frontier204
Well-known member
Hello all!
I'm still trying to wrap my head around my Windows Storage Spaces performance benchmarks, so I'm trying something a bit simpler today - reviewing a cheap USB 3.0 + Ethernet bus powered hub.
The Aukey USB 3.0 Aluminum hub is one of the low-cost USB hub + <something else> devices that can be found on Amazon. I selected the USB type A version because I only have one device with a USB type C port, but said device also has a type USB 3.0 type A port - and I didn't want this USB hub to be exclusively for that device.
Packaging:
The hub comes in a simple cardboard box wrapped in easy to tear apart heat-shrunk plastic (I was able to remove that without tools / teeth / strength checks). After the heat-shrink, I was able to get to the hub without needing scissors or a knife.
Included in the box is a useless mini CD (I didn't even check the CD's contents because the device didn't need drivers), paper information cards that I didn't read, and the device wrapped in a plastic bag. The hub itself is just inside the bag, with no tape or ties of any kind. I hope the blister package dies a horrible death to be replaced by this kind of packaging
The hub itself is shaped as a rounded equilateral triangular prism with a width of 4.0 cm and a length of 95.0 cm. By width I mean that I can set a caliper a 4.0 cm and the triangle fits within the jaws of the caliper. The flexible part of the cable is 15 cm long. (There is no flex at all in the bit that attaches the cable to the hub, nor in the bit that attaches the cable to the type A connector.) In this age, the hub won't be called "compact" at almost 3 MacBooks thick (and no it won't plug into that new odd Macbook either because it's not USB C). It's not a problem if you pack it in a messenger or backpack style laptop bag, but if you are using a "sleeve" bag, it's definitely going to bulge at the location you cram the hub.
The hub has three USB 3.0 type A ports. The little dot below the last USB port is a light that glows green when the hub is plugged in. The light is weak enough that I can barely notice it with good lighting (i.e. it won't double as a flashlight). The Ethernet port is at the opposite side of the hub. There is no connection for external power, so the device is entirely bus-powered.
Plugging it in:
The hub required no additional drivers at all to run on Windows 10 (updated as of February 2017). I tested this by putting my Windows tablet (ASUS Transformer TP200SA with no Ethernet port) into airplane mode, and then plugging the device in. It properly was recognized as a USB hub and a Realtek Ethernet adapter, and I could connect to the Internet without leaving airplane mode.
From the IDs detected by device manager (VID 0BDA PID 8153), it is a RealTek RTL8153.
Linux? Yes!
Linux is plug-and-play. The picture (underexposed due to Linux putting full brightness on the screen) below shows how little effort is involved. I was able to boot a Lubuntu 16.04 (not .1) live USB attached to the hub, and get an Internet connection without any driver installation at all. The other USB device is actually my backup trackball because Lubuntu can't recognize the ASUS trackpad.
For the rest of the review, I'm using my desktop (Core i3 6100 / 16 GB / AsRock H170M-ITX) because I know the poor tablet's Celeron is CPU bound trying to work with USB 3.0 hard drives.
Network Speed
The Ethernet actually operates at gigabit network speeds (unless plugged into a USB 2.0 port of course). I saw the full 90-100 MB/second copy rate (and 900 megabits or so reported by Windows on the network) by coping a Steam backup of the game Valkyria Chronicles over the network to my other machine.
USB Ports Speed
Unfortunately I don't have any single device that can saturate USB 3.0, but the hub is easily enough to saturate a single USB 3.0 mechanical hard drive. I attached a 4 TB Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 hard drive, and ran CrystalDiskMark sequential QD32 test on it (1 GB test set size). My result was 158.3 MB/second read and 123.2 MB/second write which is about as fast as that external hard drive can work, hub or no hub.
Bandwidth Stress Test
...so what happens if you stress the USB ports and the network at the same time?
To test this, I attached the following USB devices to the hub:
+ I'm using my data drive on my local machine, a 2TB 7200 Seagate - ST2000DM001 capable of over 100 MB/s easily.
I did two simultaneous transfers of my Valkyria Chronicles backup as follows:
- From local hard drive over the network to my network share
- From the 4 TB Seagate Expansion to the empty SSD, both of which are connected to the hub.
In theory, that's 1 gigabit of network usage, and up to ~3 gigabit of traffic in the copy-to-self on the hub, not including whatever the Windows OS needs to do to orchestrate the copy.
How did the hub handle it? Not well at all!
I ran the test three times to be sure, and ran the SeaTools short drive check on the Seagate drive to rule out a flakey hard drive. Recall I'm not powering either of the drives using the USB ports, so there's no overcurrent situation here. The USB to USB copy locked up several times, bursting to the full speed of the 4TB Seagate for a few seconds and then dropping to 0 for a few seconds. The network on the other hand kept copying at 60-100 MB/s. Additionally, my event log was full of "The IO operation at logical block address 0x.... for Disk 4 (PDO name: \Device\000000a8) was retried.", disk 4 being the Seagate 4 TB. By some feat of Windows, the copy operation actually completed despite the lock-ups.
There were no such issues if I did the USB to USB copy without the added network copy, with the copy being performed at around 100-140 MB/s.
UPDATE: There are also no problems if:
USB 2.0?
Yes, the device also works if you happen to plug it into a USB 2.0 port. I was able to use a USB stick attached to the hub and the network, although the speed is obviously limited to USB 2.0 speeds as shown below. (Again Valkyria Chronicles Steam backup over the hub to my network share - I did not put any load on the USB ports.)
Overcurrent?
The product page says that it won't supply more than 900mA total, so I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't burn if I tried to use it as a charger. I plugged in two phones and a tablet to the hub, and nothing failed. The phones and the mobile device said they were charging, although I'd imagine they were pretty slow. I was also still able to use the Ethernet with the devices plugged in. Unfortunately I don't have any USB 3.0 external hard drives that use bus power to try.
Heat?
During my testing, the hub barely got warm, but it the shell of the hub was dissipating heat.
Conclusion
In the short time I spent testing the Aukey USB 3.0 Aluminum Hub CB-H32, I find it to be a promising device. It's good for either giving a wired network connection to a laptop that lacks Ethernet, or it can be used as a bus-powered USB hub on a desktop. The best feature about the hub is that it doesn't require any driver download to operate, which makes it great for the situation where you have a fresh Windows or Linux install and you need to download drivers. The transfer speeds are fast, and all of the ports (USB or Ethernet) operate at USB 3.0's speeds. One thing to watch out for is that you can't peg all the ports and the network at the same time, or a device attached to the ports stops responding.
Pros:
Cons:
Final words: For a low-cost device, I'd call it sensible. It has good packaging, and it doesn't lie about having a gigabit connection and USB 3.0 speeds. They made a good choice in the network chipset since it doesn't need any drivers on current a OS, and you even get a network connection off USB 2.0 if you're in a bind and don't have an available USB 3.0 port. However, if you're looking to always have this device pegged, look elsewhere (or don't do everything off a single USB port!) because that won't work properly.
Thanks for reading!
I'm still trying to wrap my head around my Windows Storage Spaces performance benchmarks, so I'm trying something a bit simpler today - reviewing a cheap USB 3.0 + Ethernet bus powered hub.
The Aukey USB 3.0 Aluminum hub is one of the low-cost USB hub + <something else> devices that can be found on Amazon. I selected the USB type A version because I only have one device with a USB type C port, but said device also has a type USB 3.0 type A port - and I didn't want this USB hub to be exclusively for that device.
Packaging:
The hub comes in a simple cardboard box wrapped in easy to tear apart heat-shrunk plastic (I was able to remove that without tools / teeth / strength checks). After the heat-shrink, I was able to get to the hub without needing scissors or a knife.
Included in the box is a useless mini CD (I didn't even check the CD's contents because the device didn't need drivers), paper information cards that I didn't read, and the device wrapped in a plastic bag. The hub itself is just inside the bag, with no tape or ties of any kind. I hope the blister package dies a horrible death to be replaced by this kind of packaging
The hub itself is shaped as a rounded equilateral triangular prism with a width of 4.0 cm and a length of 95.0 cm. By width I mean that I can set a caliper a 4.0 cm and the triangle fits within the jaws of the caliper. The flexible part of the cable is 15 cm long. (There is no flex at all in the bit that attaches the cable to the hub, nor in the bit that attaches the cable to the type A connector.) In this age, the hub won't be called "compact" at almost 3 MacBooks thick (and no it won't plug into that new odd Macbook either because it's not USB C). It's not a problem if you pack it in a messenger or backpack style laptop bag, but if you are using a "sleeve" bag, it's definitely going to bulge at the location you cram the hub.
The hub has three USB 3.0 type A ports. The little dot below the last USB port is a light that glows green when the hub is plugged in. The light is weak enough that I can barely notice it with good lighting (i.e. it won't double as a flashlight). The Ethernet port is at the opposite side of the hub. There is no connection for external power, so the device is entirely bus-powered.
Plugging it in:
The hub required no additional drivers at all to run on Windows 10 (updated as of February 2017). I tested this by putting my Windows tablet (ASUS Transformer TP200SA with no Ethernet port) into airplane mode, and then plugging the device in. It properly was recognized as a USB hub and a Realtek Ethernet adapter, and I could connect to the Internet without leaving airplane mode.
From the IDs detected by device manager (VID 0BDA PID 8153), it is a RealTek RTL8153.
Linux? Yes!
Linux is plug-and-play. The picture (underexposed due to Linux putting full brightness on the screen) below shows how little effort is involved. I was able to boot a Lubuntu 16.04 (not .1) live USB attached to the hub, and get an Internet connection without any driver installation at all. The other USB device is actually my backup trackball because Lubuntu can't recognize the ASUS trackpad.
For the rest of the review, I'm using my desktop (Core i3 6100 / 16 GB / AsRock H170M-ITX) because I know the poor tablet's Celeron is CPU bound trying to work with USB 3.0 hard drives.
Network Speed
The Ethernet actually operates at gigabit network speeds (unless plugged into a USB 2.0 port of course). I saw the full 90-100 MB/second copy rate (and 900 megabits or so reported by Windows on the network) by coping a Steam backup of the game Valkyria Chronicles over the network to my other machine.
USB Ports Speed
Unfortunately I don't have any single device that can saturate USB 3.0, but the hub is easily enough to saturate a single USB 3.0 mechanical hard drive. I attached a 4 TB Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 hard drive, and ran CrystalDiskMark sequential QD32 test on it (1 GB test set size). My result was 158.3 MB/second read and 123.2 MB/second write which is about as fast as that external hard drive can work, hub or no hub.
Bandwidth Stress Test
...so what happens if you stress the USB ports and the network at the same time?
To test this, I attached the following USB devices to the hub:
- 4 TB Seagate Expansion USB 3.0 drive (external power)
- Kingston HyperX 3k 120GB SSD in a USB 3.0 enclosure (external power)
+ I'm using my data drive on my local machine, a 2TB 7200 Seagate - ST2000DM001 capable of over 100 MB/s easily.
I did two simultaneous transfers of my Valkyria Chronicles backup as follows:
- From local hard drive over the network to my network share
- From the 4 TB Seagate Expansion to the empty SSD, both of which are connected to the hub.
In theory, that's 1 gigabit of network usage, and up to ~3 gigabit of traffic in the copy-to-self on the hub, not including whatever the Windows OS needs to do to orchestrate the copy.
How did the hub handle it? Not well at all!
I ran the test three times to be sure, and ran the SeaTools short drive check on the Seagate drive to rule out a flakey hard drive. Recall I'm not powering either of the drives using the USB ports, so there's no overcurrent situation here. The USB to USB copy locked up several times, bursting to the full speed of the 4TB Seagate for a few seconds and then dropping to 0 for a few seconds. The network on the other hand kept copying at 60-100 MB/s. Additionally, my event log was full of "The IO operation at logical block address 0x.... for Disk 4 (PDO name: \Device\000000a8) was retried.", disk 4 being the Seagate 4 TB. By some feat of Windows, the copy operation actually completed despite the lock-ups.
There were no such issues if I did the USB to USB copy without the added network copy, with the copy being performed at around 100-140 MB/s.
UPDATE: There are also no problems if:
- I limit the USB to USB copy to USB 2.0 speeds (by attaching a USB 2.0 cable to one of the drives) on the hub with the network copy working at the gigabit speeds
- I have one of the drives attached to a different USB port
USB 2.0?
Yes, the device also works if you happen to plug it into a USB 2.0 port. I was able to use a USB stick attached to the hub and the network, although the speed is obviously limited to USB 2.0 speeds as shown below. (Again Valkyria Chronicles Steam backup over the hub to my network share - I did not put any load on the USB ports.)
Overcurrent?
The product page says that it won't supply more than 900mA total, so I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't burn if I tried to use it as a charger. I plugged in two phones and a tablet to the hub, and nothing failed. The phones and the mobile device said they were charging, although I'd imagine they were pretty slow. I was also still able to use the Ethernet with the devices plugged in. Unfortunately I don't have any USB 3.0 external hard drives that use bus power to try.
Heat?
During my testing, the hub barely got warm, but it the shell of the hub was dissipating heat.
Conclusion
In the short time I spent testing the Aukey USB 3.0 Aluminum Hub CB-H32, I find it to be a promising device. It's good for either giving a wired network connection to a laptop that lacks Ethernet, or it can be used as a bus-powered USB hub on a desktop. The best feature about the hub is that it doesn't require any driver download to operate, which makes it great for the situation where you have a fresh Windows or Linux install and you need to download drivers. The transfer speeds are fast, and all of the ports (USB or Ethernet) operate at USB 3.0's speeds. One thing to watch out for is that you can't peg all the ports and the network at the same time, or a device attached to the ports stops responding.
Pros:
- No drivers needed for Windows 10 or Lubuntu / Ubuntu 16.04
- Full gigabit speeds on the network
- Fast enough to saturate USB hard drives
- LED brightness is bedroom friendly
- Packaging is easy to open
Cons:
- Massive I/O latency (possibly disconnect depending on your USB and device drivers) if you are loading USB 3.0 ports and the network at the same time
- No way to attach a +5V adapter
- The device is a bit large
- Indicator light is for power only - nothing for USB connections or network connection
Final words: For a low-cost device, I'd call it sensible. It has good packaging, and it doesn't lie about having a gigabit connection and USB 3.0 speeds. They made a good choice in the network chipset since it doesn't need any drivers on current a OS, and you even get a network connection off USB 2.0 if you're in a bind and don't have an available USB 3.0 port. However, if you're looking to always have this device pegged, look elsewhere (or don't do everything off a single USB port!) because that won't work properly.
Thanks for reading!
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