January 2013 Power Questions - 3.0 SEVEN Port Hubs x 2 Hubs on 2013 iMac

1

Phone support number for pre-sales??? I read the caveat regarding the 7 Port 3.0 Hub…NOT recommended for Mac Systems because of Power Issues. I want more info. I am Planning on buying the Most recent iMac 27"…Does the recommendation extend to the newest Macs?

Spikey

None of your answers are current in regard to the latest iMac Releases…Quad 27" with 3.0 Ports and Thunderbolt etc (and eliminated DVD_R’s etc) 21" models shipped in Dec 2012 and 27" Models in January 2013. What kind of “Draw” Power- wise would 7 USB 3.0 4TB HDs have on the New Macs??? At the moment I don’t have 7 4TB 3.0 Drives, but I do have 3 and anticipate consolidating other drives so that I might very well end up with 7. Plus the New iMacs have TWO 3.0 Ports. My current iMac has had 2 Kensington DOME Shaped USB Hubs (2.0) plus 1or 2 Daisy chained 400 Firewire Hubs…And I’ve had NO PROBLEM using (probably at some point…all the ports simultaneously…although I don’t normally have more than maybe 6 or 7 External Desktop HDs on at 1 time.) But I have had problems using Western Digital and Seagate Passport type Drives (2.5 inch external little HDs that vary in sizes from120gigs to 2 TB (various vintages)…I’d say they will all MOUNT, but they don’t always stay mounted and when copying large amounts of Data…they might “fall off the Desktop” —not physically fall off computer Desk…hope you understand…and then I start to get error messages and I can’t cancel the copying…It’s like the Finder crashed and cannot be successfully Force Quit etc. At this point I have MANY 3.0 Hard Drives (both Desktop and Passport Size…I use Passport term, but that is an early Western Digital term…hope you understand…small portable drives that get their power from CPU Port (and hopefully Hub port too…enough to accomplish a task like Copying occasionally…they are not a permanently connected device such as a Desktop HD.
Anyway, I have all these 3.0 New Vintage BIG CAPACITY NEW HDs but NO 3.0 Computer Ports…YET. But I will within the next week or 2…and I want to be up to date on compatible “State of Art” USB 3.0 Hubs…simultaneously…It took me 40 hours a few days ago to transfer 3.25 TB from some 1 and 1.5 TB Drives onto a 4 TB Drive. Theoretically (according to specs)…I’m thinking if I had 3.0 compatible everything…instead of 40 hours…it might have taken me only 4 hours. Please Comment and it would be even better if you could supply me with a Phone Support Tech Number.

thanks again, Carol (spikey)

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Hi Carol-

Please take a look at my recent post below regarding OS X and USB 3 hubs: http://plugable.com/2013/01/10/plugab…

Feel free to post any questions in the comments there, I’ll be focusing all discussion of USB 3 hubs and Mac support here for the foreseeable future.

External hard drive power requirements vary from model to model: the manufacturers of these devices will be your best source for details on these model to model variances.

Since we do not offer phone support, if this is important to your purchasing decision you may prefer another vendor, although I’m more than happy to answer other questions online.

Best wishes-

Jeff Everett
MCITP Enterprise Support Technician
Plugable Technologies

3

Thanks Jeff,

I’m rushing out right now…so I probably won’t get back to you until either this evening…or more likely Friday…when I have more time. By then I’ll look up the Power Demands of the TWO 4 TB Seagate External HDs that I got recently at Costco. Currently they are working flawlessly EVERYWHERE I’ve tried them…which is Directly connected to Apple Quad Desktop Pro (3,1)…and to iMac 24" about 3-4 years old that has TWO 7 Port Kensington 2.0 Hubs (Dome shaped and Powered)…The 4 TB Hard Drives on this iMac were connected to these hubs, but haven’t tried simultaneously connecting them yet…but Regularly have at least 4 - 5 HDs (probably all 3.0 USB HDs varying in size between 2-3 TBs each.) Of course the lowest common denominator is the iMac which only support 2.0 USB…but I was “planning ahead when I got them…I’m ready to bit the bullet and get a MAC that DOES SUPPORT 3.0…I’ve also hooked up the 4 TB Seagate USB 3.0 to a ALMOST 2 year old Macbook Pro and had NO PROBLEMS…transferring to it (cleaning off other smaller Capacity HDs)…that MacBook Pro does have Thunderbolt, but no 3.0 USB. That Powerbook Pro is running Lion (latest version of Lion…10.7.x). Quad Desktop (3,1) is running Snow Leopard and so is the 24” iMac.
The new 27" iMacs will be shipping of course with Mountain Lion etc. I’ll get back to you with 2-3 days…busy right now…sorry.

Carol