This may seem like a silly question. After all, who hasn’t gone to look for a hub right when they realized they’ve just run out of free USB ports? The fact is, planning ahead has its advantages, and sometimes a hub just makes sense. Maybe you need a powered hub for energy-hungry devices, or maybe you want something with switches that lets you selectively turn ports and devices on and off. It’s not always about “moar” ports - a hub can be useful logistically or for improved organization.
One example I have for our switch hubs, which I personally use, is to turn my USB headset-to-PC connection on and off. I push the button, it’s connected, and Windows automatically switches over the default sound devices. I push it again, bam, back to speakers and my freestanding microphone. This is very convenient when I want to jump on Discord or VOIP for some gaming. I do this with other devices, too, including my game controllers and an external backup drive. It streamlines things while being more efficient.
Other hubs may have more advanced features, like including a card reader or having the ability to output to displays. Many users may not be aware that there are internal chips devoted to these functions, and you see these chips a lot in smartphones but also things like the Nintendo Switch’s dock. The Steam Deck dock will also likely use something similar. In fact, we’ve even had users make their own Steam Deck dock from our existing products. USB-C is, after all, a convenient interface, especially for those of us who got tired of doing the USB-A double-flip.
We make a ton of great hubs, whether you need power, switches, portability, charging, ergonomics, display output, SD input, or more. We even sell a travel dock with Gigabit Ethernet out! If you’re the type of person who can never have enough devices - and I seem to be one of those - then a hub can be an inexpensive way to expand your options. Even if that just means saving your precious high-speed motherboard USB ports by offloading basic, low-bandwidth devices that only need USB 2.0, it's worthwhile.
Check out some of our hubs here.
