USB Powered HUB multiple HDDs

[Jamie Cuticchia]

I have 3 USB HDD's each with their own P/S. I am using them as a backup to data on my FreeNAS. I have two questions. The first is (a) whether it would be advantageous to hook them directly to USB 3 ports on the computer or (b) could they be connected to a powered hub and be stable (if so, any recommendations) ?

Thanks in Advance for your valuable time.

Note: All are New Seagate B/U plus (1x4TB - for my host machine, 2 x 8TB for the backup of FreeNAS data). All in Windows 10 Prof.

 

[Paperdoc]

If you are using them currently on a USB2 port, then switching to a USB3 port certainly will improve performance.

On the other hand, if you're already using them on a USB3 port and are asking whether a computer USB3 port is better than some powered USB3 Hub, that's different. On a Hub, would they all be stable? Certainly should be, yes, although their website suggests sometimes that does not happen because of deficiencies (unspecified) of some Hubs. There is a small limit to consider. The connection between computer and Hub has the standard USB3 limit on data transfer speeds for TOTAL data movement. So all three HDD units would be sharing that transfer capacity. If you normally use only one of these units at a time, sharing will not limit the transfers. If you routinely use two or three simultaneously, then giving them each a separate USB3 port on the host computer will give each a chance to use full USB3 speeds.

Since the units each are powered by its own power supply module, you don't really need a powered Hub. But there's more. The website for these products indicates that all the 8 TB units come only in the "Backup Plus Hub" line. That is, each of those two units should have on their front TWO USB3 ports (on addition to the one on the back), and include internally a powered USB3 hub. So you do not need any extra device as long and you are willing to leave them all turned on. You could plug the smaller unit and the second larger unit into the two front ports on the first 8 TB unit, and that is your Hub. then there's only the single USB3 cable from your "first" 8 TB unit back to the host computer.