USB 3 Hub with USB 2 drives

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richms

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#93483 22-Nov-2011 16:20

Doing another room reorganization so I can get a split aircon installed.

Anyway, at the moment all my ext drives are connected to the PC with 5m USB 2 cables, no hub as IME they slow it down and then the single USB 2 would be the bottleneck.

Anyway, I am going to have to extend more, so if I get a USB 3 hub and long cable, can each device on the USB 3 hub get a full USB 2 speed connection, or do they timeshare the uplink cable so it ends up being the same as a USB 2 hub (that is, hopeless with accessing multiple drives at once)

Other option is many USB 2 active extension cables, but that would cost more and leave me not futureproof at all.

Richard rich.ms

wellygary

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#548545 22-Nov-2011 16:56

I think you are out of luck,

looking at the specs, the "superspeed" portion of the USB3 protocol are carried on separate pins to the regular USB2 ones, so plugging you USB2 device into a USB3 hub will still only connect via the USb2 pins and connection, not the "superspeed" ones....

richms

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#548554 22-Nov-2011 17:12

Yeah, I can just recall that it was a featuer that only some USB2 hubs offered when running many USB1 items off the, so if 3 does it then getting a hub is a no brainer, but if not then I may as well wait for now

edit: the other option is I just get longer USB for the keyboard/mouse and some long video cables, which will be easier and I would probably want eventually anyway.

Richard rich.ms

Niel

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#548633 22-Nov-2011 20:03

Long KVM cables are the best option. You probably use DVI, but if it was VGA then you can run it 30m without quality loss (assuming the correct cable with each signal screened on it's own). DVI can still go fairly far, and the mouse/keyboard is slow so can be done over 1 USB cable + a hub.

The distance that USB can go is mainly a function of the thickness of the power wires inside the cable. Don't bother fitting a few thin extension cables together unless it is a self powered device.

Wireless keyboard/mouse? They are good to at least 3m, then the transceiver can go on a short extension. Recommend Logitech MK320 (minimum).

You can never have enough Volvos!