I'm currently looking for a Mac mini for development. I will need to connect 3 Kinect sensors to a computer for an installation. The form factor the Mac mini is ideal, but the main limitation is the number of USB controllers. The Kinect sensors use a lot of bandwidth and each sensor requires a separate USB controller.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the latest Mac mini seems to have only two USB controllers wired to 4 USB ports. Looking on Wikipedia, I see there was a model with 3 USB controllers:
The Mac Mini 2009 model gave access to 3 different USB busses on the back. Port 2 shares a USB bus with the IR connection. Ports 1+5 and 3+4 are each on their own USB bus. So it should be possible to get a throughput of 3×480=1440 Mbit/s.
My question mainly is: which is the newest Mac mini that has 3 USB busses?
Also, with the new one is there any decent way to expand that somehow?
Best Answer
It seems that those after 2009 (which reverted to 4 USB ports instead of 5), only have 2 buses. The 2009 models are likely the only models with 3 USB buses.
If you get one of the newer ones with Thunderbolt, it's possible to connect to a Thunderbolt Display which would add a third hub. I don't know of any devices off-hand that will give you just another USB hub via Thunderbolt, but if they're not out there already, they're bound to show up.