Cons: Wimpy power adapter detracts from a great product. I would have rated it a 5 otherwise.
Overall Review: This is a nice little hub that does indeed connect in USB 3.0 mode and supports USB 3.0 speeds on all ports. The more well known brand USB 3.0 hub I currently use that this hub is replacing only works in USB 3.0 on one or two of the four ports (it may be defective). However the StarTech engineers were obviously not thinking when they designed this one or else they got pressured into skimping on the power adapter to cut costs. The USB 3.0 standard specifies that each port is to supply 900 ma of supply current simultaneously as opposed to the USB 2.0 standard of 500 ma per port. But the power adapter provided with this hub is only a 2 amp adapter. Given the problems I had with my previous hub, the first thing I wanted to check when I took it out of the box was to see if it could support USB 3.0 on all ports simultaneously. So after connecting the hub and starting up the laptop it is to be used with, I connected four USB 3.0 portable hard drives in quick succession. All four showed they connect in USB 3.0 mode. As soon as I connected the third drive, the second drive unmounted with the usual "improper eject" warning. Then later it remounted on its own. This was the result of the power adapter not being able to provide sufficient current for all four drives going through their highest current activity (motor spin up from stop) all at one time. A quick speed test with all four connected seemed noticeably slower than USB 3.0 to me (68 GB was going to take 31 minutes to copy so I aborted it). With more typical use, this would be no problem except for devices which draw higher than typical current (motor activity: scanners with frequent motor reversals, disk drives during start, cameras with lens zooming, etc). Still the ports should be able to provide the full current specified by the USB 3.0 standard at all times. The hub itself does support full USB 3.0 speed with only one device connected and even seemed about 25% faster than the drive plugged directly into the laptop (9 GB test file copied in 1.5 to 2 minutes). What I am looking for right now is a substitute power adapter to use with this hub. The power adapter from my previous hub is indeed a 4 amp adapter that provides enough current to provide 900 ma per port so I may end up using the old power adapter with the StarTech hub, but it would have been so much easier if StarTech had provided a 4 amp adapter to begin with. Not quite plug and play. I think this hub is going to be worth it though. It is the best USB 3.0 hub I have seen so far.
Startech USB 4 Port ST4300MINI9/28/2019 3:34:40 PM
Pros: Product worked well for 9 months.
Cons: After 9 months, unit still worked but the power supply brick developed a low level, audible whirring, buzzing noise. Startech quickly replaced the whole unit under warranty at no cost to me.
Overall Review: Unfortunately the power supply went wonky, but I would buy this model again due to excellent warranty replacement service and overall good performance.
Pros: Great for adding USB ports to limited system ports.
Cons: Cord is short and very stiff. Would love to see a braided soft cord on this device.
Anonymous
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
Verified Owner
chose for a reason8/20/2015 7:14:41 PM
Pros: Holds decent transfer speeds, and tested to power x4 128gb thumb drives and transfer to simultaneously without issue.
Tested with a 6ft usb nonpowered extension cable as well with no change in connectivity or performance.
Have not tested the hub with mechanical drives or ssd's. And the project I need this for has self-powered usb devices anyway.
This does not have any provision for an additional external power supply input. So do keep that in mind.
Cons: none so far, startech is generally decent gear.
Overall Review: Purchase this because was looking for a hub for a specific built-in project location, This is the only 4 port 3.0 hub that seemed to have a good gap between ports that were oriented side by side.
(I didn't need port facing each other front to back vertical style, I needed side-by-side horizontal style because of the usb connector the project uses.)
The spaces between ports is right at 3/8" apart in case anyone else is ever curious.
Cons: Fastest sustained transfer rate was 9.54 Mbps. Toshiba laptop with intel i3 M380 2.53GHZ CPU. 4GB RAM installed. Windows 7 64-bit. Ran several copy / backup jobs to several USB 3.0 external drives. Confirmed hub was plugged into a USB 3.0 port. Disabled antivirus. Rebooted & tried again several times. Ran Diskcheck against all drives - no errors reported. Finally removed the hub and plugged drive into USB 3 port directly. Sustained speeds around 160Mbps. Problem is the hub!
Cons: won't handle portable drives (that need power) - I tried two different drives
since it has an external power adapter, I assumed it was able to power external drives
the drives work on the usb ports of several laptops
Pros: this is a nice little hub for a mobile system.
I had no issues with my W7 system. It just worked right away.
My Lenovo X1 carbon only has 2 USB ports and only 1 is USB-3.
The hub looks to be nicely made. It has an external (optional) wall wort supply, so you can charge devices through it and run multiple power hungry devices without worrying.
Plus the wall wort is a very light and small switching power supply.
All and all, a great mobile choice.
Pros: Small, USB 3.0 actually works on all ports
Cons: Wimpy power adapter detracts from a great product. I would have rated it a 5 otherwise.
Overall Review: This is a nice little hub that does indeed connect in USB 3.0 mode and supports USB 3.0 speeds on all ports. The more well known brand USB 3.0 hub I currently use that this hub is replacing only works in USB 3.0 on one or two of the four ports (it may be defective). However the StarTech engineers were obviously not thinking when they designed this one or else they got pressured into skimping on the power adapter to cut costs. The USB 3.0 standard specifies that each port is to supply 900 ma of supply current simultaneously as opposed to the USB 2.0 standard of 500 ma per port. But the power adapter provided with this hub is only a 2 amp adapter. Given the problems I had with my previous hub, the first thing I wanted to check when I took it out of the box was to see if it could support USB 3.0 on all ports simultaneously. So after connecting the hub and starting up the laptop it is to be used with, I connected four USB 3.0 portable hard drives in quick succession. All four showed they connect in USB 3.0 mode. As soon as I connected the third drive, the second drive unmounted with the usual "improper eject" warning. Then later it remounted on its own. This was the result of the power adapter not being able to provide sufficient current for all four drives going through their highest current activity (motor spin up from stop) all at one time. A quick speed test with all four connected seemed noticeably slower than USB 3.0 to me (68 GB was going to take 31 minutes to copy so I aborted it). With more typical use, this would be no problem except for devices which draw higher than typical current (motor activity: scanners with frequent motor reversals, disk drives during start, cameras with lens zooming, etc). Still the ports should be able to provide the full current specified by the USB 3.0 standard at all times. The hub itself does support full USB 3.0 speed with only one device connected and even seemed about 25% faster than the drive plugged directly into the laptop (9 GB test file copied in 1.5 to 2 minutes). What I am looking for right now is a substitute power adapter to use with this hub. The power adapter from my previous hub is indeed a 4 amp adapter that provides enough current to provide 900 ma per port so I may end up using the old power adapter with the StarTech hub, but it would have been so much easier if StarTech had provided a 4 amp adapter to begin with. Not quite plug and play. I think this hub is going to be worth it though. It is the best USB 3.0 hub I have seen so far.