USB Gaming Peripherals Sharing a USB 3.0 Hub

[thornyjohn]

Due to space and distance constraints, I only have access to a pair of USB 3.0 ports (I also have access to a pair of USB 2.0 ports, but those are being dedicated to my mouse and keyboard). I have a lot of different gaming and other USB peripherals that I need to connect to those last two USB 3.0 ports and I am wondering if it's possible for several of these peripherals to reliably share a USB 3.0 hub.

My peripherals include:

-- Razer Nostromo
-- Thrustmaster T.16000M Joystick
-- Logitech Gamepad F310
-- Wacom Bamboo Digitizer
-- Logitech C920 Webcam
-- Inkjet printer (Cannon...ummm...Pixia-something)

In many cases, I don't use all of these things together, but some do get used at the same time, like the Nostromo and the webcam, and I am currently finding myself pluging and unplugging stuff around between those last two USB ports. I want to be able to use a 6-port USB 3.0 hub or maybe a pair of 4-port USB 3.0 hubs (thinking of future expansion; see below), each going into their own dedicated port so I can leave everything plugged in all the time.

My question is if this kind of setup (using the hubs) will cause undue lag or other performance issues when gaming and, if it is doable, should I be looking for any specific hubs (powered, unpowered, brand, model, etc.). I'm pretty sure things will work okay when not gaming, but let's face it: GAMING!!!

For reference, the games I currently play include: WoW, Hearthstone, Train Simulator 2014, Euro Truck Simulator (still demoing, but if I get it I'll have to consider a Logitech G27 and how that will affect things), Planetside 2, WildStar, SWtOR, Path of Exlie, Diablo III, and a few others, mostly MMO's and FPS's.

Thoughts?

[SilentHorizon]

How funny, I was in this exact predicament a month ago.

This is what I did, I bought a techrepublic usb 3.0 powered hub. I bought the powered one because I wanted to plug in power hungry usb devices, like hard drives. Only thing I still can't figure out, is my thrustmaster 5 in 1 racing wheel would work, but it kept thinking I was pressing one of my buttons on the wheel, making games unplayable. But besides that, it is a excellent hub.

[Bosspferd]

USB 3.0 is actually overkill, as none of the devices are 3.0 (just sayin, tho 3.0 won´t hurt.)

I use a Roccat Apuri active USB hub, mainly b/c it´s a mouse bungee, but I have plugged in:
- Logitech F310
- Mad Catz Rat 5
- Logitech G13
- Logitech Attack 3,
and haven´t encountered any problems so far. (have to admit, I never used the Joystick even once)
Whatever hub you get, make sure it´s an active one. (seperate power supply)

[thornyjohn]

I was mostly thinking USB 3.0 to allow for maximum bandwidth of all USB 2.0 devices plugged in, though it's most likely none of the devices listed will flood even a USB 2.0 hub with too much data. Still, just in case I ever decide to plug in a 3.0 device, such as an external HDD into it, it'll be nice to have the extra bandwidth.

[SilentHorizon]

If you have extra money, I would say go for usb 3.0 for future device you might have. The one I got was only 20 bucks.

[SilentHorizon]

WAIT! lol. :D

Before you buy a hub, I just figured out that my steering wheel wasn't working properly in my usb 3.0 port (on the computer), and when I switch to my usb 2.0 docking station, it now functions well.

[Ledow]

USB 3 operates at 625MB/s.
USB 2 operates at 35MB/s.

If you think that, combined, those peripherals are sending data at more than 35MB/s then don't put them on the same USB 2 bus, or go to USB 3.

Just as a hint. 35MB/s is an AWFUL lot of data. Say a joystick / mouse / keyboard sends 1024 bytes each time it changes position (that's enough for 1024 numbers from 0-256 each, or 256 numbers from 0-1024 each). Say it updates 1000 times a second. Then that's only 1MB/s. You could have 30-something devices doing that at the same time and not introduce any bandwidth problems on a USB 2 bus. On a USB 3 bus, the numbers get even sillier.

The "lag" at 35MB/s is something silly, like one-35-millionth of a second or thereabouts. It's not going to affect your devices is any way and the bottleneck is actually your PC, how often the operating system reads the data and how often the devices bother to send the data, not anything else.

And, notice, that your USB ports are already a "bus" - they are most likely all joined to the same USB bus inside the computer and sharing that 35MB/s - and on a typical machine that could include any number of internal ports, external ports and even "hidden" USB devices likes sound cards, webcams, interfaces to touchscreens, etc.

Buy a powered USB hub of any kind (USB 3 is better if you want to plug in a large hard drive and have fast access later) and you're done.

If you're REALLY worried - borrow one and try it out. At the kinds of speeds you're talking about with modern USB, anything you notice is almost certainly psychological. To be honest, I'd be more worried about how to power them all effectively. The USB protocol is notoriously unreliable if your hubs / ports are inadequately powered and you try to dangle lots of devices off them.

[_I_]

usb 2.0 is more than fast enough for keyboards/mice/controllers
they do use compression, which does add a small ammount of latency, but stays well within the 480mb/s (48mB/s)

at 60fps, each frame is around 16ms, polling at 1khz (1ms) intervals is pointless

usb 3.0 i better suited for drives and external storage

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Given that you have 2x 2.0 ports and 2x 3.0 ports and u have nothing that requires 3.0, I would suggest a powered 2.0 hub such as this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00483WRZ6

If u want 3.0 power hub so that u have expansion room for things such as drives that can use the 3.0 speed, then I would suggest this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NGQWL2

[NoxiousPond6697]

I'd keep controllers away from hubs at all costs, Hubs have always been flakey in my experince. But it may of been do to power. Thanks Ledow for informing on that fact.

If you have a tower open it up and see if you have extra USB headers, You can go on ebay and find the right conector to use thoes aditianal ports.
I even went as far as removeing my card reader to bring the ports to the back of my tower with a cable. I got four extra ports just because of that,

If you have an extra slot in your computer why not get an expansion card? ) Some laptops have an expansion card


I hate hubs personaly
I'd keep Storage drives \ Printers \ Webcams \ Cellphones or anything that sends large chucks of data away from Keyboards, Mice and controllers,

If your computer has a ps\2 port (looks like an s-video plug) use it for a keyboard, Why? because its not usb! Seriously, There is a jack for a keyboard why not use it? Seriously I hate how apple killed interface device ports,
Get a keyboard with a bulit in hub? (only smart thing apple did...besides it being underpowerd)
Who misses midi controllers?

Heres the bad news and some knolage power about power.

Ledow původně napsal:

The USB protocol is notoriously unreliable if your hubs / ports are inadequately powered and you try to dangle lots of devices off them.

This person is quite right,
Now also with a hub there is another USB power brick pluged in. So keep that in mind.


If you are going to get a hub, make shure all devices can be powerd off it,
All usb is 5 volts
Normaly most usb devices take 500millamps (usb sticks,card readers mice keyboards .ect,)
Phones,Smaller Tables,anything that charges and portable Harddrives,Disk burners take between 500millamp and 1 amp
Larger tables (such as Ipad or my samsung android) take 2 amps
Now any device that has a power plug such as a printer or Desktop sizes harddrive or DvD burner will most likely not need any power off the usb buss.




If you read this thanks, WOW, but yeah, if all of your devices are usb2, then dont worry about usb3, there are alot of usb2 devices still and they are great for everthing besides harddrives and large storage volumes, Besides disk burners, 16x dvd burns at 10mb\s

[thornyjohn]

Thanks to all for the input. I have found an older powered USB 2.0 hub in my "box-o-leftovers" and will be giving that a try just to see how everything behaves.

HiredMercenary.Doe, I have a tower case with plenty of room for expansion inside, and it even has something like 6 or 8 open USB ports in the back panel. However, my problem is that the rear of my tower is inaccessible in the present physical setup my desk is in. Think of it as a little cubby in a room, where the desk itself barely fits the entire width of the cubby. The PC is in a computer cage inside the desk. The four USB ports I currently have access to are in the front panel, next to my headphone jack. As it was, I had to add a 12' power cord extension and run it through a hole in a wall from an adjacent room to get the PC powered up. I would be able to use the existing ports in the back if I drilled a few extra holes on the wall and ran USB cable extensions for each port, but my wife complained bitterly about the one hole already. A hub is a much cleaner solution until such a time as I can move my desk and free my PC from its confines.

Again, many thanks to all for the replies. Time to go a-testing.

[iiCaptain_4]

damn this was 4 years ago but is really helpful still.

[Hiroツ]

K1ck_St4rt původně napsal:

damn this was 4 years ago but is really helpful still.

do you think usb hub 3.0 is good to plug your keyboard and some other stuff in it and do you think there is input lag

[creepy0011]

It's 2019 and it's still useful

[TokwaFrags]

It's 2020 and it's' still useful

[Electric Cupcake]

Power draw is the only thing to worry about, if using a hub without a direct AC plug.