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I have 10 USB sticks that I frequently use. I want to connect them all to my computer using a powered USB hub so I have them available all the time.

The USB port on my PC is USB 3 but all the USB sticks are USB 2 only. What HUB should I use for maximum transfer speeds?

Would an USB 3 hub increase transfer speeds compared to an USB 2 hub even though all sticks are USB 2?

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  • According to Wikipedia no translation between USB 2 and USB 3 devices is performed by hubs: Note that USB 3.0 hubs do not currently perform transaction translation to super-speed for USB 2.0 devices. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hub#Transaction_translator
    – Robert
    Commented Jul 27, 2022 at 9:40
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    Your title is a direct hardware recommendation request, a question type not allowed here. Your question body is a little more nuanced and might be OK. Please edit your question and title, keeping in mind this site's rules which you should have been prompted regarding as you are new here, to make it more on topic.
    – music2myear
    Commented Jul 27, 2022 at 14:50
  • The broad question is: Will using USB 3 hubs give me more speed of using USB 2 hubs even though the devices use USB 2. I'm not interested in any particular HUB model, etc.
    – Matt
    Commented Jul 31, 2022 at 7:37

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If USB 3.x hubs increase USB 2.0 speeds then it is only coincidental. People have experienced a slight performance boost this way but that is likely from the USB 3.x hub or computer port having higher quality components in the USB 2.0 data path than with whatever USB 2.0-only hub or port they were comparing it with. In USB 3.x the USB 2.0 data path is largely independent, using separate wires in the hub and cables from that of the USB 3.x data. Getting a boost in data speed appears to be common but is not guaranteed. There's many variables in this and the speed will be only as fast as the weakest link.

To get the most bandwidth to each USB 2.0 device would take spreading them out across as many USB controllers as possible. A computer may have many more ports than controllers, and that will impact performance. There may be one controller per port, or one controller for every four ports, there's often no telling without some kind of system probing utility. Again, the weakest link will be an issue so use quality cables and hubs if you can't plug the USB data sicks directly into ports on the computer.

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