HATs and other add-ons • Re: Connecting 2 USB Wifi dongles to one USB port

USB3 hubs are a thing though I don't have any recommendations.

Some things to be aware of:

• There is only a single PCIe lane between USB controller and SoC on a 4B. That's only enough bandwidth to run a single device at maximum speed.
• Your bandwidth will be split three ways as your SSD is connected via USB 3.
• You may need a self powered USB3 hub. The 4B can provide a maximum of 1.2A to bus powered devices and that figure is shared between all of them. Running an SSD and two WiFi adapters could be challenging.
  Adding a bigger PSU (i.e. one that provides more amps) won't help as the Pi does the current limiting on board.

Frankly, if budget allows you'd be better off switching to a Pi5. The PI5 has an exposed PCIe land that can be dedicated to an M.2 NVMe drive*, sufficient bandwidth to run both USB 3 ports at maximum speed, and (with the official PSU) provides 1.6A rather than 1.2A.

*: additional hardware is required.

Statistics: Posted by thagrol — Mon Apr 07, 2025 8:36 pm

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