If you’ve recently picked up a new gaming laptop, you might have noticed that they don’t make them with as many ports as they used to. Or perhaps you’ve started to collect more and more PC gear to enhance your rig but you’ve realised you’re running out of ports to run or charge so many devices at the same time. If all of that sounds eerily familiar, it’s time you invested in an USB hub so you can create the gaming set-up of your dreams.

A USB hub acts as an extension lead for any USB-compatible device. Most tend to feature about four USB-A ports while some come with extra ports that are suitable to plug in a HDMI cable or a microSD card. This makes it a must-have as PC brands begin to steer more towards thinner and compact gaming laptops with less and less room for USB ports. Or even with newer MacBooks and Chromebooks moving in favour of slimmer USB-C ports. Seeing as many PC accessories still use USB-A shields, this means that decking out your rig with a wired RGB keyboard or second screen can become tight for space.

Having so many devices competing for desk space can make your gaming station look cluttered and confusing. You might find yourself scratching your head wondering which cable goes with what device or maybe you thought you’d plugged one in for a recharge then realised a different cable was plugged in this whole time. Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us.

With a USB hub, you have the opportunity to have all of your cables connected to one centralised hub. It’ll save you more time than individually unplugging and switching cables, as well as having the ability to unplug the entire hub altogether and take it with you when travelling.

Of course, a USB hub doesn’t just serve as a way to extend the number of ports you have on your laptop or PC, but it also helps to achieve super fast data transfers from external storage devices. If you’re a content creator as well as a gamer, you’ll be able to transfer videos and photos much quicker than you would with a regular cable, especially if you own one with a 3.0 USB connector.

But before you take the plunge, here are a few questions you should ponder before investing in a USB hub.

While it’s easy to think that the more ports, the better – that’s not necessarily true. While handy, it’s wholly unnecessary if you only intend to use a 20-port USB hub to act as a nearby charging station for your wireless mouse or keyboard. If you only want a USB hub to charge your devices, then we recommend this AUTENS USB charging station, which you can check out here.

When choosing a USB hub, think about how many peripherals are on your desk now, whether you’re actually going to use them and how many of them you’ll need simultaneously plugged it at any given time.

Again, you’ll have to check out your peripherals and see what they can connect into. Thankfully, USB hubs aren’t limited to just USB-A ports and can also support USB-C, as well as HDMI connections too. You might find it handy to grab one with two USB-A ports and one SD card reader slot as well. It’s totally up to you.

This depends on what you intend to use your USB hub for. If it’s just to connect an external keyboard to your PC or charge a mouse, then you’ll get by just fine with a 2.0 compatible USB hub.

However, if you like to dabble with video editing or transferring large game files on and off your laptop, then you’ll want to choose a 3.0 USB-compatible hub, which offers double the transfer speeds of a 2.0 port.

This 4-port USB hub includes individual LED power switches for each connection, so you can choose what is or isn’t connected. However, it’s designed for data transfer only – not charging.

Tersely’s simple hub sells itself by being cheap and fairly small. Unlike most USB hubs on the market, this one sports four upgraded 3.2 USB ports that offer an even faster data transmission rate of 10Gbps, which is double the speed of a 3.0 USB port.

Anker’s USB-A hub includes a lengthy 60cm cable, a super slim design with a damage resistant cable and four USB 3.0 ports for your peripherals.

This is the perfect choice if you own a new MacBook Air, which is limited to only two USB-C ports. While this one only has two USB 3.0 ports, it also supports 4K HDMI and SD/MicroSD card readers if you need an all-purpose hub.

Where to buy Amazon ($29.99) | eBay ($35.99)

If you need lots of USB 3.0 ports, then IVETTO has got you more than covered with a whopping seven ports.

This WAVLINK hub can do the most. It features 13 different ports that cater to HDMI, USB-A and USB-C with 3.0 compatibility, as well as an SD card slot and a headphone jack. The better question is what can’t it do?

We said there was 20-port USB-C hub and we weren’t kidding. This might be overkill for most, but hey, if you’ve got a lot of gadgets at least you know this Sabrent USB 3.0 hub won’t let you down. It even comes with an individual switch for each port so you can save power off the ones you aren’t using.

Isabella Noyes is an E-Commerce Writer at Pedestrian Group, working across PEDESTRIAN.TV, VICE Australia, Refinery29 Australia, Business Insider Australia, Gizmodo Australia, Lifehacker Australia and Kotaku Australia.

Yes, I wish to receive exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions from our partners.

Now you can get the top stories from Kotaku delivered to your inbox. Enter your email below.

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.