USB PCI card or USB hub?

I'm running out of USB ports - the computer came with 4 - so I was wondering
whether there is much difference in performance between a PCI card, or a hub
to plug into one of the existing ports.

There doesn't appear to be a huge difference in price, and as some
manufacturers advise not to plug certain devices into hubs, I think I'll go
for a card unless someone comes up with a good reason not to.

 

Personally, I'd go for the hub first. It's portable, not tied to a
single machine, and through put for USB 2 is good, better than Firewire,
IIRC. One hub on one of the ports to expand out. See how the performance
looks. Adding PCI could be a little better or worse depending on OS and
bus speeds.

 

Define "better". If by that you mean faster then, yes, on the face of it it
is, *BUT* in sustained throughput FireWire is faster than USB2. IOW, if
you're copying something to/from a FW external disc, for example, then the
speed will be constant - USB2 does not offer constant throughput. See <
http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm> as an example.

The basic difference between USB and FW is that the former is master/slave
and the latter peer-to-peer. From the site I just gave you: -

FireWire vs. USB 2.0 - Architecture


* FireWire, uses a "Peer-to-Peer" architecture in which the peripherals
are intelligent and can negotiate bus conflicts to determine which device can
best control a data transfer

* Hi-Speed USB 2.0 uses a "Master-Slave" architecture in which the
computer handles all arbitration functions and dictates data flow to, from
and between the attached peripherals (adding additional system overhead and
resulting in slower data flow control).

Therefore, in this sense at least, FW is better than USB2. And it works in
practice too - my Mac has both USB and FW ports and I know that it's faster
to copy data to my new FW external disc than it was to my older (though still
USB2) drive.

If you're interested in further reading, Wikipedia has some excellent
articles on both Firewire and Hi-Speed USB.

 

You may find this article helpful.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/usb.htm


John (JayMac)

 

While Jimchip's reply is true for the short-term, it's not the best
long-term solution.

Think of it like a pie: each device gets a slice. More devices, smaller
slices. A hub slices up the port into smaller pieces, effectively slowing
down the system's data transfer for each device.

But if you add a PCI card, you've added NEW ports at full speed instead.

(Okay, it's not a totally accurate description, but should be adequate for
general use <g>)

 

Ahem, "long-term" for computers isn't like setting concrete

I have a USB hard drive that I use for backup about twice a week. It
doesn't care about the other devices or full speed.

I think one would have to know about specifically what devices, etc.,
before one can say which is better. Most people are not using all of
their devices at once. Very often it's a question of more ports for
connectivity rather than making sure they can all max out 'cuz they are
all running at once. I'm not saying that you are wrong, Tim. I'm just
saying that the user has to decide and a hub is the simplest, easiest,
approach. I can buy them used and take them back so maybe it would just
be a case of trying it out. YMMV.

 

True - a hub is simpler (no install, no drivers, etc.) And unless he's
trying to do a lot of scanning/printing/data transfer at the same time, it's
probably a moot point.

 

What 3rd party drivers does one need to add a PCI/USB card?

 

It depends on the OS. The OP never said what OS he's running. If he puts a
USB PCI card into a Windows 9X system, he's gotta have drivers.