Are you regularly experiencing problems when trying to connect all your 130 USB devices to your gaming PC at once and don’t know why? The well-known tech YouTuber Linus Tech Tips explains and conducts a self-test.
How many USB devices can you connect at the same time? The number of USB devices that can be connected to a PC at the same time is limited by the USB controller. Theoretically, you can connect 127 devices to one controller.
But is that even practically possible? And what happens if you actually do it? These are the questions that tech YouTuber “Linus Tech Tips” has explored. With over 15 million subscribers, the 36-year-old has one of the largest tech channels on YouTube – it is rumored that he was even offered a 9-figure sum for the channel.
How to connect 127 devices at the same time … more or less
How did he manage that? Since most PCs do not have 127 USB ports, Linus Tech Tips first resorted to USB hubs, as probably anyone would in such a scenario. But this leads to new problems:
- A hub cannot work if it is connected more than 5 hubs away from the root port. Since most physical hubs contain several internal hubs, Windows already shows an error message when 3 USB hubs are connected in series.
- If hubs do not have a separate power supply and are powered by the PC, power supply issues can arise quickly.
To pull off the stunt, the YouTuber used a crypto-mining motherboard with countless PCIe connections, which he equipped with USB extensions. Such a motherboard shouldn’t be too hard to find since many miners are currently selling their used hardware cheaply.
The next step might be to connect a bunch of cheap USB sticks to the board, but that also isn’t straightforward. Windows runs out of letters in the alphabet to assign to the various drives.
Linus therefore armed himself with USB sticks, keyboards, mice, and a stream deck and began the tedious task of plugging in all devices. However, the question remained whether the devices would actually work.
You can watch the entire attempt here in English:
100 and a few extras
What was the result? Even with several dozen USB devices plugged in simultaneously, the individual devices could still be used to some extent: The cursor moved, Linus was even able to click on items on his screen, and keystrokes were recognized as well.
Ultimately, Linus managed to connect 112 devices at once for a brief period. However, when it came to number 113, the first devices began to shut down, so the YouTuber “only” achieved 110 simultaneous devices. The problem, as the 36-year-old suspects, could be related to the drivers.
He also noticed that his PC was stuttering. With more than 100 connected USB devices, the CPU was already at 30 to 40% usage at idle.
Although the average user probably does not plan to connect 127 devices to their system in the near future, there are a few takeaways from the attempt: Hubs should be connected directly to the root port whenever possible, and hubs without independent power supply should not be loaded with power-hungry devices.
With so many USB devices and the accompanying cable chaos, Linus Tech Tips’ setup definitely does not match the “clean” aesthetic that many gamers and content creators strive for. The YouTuber “Basically Homeless” has achieved the ultimate clean look:
YouTuber builds invisible gaming PC with monitor, keyboard, and mouse – Here’s how he did it
