It doesn’t matter if you’re a retro gamer, modern gamer, or just someone with a computer – You’ll eventually need a USB hub. And if your computer has newer USB 3.1 or 3.2 ports, why not take advantage of all that extra speed? If you need a USB 3.1 / 10Gbps hub that’s self-powered with ten ports, buy this one. I explain why below (and in the video above), but if you’d rather just purchase and move on, here’s the link:
Purchase Here: https://retrorgb.link/usb31hub
256GB, 600MB/s USB 3.2 Drive: https://amzn.to/3MHxccZ
UPDATE: The exact model linked is the RSH-A10S. The models without the “S” supposedly drop connection. Please always make sure to buy the exact one linked above…and if you live in a different region (or just hate supporting RetroRGB through affiliate links ;p), double check you’re getting the correct model. Okay, here’s the rest of the review, unchanged…
First off, you might be asking why I’m reviewing a USB hub. Aren’t they all the same!?!?!? NO. Not anymore. And I found this out the hard way!! I purchased two other USB 3.1 hubs and both performed terribly! While they did technically work, they performed slower than USB 3.0 hubs in most scenarios! Why this is happening is a much longer conversation, however you now need to be very careful as to which hub you choose. Here’s how I tested and why I recommend this one.
First, I connected a USB 3.2 flash drive directly to my PC’s USB 10Gbps port, NOT the blue USB 3.0 ports:
I then ran CrystalDiskmark and got the following results:
Next, I plugged the Rosonway hub into the exact same port the USB stick was connected to, plugged the USB stick into the new USB 3.1 hub and ran the same test again. As you can see, the results were close enough to consider “basically the same”:
…and for comparison, here’s the results of the previous two “USB 3.1” hubs I ran the same tests on:
Crazy, right? I ran and re-ran the tests MULTIPLE times to make sure I wasn’t crazy! I felt bad returning two hubs to Amazon for the same reason and was afraid I was making a dumb mistake, but no! Heck, one of the hubs was powered and the other was powered by the motherboard – Two completely different types of hubs, but both failed miserably.
So if you’re looking for a good hub, this one is it. I also really like how the ports can be powered on and off, as it makes power-cycling connected devices much easier and reduces wear on the connectors.
If you’d like a ton more info as to why this happens, please check out the interview I did with Wendell from Level1Techs where we discuss all of this – Just search any podcast or video app for “RetroRGB Wendell”, or head to the main Anchor page: https://anchor.fm/retrorgb:
