Self-powered hubs are typically used in industrial or office environments where a variety of appliances are needed simultaneously, and where the demand for additional higher voltages is necessary. I have been using the Sabrent HB-BUP7, the nearly-identical 7-port sibling to the HB-B7C3, as my daily driver for more than a year, and having these buttons is a real game changer. Changing default audio devices in Windows is a royal pain, requiring one to go into the control panel to, for example, make sound come out of your headset instead of your speakers. But with the power switches, I just turn off my USB speaker and turn on the wireless headphone dongle, or vice versa. At 4.8 volts, which is around the minimum voltage most USB devices will tolerate, we got 1.25 and 1.32 amps from the charging and data ports, respectively. When I plugged my Android phone in to charge, a real-world situation because a device will negotiate the best combination of volts and amps, the charging ports sent 4.78 volts at 1.35 amps while the data ports gave the same amount of volts, but just 0.35 amps. To make a long story short, you'll get 6.4 watts from the charging ports, which is decent but not the 15-watts that fast phone chargers provide. All three charging ports should be able to deliver this at once. We also did power testing on every powered USB hub. To see just how much electricity the ports could deliver, we connected a MakerHawk Electronic Load Tester to the hub and tried to dial up as many amps as we could. As we dial up amps on any device, the voltage drops, so a 5 volt USB port could drop down to 4 volts or less as we increase the load, but USB devices need close to 5 volts – 4.7 or 4.8 volts is usually enough – so we tested how many amps we could get at 4.8 volts and at the, likely unacceptable, rate of 4.05 volts. We conducted standardized tests to transfer a file from the SSD to the laptop; from the hard drive to the SSD; and then from an SD card to the PC, while simultaneously transferring files from the hard drive to the SSD. In some cases we used AJA’s System Tool app to run read and write tests on connected drives. In almost all cases, the performance was identical, with a spread of about 3 percent—good news for you, as that’s one less thing to worry about.

Even though two USB-C hubs may have wildly different brand names, you may sometimes find that they’re otherwise identical or just very similar. Can a USB-C hub feel elegant? This one does. Anker’s 7-in-1 USB-C hub feels surprisingly weighty (3.5 ounces), with a premium metallic (aluminum and polycarbonate) sheen. It’s also a bit more expensive than its rivals. Anker’s hub was among the coolest we’ve tested under load, at about 87 degrees. Powered or not? Some USB hubs come with their own AC adapters so that they can provide more power than your computer delivers from one of its ports. Bus power from your computer can be pretty low, not enough to juice several power-hungry peripherals at once or to charge devices at a reasonable rate. By definition, a USB hub that needs its own plug isn’t very portable.The TS3 Plus allows you to maximize the capabilities of a Thunderbolt 3 connection. It features two Thunderbolt 3 ports, one DisplayPort 1.2 port, five USB 3.1 Type-A ports, two USB 3.1 Type-C ports, an SD Card Reader (SD 4.0 UHS-II), a Digital Optical Audio (S/PDIF) port 1x Gigabit, Ethernet, an Analog Audio In, and an Analog Audio Out port.

HTTPS, FTP, SFTP, TLS 1.2, SMTP, SSH and CLI for web management; remote management via Digi Remote Manager Sabrent's HB-U3CR looks like it was built for MacBooks, thanks to a gunmetal gray aluminum chassis and a stylish, slanted design that will prop it up at an insertion-friendly angle on any table. However, it's an equally strong choice for use with a PC laptop that has USB-C ports and needs a few USB Type-A connections. USB Network Gate: Windows, Linux, or Mac host device. Most powerful, setup isn't complicated. Made by same developer as FlexiHub, so you can use the FlexiHub interface on top of this. Secure with 256-bit encryption. This UGreen unit is another basic USB hub, with four USB 3.0/3.1 Gen 1 ports connecting through a single USB-A connection. Disappointingly, what looks like an aluminium casing turns out to be plastic, which feels a little creaky in comparison to some models, but it’s robust enough for daily desktop or mobile use. The big advantage this one has over similarly priced rivals is a 5V micro-USB input, meaning it can charge devices while in use (without any fast charge support) and run one or more USB SSDs or HDDs – we tried it with one of each without any issues. The only downside? You’ll need to supply your own charger and cable, but it’s hard to grumble at this price. If you opt for a powered USB hub, your data transfer speed will be significantly increased, but to really maximise the efficiency, you need to look at the transfer speed. If you only occasionally transfer files, this won't be much of an issue, but if transferring is a big part of your work, this could be worth noting.Not every USB Hub is one of the best USB hubs you can buy. We tested a number of other models that are worth considering, but not necessarily at the head of the class. A USB splitter refers to a simple device that splits a single USB port into multiple ports, allowing you to connect multiple devices simultaneously. This type of splitter doesn't typically have its own power source and relies on the power provided by the connected computer or laptop. USB splitters are often used for basic connectivity needs and may have limitations in terms of power distribution and data transfer speeds. Ethernet, 2x SFP+, 24x USB, 2x PSU, 2x fan, user, 2x WWAN (if CORE module is inserted), Wi-Fi (on Wi-Fi models) The HAT does not use the GPIO pins, the connector is simply used to pass the pins through for usage.