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Morocco, Rabat
1 Level
734 Review
56 Karma

Review on StarTech Com 4 Port USB Hub USB by Vaibhav Karger

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Doesn't seem compatible with my 10G setup.

HB31C3A1CS 10Gbps Hub Verification. I tried it and the hub wasn't compatible with my setup (including the Startech PEXUSB321C 20Gb/s port card) on Windows 10. At 10G. A little trouble at first. *) Rubbing on the cardboard packaging, although they're firmly in place.*) I haven't had it that long, but I could swear it or its power supply sometimes makes a faint noise under load. (I didn't elaborate further because other unpleasant things caught my attention). Now to my main concerns.*) I first connected this hub to a USB 3.1 motherboard (based on Asmedia 1242 chip) with 10Gb/s USB-A port. It seems to cycle fast and never fully connect. The cable used should be a 3ft USB-IF certified cable. 10 Gbps. I've tried the side USB-C port in both orientations, damn it. The same connector and cable works fine when plugged directly into my external 2TB Sandisk Extreme V2 SSD (including testing with CrystalDiskMark 8.0.1). This is the only 10Gb/s device I've ever tested.*) Thinking it was some kind of incompatibility with my motherboard's onboard connector, I went ahead and bought a Startech PEXUSB321C PCI-E adapter card. It has a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20Gbps port (presumably backward compatible with "USB 3.2 Gen 2x1" / "USB 3.1 Gen 2" as far as I know). As far as I can tell, it's an Asmedia 3242 chip. This connects to a hub. I then connected the HUB to the Sandisk drive. If Crystal DiskMark is heavily loaded, the drive will be disconnected and reconnected. Simply copying a file to Sandisk will cause it to start and either run slower than expected, or halt and shut down. When I use the same connector and included USB-C to USB-C cable connecting the adapter port directly to the Sandisk drive, everything works fine (and with the expected high speed). and a PC port to the hub. There is no other way. *) Connecting a hub to my motherboard's 5Gb ports seems to work fine (but only at 5Gb/s). For the final test, I connected the hub to a laptop with USB-C Thunderbolt. 3 (believed to be backward compatible with USB 3.1 Gen 2). At least for this test everything worked fine at 10 Gb/s with a Sandisk drive connected to a hub. Startech 20G adapter port when used at 10G speed. (You can expect it to work fine with another Startech product.) At least for my PC setup, it didn't work properly at 10Gbps.

Pros
  • Acceptable
Cons
  • Minor