Belkin USB 2.0& Firewire 6-Port Hub For Mac Mini by Belkin Components
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Digital camera reviews of Belkin USB 2.0& Firewire 6-Port Hub For Mac Mini
Digital camera Review: Nice, but draws power when computer is off
Summary: 3 Stars
This appeared to be what I was looking for, and looked nice on my Mac mini. While it would accomplish my goal to neaten up the cabling around my Mini, I was surprised to see that it keeps drawing power while the computer is off. I shut off my computer when it's not in use, and don't want devices continuing to waste power. so I ended up returning this. It might be an issue for some folks, so if you don't mind the wasted energy, this isn't a bad product.
Digital camera Review: Not Bad
Summary: 3 Stars
This product is not self powered and draws power from the computer. It would have been better if it had it's own power supply. Also the USB and Firewire ports should have been divided equally. Otherwise, not a bad product.Digital camera Review: Not bad, but a little disappointed
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm using this hub with the new Apple Airport Extreme rather than the Mac Mini, for which it was designed. So I'm not using the Firewire ports, but if I were, I'd want at least one more port. The port on teh front is nice, but that only leaves one open port on the back, which is a net gain of zero ports after you connect this "hub" to the Mac Mini Firewire port.
But the biggest disappointment is that this is an unpowered hub! That's fine if all you plug into it are self-powered devices, but that leaves out flash drives and bus-powered portable hard drives. Belkin should at least have offered an optional power supply for those who want one.
Digital camera Review: Not just for the Mac Mini
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm using mine with my PowerMac G5, where it fits perfectly on the top, right under the carrying handle, to bring a ton of ports to the front of the machine. I have no use for the short, tiny patch cables in this installation, but they make a great addition to my Road Warrior kit!
Incidentally, complaints about power limitations on this hub are misplaced. The hub draws power from the Firewire port if its connected, which has much more power than a USB port.
The only down side is that it only has two firewire ports.
Digital camera Review: Not reliable
Summary: 2 Stars
I love the form factor -- it looks great sitting under the Mini -- but in practice it has been mostly just a source of frustration. I have a chain of self-powered Firewire hard drives which simply would not come up when plugged into this hub, but mounted just fine when plugged directly into the Mini. In addition, it does create quite a mess of cables behind the Mini, exposing only one port of each type on front where you really want them. This is a purchase I regret.
In fairness, the USB portion of the hub does seem to work a bit better. So if you only need a USB hub, this might be OK, but I wouldn't recommend it for Firewire.