little miss fire

As above really. Need more USB ports, only have 2 at the mo, and could ideally do with 4. Can I buy something that gives me more ports?

An exact make and model would be good. Dabs seem to have the something for about £10-15, but I'm not computer literate enought to know what I need.

many thanks

Rachel

ChrisB

Easiest thing to go for would be a USB Hub. These plug into one of your existing USB ports (so no need to open your PC) and give you anything from four to seven ports on the hub.

So you'd lose one of your existing two but gain say four more.

http://www.netshop.co.uk/usb2304.htm is around £20.

If you don't mind opening up your PC, then you can get a four port card much cheaper. Like this one from Ebuyer.com.

If you want to avoid P&P or the wait, then a local computer shop (or PC World) should have one of the mini hubs or the internal card.

HTH,

Chris.

Fig

Bowlocks I've just bought one of those internal cards elsewhere for twice that price

little miss fire

Thanks Chris. How easy is it to open up my PC and put a 4 port card in? Is it a case of take the old one out and pop the new one in?

Thanks

Rachel

cong

or try this

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=46501

about £4

Fig

The old one may well be part of the motherboard, but in any event as long as you have a spare PCI slot (white one) then you can leave the existing ports and add the new card.

• Power off, unplug mains lead
• Cover off
• Find spare PCI slot, remove blanking plate (may be held by a screw or clip
• Insert new card making sure it is firmly seated in slot (do not apply too much pressure)
• Replace screw/clip
• Replace power lead and switch on to test - depending on version of Windows, should be auto-detected and installed.
• If all works OK, replace cover

Done

little miss fire

Thanks guys

Have ordered a 4 port hub. Thought it would be easier than taking the PC apart, and also it can sit ontop of my box, rather than fiddling around behind it all the time!

Thanks for your help

Fig

Do you know if the hub you ordered is powered or not?

If it is not powered (ie has no mains/transformer power adapter) then it will share the power supplied by the existing ports between the new devices. This could result in some devices (webcams especially) not working, as not enough power is available.

ChungsterSTI

Slightly off topic, but is it also worth upgrading my current USD 1.0 interface/controller to a 2.0 interface/controller?

I bought from the far east, a high speed USB memory stick, and XP says to utilise the speed of this device, I should upgrade.

What do you think?

Have seen the Belkin one for about £50. 4 ports and 2.0 interface.

cheers

Lee

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

I bought a 4 port USB 2.0 PCI card for one of my PC's off ebay for £15!

ChrisB

The card I linked to above is USB 2.0 for £6.50

You should see a performance boost in copying files Lee. USB 1.0 is rated at something like 12Mbps, where as full USB 2.0 is 480Mbps IIRC.

ChungsterSTI

That's what I was wondering.

I bought a 5m pixel camera you see, and have this device that can download straight off the memory card to PC via USB port (find it better than camera to USB link).

Its USB 2.0, and I just seem to find it a bit slow transferring all the high res pics (1.5mb each) off the memory card to the PC. So I guess the std 1.0 interface is seriously holding it up!

I think I will invest in one of these 2.0 cards/hubs.

Cheers

Lee

ChungsterSTI

Chris, how can that Ebuyer card be only £6.50, when Belkin ones from Netshop are around £50?

Its MAD!

Is there a catch with that Ebuyer card??

Scooby Dooby Blue

Check your motherboard supports USB2.0 first m8