[geeks] USB 3.0 Hub Recommendations

[Nathan Raymond]

After much research, I went with a Pluggable hub.  Specifically the
USB3-HUB7A:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D7P6176/

I really appreciate the Pluggable blog posts, their platform and device
compatibility testing, and the fact that when a chipset maker releases
firmware updates, they make them available.  Thanks to their posts, I found
out that hubs with the VIA VL811 chipset with older firmware will have
issues on the Mac (the hub above uses the more recent VL812 FYI).
 Pluggable wrote about the Mac-specific problems with the VL811 and made
available VIA's updater (which unfortunately does just run in Windows), and
recently updated their post to link to more recent firmware updates as well:

http://plugable.com/2012/12/02/vl-811-firmware-upgrade

"A primary feature is a work around for issues on Mac OS X 10.8 systems,
where USB storage devices would disconnect unexpectedly upon system sleep.
Windows and Linux users will likely see limited benefit from applying this
upgrade (as those OSes did not have this same disconnect problem), so we
would advise against upgrading unless youve encountered a specific issue.
Note that late 2012 Macs (Macbook Pro Retina, iMac, Mac Mini) have USB 3.0
issues that are not solved by any firmware update (were expecting an Apple
update for these at some point)."

Other manufacturer's use these chipsets as well, and while you can in some
cases update the firmware yourself (which could require a lot of work if
the manufacturer doesn't make the firmware available or provide
instructions), I really appreciate Pluggable's approach and want to give
them my business because of it.

Aside: Last night I successfully updated the ASMedia ASM1053 firmware in
some Macally G-S350SU3 enclosures I have primarily to adjust the
auto-spindown from an absurd 1 minute to a more reasonable threshold, and
it was successful with some effort on my part to find the right firmware,
flasher and manually replicate the strings, identifiers, and serial number
of the drive during the flashing process (none of which were supplied by or
documented by Macally).  Presumably I have also gained some performance and
compatibility improvements through the firmware update as well.

- Nate


On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 11:35 AM, hike <mh1272 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Does anyone have a recommendation for a good/reliable USB 3.0 hub.
>
> The reviews that I have seen for the hubs between $20 and $25 are very
> mixed and I hesitate to purchase one of these.
>
> I have a number of USB 3.0 external hard drives that I want to connect to a
> Mac Mini so the hub probably needs to supply power to the USB 3.0 ports.
>
> Your recommendations (pro and con) will be appreciated.
>
> hike
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