bandwidth - How to get more full speed USB 2.0 ports on a modern laptop?

Modern laptops just have a few USB ports and to extend thoose you are supposed to use a USB hub. My issue is that I need to connect 4 highspeed USB 2.0 cameras to my laptop and while still keeping two USB port free (mouse + usb-stick). On a normal USB 3.0/2.0 hub all connected USB 2.0 devices share the same ~40mb/s bandwidth limit, but each camera needs the full 40mb/s on it's own. So is there any way to get more full speed USB 2.0 ports on a modern laptop?

Answer

Since you have listed the Thunderbolt tag, it is worth looking into a Thunderbolt dock with USB ports. In the case of Thunderbolt 1 or 2, I believe there are not USB ports routed with the connector, so any external USB ports would be on an external controller. In the case of Thunderbolt 3, since those ports are often paired with USB-C, the dock may be cheating for the USB and just be a USB multiplexer.

If you think a Thunderbolt dock is the way to go, I would suggest getting one with a good return policy and measuring it to make sure it fits your needs.

However, there is always a more exciting option.

Depending on the age of the laptop and what ports you have available, you can consider an M2. to USB 3.0 adapter or a Mini-PCIe to USB 3.0 adapter. Both of these would vastly compromise the portability of any laptop connected to them, but would be a simple and cheap answer to "how do I get more USB ports"

Mini-PCIe does not provide any USB 3 ports, so that adapter almost certainly has its own controller. In the case of M.2, it is almost certainly just routing out the USB ports in the connector, which (hopefully) go straight to the CPU, so should be full-bandwidth.

I cannot post any more links, so some naked suggestions follow

The Mini-PCIe does provide one USB 2.0 port which (hopefully) is connected straight to the CPU. This is cheaper than the USB 3.0 option, and is less likely to be a driver disaster.

Another option in a similar vein is to get a PCIe USB 2.0 card and a M.2 or Mini-PCIe to Desktop-Form-Factor PCIe. The laptop is now totally non-portable, but has a great many USB ports.

Finally, I don't know your usecase, but it may work to get two cheap and junky laptops and connect two cameras to each.