Late 2012 Mac Mini, USB Port & Bus Allocation

Hi, thanks. I know they can all function as USB 3 (or 2 depending on what's plugged in) but I guess on trying to clarify my own thoughts on this... how many busses? I'm starting to think it's actually just one, maybe 2 internal busses with the 4 ports.

Odd that the number of busses isn't listed anywhere online. The ports are, but the busses are not.

As I mentioned, I'd like to pick up a couple of powered 3.0 hubs and having them plug in to just 2 of the ports on the Mac. If there is just one internal USB buss, it won't matter where I plug the hubs in. If there are 2 disctinct internal busses, I'd like to plug one hub into each bus. Not sure if this kind of data stream balancing would even matter?

Yeah, thanks... that hub looks pretty good. The initial reason I began this thread was because I'm looking to really maximize my Mini and wanted to make sure I was taking all best steps, including figuring out what hub(s) would work best, and plugged in to which ports.

Side note stuff... will be replacing the internal and the two external drives with SSDs, already bumped the internal memory to 16GB and use this mini to shoot commercial web photo work tethered to a pair of 24" monitors. Looking to do 4k video work in FCP next using proxy videos. In short... the late 2012 Mini has more than paid for itself already (many times over!). Just looking to see how much more I can push with it!

After a quick little test I just did, and your note about controllers... I think I see, in part, what had me scratching my head. I was under the impression that there was a direct correlation between USB ports 1 to 4 and internal USB busses. For example, ports 1 & 2 would be bus 1. I now see, by switching USB 3 devices around to various ports, that there is lots of logic that goes on when a USB plug 2 or 3 is in a given port and that there is not a direct physical correlation between ports and busses.

In this screenshot, I have 2 external WD Passport drives and a card reader, all 3.0, plugging in to three ports of their own. No matter how I change the plugs around, they always read as being on a single bus.

I figured I was probably overthinking this, but it was nagging at me, not understanding the exact port to bus correlation. Truth is, there isn't a 1:1 correlation. I think more like, lots of clever little computer stuff looks at the plugs inserted, USB 2 or 3, and routes the signals as it sees fit.

Back to my orginal reason for posting about this well worn question, I should be able to add a couple of USB 3 powered hubs in any of the 4 USB ports on the mini and be just fine, the mini will take care of the rest.

Don't know why, but this really had me bugged... feel a bit better now :)

Thanks for the help here!

John