USB 3.0 Hubs - recommendations (or not)

[sfx2000]

Find myself in a need for a powered USB 3.0 hub - thought I would ask the collective hivemind here for their input before I buy...

Looking for 4 to 7 ports, and preferably something that can provide sufficient power (2A per port)...

What's good out there? And what to avoid?

 

[RMerlin]

I use the one built in my monitor I just wish tho that one of the ports would remain powered when the monitor is powered off (some laptops provides such an "always powered port", handy for charging devices).

USB 3.0 hubs can be trickier than USB 2.0 ones, as they rely on a driver to work properly. In your case, I would ensure that it's compatible with whatever OS you intend to use, just in case. It wouldn't surprise me if some of these wouldn't be *IX friendly.

 

[sfx2000]

My old Thinkpad 420S has the "always on" port, as does my NUC - it's nice that they color code them (both are yellow).

USB3 Hubs are problematic, totally agree here - so I should probably add - OS in use?

Linux is the focus - my little test/hotel server that I do stuff with only has the single USB3 port - no issues with it seeing drives directly attached - but I'm looking to try something that requires multiple concurrent USB connections...

 

[System Error Message]

From my experience regardless of how good a USB3 hub may be i find them problematic when it comes to power when they have their own PSU. For example my 4 port usb3 which wasnt cheap has an input for more power and a 2A charging port. Using both the charging port with its own power source whether stand alone or plugged into PC it still charges very slowly even if i plug it into a usb 3 port on the hub. Otherwise in terms of data the hub itself is really good.

Go with brands that produce their own chips/CPUs for their hubs and such as many many out there really just use the same chips and have a similar electronics design. Avoid those that include a socket for more power since even when i want to power an SSD and my usb soundcard from the same hub it just cant do it even with the plug attached.

It may be easier if you were to select a few and post here and i can see if they are good or not from their details and specs. Perhaps knowing the CPU/chipset used in the hub would help to know if they are compatible with linux. Try to find one which itself has the lowest power usage as i suspect the reason why mine has power issues is that the chipset itself uses up too much power.

 

[sfx2000]

From my experience regardless of how good a USB3 hub may be i find them problematic when it comes to power when they have their own PSU. For example my 4 port usb3 which wasnt cheap has an input for more power and a 2A charging port. Using both the charging port with its own power source whether stand alone or plugged into PC it still charges very slowly even if i plug it into a usb 3 port on the hub. Otherwise in terms of data the hub itself is really good.

You raise an excellent point - one of the USB3 requirements is current available at the "port", and some do a better job than others, and the ones that don't, they can be problematic.

@RMerlin also raised an excellent point, and this concurs with yours - the firmware and chipset inside - and there, the priorities are pretty obvious - Windows first... so MacOS, Linux, and whatever have to deal with that in some fashion - and that does cause problems with various Router/AP's and NAS boxes as they're generally _not_ Windows based.

So perhaps to rephrase the question - known good or not, and if known_good, what OS is in use (even down to a distro/version level - e.g. Debian Jessie 8.2 on x86 as an example)

 

[System Error Message]

I believe my usb3 hub is the innotek brand. As a featureset and speedwise the hub is good but in terms of power it is terrible. The plug lacks amps and using both plug +PC cant provide enough power for things like external SSD drive + usb soundcard at the same time, mixed of usb3 and usb2 devices.

Is really difficult to find a good one. I used windows for mine and no manual installation of drivers needed.