Small & Compact, XLNT Performance, Belkin Liftime Warranty=5-Stars****

Works as expected | Belkin FireWire 6-Port Hub (F5U526-APL)

electronics:


	• Belkin FireWire 6-Port Hub (F5U526-APL) Belkin Components Belkin Components average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Works fine, light as a feather

I write this review only because the negative reviews almost made me not buy the Belkin FireWire Hub. Alas, the options for such a devise are few and far between and unless you want to order something (instead of picking it up at the store) you have even fewer choices.

So, reluctantly, I picked this up and LO! on my Intel MacBook it was 100% plug and play. No software, no freezing, nothing but sweet FireWire action.

At this very moment I have a LaCie DVD Firewire drive, SeaGate 300GB Firewire drive, MOTU 8Pre Firewire Interface and a Canon DV Recorder all plugged in with one more port to spare. I was having trouble daisy chaining all of them before and so far (a few hours) everything has been running great. If I have any trouble I'll update this review.

My only critique is that the hub is so small and light weight it sort of need to be pinned down, otherwise it'll go where ever the wires take it. Just FYI.

for more information click here

Small & Compact, XLNT Performance, Belkin Liftime Warranty=5-Stars****

There are literally only a couple of choices for a product like this if you're a Mac owner, so, in spite of all the negative reviews of the product I decided to take a chance and buy it anyway considering the fact that I have several other Belkin components, and use their new UPS's on 3 of my Macs, so at worst I'd have to return it. Upon opening the new box, I was amazed at the size: it's TINY! 6-ports (really 5 because one is for your Mac's FireWire cable to connect the device) in a powered FireWire hub that's only 3"x2"x3/4" plus there's a power supply connector on it also. Amazing design! I'm using it with a Dual Core G5 PowerMac that's my main production machine in my studio, so it connects these FireWire devices: 2 external hard drives, an external DVD+/-RW optical drive, my PC110 Sony HandyCam, and my Epson FireWire scanner. I've never used all 5 items at the same time, and wouldn't recommend doing anything like that anyway, but using 2 or 3 of them at the same time presents no issues...everything works nominally without a degraded FireWire bus/performance. I have the hub sitting on top of the G5, and the power source for the hub is connected to my Belkin 1500VA UPS, just in case there's a power outage and I'm in the middle of something important using the FireWire devices. After using the hub for about 6 months, I can't find anything negative to comment about it. And like most Belkin products, it has the Lifetime Warranty, so I have no worries should it fail at some point: they'll replace it if that happens. So here's a 5-Stars***** [...]: I highly recommend the FireWire 6-Port Hub to Mac owners, and have found, over a long period of use with multiple devices, that it works better than I expected. And if you appreciate great design, it's a tiny device that won't clutter up your workspace. Like all the Belkin products that I own, this one works fantastic, and you're assured of product satisfaction with their LifeTime Warranty on the hub and power supply. Way to go Belkin, and thanks for making such a great product!

for more information click here

Works as expected

I have purchased two of these Firewire hubs. They have worked fine with several Western Digital 500GB MyBooks and LaCie 250GB and 500GB Porsche drives connected to an Intel Mac mini, a Mac PowerPC G4, and a Mac Dual PowerPC G5. All computers were running Mac OS X Tiger.

I could not see any performance drop-off when using the hub with one device. (Duplication of a 500-MB blank disc image file on a 250GB LaCie Porsche drive took 30 sec whether the cable was connected directly or indirectly via the Belkin hub to an Intel duo-core Mac mini.)

One warning though: do not connect or disconnect a cable to any Firewire port while burning a DVD on an external Firewire optical drive. You will abort the process with an "unstable interface" error and get a disc only suitable as a coaster!

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5

hot