360 controller. I also plug in a G35 headset when necessary and the USB to 1/4" that comes with Rocksmith when necessary. It works great. It's been working for me for around 2 years now.

I haven't had any need for a USB 3.0 hub as of yet, but based on my experience with the Plugable USB 2.0 product, I would buy their USB 3.0 product when the need arises.

With the amount of power supplied on the Plugable 10-port USB 3.0 hub and the backward compatibility, it may be all you need
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ubercake

ubercake

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Oct 28, 2009
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There's an amazing Plugable 10-port USB 2.0 hub that's been very reliable for me. I have a couple of external drives, UPS, a Thrustmaster T-Hotas flight control, and an Xbox 360 controller. I also plug in a G35 headset when necessary and the USB to 1/4" that comes with Rocksmith when necessary. It works great. It's been working for me for around 2 years now.

I haven't had any need for a USB 3.0 hub as of yet, but based on my experience with the Plugable USB 2.0 product, I would buy their USB 3.0 product when the need arises.

With the amount of power supplied on the Plugable 10-port USB 3.0 hub and the backward compatibility, it may be all you need
 
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dgingeri

dgingeri

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A little update. Both of these work great. Absolutely fabulous. However, there are a couple issues:

1. if I put the remote sensor from my wireless mouse on the USB 3 hub, the logitech software errors out, refusing to run at all. This software also runs my keyboard, so I don't have my mini-display or macro keys when this happens. As soon as I move the sensor to the USB 2 hub, it works great. That's more of a limitation of the Logitech hardware and software.

2. The USB 2 hub is causing some issues with POST USB initialization. The motherboard won't recognize a USB keyboard until it gets into Windows unless the hub it unhooked. It's not a big issue, since I rarely need to get into the bios, and everything works fine once I'm in Windows. I just keep the keyboard hooked directly to the system and unplug the hub when I need to enter the bios.

Just so you know.
 
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ubercake

ubercake

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Yeah. I think the Logitech software issue might be just that. I also have issues with Logitech and Nvidia driver update processes. Have to shut down the Logitech software to update Nvidia drivers. Can't enable SLI while Logitech software is active. It seems like the Logitech software has some issues with the way it interacts with other software, in general.

Regarding the USB 2 hub issue... I had that same problem with a USB keyboard that had its own built-in USB hub even prior to getting my USB 2 hub. I always keep a cheap USB keyboard (with no USB hub) for systems that behave like this.

What I've found is there is usually a USB setting somewhere in the BIOS that allows the ability to enable legacy USB devices or to allow USB keyboard/mouse functionality during start up or something to that affect depending on your BIOS. That may remedy the issue? Does your particular keyboard have a USB hub built in with only one USB keyboard connecting to the PC? I know you didn't have the issue before with the same keyboard, but I wonder if the addition of the hubs flipped some logical switch on your system?

At any rate, this problem cleared up for me when I got a 710+ keyboard as the USB hub functionality of the keyboard has its own USB cord while the keyboard functionality has its own USB cord.
BIOS.

What kind of motherboard are you working with?
 
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dgingeri

dgingeri

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The Logitech G510 I have does sort of have an internal hub. They put the chip in and ran a USB audio controller and the display from it, but didn't add extra ports. I would guess because they couldn't provide enough power for the keyboard, USB audio, display, and a USB mouse from one USB 2 port.

The workaround I have now works fine for me as is. It's only a minor bother. I'd rather not replace my keyboard. I'm rather fond of the display and macro keys. I do have a cheap USB keyboard that I can try to see if it avoids this issue. Then again, it might be a time out in POST on the motherboard, or an issue with the chipset itself. Intel makes a good USB controller, but it can be buggy with some things that don't bother other controllers. (If I hook this hub to a USB 3 port, everything works during POST, but the logitech software errors out. Doh!)
 
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dgingeri

dgingeri

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Correction: it was the USB 3.0 hub that caused my system to not recognize the keyboard or mouse during post, but only when connected to a ASMedia USB 3.0 port. It works fine with a VIA USB 3.0 adapter. I just discovered this part last night when trying to rearrange the ports I was using. The USB 2.0 hub is still working flawlessly, the longest I've had any USB 2.0 hub. I now have it mounted upside down under my desk to arrange the cables.
 
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