late 2013 iMac 27" compatibility

Discontinued Products USB3-HUB7-81X
1

Hello, I just purchased a new iMac - late 2013 27". I am interested in a usb hub for it for ease of connecting things instead of on the back. I see many issues with these hubs but they seem to be dated quite a wile ago. How is the compatibility now?

Thanks

2

Thanks for contacting Plugable support!

The biggest thing to be aware of is that unfortunately, Apple “SuperDrive” requires a direct connection to a supported Mac. From http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2801

"The SuperDrive is designed exclusively for use with MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini’s that do not have a built-in optical drive. The SuperDrive must be directly plugged into the computer’s USB port, and cannot be used if connected to a USB hub.”

This is because SuperDrive requires substantially more power than is allowed by USB specifications, and thus won’t work on hubs which are designed to comply with standards.

Many users are also reporting trouble with USB 3.0 external drives not working on Mavericks where they did on Mountain Lion. Currently these seem to be OS level issues, not something we can resolve:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/…

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Best wishes-

Jeff Everett
Plugable Technologies

3

Thanks, I was aware about the superdrive. How about using a 2.0 hub? All I want to be able to do is connect my camera (which is 2.0) to download pictures and a flash drive to copy things to load things.

4

Hi Bob-

I can recommend our USB 2.0 hubs with a bit more confidence. It may also be helpful to know that many users have reported that they can avoid issues with USB 3.0 by connecting to a USB 2.0 hub “downstream” through a USB 3.0 one.

In short, you can probably get most devices to work fine on the USB 3.0 hub itself, but in case of issues you can have a 2nd USB 2.0 hub connected to the 3.0 one and use that to work around any issues you hit with the 3.0 one.

This can also be a easy way to avoid one other USB 3.0 issue: interference with anything that operates around the 2.4ghz wireless spectrum like wireless mice and keyboards, 802.11 “WiFi”, Bluetooth, etc.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/e…

Hope this helps!

Best wishes-

Jeff