Review on StarTech Com Active USB USB B Cable by Jared Winebrenner

There are times when I need to use my laptop in a confined space and still be able to access my external drive. I have tried many solutions in the past but this cable is perfect for me. I was able to use my MacBook Pro on battery power and only had a 10m extension cable connected to it. I've had excellent transfer speeds between the system and an external USB 3.0 RAID array. Build quality is generally very good. The cable is thicker than the old USB 2.0 standard as it has 9 wires inside instead of 4 wires like the old specs. The costs are higher than other cables due to the active electronics in the cable. It's actually $10 cheaper than the active USB 2.0 cable I bought years ago, so that seems like a pretty fair price considering inflation. The extra speed is definitely a bonus. Please note that this cable can only be used with USB 3.0 devices. Because there is an extra section on the "B" end of the cable, it will only work with a USB 3.0 "B" port. The "A" side that plugs into your computer will work with any USB standard, but will only give you the speed of the USB standard you're connecting to. In other words, you get maximum speed from a USB 3.0 or higher port on your computer. Although I don't need to use this cable every day, it's always in my laptop bag.