Question Is there any reason to get a USB-A 4-port hub with both USB 3 and USB 2 ports?

[Eug]

I'm short on USB-A ports and want to get a non-powered hub mostly for low power USB 2 devices (eg. mouse, keyboard, etc.) but also for the occasional USB 3 devices like a USB thumb drive.

I see hubs that have multiple USB 3 ports as well as hubs that have one USB 3 port and a bunch of USB 2 ports.

Is there any technical advantage to getting a hub with a mix of USB 2 and 3? eg. Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/atolla-Aluminum-Splitter-Ports-Windows/dp/B09NHQXCSP/

This is their description about their reasoning for the mix of port types:

"The 3.0 USB port has a transfer speed of up to 5Gbps, SuperSpeed for data transferring, while the USB 2.0 ports support speeds up to 480Mbps and avoid frequency interference effectively"

 

[mindless1]

If it were more expensive than average, I'd think it was designed with a 2 port USB3 chip and a 4 port USB2 (one port existing on the chip but going unused, bridging to one of the two logical ports on the USB3 chip), with the idea being that all USB2 devices combined would compete for bandwidth with the one USB3 port, slowing the USB3 port less when there is concurrent access (data flow) of two or more USB2 devices simultaneous to acess of a USB3 device, except the few performance numbers I saw in reviews didn't reflect this.

Otherwise there isn't a good reason for that to exist, maybe saved them $1 off the BOM to use USB2 ports instead of USB3, but even USB hub chips these days, do a mere 4 ports without adding another chip.

I'd need to reverse engineer it to be sure, but it probably even has a 4 port USB3 chip in it, then they just used USB2 sockets without the extra contacts of USB3 wired up. That would be the cheapest way to arrive at that product except someting else is strange.

Reading one review, it states the USB3 port is very slow like maybe it too is USB2. Only other review I saw that mentioned speed, stated an external USB3 drive getting 31MB/s on the USB3 port and 20MB/s on the USB2. Strange numbers, both USB3 and 2 too low for where they should be. Any external can exceed this on large file transfers.

Final answer: WTFBBQ. I'd get an all-USB3 ports hub instead, maybe Anker or Orico brand, but once upon a time ago, think I might have gotten a counterfeit Orico on ebay that arrived DOA in a plain white box, then seller sent a working Orico in a retail box to replace it. Fishy.

My everyday use hub has a longer than average, around 2.5ft to 3ft cord and that's really nice to have, to put my computer under the desk and the hub on it. I'd only get a hub with a short cord for notebook/etc travel use, OR get a USB3 extension cable for the ones with really short cords.

 

[mxnerd]

If you have a wireless mouse, a wireless keyboard and a Bluetooth adapter that are always plugged in, why not? They only need USB 2.0.

There is no technical advantage, only financial advantage, of course.

 

[mindless1]

^ But I'd want to do USB3 benchmarks and expect to return it due to poor performance. The more I think about it, the more it seems like this may just be a USB2 hub, that some joker decided would sell better if they threw a USB3 connector on one port and the plug.

It really doesn't make sense that this product exists at this price point unless it is just a USB2 hub and some shenanigans are going on in the design and marketing, UNLESS, there is a high customer complaint/return rate and the goal is price it low enough to get rid of them, and then that a lot of consumers will just eat the loss instead of bothering to return it.

If it's too good to be true...

 

[mxnerd]

After re-reading @mindless1 comments again, he might be right. There are really many USB hubs disguising the products have 3.0 ports but in fact they don't. So just get a hub that have all USB 3.0 ports.

 

[Eug]

I got a different brand ESWO / JESWO because it looked exactly the same but was a few bucks cheaper.



I am pleased to say it performs well for its 5 Gbps spec, esp. considering it's being bottlenecked by the M1 Mac mini's native 5 Gbps USB-A port. (I get about 25% faster speed out of my 2017 iMac's 5 Gbps USB-A port with the same drive.) Also, it appears to have it own USB 2 chip, if I'm reading the bottom table correctly.

Not bad considering it was on sale for just CA$8.35 / US$6.20 shipped. So, is this hub a diamond in the rough?

Samsung T7 Shield through M1 Mac mini's USB-A port:



Samsung T7 Shield through hub's USB 3 port:



Samsung T5 (not T7 Shield) through hub's USB 2 port:



Terminus Technology USB 2.0 hub listed:



Note that the 2 TB Samsung T7 Shield in the above table is not attached to the hub. The 1 TB Samsung T5 is connected to the ESWO hub's USB 3 port in that table.

BTW, Samsung T7 Shield + 2017 iMac 5 Gbps USB-A:

 

[mindless1]

^ Surprisingly good performance for the price.

I don't know about diamond in the rough though, as I'd just as soon have all USB3 ports... and if I buy another hub, it's going to have on/off switches for each port so I can selectively put my USB external HDDs online (and back offline) with the flip of a switch for redundant backups.

The hub I currently use for that, does have a switch but only one, so it's on/off for all ports simultaneously. I've never had a hub die, so probably won't buy another till USB4 comes along.

 

[Eug]

^ Surprisingly good performance for the price.

I don't know about diamond in the rough though, as I'd just as soon have all USB3 ports... and if buy another hub, it's going to have on/off switches for each port so I can selectively put my USB external HDDs online (and back offline) with the flip of a switch for redundant backups.

The hub I currently use for that, does have a switch but only one, so it's on/off for all ports simultaneously. I've never had a hub die, so probably won't buy another till USB4 comes along.

I was looking at those ones with the buttons but it seems the reviews have been pretty hit and miss, and I decided to just get something simple with no external power for mainly low power devices. Having the one extra USB 3 port was a bonus for USB thumb drives.

Speaking of USB4, for performance and reliable power, I bought an externally powered Plugable Thunderbolt/USB 4 hub (Intel Goshen Ridge) on Black Friday. They were going for US$135 in the US or CA$207 (~US$155) in Canada, and included a free USB-C to HDMI dongle.



That Samsung T7 Shield (10 Gbps) gets 745 MB/s via USB-C from the Plugable hub, and 737 MB/s via USB-A (10 Gbps) from the same Plugable hub. It gets 813 MB/s from the M1 Mac mini directly via USB-C, and 1035 MB/s from the 2017 iMac directly via USB-C.

It's nice to see Thunderbolt hub pricing finally coming down. US$135 isn't exactly bargain basement, but it's a heluvalot better than the $300 they were a few years ago.

I currently have my monitor running off this thing actually.

 

[mindless1]

^ That has little to do with whether it is USB1, 2, or 3, except in very specific circumstances.

Besides, how many people out there are really using multiple USB hub powered SSDs? Nevermind, I'm sure there are some poor planners out there that think it's a good idea to incrementally do it, keep adding more low-cap SSDs to meet capacity needs. Otherwise if you have (self, AC/DC adapter) powered external drives, their draw on the hub isn't necessarily much at all.

 

[Paperdoc]

To reply to the original query, I see NO need for a Hub with a mix of ports. Get one with only USB 3 ports (now called USB 3.2 Gen1) and a Type A connector cable to achieve max 5 Gb/s data transfer rates between the Hub and the host computer port. (Gen (higher) with a Type C connector for higher speeds.) Any such system CAN deal with all USB2 devices easily. It simply will negotiate with that and use the USB2 max speed of 0.48 Gb/s for that one device on that port, NOT impacting the speed max of its other ports where you may be using USB 3 devices. USB2 devices do NOT require a USB2 port.