Price : Too low to display
The Vantec 4 Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hub once again revolutionizes the way we move data from our computer to our devices. Intergrated with the latest SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard, easily add four USB ports to any computer ensuring that all your USB needs are met. Enjoy transfer rates of up to 5Gbps allowing you to copy videos, music, photos, data files between USB devices and the computer at blazing fast speeds. No drivers are necessary as this is a simple plug and play device. The Vantec 4 Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hub is an ideal solution for anyone seeking a well designed hub which fuses a sleek and compact design without sacrificing any of its functionality.
This review is from : Vantec 4 Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hub (Black)
Looks great designed great... initial issues but works great now! . -- Edited: See bottom for updates! --
Oh man, I was eager for this one! My laptop (Asus N61Jv-X2, also bought here on Amazon) has only one USB 3.0 port. But USB 3.0 is so fast, it's become an absolute necessity for all my storage... I've now acquired quite the USB 3.0 collection, as well as a USB 3.0 PCIe card for my desktop. It's amazing! USB 3.0 is absolutely the next wave of storage tech. I have 2 Keydex 2.5" USB 3.0 enclosures, 1 Thermaltake BlacX 5G USB 3.0 HDD dock, an AData S102 8gb USB 3.0 Flash drive, and a generic Chinese USB 3.0 to Dual SATA HDD adapter (that the BlacX dock pretty much replaced due to reliability). OK, so there's my equipment.
I realized I needed more ports. I don't have much desk space and I was going to affix the hub to the side of my desk, and I didn't want some Chinese USB 3.0 knock-off like that USB-to-SATA adapter (which pretty much hosed itself after a few uses - the USB3 chip overheats). I bought this Vantec hub, it's great! It looked great, and the box... WOW. I really loved the quality put into it. Very sturdy, held together with real screws, rubber feet, solid connections, good quality adapter. Everything looked *stunning*.
Then I tried to use it. So far so good, it picked up all my devices, ran them simultaneously at full USB3 speed (benchmarking two 75MB/s HDDs, both negotiated about 65MB/s simultaneously). It was cool! I was happy. Then, about 2 hours later... the music playing off my 2.5" drive just stopped, along with a "doo-dong" and a USB-removed notification, saying my hub was unplugged ("USB Safely Remove" app). Huh? No, the drive didn't spin down or stop, it was still running... but Device Manager showed that there was nothing attached to either of its two virtual hubs (the one 4-port hub seems to be split into two 2-port devices). I unplug/reattach my hard drive... nothing. The hub? Nothing. I have to completely unplug the power and data to the hub, let it power down completely, then plug the hub power back in, then the data, and everything comes back up. For another 5 minutes. Then it dies again. Or if I plug in another USB 3.0 device... it just dies instantly.
Beta woes? I don't know. Since my lousy OEM (Asus) isn't keeping up-to-date with the latest NEC USB 3.0 drivers, I have to resort to third party drivers (station-drivers.com) to find the latest updates. I'm trying those now. I'll revise this review if anything better comes of it, but I'm only giving it a week... I was really hoping this would work, too! It's truly a beautiful and well designed piece of hardware! I'm just afraid to open it up to see if it's overheating.
-- Updated! 4/2/2011 --
Well, I contacted Vantec support, which was quite responsive and pretty helpful... not exactly verbose with their replies (really only one or two sentences), but at least there's no canned form-letter fluff! They directed me to a site with a firmware update (7.60 is the latest as of this writing), and after running that update and learning to be careful about bumping the USB "A" cables, the thing is working completely flawlessly right now. It's been working stable all night playing music, and earlier tonight I had not one, not two, but THREE USB 3.0 hard drives attached - two bus-powered 2.5" drives, and the powered BlacX HDD dock. Two drives were writing data via GbE at 60MB/s each, for a total burst speed of 120MB/s reported incoming from LAN. Everything worked perfectly, zero drop-outs. Exactly as USB should be! I'm just knocking one star for the cheap power brick that comes with it, as after switching to a more reliable 5v/2.5A adapter and comparing sizes (with the supposedly "2.0A" adapter provided with it), it's obvious that the bundled adapter can't provide 2.0A of power. Plus, the initial issues with reliability out-of-the-box. It still deserves 4/5 stars. :)
Looks great designed great... initial issues but works great now! . -- Edited: See bottom for updates! --
Oh man, I was eager for this one! My laptop (Asus N61Jv-X2, also bought here on Amazon) has only one USB 3.0 port. But USB 3.0 is so fast, it's become an absolute necessity for all my storage... I've now acquired quite the USB 3.0 collection, as well as a USB 3.0 PCIe card for my desktop. It's amazing! USB 3.0 is absolutely the next wave of storage tech. I have 2 Keydex 2.5" USB 3.0 enclosures, 1 Thermaltake BlacX 5G USB 3.0 HDD dock, an AData S102 8gb USB 3.0 Flash drive, and a generic Chinese USB 3.0 to Dual SATA HDD adapter (that the BlacX dock pretty much replaced due to reliability). OK, so there's my equipment.
I realized I needed more ports. I don't have much desk space and I was going to affix the hub to the side of my desk, and I didn't want some Chinese USB 3.0 knock-off like that USB-to-SATA adapter (which pretty much hosed itself after a few uses - the USB3 chip overheats). I bought this Vantec hub, it's great! It looked great, and the box... WOW. I really loved the quality put into it. Very sturdy, held together with real screws, rubber feet, solid connections, good quality adapter. Everything looked *stunning*.
Then I tried to use it. So far so good, it picked up all my devices, ran them simultaneously at full USB3 speed (benchmarking two 75MB/s HDDs, both negotiated about 65MB/s simultaneously). It was cool! I was happy. Then, about 2 hours later... the music playing off my 2.5" drive just stopped, along with a "doo-dong" and a USB-removed notification, saying my hub was unplugged ("USB Safely Remove" app). Huh? No, the drive didn't spin down or stop, it was still running... but Device Manager showed that there was nothing attached to either of its two virtual hubs (the one 4-port hub seems to be split into two 2-port devices). I unplug/reattach my hard drive... nothing. The hub? Nothing. I have to completely unplug the power and data to the hub, let it power down completely, then plug the hub power back in, then the data, and everything comes back up. For another 5 minutes. Then it dies again. Or if I plug in another USB 3.0 device... it just dies instantly.
Beta woes? I don't know. Since my lousy OEM (Asus) isn't keeping up-to-date with the latest NEC USB 3.0 drivers, I have to resort to third party drivers (station-drivers.com) to find the latest updates. I'm trying those now. I'll revise this review if anything better comes of it, but I'm only giving it a week... I was really hoping this would work, too! It's truly a beautiful and well designed piece of hardware! I'm just afraid to open it up to see if it's overheating.
-- Updated! 4/2/2011 --
Well, I contacted Vantec support, which was quite responsive and pretty helpful... not exactly verbose with their replies (really only one or two sentences), but at least there's no canned form-letter fluff! They directed me to a site with a firmware update (7.60 is the latest as of this writing), and after running that update and learning to be careful about bumping the USB "A" cables, the thing is working completely flawlessly right now. It's been working stable all night playing music, and earlier tonight I had not one, not two, but THREE USB 3.0 hard drives attached - two bus-powered 2.5" drives, and the powered BlacX HDD dock. Two drives were writing data via GbE at 60MB/s each, for a total burst speed of 120MB/s reported incoming from LAN. Everything worked perfectly, zero drop-outs. Exactly as USB should be! I'm just knocking one star for the cheap power brick that comes with it, as after switching to a more reliable 5v/2.5A adapter and comparing sizes (with the supposedly "2.0A" adapter provided with it), it's obvious that the bundled adapter can't provide 2.0A of power. Plus, the initial issues with reliability out-of-the-box. It still deserves 4/5 stars. :)
Vantec 4 Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hub (Black) Reviews
Excellent USB3 Hub . It comes with a USB3 cable. I have hooked up various devices to it with no problems. Windows recognized the device and no problems with driver install. Of course you have to have a USB3 connection on your computer or motherboard to get the maximum speed. I bought another one for a new computer I am building. I have not tried any hard drives but have used it for my jump drives and iphone. Very reliable. The blue LED on the top is quite brite and at night my ceiling is lit up with a big blue circle but hey...it doubles as a nite light !
Excellent USB3 Hub . It comes with a USB3 cable. I have hooked up various devices to it with no problems. Windows recognized the device and no problems with driver install. Of course you have to have a USB3 connection on your computer or motherboard to get the maximum speed. I bought another one for a new computer I am building. I have not tried any hard drives but have used it for my jump drives and iphone. Very reliable. The blue LED on the top is quite brite and at night my ceiling is lit up with a big blue circle but hey...it doubles as a nite light !
Vantec 4 Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hub (Black) Opinions
Works well and does what it needs to do . The USB 3.0 ports are in the back of my computer, so it's a pain to plug my flash drive in and out of my computer. I shopped around a bit, and settled on this one. The ports are a little funky; sometimes I have to play around with a port to get it to recognize my flash drive. I can't say how fast it is because I don't have any benchmarking software, but my computer does recognize it as 3.0 because it doesn't give me the "will perform faster in a 3.0 port" message that I get when I plug the flash drive into the regular USB ports. I have noticed it copies files much faster than when using 2.0 ports. One strange thing I noticed: my flash drive gets EXTREMELY hot when I plug it in. I also have a WD passport that is 3.0 that I plug into this as well, and it stays at regular temperature. But for some reason the flash drive is almost too hot to unplug right away, even when it hasn't been in constant use. The USB cable that goes from this to the computer is a little short, but not a deal breaker for me. It's a great value for the price and does what it's supposed to do. I took off one star for the quirkiness with the ports (I initially thought one port just didn't work). It's also backwards compatible, in case the product description didn't mention it.
Works well and does what it needs to do . The USB 3.0 ports are in the back of my computer, so it's a pain to plug my flash drive in and out of my computer. I shopped around a bit, and settled on this one. The ports are a little funky; sometimes I have to play around with a port to get it to recognize my flash drive. I can't say how fast it is because I don't have any benchmarking software, but my computer does recognize it as 3.0 because it doesn't give me the "will perform faster in a 3.0 port" message that I get when I plug the flash drive into the regular USB ports. I have noticed it copies files much faster than when using 2.0 ports. One strange thing I noticed: my flash drive gets EXTREMELY hot when I plug it in. I also have a WD passport that is 3.0 that I plug into this as well, and it stays at regular temperature. But for some reason the flash drive is almost too hot to unplug right away, even when it hasn't been in constant use. The USB cable that goes from this to the computer is a little short, but not a deal breaker for me. It's a great value for the price and does what it's supposed to do. I took off one star for the quirkiness with the ports (I initially thought one port just didn't work). It's also backwards compatible, in case the product description didn't mention it.
Plug it in and go... . Very easy installation... I had it up and running in no time. The hub seems to charge my USB phone faster than my old USB 2.0 ports (which you would expect... the USB 3.0 spec requires 900 milliamps, I believe).
And the Vantec hub (along with my new USB 3.0 PCI card) are noticeably faster than USB 2.0. I haven't been able to push them to the max yet; I don't have any USB 3.0 devices that operate at those speeds. But I am able to push my USB 3.0 thumb drive the the max speeds that it supports... 60 MBytes writing, and >80 MBytes reading. And I'm able to push a normal hard disk (in an external dock) to speeds comparable to what I get with e-SATA; so the limiting factor there is the HDD itself.
So in summary, I'm very happy with the hub. Nice, compact, USB 3.0 speed and power, and 'plug it in and go' setup.
And the Vantec hub (along with my new USB 3.0 PCI card) are noticeably faster than USB 2.0. I haven't been able to push them to the max yet; I don't have any USB 3.0 devices that operate at those speeds. But I am able to push my USB 3.0 thumb drive the the max speeds that it supports... 60 MBytes writing, and >80 MBytes reading. And I'm able to push a normal hard disk (in an external dock) to speeds comparable to what I get with e-SATA; so the limiting factor there is the HDD itself.
So in summary, I'm very happy with the hub. Nice, compact, USB 3.0 speed and power, and 'plug it in and go' setup.
Works great if everything else is good... . I purchased this USB3 Hub along with a PCI-E USB3 card (SIIG JU-P20412-S2)
I initially had TONS of problems. My drives would constantly disconnect sometimes after just a few seconds of data copying to as much as an hour.
I updated all the firmware and software and nothing worked.
The SIIG card had an optional 4pin power cable attachment. However, the manual didn't mention when you would need said cord, nor did it come with one.
Tech support said that I "shouldn't need it" but couldn't say when it was needed.
In the end I purchased a 4pin power cable and all has been perfect.
Now, I know that isn't really related to this product, but I think other's might have the same problem and this might help.
(I think almost all USB3 PCI E cards have the 4pin attachment port, but I none come with the cable it seems... )
Now that it all works, I say this is a good product.
Some negatives, it's a bit light weight, and the cords make it difficult for the hub to sit flat on my desk it wants to go sideways.
Related is that the hub is plastic and very light weight, it would have been nice for this much money to have metal or at least weighted a bit.
I would recommend this product.
I initially had TONS of problems. My drives would constantly disconnect sometimes after just a few seconds of data copying to as much as an hour.
I updated all the firmware and software and nothing worked.
The SIIG card had an optional 4pin power cable attachment. However, the manual didn't mention when you would need said cord, nor did it come with one.
Tech support said that I "shouldn't need it" but couldn't say when it was needed.
In the end I purchased a 4pin power cable and all has been perfect.
Now, I know that isn't really related to this product, but I think other's might have the same problem and this might help.
(I think almost all USB3 PCI E cards have the 4pin attachment port, but I none come with the cable it seems... )
Now that it all works, I say this is a good product.
Some negatives, it's a bit light weight, and the cords make it difficult for the hub to sit flat on my desk it wants to go sideways.
Related is that the hub is plastic and very light weight, it would have been nice for this much money to have metal or at least weighted a bit.
I would recommend this product.
No problems fast . I attached this to a Vantec 4 port USB3 hub on a Rocketfish USB 3.0 pci card. Works perfectly.
Cons Review
DO NOT BUY THIS ITEM . I have had this item for almost 2 months now, and it consistently connects and disconnects when I plug it into my USB port on my computer. This leads to an over-cycling of my external hard-drives disk and will wear them out to fast. It also just makes transferring data a plain pain in the behind. Very disappointed after giving it almost 2 months worth of testing. DO NOT BUY.
dead . Worked for the first couple days, after that it quit functioning. The annoying bright blue light was still on, but keyboard, mouse, nor usb thumb drive was detected.
over priced not ready for primetime . Syba sells what appears to be the exact same model for $23. It is still not worth it though. USB cables were too snug and difficult to put in and take out. The ports worked sometimes and sometimes not (mostly not). In HD Tune there was only about a 15% performance increase over USB 2.0 (32mb/s to 37mbs/) but that is not where USB 3.0 should be. I'm definitely returning it for a different model.
NOT PLUG AND PLAY! . Using Windows Home 32 bit and THIS IS NOT PLUG AND PLAY LIKE THE BOX CLAIMS. I repeatedly switched it between a hybrid usb esata port and a usb 2 port and it repeatedly would fail to be recognized. One time it was recognized and I could read my usb 3 drive through it, but afterwards it stopped again. Really disgusted. Update: Windows 7 couldn't find any driver for it online and rebooting my computer did not allow it to work, at least not for more than a few seconds.
Feature Vantec 4 Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hub (Black)
- Expand Your Computer With Up To 4 USB 3.0 Ports
- Backwards Compatible With USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 Devices
- No Drivers Required -- Plug & Play
- AC Adapter Providing Extra Power To All USB Devices
- Transfer Rates Of Up To 5Gbps
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Product Details
EAN : 0844767012810UPC : 844767012810
MPN : UGT-MH430U3
Brand : Vantec
Color : Black
Weight : 1 pounds
Height : 4 inches
Length : 9 inches
Width : 6 inches
Binding : Personal Computers
Manufacturer : Vantec USA
Model : UGT-MH430U3
Publisher : Vantec USA
SKU : UGT-MH430U3
Studio : Vantec USA
Where To Buy
You can buy Vantec 4 Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Hub (Black) on Amazon . Click here to Read More
