Need to replace Switching Hub

Just yesterday one of my office hubs died, it has been slowly dying I believe as it stopped working at times when the relative humidity levels rise too much. This is a 16 or 24 port switching hub and I am going to replace it but I am confused as to which one is better, a switching hub or a switch. The switches that are affordable are the non intelligent kinds as the intelligent switches are too pricey for me. So my questions is will a switching hub be the same as a non intelligent switch? What exactly is the difference is there between the two if any? If someone can shed light on this I would appreciate it very much. Thanks!
Answer #1
A hub basically sends all packets to all it’s ports all the time, while a switch “remembers” which port is connected to which MAC address and sends packets targetet to that address only to that port. In regular home use, you will not notice any difference.
An intelligent switch just has a bunch of extra fancy chmancy crap added which you will never need at home
An intelligent switch is a high-level storage area network (SAN) routing switch that provides features such as storage virtualization, quality of service (QoS), remote mirroring, data sharing, protocol conversion, and advanced security. Intelligent switches are an important part of storage area management (SAM), a methodology that is gaining in importance as networks become increasingly complex and expensive to deploy, operate, and maintain.
Intelligent switches can make it possible to manage storage in heterogeneous environments, reduce SAM costs, and provide expandability and scalability for existing SANs in large and growing businesses. However, intelligent switches are still in the evolutionary stage, and may not be an ideal solution for smaller enterprises, or in SANs not expected to grow or change substantially in the immediate future.
Answer #2
the very short answer is a switch divides the bandwidth according to actual demand. A hub slices it according to the number of connections. If you need that many pcs simultaniously connected and assuming a printer or two then you `need’ a switching hub aka ‘switch’ aka ‘intelligent hub’ et tel. that way you can minimise lag between pcs, the network will be a lot more stable, you will suffer a lot less lost packets and the list goes on.
Answer #3
Well I don’t think they sell just ordinary “hubs” as all the hubs I see online are switching hubs. So in essense is a switching hub just a non intelligent switch?