USB 2.0 Hubs?

[corkyg]

It appears that USB 2.0 is slowly but sure trying to capture some market share. I have seen USB 2.0 cables, external HDDs, a couple of scanners and CDRWs, but no hubs marked as USB 2.0 compatible. That raises a couple of questions:

1. Are USB hubs so generic that they are all compatible with 1 and 2?

2. If they are not, when do you suppose we can see some on the shelves?

I see none of the common digital devices coming out with USB 2.0 . . . cameras, digitizing pads, mice, keyboards, printers, etc.

By the time they make the scene we will be seeing Firewire b running at 800 Mbps.

 

[n4v1]

Nope. They aren't compatible. Using USB hub 1.1 will slow down usb 2.0 peripheral.
Belkin and Adaptec have USB 2.0 Hub.. still very pricey though.

 

[corkyg]

Interesting. Have seen none in the stores and a question like I asked evokes blank stares from sales persons.

Will check Adaptec and Belkin's web sites. Thanks. Technolust pays no attention to price.

 

[madthumbs]

All the USB 2's I've seen provide 4 places to connect. It's unlikely that anyone will be using 4 devices that utilise the speed of USB2 at least for this and the next year. Currently USB 1 hubs are selling cheap. I recommend sticking with the USB 1 for a hub for now. USB 2 hubs may go down in price way before you'd have a use for one.

 

[corkyg]

All good input, folks. The Belkin hub MSRP is $69.95. That is not really out of line. I paid more than that for my first Entrega USB 1 hub about 4 years ago. Belkin is out of stock on that item. Curious!

My USB 2 card is a combo with Firewire (OrangeMicro.) It has 3 Firewire ports and 2 USB 2 ports. Therefore, I am looking for a hub . . . also for convenince. The hub is easy access on my desktop . . . the computer is on the floor under the desk and those ports are not easy to access for hot plugging. Putting the plugs in front would not help a whole lot . . . it is still a long reach to the floor.

BTW . . . the combo card has its own CD of drivers, and they work fine in XP.

 

[Eug]

Note that both Firewire and USB 2 allow daisychaining so you may not need as many ports as you think. Dunno about USB 2, but a lot of Firewire peripherals do come with multiple Firewire ports, like the external Firewire hard drive I've ordered. At least wait a while until you really do need a hub before you buy one.

For now I'd stick with Firewire stuff, since there's much better support out there, partially because all Macs ship with Firewire and DV stuff is all Firewire - no USB 2 stuff in sight.

 

[n4v1]

Check here if you're looking for any USB 2.0 peripherals