I am currently facing a problem, my laptop only has 3 usb ports and I have a lot of peripherals that need to be connected such as 3 external hard drives, ipods, ipads and many others. Can anyone point me to a good USB hub? Does it affect transfer speeds?
USB do affect the transfer speed. There are many USB Hubs available in the market. Some of the best suited USB Hubs are listed below.
A.  Anker 7-port and 9-port powered USB 3.0 Hubs
B.  Belkin 2-in-17-Port USB 2.0 Hub
C.  Macally Mini 7 port USB 2.0 Hub
D. Plugable 10 port powered USB 2.0 and 7 port USB 3.0 Hubs
E.  Monoprice USB hubs.
These are the best USB hubs in the market. If you need better transfer speed then you should go for USB 3.0 Hubs. They give you the better speed.
If you are looking for a USB hub to use on your USB devices, you should check this AmazonBasics 10 Port USB 2.0 Hub. It costs $21.99. It supports USB 2.0 ports high-speed interface supporting data rates from 1.5 Mbps, 12 Mbps, up to 480 Mbps and backward compatible with USB 1.1. This 10-port hub supports two modes: bus-powered mode and self-powered mode.
With bus-powered mode the hub get its power from the USB port where it is connected to while with self-powered mode, the hub get its power from the power adapter connected to an AC outlet. This 10-port hub supports Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. For Mac, it supports OS X 10.1 and higher.
