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USB Hubs
It is sad, but the fact still remains that no matter how new your system, you are going to have at most two USB 3.0 ports. This may sound like a lot right now, but as more USB 3.0 devices come on the market, you soon are going to feel the pinch. To help alleviate this issue, powered hubs are coming back into vogue, such as the this one from SIIG. Will you see a performance impact when pairing your portable drives with this USB 3.0 hub? Let's find out!
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USB Hubs SIIG 4-port USB 3.0 Hub Review
- Small and lightweight
- Powered hub
- Activity LED for each port
- Overvoltage protection
- Only a minor latency impact
- 5 year warranty
- Four ports share the bandwidth of one USB 3.0 host
- Requires a power receptacle
First SuperSpeed USB Hub
As you can see, the 4-port USB 3.0 hub is one itty bitty piece of kit! While SIIG doesn't list any official dimensions, it is about 2.5" x 3.5" x 0.5". This in my books classifies this as one heck of a compact powered hub! To really understand how small this hub is, here it is compared to a deck of cards. While my photography skills does not do it justice, this hub uses the same rubber like plastic materials that SIIG USB 3.0 drive dock uses. So while it may be small, it is going to stay where you put it and not slip and slide like some other hubs I have used in the past did.
As you can see, the layout of this 4-port USB 3.0 hub is a little on the odd side. The four ports do not line up one after the other along one side like many hubs layout. Rather you have three along one side and a single one at each end. The one all by its lonesome at first didn't make any sense to me, but then I realized that SIIG also makes a seven port version of this hub and it all became clear. Both hubs share the same form factor and case, the four-port version simply omits one side's worth of ports.
The upside to having a single port all by itself is that even the largest of flash drives will not block any of the other ports. This certainly is something to consider, as not all devices have standard width. Though to be honest, even a Corsair Voyager GTR will not block access to the other ports even when plugged into the "middle" of the three ports. However, if you have one of those extra beefy 128GB version of the GTR, this end port will indeed be a veritable godsend!
As you can see, the 4-port USB 3.0 hub is one itty bitty piece of kit! While SIIG doesn't list any official dimensions, it is about 2.5" x 3.5" x 0.5". This in my books classifies this as one heck of a compact powered hub! To really understand how small this hub is, here it is compared to a deck of cards. While my photography skills does not do it justice, this hub uses the same rubber like plastic materials that SIIG USB 3.0 drive dock uses. So while it may be small, it is going to stay where you put it and not slip and slide like some other hubs I have used in the past did.
As you can see, the layout of this 4-port USB 3.0 hub is a little on the odd side. The four ports do not line up one after the other along one side like many hubs layout. Rather you have three along one side and a single one at each end. The one all by its lonesome at first didn't make any sense to me, but then I realized that SIIG also makes a seven port version of this hub and it all became clear. Both hubs share the same form factor and case, the four-port version simply omits one side's worth of ports.
The upside to having a single port all by itself is that even the largest of flash drives will not block any of the other ports. This certainly is something to consider, as not all devices have standard width. Though to be honest, even a Corsair Voyager GTR will not block access to the other ports even when plugged into the "middle" of the three ports. However, if you have one of those extra beefy 128GB version of the GTR, this end port will indeed be a veritable godsend!
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