USB Hub

[max2]

Does it matter which one I get or which brand?

I ran out of my USB ports.

The only thing that is required is at least a 1 foot length cable.

 

[rm5]

I would get a USB 3.0 hub, because if you get a hub with USB 2.0, it will be incredibly slow with transferring files, etc. I don't think it really matters which brand, just as long as it's a reputable brand like Anker or Caldigit (do they even sell just plain old USB hubs?). It sounds like a USB 3.0 PCI-e card like I have won't be a good option for you because you need a 1 ft long cable.

 

[dwig]

For a simple USB only hub brand is to particularly important as long as it is well made.

My wife & I have a couple of these around. They work well. They have 2ft cables. It is possible to add USB-3 extension cables to any hub, but such extensions should be kept as short as possible.

 

[Cox Orange]

If you plan to move huge amounts of data or connect a big external SATA SSD with a lot of big files on it or use an external m2-nvme SSD you might want to consider choosing a hub that is capable of UASP. But in everyday scenarios for a private user (i.e. not in a time critical business) this might be neglectable.

You might also consider, if you want to choose a hub with USB-C USB 3.1 Gen 2 (or higher) connecting to your Mac. Just for the future, when you get a Mac with a faster USB-C or thunderbolt connection and you want to use your hardware longer and get faster drives (maybe doing parallel data access). If your Mac currently has USB-A, there are adapter cables from USB-C to -A. Some hubs come already bundled with such a cable.

Here is a short overview of the connection types and transfer rates (the German words says: old naming, new naming, branding, data throughput, connection type, logo):

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/USB_Standards_inkl_USB4.0Gen3x2.svg

Mind modern HDDs (arround 100-200MB/s) and even SATA-SSDs (450-500MB/s) are well within the practical throughput window of USB 3.0. (SATA-SSDs could theoretically jump a bit over the range of USB 3.0, but that is probably practically neglecatable).