Looking for a usb hub for my MacBook Pro, just wanting to know if it is safe to use. I will be running dual monitors (by way of usb adapter and dvi) directly to the Macbook, and for the hub(4-port), I'm gonna run a midi controller, apogee duet 2, and the remaining 2 will be used for external hard drives. Question would be if its too much for a hub/notebook to handle ?
USB hubs are fine.
...2 will be used for external hard drives....
Additional info: the hub may not have enough power to supply bus-powered hard drives. Highly recommended you get self-powered hard drives, ones that have their own individual power supply. In my experience, USB powered hard drives are usually just barely adequate and underpowered hard drives will cause data corruption.
Also, all devices on the hub will share the bandwidth of the one USB port. So if you try to read/write to both hard drives at the same time, it will be slower than accessing just one drive at a time. (Not trying to scare you off. Just for your awareness.)
Since you have a Macbook Pro, it would be wonderful if you could get Firewire drives instead. Firewire is faster than USB and most drives have multiple Firewire ports, so you "daisy chain" the drives together, eliminating the need for a Firewire hub. Again, advisable to get a self-powered hard drive, even for Firewire.
This info is very helpful, Thanks!! I just have to be careful how I use my external drives. Self-powered hub seems to be the right choice here.
Don't spread your limited USB bandwidth too thin by using USB hard drives. Use Firewire 800 drives instead -- they can be daisy-chained without needing a hub/repeater and without slowing down.
...Self-powered hub seems to be the right choice here.
Bue even a self-powered USB hub might still only supply the minimum of 0.5 amps per USB port, which is usually just barely adequate for a bus-powered drive. Thus recommended you get a self-powered hard drive regardless of whether the USB hub is self-powered or not.
oh ok, kool, my two external drives are self-powered so thats good. I would go firewire but the equipment being used is usb driven. (apogee duet 2 and Akai mpk49)
...I would go firewire but the equipment being used is usb driven. (apogee duet 2 and Akai mpk49)
Those are fine as USB, since you don't have a choice. What Eww and I are saying is that the hard drives should be Firewire if possible because you get a massive speed boost over a USB connected hard drive. You can have Firewire and USB devices connected simultaneously. OSX won't care that the hard drives are USB or Firewire (other than the speed difference.) 🙂
usb hubs on a Macbook Pro, are they safe ?
