Home > Consumer Reviews > Belkin FireWire 6-Port Hub (F5U526-APL)

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!

Works just like advertised. Using it with three external hard drives, one of which derives its power through the hub.

This FW400 hub performs very well for such a small footprint item. I barely notice it on my desktop since it takes up so little real estate. No problem transferring video via FW400 from my Sony Handycam to my Mac. The power cord is plenty long enough to reach anywhere on my large desk. I recommend this hub to anyone needing one.

The device works as advertised but is better suited for hard drives than audio interfaces. The audio never cut out, but the noise level probably increased 300-500%. Even without playback and the volume quite low there is an obvious hissing sound. It sounds almost exactly like playing an audio tape. There were no other devices on the hub except a Presonus Firebox. I tried several ports and several cables to no avail.

I'm giving it 3/5 stars because I had intended to use it for Firewire audio + Firewire hard drive with my Mac mini. But I'm sure it's great with firewire drives.

I use this with my Macbook, a Lacie 500GB drive, 40GB iPod, and a Motu Ultralite firewire audio interface. Works like a charm, takes up no desk space.