49-port USB hub

[Dr Zero]

Saw this and thought you all might get a kick out of it. 

http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/05/28/49-port-usb-hub-is-just-plain-practical/

What’s a modern computer user to do? You’ve got your thumb drives, your backup drives, your joystick, your drink warmer, your drink cooler, your USB humping dog, your USB blow-up doll, and a hundred other things littering your desk. And even the best motherboards only come with 10 or 15 USB ports. If only there were some way to plug in all of these things at once, in some sort of… hub. Brother, your prayers are answered at last! With this 49-port powered USB hub, you can live it up and never worry about unplugging anything ever again.

[Beretta]

you know.. i'd actually want one of those.. hell more then one even.

wonder what the other side of the board looks like.. does'nt look to be a whole lot to it.

could'nt find a price, dont know if the post is suppose to be sarcastic but YES i would buy one if they was'nt terribly expensive.

[drventure]

Yowza! That'd be great if it weren't 400... Doh, how do you make a pound sign on an US keyboard!?

What's that, 650$ us?

 

[Dr Zero]

you know.. i'd actually want one of those.. hell more then one even.

wonder what the other side of the board looks like.. does'nt look to be a whole lot to it.

could'nt find a price, dont know if the post is suppose to be sarcastic but YES i would buy one if they was'nt terribly expensive.

Yeah I thought the same thing when I saw that hmmm that kinda looks cool!

That quote is from the fellow who wrote the article he is a bit snarky but I liked the board 

[severdhed]

now if they can only manage to get that down to about $29.99   

i dont know what i would ever need that for, but i really want one.

[u_rebelscum]

Cool, but...

• Too much $$$
• 49?!?  A little too much for most people IMO, except lab or Q/A testing.  Maybe a 12 port hub at $60.  Or a 24 hub at $80.  But see next two.
• 49!?!  One (quality) thumbdrive can top out the USB 2.0 bandwidth or a single root host (at effect 30 MB/s; 480 Mb/s / 8 bits/byte * 1/2 dulplex = 60 MB/s / 2 = 30 MB).  30 MB/s divided by 49 results in ~0.6 MB/s per device (assuming even distribution, of course).  So adding 48 other devices to that same 480 Mbit/s max bandwidth won't speed things up in total throughput.
• 49 usb 2.0 and 1.1?  If you plug one 1.1 device in there, all others will drop to 1.1 speeds, or 1/40th the speed of usb 2.0.

So I'll pass.  But a USB 3.0 12 port hub, OTOH....  Even better, a 12 port, 3-4 virtual root host, usb 2.0 hub that talks to the computer over usb 3.0.

[thecheat]

Cool, but...

• Too much $$$
• 49?!?  A little too much for most people IMO, except lab or Q/A testing.  Maybe a 12 port hub at $60.  Or a 24 hub at $80.  But see next two.
• 49!?!  One (quality) thumbdrive can top out the USB 2.0 bandwidth or a single root host (at effect 30 MB/s; 480 Mb/s / 8 bits/byte * 1/2 dulplex = 60 MB/s / 2 = 30 MB).  30 MB/s divided by 49 results in ~0.6 MB/s per device (assuming even distribution, of course).  So adding 48 other devices to that same 480 Mbit/s max bandwidth won't speed things up in total throughput.
• 49 usb 2.0 and 1.1?  If you plug one 1.1 device in there, all others will drop to 1.1 speeds, or 1/40th the speed of usb 2.0.

So I'll pass.  But a USB 3.0 12 port hub, OTOH....  Even better, a 12 port, 3-4 virtual root host, usb 2.0 hub that talks to the computer over usb 3.0.

You're taking it way too literally.

[hypernova]

Yowza! That'd be great if it weren't 400... Doh, how do you make a pound sign on an US keyboard!?

#

[Malenko]

I think he meant £

hold ALT and press 0163 on your number pad

[Ummon]

Cool, but...

• Too much $$$
• 49?!?  A little too much for most people IMO, except lab or Q/A testing.  Maybe a 12 port hub at $60.  Or a 24 hub at $80.  But see next two.
• 49!?!  One (quality) thumbdrive can top out the USB 2.0 bandwidth or a single root host (at effect 30 MB/s; 480 Mb/s / 8 bits/byte * 1/2 dulplex = 60 MB/s / 2 = 30 MB).  30 MB/s divided by 49 results in ~0.6 MB/s per device (assuming even distribution, of course).  So adding 48 other devices to that same 480 Mbit/s max bandwidth won't speed things up in total throughput.
• 49 usb 2.0 and 1.1?  If you plug one 1.1 device in there, all others will drop to 1.1 speeds, or 1/40th the speed of usb 2.0.

So I'll pass.  But a USB 3.0 12 port hub, OTOH....  Even better, a 12 port, 3-4 virtual root host, usb 2.0 hub that talks to the computer over usb 3.0.

You're taking it way too literally.

Not if that is a real, and sold, device.

[u_rebelscum]

You're taking it way too literally.

I think you mean "too seriously".  :-|     

I meant to sound "USB sucks for true geek stuff".  Didn't come through, huh?  
(USB 2.0 is good enough for normal desk top apps, but doesn't scale well.  OTOH, USB 3.0 might be able to scale up pretty well, depending on how backward compatibility works.)

[Beretta]

actually it's not as bad as you make it, if you was gonna use it with a crap load of thumb drives you would really only feel a performance hit when accessing data off more then 1 drive at a time, and thats assuming you have a drive that can actually max out usb2.0 on it's own to start with... most cant.

for other devices like gamepads (omg could you imagine?) or ipacs you'ed probably never feel the performance hit if they was all being used at the same time simply cause they dont require a lot of bandwidth.

but 400 bucks? no way, 50-60 bucks id say giddy up.

[Avinitlarge]

In GBP with the VAT added that is £458.85. Thats $746.63. Bloody Expensive. You could buy a car for that in the UK!!

[JayB]

In GBP with the VAT added that is £458.85. Thats $746.63. Bloody Expensive. You could buy a car for that in the UK!!

Don't Lie. You'll have them believe we all talk like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins over here next 

[JayB]

  "Woman in comfortable shoes"

[Avinitlarge]

In GBP with the VAT added that is £458.85. Thats $746.63. Bloody Expensive. You could buy a car for that in the UK!!

Don't Lie. You'll have them believe we all talk like Dick Van ---woman in comfortable shoes--- in Mary Poppins over here next 

Eh? You can buy a car for £100 in the UK. My brother sold his Mondeo for £100

[u_rebelscum]

actually it's not as bad as you make it, if you was gonna use it with a crap load of thumb drives you would really only feel a performance hit when accessing data off more then 1 drive at a time, and thats assuming you have a drive that can actually max out usb2.0 on it's own to start with... most cant.

Yeah, if you only use one thumb drive at a time: no problems.  Only mice, gamepads, keyboards: no problems.  And sure, none of the first few generation thumb drives years ago couldn't top out USB 2.0. 

However most of the thumb drives reviewed now a days have hit the ~30 MB/s max rate (due to half duplex; 480 Mbit/s claimed max = 60 MB/s, and half duplex & "client reply only" effectively halfs that).  (When reading of course.)  Here's a year old roundup with 11 out of 15 hitting the ceiling.  Here's an old (2005) USB RAID test, that hit the same ceiling (but pretty cool the write rate also hit it too).  And external USB HDDs have the same USB 30 MB/s max limit, while the same HDDs can go way faster in firewire or eSATA.

Copying from one drive to another, though?  It'll top out at 15 MB/s (assuming the drive can write that fast).  Copying from HDD to a dozen drives at the same time?  Top out at 2.5 MB/s each (30 / 12 = 2.5).

A 49 drive RAID?  No read rate increase at all (assuming you have a quality thumb drive).  Sure write rate will increase, up to 30 MB/s.  That's double (or less) for good thumb drives and 20% increase for external HDDs, but a decent ~5 fold for the slow write thumb drives.  But probably could do that on just a 7 port hub & 7 drives, even with the cheapest drives out today, and as linked above, 4 drives on a 4 port can top it out.

[Ummon]

Eh? You can buy a car for £100 in the UK. My brother sold his Mondeo for £100

What year model, and what was the condition?

[JayB]

In GBP with the VAT added that is £458.85. Thats $746.63. Bloody Expensive. You could buy a car for that in the UK!!

Don't Lie. You'll have them believe we all talk like Dick Van ---woman in comfortable shoes--- in Mary Poppins over here next 

Eh? You can buy a car for £100 in the UK. My brother sold his Mondeo for £100

Sarcasm. I thought being a brit you'd have got that 

[Avinitlarge]

DOH!!! I didnt read it properly. 

[RayB]

500 gb hard drive: $120
USB hard drive enclosure: $40
TOTAL: $160

That 49 port board is cool in a geek humor kind of way, but just not worth the hassle, cost, and space it uses up.

[Dr Zero]

500 gb hard drive: $120
USB hard drive enclosure: $40
TOTAL: $160

That 49 port board is cool in a geek humor kind of way, but just not worth the hassle, cost, and space it uses up.

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard
Drive

64.99 free shipping  with promo EMCLXLP48

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL090309&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL090309-_-HardDrives-_-L0B-_-22136319