My pc is in need of more USB connections. I know there are external hubs that kind of ´split´one of your USB connections, but this is not exacltly what i had in mind.

Sniffing around, i found USB hubs on a PCI card, however all of these are supplied with an USB-root. This means, when i will install one of these i will have 2 USB controllers. Can i do this, or am i asking for mayor trouble? I use XP Home edition on a HP pavilion PC.

Merlin, you can add a PCI card USB controller. It will of course use one of your free card slots and also an IRQ like any other PCI card you add. If you add one I suggest you add a USB 2.0 card for higher transfer rates. The card itself won't be a problem, except for using an additional IRQ, but adding more peripherals will generally consume more power from your PSU and of course add some complexity to your setup. You should only add one if you are adding devices that don't work well on a hub (and some devices will not function at all on a hub or will cause everything else on the hub to fail).

complexity to setup....right... that is exactly what´s kind of holding me back... from buying and installing.
So you are saying that maybe I better buy an external hub that splits up one of my existing USB ports, in order to prevent trouble?

Just curious... has anybody done this? What is your experience with it?

Hubs generally don't work well with burners. In fact, many burner makers advise you not to connect the burner via hub.

Get a 2.0 USB PCI card as Keymaster suggested.and actually, you have already found things like that. Of course, you'll have 2 USB controllers after installing the card and that's what should be. And use these new USB ports for burners.

I'm not suggesting the complexity would be overwhelming and I agree with Van, as I stated some USB devices don't like a HUB connection. I have one such device so it gets it's own port connection and everything else is connected to a HUB on the other port. It's a decision you have to make; do you have the need for another controller because you have or plan to have such devices while still using the current motherboard or can you simply add a HUB and get by with that?

The type of devices that require ttheir own port are generally higher speed devices such as drives, ethernet adaptors, broadband modems, etc. If you want to add a burner or other external drive you almost have to add a USB 2.0 controller to get above 6x.

I´m not planning to connect my burner to USB. I was more thinking of my printer, external ISDN modem an maybe my mouse.

None of these will likely require a seperate port, but I would check the modem before purchasing. I assume you have two ports so you can reserve one port for one 'problem' device. A USB 4 port HUB is cheaper than a USB 4 port controller and cheaper than many 2 port controllers but you don't get the advantage of the higher rate USB 2.0 (which you may not need).

You should check for your intended devices whther they run only on a dedicated port. I recently purchased a small MIDI keyboard controller about the same size as my PC keyboard, so I could have a keyboard directly in front of me for quick musical entry. Intead of having to turn away from my monitor and PC keyboard. The MidiMan Oxygen8 looked like a perfect solution. Only after purchasing it did I find out from tech support that it should be installed and preferably used on a dedicated port. This info was nowhere on the sales or technical literature at the website. Fortunately, I was able to install it on the HUB since I already have a ethernet adaptor on the 2nd USB port (I have no card slots available with 4 audio cards in my PC).
http://www.midiman.com/products/midiman/images/oxy8_med.jpg

Nice one, Keymaster! It looks cool and very neat. I've got a 61-key MIDI keyboard but I think something like that will come in handy sometimes.

I'm completely confused.... i bought a PCI-->USB card yesterday, installed it..... crossed my fingers... and guess what? It works.... Plug&Pray finally evolved to Plug&Play
.. no installation, no conflicts, nothing!! EUREKA!!


Replugged my printer, mouse, keyboard, modem to USB ports on more suitable places... it just works! I'm SO puzzled...

http://www.ewandew.com/sig/Awiz.gif

Good for you! I know how u felt! I went through the same thoughts when I got a pci ide card...but it works too~~~~!!!!