I've seen advertising recently for a USB card that has several ports directly on the backplate. I believe one was 6 slots. Essentially this means that the card is also a hub. If it's just a matter of getting a few connections, it might be worth looking for a card with more than the usual couple of connectors; but of course the sockets will all be on the back of the computer.

If access to connect/disconned things is important, any card that gets you one or more USB-2 connections, and an external hub that you can put "out front" may be more convenient.

Once you have a USB-2 card in the machine, five to eight port external hubs in my local retail market aren't much more expensive than a single USB-2 rated cable to plug a new device into it.

John