Is it possible to use a USB hub on a new MacBook Pro with Maverickss?

Question

I have used a powered Q-Store USB2 hub on first my old trust MacBook with the 13 inch screen running System X.6.8 for years; then I switched it over to my new 13 In. MacBook Pro (non retina) with Mavericks X.9.2 and it still works great. It is powered and seems to run a full load including USB hard drives, camera when wanted, cooling pad with fan, printer/scanner/copier combo, charging a MP3 player or Galaxy S4, apple mouse and keyboard, all with no trouble and no drop outs. I let an old Firewire 400 or 800 hard disk stay with my old Macintosh for now as it mirrors it, but sometimes hook it up with no problem except it gets hot.
I have a new USB3  WD Passport 3 hard drive and a 32 gb USB 3 memory stick. I wanted to put these on a USB3 hub and use one of the ports for the faster items. I can run either my WD My Passport 3 Gb drive that I use to mirror my internal drive as long as it is alone. I can also plug a 32 gb A Data memory stick in fine alone except things get a bit snug, and there's no more room on the USB 2 hub for the memory stick. If I do not use a hub for the one port I have to either use the Hard Drive or the memory stick, not both. I was using the memory stick to port files back and forth between my old and new computers at least for a while. The USB 3 peripherals work reliably when plugged in alone, but the moment a hub gets in the picture even if only one item is plugged into it, things drop in and out. It does not matter if it is the powered USB 3 hub or the non-powered Anker USB 3 4 port hub. The USB 2 items simply work but the USB 3 ones only work alone. I have looked at the power specifications. It seems like one hard drive uses all of the power the hub can put out.
It looks like the USB 3 is rather limited on Macintosh computers is all I can conclude. There may be extra speed, but what good is it if you can only run one peripheral at a time? It seems like even a hub stresses it unless it is a hub and a memory stick or two. I even changed to system settings to keep my hard drives from going to sleep, but still it drops out randomly if hooked to a hub and runs perfectly when plugged in directly. I had hoped to use it for an emergency start up disk if needed, though I must say the rather incredible StoreEdge Micro SDX card works great for that purpose and seems to belong.
That old USB 2 hub, even with a smaller one plugged in with 2 portable hard drives still works flawlessly on the other port and never drops out.
I have not tested the Firewire 800 port long enough to decide, except it gets hot if it reads very long.. The old Firewire 800 / USB 2 hard disk has more than one port on it unlike so many today. I had to use a Firewire 800 to 400 cable for my old computer. Anyway it works in either computer and stays mounted even when asleep.
Is it possible to use a USB 3 hub with more than one peripheral on a 2012-2013 13 inch MacBook Pro computer with Mavericks? If so which one works? It cannot be good for hard disks to randomly disconnect and reconnect without being dragged to the trash.

Answer 1

no you can't - you have to upgrade it to 16GB yourself.
you can get your RAM from newegg.com, macsales.com.
the RAM you need is 16GB (8GBX2) DDR3 1600MHz DDR3.
upgrading the RAM yourself will not void your warranty.
you need a #00 Phillips Screwdriver - 10 screws at the bottom - 7 long ones and 3 short ones - just remember where they go when you put the screws back in.
a simple 10 minute job.