Transfering files through a USB Hub

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Geral

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Aug 12, 2014
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So i have bought 2 Seageate Backup external hard drives, but they have cables too short to comfortably connect to the back of my desktop. So i was pondering solutions.

I would like to buy a USB hub to connect my hard drives, but i have some doubts. The transfer speeds through the USB hub will be the same as if the hard drives were connected directly to the computer? I mean if i use them BOTH at the same time.

The usb hub is this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VDVCQ84

P.S. One othe solution would be to just buy longer cables. I was thinking of this ones: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CFLNUAE/ are they good?
 
Solution
Barty1884
The theoretical speeds of a SATA3 drive & USB3.0 would suggest a single drive *could* saturate it alone but, between overhead and actual performance of a drive (not just spec alone), in practice, a single SATA3 HDD isn't going to come close.

A pair (at the same time, depending on what they're doing) certainly could..... but in practice, I'd be very surprised if there was any significant performance impact between a hub for two drives vs two independent connections.

Either solution should net very similar results.... so I'd opt for whichever is cheaper/more convenient.
*IF* the longer cable solution works for you.... and the HDD use/transfer is going to be frequent enough that a slight performance 'hit' would be noticeable (again...
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icraft

icraft

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The USB devices plugged into the hub will not be able to get the full speed of the USB ports they use, but if the hard drives can not fully use the whole USB port anyway it should be very close to the same speed. For example, 640MB/s is the max speed of USB 3.0, so as long as each hard drive is about 300MB/s or less it should be ok. This is assuming windows can address two hard drives through the same USB port at the same time, which I'm not sure that it can.

using longer cables would probably work better and be cheaper, but you might only need 3ft, and that will tend to have a higher max speed than 6ft cable.
 
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Barty1884

Barty1884

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The theoretical speeds of a SATA3 drive & USB3.0 would suggest a single drive *could* saturate it alone but, between overhead and actual performance of a drive (not just spec alone), in practice, a single SATA3 HDD isn't going to come close.

A pair (at the same time, depending on what they're doing) certainly could..... but in practice, I'd be very surprised if there was any significant performance impact between a hub for two drives vs two independent connections.

Either solution should net very similar results.... so I'd opt for whichever is cheaper/more convenient.
*IF* the longer cable solution works for you.... and the HDD use/transfer is going to be frequent enough that a slight performance 'hit' would be noticeable (again, theoretically, and depending on specifics), the longer cables may be the best option.

 
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Geral

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Ok thanks guys, thats was what i thought but couldnt find an answer anywhere. What about the cable? Any brand you would recommend in particular? Are "Cable Matters" good? How about Amazon Basics?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CFLBU88/ (Cable Matters)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NH13G5A/ (Amazon Basics)
 
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Barty1884

Barty1884

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Cables shouldn't differ in quality too much and, provided they're USB3.0, should work just the same.

Even length shouldn't matter too much (within reason). The 3.0 spec dropped from 16ft (2.0) for max throughput to 10ft..... so provided your cables are <10ft, the cable shouldn't play much of a part at all.
 
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