StarTech.com StarTech 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub

Oh well. I suppose mine had a short or something and it killed my usb dongles that were plugged in.

It’s a good powered USB hub. It works and has no trouble. But Jesus Christ the light on this thing. I imagine most people covered it with a piece of tape.

It’s blindingly bright. Honestly, I’m astonished as to where Startech even find the thing. This thing could be an emergency beacon. Maybe save lost souls at sea.

Amazon should put a roll of masking tape under the “frequently purchased with” section.

the hub meets my expectations

PROS
Hub has worked flawlessly first time every time, never any disconnect/reconnects
Works at full speed compared to devices connected direct to the computer

CONS
Sockets are too close together, a problem when using devices wider than a standard USB plug, such as flash drives
Inadequate power supply for some uses
Appears to work without power supply, but see WARNING may destroy data when used that way
The included USB3 cable failed completely the second day

UPDATE 7/28/2012: Hub is still working 100% reliably (using a high-quality replacement USB3 cable)
UPDATE 1/10/2013: Hub stopped working. I disconnected then reconnected all cables, and it’s working fine.

INTRODUCTION: USB3 IN GENERAL

USB3 may not quite yet be ready for prime time. In my limited experience, USB3 is not even close to plug and play the way that USB2 (mostly) is. Overall, USB3 is only as reliable as the weakest link in the chain – and that includes the hardware on your computer, all cables and hubs, and all devices that are connected (even ones connected to the same hub but are not in use at the same time as the one you care about). Technically backwards compatible with USB2 and USB1.1, the reality is that sometimes older devices can interfere with the performance and reliability of USB3.

And then there is the software, mainly the drivers. All must be up to date and reliable. New equipment may not have reliable drivers.

And there could be a difference in how it works depending on whether the power supply is connected, or not; I found that this hub appeared to be working without the power supply, but the flash drive needed to be reformatted when I plugged it in if there was no power supply, potentially destroying its contents (more notes in the Power Supply WARNING section).

For these reasons, it is difficult to judge whether a given hub is good, or not, because the problem could be elsewhere. The best way to test a hub is to limit the number of things connected at a time to those included with the equipment.

STARTECH HUB

This hub is neither the least nor the most expensive USB3 hub out there. It appears to be reasonably well made, but the cut some corners (notably, the power supply and the short cable). The case sure looks a lot like the VTech in the photos, but I don’t know if it is the same inside or not.

Inside the box, you get the hub itself (4 USB3 downstream ports on the front panel, and 1 USB3 upstream port and a standard power supply connector on the back panel, in a box 3 5/8″ x 2 5/8″ x 7/8″. There is a blue LED on the top panel. You also get a blue 3-foot USB3 cable and a 5 volt, 2 Ampere power supply.

POWER SUPPLY

The USB3 specification states that each socket should support 900 mA (0.9 Amperes). Because this hub has four sockets, the power supply should be rated at a minimum of 3.6 Amperes plus some extra for the electronics in the hub, although it could draw some power from the socket it is plugged into.

Since the power supply is only 2 Amperes, the unit is capable of supporting only about half as much power as the maximum you would need if you were using four maximum current devices (according to the USB3 spec), and if you tried to do that, it would not work. In principle, most people won’t need to do that, and you could buy a 5 volt 3.6 Ampere (or above) power supply to solve the problem if you did.

WARNING: The hub APPEARS to operate without the included power supply, for example, the power light is lit, BUT IT DOES NOT! When I plugged a just-formatted flash drive into it with nothing else plugged in, Windows said the drive needed to be formatted. If there was data on it, it may have all been lost. This was repeatable; you have been warned. Also, using devices that draw power from the USB may not operate without s power supply, depending on power requirements. Such devices include hard drives, scanners, printers, and more.

I do not own an iPad, so I do not know whether it will charge or not, but note: the iPad charger is 10 Watts, the same as the total power of the power supply for this hub. However, it is likely that this hub will not supply even half of the power required to charge the iPad from any one socket (because the USB3 max is 900mA, or 4.5 Watts), so I would not assume that it is capable of charging an iPad. Remember this is not a failure of the hub, rather it is the iPad exceeding the USB3 specification by Apple’s design.

THE INCLUDED CABLE

The included USB3 cable is 3 foot long. On my first day of testing it seemed to work fine, and I was getting benchmark speeds for the flash drive of 21.35MB/sec write, 76.4MB/sec read, about the same as the other cases.

On the second day, the included cable failed totally. When I try to use it, Windows makes connection sounds, but the devices do not show up. Unplugging it makes disconnection sounds. The unit works perfectly when using the third party cable I ordered with the unit. The included cable was much to short for my purposes, anyway.

The problem of short and cheap cables is likely to happen for most hubs, except maybe the most expensive ones.

My advice: order a USB3 Type A male to Type B male cable of good quality and convenient length for your purpose, like the 

Cables To Go 54175 USB 3.0 A Male to B Male Cable (3 Meter/9.8 Feet, Black)

 I got, which is available in various lengths. Note that the connector for the Type B is different from the one for USB1 and USB2: there is an extra lump on it, the connectors are not compatible.

BENCHMARK USING CORSAIR USB3 FLASH DRIVE

I used the ATTO Disk Benchmark (freeware), running it with a few settings until I found some that it ran in a relatively short period of time and yielded optimal results for the drive without the hub. Specifically: 1024 KB transfer size, Total length 2 GB, Direct I/O, I/O Comparison, average of 30 minutes of tests. I used a 

Corsair 16GB Flash Voyager USB 3.0 Flash Drive CMFVY3S-16GB

 (the regular model, not the GT) for all tests. Its product page lists maximum write speed of 21MB/sec, and maximum write of 79MB/sec. My host system is a Thinkpad W510 laptop running Windows 7 x64 SP1, with all Thinkpad and Windows drivers up to date (which is essential for USB3 reliability).

A: The flash drive plugged directly into side USB3 socket of Thinkpad W510. 21.5MB/sec write, 75.0MB/sec read.

B: The flash drive is plugged into StarTech hub, which is plugged into side USB socket using the included USB3 cable. 21.35MB/sec write, 76.4MB/sec read. But see the notes above on THE INCLUDED CABLE which gave erratic results and then failed altogether the second day.

C: The flash drive is plugged into StarTech hub, which is plugged into side USB socket using a 

Cables To Go 54175 USB 3.0 A Male to B Male Cable (3 Meter/9.8 Feet, Black)

 that was purchased separately. 22.1MB/sec write, 74.4MB/sec.

Notes:

1. The results are quite close to the manufacturer’s specs in all cases.

2. The small variation of results is insignficant, and is due to a variety of factors. For example, it is unlikely that using a hub would actually make a flash drive faster than not using a hub on average.

BENCHMARK USING WD Raptor Hard Drive

Again using the ATTO Disk Benchmark (freeware), running it with a few settings until I found that yielded optimal results for the drive without the hub. Specifically: 128 KB transfer size, Total length 2 GB, Direct I/O, I/O Comparison, average of 5 minutes of tests. I used a WD Raptor 74GB drive, 10k RPM, SATA hard drive, a fairly fast hard drive. I used a 

Anker USB 3.0 SATA/IDE connection Adapter

 with and without the hub, again with Thinkpad W510 laptop running Windows 7 x64 SP1 as the host system, with all Thinkpad and Windows drivers up to date (essential for USB3 reliability).

A: The hard drive adapter plugged directly into side USB3 socket of Thinkpad W510. 59.3MB/sec write, 88.6MB/sec read.

B: The hard drive adapter plugged into StarTech hub, which is plugged into side USB socket using the included USB3 cable. The cable is dead now (see notes above), so there are no results to report.

C: The hard drive adapter is plugged into StarTech hub, which is plugged into side USB socket using a 

Cables To Go 54175 USB 3.0 A Male to B Male Cable (3 Meter/9.8 Feet, Black)

 that was purchased separately. 59.3MB/sec write, 88.6MB/sec.

Notes: when using a quality third-parth USB3 cable, the hub is functioning flawlessly at essentially the same speed as when the drive is plugged directly into the USB3 socket of the computer without a hub.

CONCLUSIONS

I am optimistic based on my early experiences, and intend to keep the hub unless something changes. I have NEVER seen the disconnect/reconnects that have plagued some people with some USB3 hubs. I am getting essentially the same performance results with and without the hub: the hub does not slow down the transfers.

I am disappointed that the power supply is not adequate, but I expected it; this is why I subtracted a star. So far only the TrippLite is known to have a 4 Ampere power supply; in general, if the power supply capacity is not specified, you can bet it is not up to spec. But for most users, having full capacity is not a requirement, and saving a few bucks is more important.

The included cable failed on the second day. I did not plan on using it anyway, since it is too short, but I recommend buying a quality cable if you order this (or probably any) hub.

What is more important is reliability and performance, and so far this unit, when used with a power supply, has scored 100% on both counts, compared to the same devices plugged directly into the computer with no hub. Today’s USB3 devices are not fast enough to see how fast the hub really is, of course, so only time will tell.

I guarantee that I will update this review in the future if I have any problems with it: if there is no update, it means it is still working for me.

Es el mejor hub que he encontrado en el mercado, la marca lo dice todo. Puedo conectar 4 discos duros externos al hub USB 3.0 y con el alimentador de energía ayuda a que se mantengan conectados todos los dispositivos. La transferencia de información no se ve afectada y es que todos mis discos estan conectado en el Hub a través de un puerto USB 3.0 y con el cable de alimentación. Recomiendo mucho este producto, cumple con mis necesidades.

Cheap price and Great product

This USB hub is simple to use and fast. It’s useful to me to have a hub with its own power supply because some of the devices I use, such as portable hard drives, rely on a good strong supply of current. This hub comes with a 4- foot power cord, small ‘block’ shaped power plug, and three foot USB 3.0 cord. Once you connect the hub’s USB 3.0 cable to a USB port on your computer, the generic drivers should work just fine: on my Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) machine, it was ready in an instant.

Like all USB 3.0 devices, this hub is also backwards compatible. It won’t cause your USB 2.0 devices to run at 3.0 speeds, but it will go a long way towards maintaining the fastest speed your device’s USB connection is capable of.

If you want a simple USB 3.0 hub for your computer, this one is small, easy to use, and can support a lot of devices thanks to having its own power supply. Your computer will need to have a USB 3.0 plug to connect it to in order to get the maximum amount of performance, but if you’re just looking at investing for the future, this hub is a great place to start.