DJing Discussion

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What happens if I buy a USB Hub?

Lord Kaseem 10:03 PM - 25 August, 2004
Will my USB slow down if I got a USB hub. My Laptop only has two, one for Serato and one for my external HD. I also want to use a Usb fan as well. If I get a USB Hub, then will it slow me up, or will it work just fine. Any help would be appreciated.
rhodes1 10:36 PM - 25 August, 2004
i think some things that use alot of juice shouldntbe used with the hub, like on my midi keyboard box it says it shouldnt be used with a hub..just make sure that fan could be used witha pub......

but if u had too i would plug my serato into the one usb in the comp and the HD and fan in the hub.
radish 10:44 PM - 25 August, 2004
I tried SSL with a hub and got very weird behaviour. I can't find anything from Serato which says it won't work, but in my experience it doesn't. However, my laptop cooler, light, mouse etc work fine with the hub. I don't think power is the issue as my SSL has a power adapter - some devices just don't like being on hubs. Personally I think that points to a problem with their implementation of the spec but I don't know enough about USB to be certain of that.
depakote 10:44 PM - 25 August, 2004
If you use a hub you may not have enough power for the SSL unit. If you are talking about a cool pad with fans they usual have a pass through usb port. I would imagine it would still hinder the power however. I would think it would be nothing an external power supply couldn't take care of though. I'm not sure besides less power if there would be any other problems however.
tashafa 3:11 AM - 26 August, 2004
they are powered usb hubs on the market... but usb harddrive i think the perfomace wouldnt be that hot
J-BRAVO 3:55 AM - 26 August, 2004
get a firewire drive if possible.
Alexander 3:56 AM - 26 August, 2004
Quote:
get a firewire drive if possible.


I strongly agree.
tashafa 10:41 AM - 26 August, 2004
actually USB2.0 has better performance than firewire...just get a powered USB2.0 hub and make sure ur external HDD is USB2.0
radish 11:40 AM - 26 August, 2004
But I still would have SSL plugged in directly. As I mentioned in my post before, power was NOT an issue when I tried a hub, but it still didn't work.
J-BRAVO 12:02 PM - 26 August, 2004
usb vs firewire is debatable, i prefer the stability of firewire and the sustained transfer rate can is actually better.
Lord Kaseem 5:05 PM - 26 August, 2004
I don't know if yall made it clearer for me, but I guess I wont get the hub. I'll just get a electric fan.
tashafa 5:12 PM - 26 August, 2004
yeah...external HDDs (firewire or usb, dont even begin to compare to ATA) are not a good idea when performace is an issue
Serato, Forum Moderator
AJ 6:24 AM - 29 August, 2004
Quote:
actually USB2.0 has better performance than firewire...just get a powered USB2.0 hub and make sure ur external HDD is USB2.0

Technically, USB2.0 has a higher bandwidth than firewire (480 Mbps compared to 400 Mbps), however, check my comments in this discussion www.scratchlive.net to see why you would not get anything like that kind of performance out of your USB2 drive when you use it in conjunction with Scratch LIVE.

In a nutshell, scratch live uses up about 60% of the available USB bandwidth, so there is effectively less than 200 Mbps of bandwidth left after SL has allocated its share. So firewire drives are recommended for use with SL.