When I picked up my Mac Mini Intel Core Solo, I handed my G4 Mac Mini to my mom. She has a Palm, a digital camera, a Canon printer, as well as a D-Link Bluetooth adapter to connect to the machine. Since the G4 Mac Mini only has two USB ports, once you add the keyboard and mouse, it only leaves one port on the keyboard and one on the back of the machine. I picked up a Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 4-Port Hub at my local Comp USA for about $25 before a $10 mail in rebate. I figured I could probably order it online for cheaper, but the time it would take for me to wait for it was not worth the price difference. This hub would allow her to connect all her peripherals without needed to swap them in and out of the USB ports on the back of the machine.

The Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 4-Port Hub isn’t as nice as the IOGear GUH284R with 6 USB ports and a built in card reader, but it gets the job done. The port on top of the hub is convenient and I plugged the D-Link Bluetooth USB adapter into the top. The hub looks nice, but it sits behind the desk and I was looking more for functionality than looks. Overall, with all the peripherals connected, the hub works well. Some of the older hubs I’ve used sometimes tend to crash the machine. After using the hub for a while, I have received no complaints about it from my mom.

I stayed away from the hubs that were designed to sit under the Mac Mini. I figured USB 2.0 would be around for a while and if my mom were to upgrade her machine she could reuse the hub without it looking out of place.

There’s not much else to say about the hub. It’s relatively inexpensive and it gets the job done. If you need a few more USB ports definitely look for USB 2.0. The price has gone done on these and there are hardly anymore USB 1.1 Hubs around anymore. In any case, you won’t be bottlenecked from slower bandwidth by going with USB 2.0. As always if you have any questions or comments, our readers and I are happy to hear them.