sck451
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
They take you from ten USB ports on the case (between the motherboard IO and the front connectors on the case) to 12 USB ports on the case. To my mind that isn't worthwhile, especially as it clutters up the inside of the case.So do they act like extrernal usb hubs? Or are they inside the actual tower/ creating additional actual ports on the outside of the case..? I looked at the prices and there isnt really much difference but running out of ports is something I always worry about (not sure why tbh), and I havent had great experiences with hubs and am not sure how they work and if they lessen the transfer speed etc due to creating multiple ports from a single one if that makes any sense?
Hubs can slow transfer rates down for the devices that are plugged into them, but many USB devices won't mind that (mouse, keyboard, game controller, webcam, for instance) so they can happily be plugged into a hub. Devices that use the full USB bandwidth (basically just SSDs for most people, possibly also things like 4K capture cards: I'm not sure) should go directly into the motherboard, but I doubt you have ten of them!