Running out of USB ports! Help!

OK, I think that I may be just one more among a billion persons with this same problem since nowadays everything is USB. LoL.

I have seven USB ports on my computer, being 5 in the back and 2 in the front.

All my five back ports are busy (audio interface, mouse, wi-fi dongle and two USB HDDs) leaving me with only the two front ports that doesn't helps too much since I still have two more HDDs, a musical keyboard, laser printer and a LOT of pendrives. To keep unplugging stuff to free up ports is not an option for me.

I bought recently a cheap USB hub that revealed to be a big crap: the only devices that I manage to make work on it are pendrives and the wi-fi dongle, and even so sometimes the wi-fi dongle refuses to work or stop to work after a while. The HDDs just light their leds but aren't even recognized by the system.

I have tried a different cheap USB hub from my wife's notebook but it's the same crap (doesn't afford HDD). Then I suppose that cheap USB hubs won't work for me.

I would like to know if there is any decent USB out there that works or even an extra USB interface that I can add to my computer. My motherboard has two long blue slots and two medium sized cream ones. All of them are free.

Thanks!

:)

Is the usb hub have its own power? I have found that some devices don't work right unless the usb hub is self powered.

cflusflwfl said:

Is the usb hub have its own power? I have found that some devices don't work right unless the usb hub is self powered.

It doesn't. I have found some powered hubs but I confess that being it from crazy Chinese brands I didn't feel too much secure on connect such stuff on my computer. LoL.

Browsing the web I just found something that may be the solution of my problem, that is a PCI express board that adds four extra USB 3.0 ports. It is a PCIE x1 and I have two PCIE x16 free on my computer. Question is: will it work?

[QUOTE=yankleber;3244908]

cflusflwfl said:

Browsing the web I just found something that may be the solution of my problem, that is a PCI express board that adds four extra USB 3.0 ports. It is a PCIE x1 and I have two PCIE x16 free on my computer. Question is: will it work?

After some research, the answer is: YES, it will work. You can connect any x1, x4 or x4 in x16 slots. Just ordered mine!

Great, let us know if it works.

PCIe USB 3 adapters can often be more problematic than PCIe USB 2 adapters, especially if it's a 'no-name' from China. Just keep that in mind if you have any problems when you get it.

Well, what a quite lot of awesome inputs!

:)

At this point I already ordered the USB card, but it was cheap (something around $20) so if it doesn't work as expected it won't be a total disaster. I really didn't know that a USB PCIE expansion didn't have its own power, this is absolutely a big shame!

After to be aware of it I am anticipating that I may have problems just because I am willing to plug there exactly the devices I don't swap all the time and that coincidentally are the more power starving (HDDs).

Now I got interested on the 'hot swap' stuff. I never heard about them till now, but you definitively got my attention. This is something that can be attached to any computer or does it demands some kind of special setup in the case?