USB Hubs and external drives - Performance question

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GadgetFisher

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Nov 11, 2015
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I'm limited to just 3 USB 3.0 port on my laptop so have to use a hub. I use a number of external drives for backup but find the USB 3.0 hubs are the bottleneck. Does anyone know of a hub design that focuses on performance through innovation in design? Am I stuck with 25Mbs maximum (and MUCH lower averages) speeds through USB hubs?

Thank you
 
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25 Mb/s looks a lot like USB2 speed. Note these things (maybe you already have):
1. A USB3 Hub will only deliver fast performance if (a) it is plugged into a USB3 port on the host computer and (b) the device you plug into the hub also is USB3 (the hub itself cannot make a USB2 external drive perform faster than USB2) and (c) all the cables you use are USB3 cables. They look a lot like older USB2 cables at first glance, but the USB3 cables have more contacts in them.
2. If you are connecting multiple devices to a USB3 hub, you really need to be using a power supply "brick" that came with the hub and provides it with lots of power. The hub can't supply its max power to each port if its only power source is what comes from the host...
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Paperdoc

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25 Mb/s looks a lot like USB2 speed. Note these things (maybe you already have):
1. A USB3 Hub will only deliver fast performance if (a) it is plugged into a USB3 port on the host computer and (b) the device you plug into the hub also is USB3 (the hub itself cannot make a USB2 external drive perform faster than USB2) and (c) all the cables you use are USB3 cables. They look a lot like older USB2 cables at first glance, but the USB3 cables have more contacts in them.
2. If you are connecting multiple devices to a USB3 hub, you really need to be using a power supply "brick" that came with the hub and provides it with lots of power. The hub can't supply its max power to each port if its only power source is what comes from the host computer's port.
 
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GadgetFisher

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Nov 11, 2015
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Thanks for your suggestions Paperdoc. Yes, everything is USB 3.0 including cables. Just on device in the hub. And it's powered. I appreciate the suggestions.
 
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