Multiple USB hard drives - too much of a good thing?

How much throughput does USB on a late 2007 model Mini really have?
I ask because I have a USB audio interface and I'm thinking about buying a pair of USB hard drives too. Do I need to worry about trying to do too much through USB at once?

The problem with USB is that whilst it has a reasonably good theoretical 'speed' at 480Mbits/sec, the bus has no hardware controller dedicated to it, so the actual speed data can move is determined by how busy the system is doing other things. The 480Mbits/sec speed is thusly a burst value, not a sustainable one.
For the same reason, USB drives can be problematic if the intention is to continuously stream data (HD video for example) because while the drive(s) would likely be perfectly OK in moving files about (because the data can be moved at varying speed) for continuous data, USB can stall out.
Much will therefore depend on exactly what your drives are doing. Personally, I'd go for at least dual interface external drives containing both USB and firewire, and use the firewire option. Firewire has the advantage that it does have a hardware controller, so while it's 400MBits/sec speed is theoretically lower than USB2.0, it is a fully sustainable data rate, so for continuous streaming, more reliable.
I hope that makes some sense!

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