NewerTechnology's miniStack v2 as the ultimate USB/FW hub?

[mhschmieder]

I always thought the miniStack was strictly for Mac Mini's and was just a way of adding extra USB and firewire ports while also providing a small amount of additional hard disc storage (possibly for backup of the main system drive).

But for the first time tonight, I looked at the full specs for the updated v2, which is meant to work with any Mac, and holds some enticing possibilities for increasing the number of USB or firewire buses beyond the single internal bus of most (if not all) Macs:

http://www.newertech.com/products/ministackv2.php

My initial guess is that one could use this box as a way of giving oneself an extra firewire 400 or USB 2.0 bus -- but not both (one would have to choose which connection type to use to the main computer, and that would end up acting as a repeater of the main bus on the main computer?).

If this is the case, then this seems like a really good deal and could make a big difference in improving the expandability of a MacBook Pro, a MacBook, a Mac Mini or an iMac (it wouldn't really be as good as on-board PCI-based solutions in the casde of a Mac Pro).

One could configure the hard drive however one wanted, and just use the "skin"/"shell" with its functionality.

Even if the extra hubs just serve as repeaters of the main bus on the main computer, I would think this would still improve performance somewhat, and certainly this is a very affordable way of adding extra ports for stuff like Syncrosoft and iLok dongles, printers (which in my case are rarely turned on), keyboards, Wacom tablets, etc.

Yes, I know a hub is not a bus, but I am very curious whether the separate cable that connects this device to the main computer (as opposed to the USB or firewire "upload" cable, as they call it, which allows the drive to be seen by the main computer as an available drive), essentially disconnects the topology of this add-on device from that of the main computer; unlike a traditional hub.

Well, I'm not sure I properly interpreted all those descriptions at the website, and as the image is too small to see very clearly, I'm going to see if they have an actual PDF manual to download, to see if it clarifies the computer connection (which is what I thought the circled item "2" in the photo refers to).

The more detailed spec sheet does seem to indicate though that there is only one connection to the computer, and that it is either USB or FW depending on the setting of the connector switch, so there probably is no way this device could be used to expand the bus count of ANY Mac.

Anyway, there's enough ambiguity in that product data that I thought it worth bringing up here -- especially as it does seem to be the ultimate USB/FW hub at the very least, and great bang-for-buck vs. a Belkin hub.