USB hub with a detachable cable?
My life story before the recipe.
Been working on cable managing my desk, and figured that mounting a USB hub behind my monitor would be an easy way to keep some ports in reach without them being on my desk.
I don't need anything fancy, just a couple usb ports. I thought it'd be pretty straightforward to find a cheap hub, that either had a long integrated cable or let me bring my own to route from my monitor to my desktop.
Boy was I wrong.
It seems that the vast majority of USB hubs have integrated cables, and those cables are super short. Detachable cables seem to only become common above my budget (~$50), and also include a bunch of features I don't need (charging, networking, display out, etc...).
"but /u/zoroa, why not just grab the first hub you see, a usb extender, and call it a day?" As far as I understand, USB-C male to USB-C female cables aren't compliant with the USB standard and can potentially cause issues. My google-fu isn't good enough to tell whether the same applies to USB-A male to USB-A female cables, so I'm just assuming that they are also non-compliant.
I'm looking for a USB hub that:
- Has at least 4 usb ports
- The USB ports are all along the same edge of the device. (For easy access even when the hub is behind my monitor)
- Can be bus-powered (i.e. doesn't need to be plugged into an outlet)
- Has a detachable cable for the connection from the hub to my computer
It'd also be nice if it:
- Was USB 3.0
- Cost less than $50 USD
- Had a mix of USB-A and USB-C
- Didn't look ugly
I've spent a couple hours looking, and the only hub I've found that hits my hard requirements the 4 port and 7 port variants of a hub from StarTech.com . I was curious if anyone was aware of anything better in this price range, before I just pull the trigger.
Even though this is a KVM switch, it might meet your needs. I have a similar UGREEN one and their products have been pretty solid for me. (Currently troubleshooting something many years after purchase but I am 99% confident the issue is related to one of the connected computers.)
https://a.co/d/7qqBdEG
It has:
Oh god, I have the worst tunnel vision.
I own this device and I'm using it right now 😂
You're totally right that this hits every need I have. I'll probably need to buy one of the bigger models to fit everything I need on it.
Thank you.
I'm so happy they're making kvm switches again, they seemed to all but disappear for a while.
I've been using a clamp hub. Not specifically this one, but one like it: https://a.co/d/hPAwNB8
Seems to hit your requirements. You can just search for "clamp hub" and there's many variations.
Neat, I didn't know these existed. The concept of clamping directly on a monitor terrifies me, but on a desk or monitor stand makes a lot of sense.
I clamp mine to my monitor, but only because it has a large and substantial feeling bottom bezel. It's nice to have them affixed to something. The one I use has card readers, a mix of usb A and c ports, and an aux port, so it's nice supplement for cases with inconvenient or anemic front panel options.
I had a very similar need (usb hug attached to the monitor) and my solution may work, but it isn't exactly what you asked for. I found that nearly every one of my monitors actually had a built in USB hub. Some were only USB 2, but my main monitor was USB 3. So, I attached my little USB 3 hub (with its annoyingly short cable) to the monitor USB port and velcro'd it to the back near the bottom. That let me connect my peripherals like mouse and keyboard and general thumb drives to that instead of the PC itself.
While I also use the UGreen KVM (just KM?) switch that u/ShroudedScribe linked, I needed even more USB ports (well, I needed them to be accessible for my standing desk so that my mouse cord length wasn't just randomly changing). I use this Anker USB hub. It works without plugging in the power cord for me, though I run it with the power plugged in. So long as your devices are high power draw, it seems to be fine. Pretty much every USB hub will start to encounter problems without additional power at some number of devices/power draw however.