Review: USB 4-port PCI card with QuadraBus technology

Reviewed By: Kirk Hiner

Review Date: September 24, 2001

I didn't get my start reviewing Macintosh hardware and software. Ironically enough, I gained my first heavy Macintosh exposure when writing album reviews for the Northern Review back at the Northern Ohio Normal School, known in the 1900s pretty much as Ohio Northern University. While doing so, I had the privilege of reviewing a fine Queen album titled Innuendo. I gave the album 5 out of 5, or whatever we used to rate things back then, and this met with some criticism from those who knew me.

"Of course you're going to give it a 5 out 5...they're your favorite band. You love all their albums."

That argument is short-sighted and inaccurate. You wouldn't find me giving 5 out of 5 to Hot Space or A Kind of Magic, but that's beside the point. I don't love all of Queen's albums because they're my favorite band. Instead, Queen is my favorite band because I love all of their albums.

It's a vague difference, sure, but a difference nonetheless. Now, oddly enough, I find myself in a similar situation with Belkin Components. A product isn't great simply because it was released by Belkin, but I have yet to use a Belkin product that isn't great.

The latest bit of Belkin hardware I've had the opportunity to try out is the USB 4-port PCI card with QuadraBus technology. It's that first term in the title, USB, that necessitates this piece of hardware in the first place.

USB, of course, is a wonderful thing. It makes it incredibly easy to hook up a bevy of devices to your Macintosh, many of which can do amazing things. Problem is, it's quite easy to get out of control here, and there are but two little USB ports on the Macintosh with perhaps one extra one in your keyboard. So then you're buying hubs, but hubs clutter the desk and sometimes can't offer the proper amount of power for some of your USB devices. When you start talking game pads, scanners, printers, PDAs, speakers, input devices, microphones...it's like funneling eight lanes of traffic into a two lane tunnel.

But do you know what's not being used on my G4? The PCI slots. See where I'm heading, here? So did Belkin, and they've offered up a solution. The USB 4-port PCI card gives Mac users just what its title says...four USB ports that take up only one PCI slot. The benefit here is not only that these ports stay out of your way in the back of the computer, but that each port delivers 12Mbps of bandwidth. That's the QuadraBus technology. The number 12 may seem kind of low in the computer world these days, but trust me; that's plenty of power.

Most 4-port USB hubs draw their power from a single 12Mbps source. Get all four running at once, and each connected device would theoretically only be able to use 3Mbps...theoretically. QuadraBus (a Lucent Technologies technology, by the way) ensures that each port is getting its full 12Mbps even if the other three ports are also in use.

The question here is whether your USB devices need that much power, and the answer is, I don't know. What are you running? My Macally iShock doesn't. My harman/kardon SoundSticks probably don't. My Epson InkJet sure is happier, though. It doesn't print faster, but documents sure get sent there more quickly. If you're using a USB video capture device such MyVideo from Eskape Labs, there's a noticeable difference between plugging it into the USB 4-port PCI card and an external hub. You'd almost think you were working with FireWire.

What else does Belkin offer with this product? Well:

• It may be daisy-chained to support up to 127 devices per port for a total of 508 devices
• Lifetime warranty
• Full compliance with current USB specifications and PCI specification v2.1
• OHCI compliance

What does it not offer? Well, for starters, Mac OS X support. Although the product functions flawlessly on Mac OS 9.2.1, nothing plugged into it works in OS X, not even the mouse. A Belkin representative assured me that Lucent Technologies is working on a fix for OS X v10.1. Also, because it requires at least a Blue and White G3, the USB 4-port PCI card cannot be used to provide USB support to most computers that don't already have the technology; I'm afraid it's for expansion only. And finally, although four dedicated 12Mbps ports may seem nice, keep in mind that USB 2.0, which the card does not support, offers speeds at up to 480Mbps. Divide that by four, and you'd still be doing quite a bit better.

These shortcomings aside, Belkin's USB 4-port PCI card with QuadraBus technology, despite having an excessively unwieldy title, is a wonderful piece of equipment. Everything Belkin claims it can do, it does flawlessly. It's easy to install, it's easy to use, and it's very dependable. If you haven't yet upgraded to OS X and your desktop is cluttered with USB v1.1 devices, this is the way to go.

Now, if you're looking for a good Queen album, drop me a line and I'll steer you in the right direction there, as well.

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