How many USB ports do you have on your computer? Enough? Are you blessed with a USB 3.0 port? When it comes to USB ports, my philosophy is the more the better. You can’t have enough of ’em!
The USB port is truly a godsend. Especially when, like me, you suffered through the cornucopia of previous computer interfaces: Serial, Parallel, SCCI, ad infinitum.
I detested the old serial port, which really could handle only one device. Put both a modem and a mouse on your PC’s serial port and you had buckets of trouble.
The Parallel interface normally just hooked up to a printer. But then you could add other devices, such as a scanner, but that configuration was unusual and not easy to set up.
Then along came USB and “plug and play.” It was marvelous. No more installing device drivers or having to power-down the computer just to plug in a gizmo. USB is a dream.
The problem, of course, is that too many manufacturers are skimpy when it comes to festooning the PC case with USB ports. Let me shout this out:
FOUR USB PORTS JUST AREN’T ENOUGH!
Oh, and on a laptop? You’re lucky if you have three USB ports. Granted, mobile computing shouldn’t involve a lot of wires, but only two USB ports? C’mon!
Fortunately, USB is an easily expandable standard. Not only can you obtain USB hubs, some USB devices feature their own armada of USB ports. Then you can even add USB expansion cards to your system, giving you more primary USB ports and even USB 3.0.
My iMac is a perfect example of a computer with too few USB ports. It sports only four. All four are used, presently, because I have 15 USB devices plugged into that computer.
First, I have a seven-port USB hub, which is almost full of devices. Then I have an external hard drive. (The second external drive connects to the FireWire/IEEE port.)
My DAS Keyboard connects to another USB port, but it has two additional USB ports. One is used by the mouse, the other is hogged by the second external monitor, which also hogs a USB port on the computer itself. Fortunately, the external monitor features three USB ports, one of which is connected to another USB hub.
Yes, it’s a tangled mess of USB devices on my computer.
Preferably, I like to keep external hard drives plugged directly into the computer. I suppose I don’t have to do that, and it would make things easier, but we all have our PC peccadilloes.
In the end, I’m thankful for what I have, USB overload and all. It’s still much better than the old days with the tangled ganglia of cables, devices, interface standards, and nonsense. Give me limited USB ports over that setup any day.
“Oh, and on a laptop? You’re lucky if you have three USB ports.”
Should I consider myself extra lucky lucky? I have four USB ports on my primary laptop, three dedicated ports and one USB/eSATA combo. It was made before USB 3.0 really took off, so I don’t have any USB 3.0 ports on it. Doesn’t matter as I don’t have any USB 3.0 devices.
On my desktop, I currently have eight USB ports. Six around back, two up front. I also got a fairly new motherboard recently which has support for USB 3.0, so there’s two USB 3.0 ports around back. I could put two more USB 3.0 ports up front, but it needs a special header that I don’t have.
Comment by linuxlove — May 24, 2013 @ 7:13 am
Okay, so I’m seething with jealousy! Then again, I do prefer the ultralight laptops, which is probably why USB ports are in short supply.
USB 3.0 is pretty cool. It’s blue!
Comment by admin — May 24, 2013 @ 8:33 am
My current laptop has two USB ports. I keep an external hard drive plugged in one port and a seven-port powered USB hub plugged in the other. I reserve one port on the hub to plug in a flash drive, but the other six ports are always hooked up to devices. It’s real handy not to have to always plug and unplug. Try doing that with RS-232 ports!
I know someone who uses a 28-port powered hub, but that is probably overkill.
Comment by Matthew Reed — May 25, 2013 @ 10:26 am
Lusting….
I see that 28 port USB hub for sale on Amazon. WANT.
Comment by admin — May 25, 2013 @ 12:16 pm