One of my usb slots of my laptop has died (rip buddy) and, well, i need another usb slot so i'm looking at these usb hubs (splitters?) and looking for a recommendation, i never used one of these and i didn't even know that they existed, am i safe with a cheap one? I'm looking at this one , it does have a lot of good recommendations and to be honest i only need one to connect my gamepad (or in case another usb slot decides to die). Anyone has one of these?

i havent used that one but ive been using hubs for years
you will be fine unless you plan to hook up external hd's or usb writers to it you may want one with an adapter then because the device will draw more power then the hub can support

Oh, that's good to know, i can remove whatever is on the 2nd usb (laptop) and use that for my external hd.

What i'm thinking is using the usb hub for mouse + gamepad + mp3/usb drive and since 2 of those will be ocasional then i won't have any problem, right?

shouldnt have a problem no
i have a mouse
xbox controller
printer
and classic ipod on mine

a usb stick should be fine too

Great, thanks snowkatt.

If you're connecting things that need power, you'll likely need a powered usb hub, if things have their own power supply (or very low power requirements), then a dirt cheap one (such as those we get in Poundland here) would likely do.