External HD via HUB?

[sytrusze]

Dear members,

i was thinking about buying a usb HUB and connect my external HD and other usb devices to the usb HUB and connect the HUB to my iMac.

Will this cause any latency, what are the pros and cons? I'm using the external HD mostly with apps like Logic Studio, Pro Tools etc.

Thanks

[Craig F]

other than USB HDs are not supported on OSX?

[John_Toolbox]

Why not firewire? Firewire is much better for audio, it has a better sustained transfer speed.

If you're dead set on using a usb drive, I would plug the drive directly into the imac. Hubs are best for iloks, thumb drives and other low power devices. If you absolutely have to use a hub for connecting your hard drives, make sure it's a powered one.

[aka21stCentury]

For just over 200$ OWC will replace your optical drive with an eSATA connector.

data bandwidth: 77 mBs per second for 1394b. 133 mBs - 300 mBs per second for eSATA depending on card and chipset (port multipliers) can host up to 5 x 7,200 rpm drives max. However most Firewire use a single buss and the slowest Firewire speed sets the protocol (if a Digi 003, Firewire 400, so the drive bandwidth takes a big hit running at 400 rather than 800). A PCIe or express card SIIG Firewire interface will add true Firewire 800 and a separate buss... or 400 to plug the audio interface too, then use the internal Mac 1394b (800) for audio drives.

You don't want hardware spanning, Pro Tools uses round robin for audio and/or requires a dedicated sample library drive not a partition on the audio drive. It makes no sense unless doing location audio work to buy a single enclosure. Also the aluminum heatsink types run hot and I can only run mine (with no fan) for a few hours then I have to dismount it and turn it off to cool (7,200 fast seek time WD drive).

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Mercury-EliteAL-Pro-RAID The OS only sees a single drive with no spanning or raid.

[sytrusze]

Sorry for my late response but..

thanks for all the replies and information!