dell monitor usb hub - will it work with macbook?

wakkaday · 22-09-2014, 10:57

i have ordered a dell uh2713h which has a usb hub
and the 2013 macbook retina

now if i attach a keyboard / mouse wireless logitech / external harddisk etc to the usb hub on the monitor, will it function...

will it find and work with my mac? or is there a way i need to connect it for the usb ports to be operational? obviously the monitor does not have thunderbolt

thanks

BenMcr · 22-09-2014, 11:12

Yes it should work - USB is a standard. Only thing you'll probably find is the Mac has USB 3 but the monitor hub is USB 2

alanbjames · 22-09-2014, 12:31

i always thought that Macs use a different file system and wouldn't find a hard disk formatted at NTFS or Fat.

Stephen · 22-09-2014, 12:41

It does but can still read data off drives formatted differently.

There are system add ons you can get that let you write to drives formatted differently too.

Stuart · 22-09-2014, 17:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by alanbjames

i always thought that Macs use a different file system and wouldn't find a hard disk formatted at NTFS or Fat.

OSX will quite happily read and write FAT formatted drives. It can also read and write ExFat formatted drives. ExFat is a slightly updated FAT format that removes some of the limitations of FAT.

OSX will happily read NTFS format drives (NTFS is better than either FAT or ExFat) but will not write NTFS format drives without add ons. I personally use Tuxera NTFS (the commercial version of the open source NTFS-3G).

However, I am wandering off the point.. As has been said before, USB is a standard thing. In terms of software support, a hub is a hub, regardless of who made it and how much it cost. While you won't necessarily be able to get a hub to work with devices such as routers (which sometimes have a USB port or two so you can plug in a printer and/or external hard drive and share them), any USB hub should work with any computer with a USB socket.

wakkaday · 23-09-2014, 16:24

great thanks guys...but a bit more clarification...

the monitor hub is usb 3.0 and so is the macbook 3.0.

how will information (be it audio/files from external hd, the usb reciever for the logitech wireless keyboard/mouse) be transmitted to the macbook??

i will probably connect via mini display port adaptor...

i dont think i will be connecting via hdmi as it doesnt offer the full resoltion

am i missing something here? still waiting for delivery of products...

BenMcr · 23-09-2014, 16:26

You'll still have to connect the hub in the monitor to the port on the Mac with USB 3 lead in addition to the display cable