SYBA SY-HUB50042 4-port PCI-e Interface USB 3.0 Bay Hub with 6-slot Card Reader

Pros: None

Cons: Remarkably slow card reader. USB 3 Driver Compatibility Issues. Poor Design and Construction.

Other Thoughts: The card reader is remarkably slow and does not physically support CF cards securely because slot is too shallow.

USB 3 Drivers do not play well with others.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

This device has two features. The first will be: a card reader, and it is connected to your system USB header on the motherboard. Make sure it connects to a USB 2.0 port.

Second feature is the USB 3.0 Hub. Make sure the proper driver is installed for USB 3.0 performance.

This Hub is backed by a hassle free warranty which will ensure a prompt replacement. You can fill out our convenient online RMA form, or you can contact us directly for live customer service. We offer same day shipping on all of our RMA replacements as long as the item is in stock.

We are more than happy to provide all of our customers with a prompt exchange whenever a product becomes defective.

Regards, SYBA CST 10082012

Pros: 4 USB-3 ports with enough power to charge smart phones. All slots work perfectly. Uses a PCI-e slot to do its stuff instead of looping out of the case. Very happy.

Cons: I had to remove the slot cover from the casing because the the bolts on it hit the casing on my video card (which was fat). I just used a regular blank to fill up the whole. I think 95% of the time, this wouldn't even be an issue.

Other Thoughts: I use WoL on my computer, so when my computer is off, the red power LED on this is lit. It's not bright, just on. I guess on my board the standby power also feeds this thing.

Pros: Has a lot of functions, a good number of USB ports and reads about any memory card when working.

Cons: The first unit I got didn't work at all. I installed the drivers on 3 different windows 7 operating systems and two different computers and nothing ever worked, the computer wouldn't even recognize it, so I RMA'd the item and got a new one. The second one worked, even though it's a pain to install the drivers and what not, but then after a few months my computer wouldn't turn on, not even a boot screen, would get stuck on the motherboard screen where it says press delete for bios, etc. Even though it wasn't the last component I installed I tried unplugging it first, and the computer boots up fine now. Haven't tried to trouble-shoot it any further, but I've only used the unit a few times in the 3 months that I've owned it. My older Syba memory card reader (not usb 3.0) still works fine, but this one seems to be questionable as far as the workmanship. The plastic plug came loose on the PCI card plug and the card reader part doesn't fit into the bay easily. Those things aren't a

Other Thoughts: big deal for me but the unit should work longer than 3 months before crapping out, my computer wouldn't even boot! Anyway, glad it wasn't my CPU or my SSD, just this questionable $40 card reader. I won't be buying another one of these. I hope other people have better luck with these units.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

We are sorry that this unit failed after 3 months of use. All of our

products come with manufacturer direct hassle free warranty. Please

contact us as soon as possible to provide you with a replacement.

Normally, this product should last for years. We would recommend you try

the following. It may fix the problem. Examine the goldfinger on the

interface card. Make sure there is no missing pin(s). Make sure there is

no memory card inside the card reader slot. Install the PCI-e interface

card in a different PCI-e slot and reboot the system.


We are more than willing to provide all of our customers with prompt

exchanges whenever a product becomes defective.

SYBA offers an on-line RMA form, the user can easily fill out the form and

submit it for a quick RMA return and exchange. It is SYBA's policy to

answer all customer inquiries within 24 hours (M-F)

Regards, SYBA CST 08092012

Pros: The card reader works fine because it runs on my existing USB 2.0 on my MB. I am using MA770T-UD3P MB & Win7 x64, 8G ddr3. I spent a lot of time trying to get this to work properly. 1st: the Firmware problem: I was able to find the newer drivers and Firmware upgrade at the Syba web site. Then I went to the VIA site and found even newer drivers (1.90A) and a couple of different firmware utils for the USB 3.0 chipset by VIA (VL810 Superspeed USB Hub Controller) located at, sorry I cannot show the link, but you can find it easy if you try. I tried every lead on the internet that I could find to resolve this, I hate sending parts back and rarely do. I tried all the different PCIe slots on my MB, turned of my antivirus, freed up a IRQ by pulling out my floppy drive - haven't used it in at least 5yrs. No matter what it tried I could never get any version of the USB3HubFW to work in any PCIe slot, the util always showed "No device found! So I have no Idea what version is on the unit.

Cons: Next I loaded a driver from Syba's website. Low and behold it loaded, using Administrator priv., like mentioned here in other reviews. When it finished I saw the message USB 3.0 driver installed lower right corner, if you click on it to show more information it should show both USB2.0 and USB3.0 installed. Also now in the Control Panel, under Universal Serial Bus Controller there should be 3 new Lines at the bottom of the list. I was thinking this is great, So I when back and tried to use the firmware upgrade tool again, obviously the card is working in the PC, but to no avail, I tried different slots, no antivirus, running as Administrator, etc., no luck. No versions of the util ever found the card to do the firmware upgrade. But that's ok because I just proved the card works. 2nd: the drivers problem: So I rebooted again and Walla the USB 3.0 unit is dead after a reboot, of course the card reader still works fine. I tried all other versions of drivers I could find, to no avail

Other Thoughts: I go to the Control Panel and the VIA USB 2 Hub is gone, the USB 3 Root Hub has a yellow exclamation (indicating driver problems) and VIA USB extensible Host Controller looked normal. I spent the next day trying various approaches to try to resolve the issues, more Internet time, ect., no luck. I could always get the driver to run while the PC was on, but after a cold boot it was always disabled. Also techsupport was no help, surprise. Note: when it was working; here are results from transferring a 120MB file to all three flash drives. Sending file to an old USB1.1 Flash drive took 3+ minutes and showed a top speed of 700KB. Next I sent file to a USB2.0 Flash drive it took about 30 sec. top speed was 4.7MB. Last I used the ADATA Flash drive took 8 sec. and ran a top speed of 22MB. I would have loved to keep this but sadly I must return this item, as it doesn't perform for me well enough to keep. I need a dependable product.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear customer,

We are sorry that one of our products did not meet your computing needs. On the other hand, we would like to thank you for your feedback. From the detailed write up, we can tell that you are a determined person. let us personally apologize for having you go through all the trouble you did.

This is one of our newest USB Hub + card reader combo, and it is based on brand new VIA chip. The problem you have experienced is not universal. Please contact us at your earliest convenience because we would love to exchange it for a different one for you.

We are more than willing to provide all of our customers with prompt exchanges whenever a product becomes defective.

SYBA offers on-line RMA form, user can easily fill out the form and submit for quick RMA return and exchange. It is SYBA's policy to answer all customer inquiries within 24 hours (M-F)

Regards, SYBA Customer Service 05252012

Pros: For those of you who have bought this & are experiencing that the unit seems to work intermittently...

It works fine. The issue is not with the unit, but rather the drivers. This unit uses a VIA based usb 3.0 controller. Most motherboards with onboard usb 3.0 use Ranesas. For some reason the two do not play nicely. If you install them together Windows will use one & then upon the next reboot it will use the other. It would stand to reason that since both controllers are different manufacturers & have completely different drivers that the two can coexist. Afraid not. The only solution I have found is to disable the motherboard's onboard usb 3.0 in the BIOS. Afterwards the ports in the card reader work as advertised.

Cons: If your motherboard has a front usb 3.0 connection & so does your case forget about using this card reader.

Other Thoughts: Its a lousy solution I know, but honestly who wouldn't rather have four usb 3.0 ports available in the front? Your printer won't exactly benefit from those two hidden in the back.

Pros: USB 3.0 and 4 of them up front where you need them!
Fits old cases
Great upgrade
makes floppy hole useful
has all the popular card readers

Cons: Get rid of the red light! Make it a drive light. It is completely useless as is.
Connector needed a 1/2 height option
connector to ide chensey

Pros: Would be great if it worked. I often order a bunch of components, then over time I install them into my builds. This is bad, because in this case it wasn't until after the thirty day's return policy when I decided to install this, and found it to function intermittently, now not at all. I also had to glue the casing on the mobo connector, as it is so cheap it came apart. Oh well, I'm only out 40bucks. Stuff happens.

Cons: Very poor quality, never did work properly. Intermittent functionality at best, now it is unrecognized. When it did function, I had to reinstall the drivers repeatedly, then that driver disc corrupted my fresh install. Luckily I imaged my stuff before running the cheapo mini disc driver.

Other Thoughts: I really need a reliable multi card reader, and I liked this concept, because of the USB3.0 - too bad this one didn't work. I usually have pretty good luck with NewEgg stuff.

Pros: None

Cons: Short circuited my motherboard, smelled like something was burning in my pc. Garbage

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

Short circuiting might be caused by plugging the PCI-e connector in the wrong direction on the PCI-e slot. Please refer to other Newegg reviews for this problem.
Please contact our support team for a possible solution to your problem.
We will work with our engineering department to find a solution to help keep this from happening again.
Please don't hesitate to contact us at support@sybaUSA.com for our warranty service

Regards, Syba Customer Service AA 020915

Pros: Love the typical Memory card slots and USB 3 ports. The PCIe 1x design is so much better than goofy "run the cable out and back in" that most others do.

Cons: My PCIe 1x slot is next to the video card that takes up two slots. The slot frame that holds the PCIe connector has screws in it that collide with the casing of my video card. I had to remove the screws and then use a different slot cover; which works fine, but it's just stupid that I had to do that.

Other Thoughts: Had to run the installer in administrator mode manually.

Pros: It was cheap

Cons: DOA I tried to install the provided drivers and nothing could be read. I then tried to update the drivers and still nothing was read.

Other Thoughts: Look for another brand this product was not worth the trouble or my time. Maybe I got an anomaly but I will never buy a product from this company again.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear customer;

This device requires two connections. One is the PCI-e, which is for the USB HUB. The other connection is a USB header pin which is for the card reader.

Please contact us for additional support.

We are more than willing to provide all of our customers with prompt exchanges whenever a product becomes defective.

SYBA offers an on-line RMA form, the user can easily fill out the form and submit it for a quick RMA return and exchange. It is SYBA's policy to answer all customer inquiries within 24 hours (M-F)

Regards, SYBA CST 06202012