Plugable 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub with 36W Power Adapter - Driverless - Effortlessly Connect Devices and Transfer Data at High Speeds

Works! After a bad mic experience with a HyperX Solocast 2 (which this Hub was needed for), the hub worked well. No issues in setting up this attachment and truly needed since the 4 USB ports on my Dell only have 2 blue tab and 2 standard USB ports. This is a very useful utility.

Works Great. My 1st one lasted over 10 years

I'll cut to the chase. I recommend these, but know they have a lifespan of about 4 and change years and will fail. I've been using two of these since March 2019. It's December 2023 at the time of writing. One of them failed in September this year and the second one failed a few minutes ago. I still recommend them for 2 reasons: a) The form factor. I like that the power/data port is on the back and the hub ports are on the front, as opposed to power/data on the end and hub ports out the top. I fixed mount these in drawers in my desk and route the power/data cables through the back of my drawer cabinet. This way the only thing facing the user is the ports and it has a flat profile so it doesn't matter what I'm plugging in, I'll never have clearance issues in my drawers. b) The cables aren't proprietary. This means you can get longer USB cables or replace the power supply with a standard 12v/3a power supply if you don't like the wall wart it comes with or need to do something custom with it. I had hoped we'd have an updated model supporting USB 3.2 and faster transfer speeds/higher power delivery in this form factor. Transfer speeds are a bit slower than I'd like versus what's available nowadays. But this works as advertised so I can't knock it for that. For those interested- The failure mode seems to be a power issue within the unit. Despite my comment above about buying your own power supply, I've only ever used the power adaptors that came with it and they are still working fine. The unit itself is what failed. It just stops functioning entirely, as if it's not plugged in at all. I opened the unit up to see if there were any obvious burnt out components but didn't see anything. Both failed in identical fashion several months apart so it's reasonable to assume this will be predominant mode of failure for these. Not sure on the cause.

I've bought two of these now. They are well made and come with a decent power supply. The case is plastic but plenty strong. Power switch on the back powers the whole unit; the individual ports do NOT have on/off switches. The included USB 3 cable is nice and thick. The unit is a simple rectangular design that allows you to stack a couple of them if you need a whole lot of ports. I like that the power cable and USB in are on the back: that allows you to mount it on the back of your desk neatly allowing access to the extra ports. I had an issue with the second unit (after a couple months of use it would not talk to any computer I tried plugging it into) and the return/replacement could not have been easier. Quick chat and email and they delivered a new, working one to me quickly and without hassle. Obviously I would have rather had a 100% dependable unit, but they made good quickly on the issue. I'll continue to buy Plugable products.

Update 2: Plugable support was amazing--five star. They shipped me a new replacement USB hub in short order which works perfectly. Update 1: It worked perfectly for 18 months, then it stopped working (no, it's not the power adapter). So far Plugable support is *excellent*. This is a great USB hub. I'm thrifty; so instead of buying a new mATX case, I'm using an ancient eMachines case with only usb 2.0 ports on the front but significantly upgraded guts. This USB hub lives on top of the case providing USB 3.0 connectivity on all 7 ports as well as device charging via the outer two ports.

This has been a workhorse for my spouse's home office. We first bought one in 2022, and it worked flawlessly. We've connected a VGA monitor (USB-A to VGA adapter), scanner, and two printers (laser and thermal label printer) through the unpowered ports, which left us with the two powered ports for charging and an extra for a thumb drive. It worked flawlessly for 3 years. The original one stopped working last week. Not sure if it was just dead, or if it was the only house casualty of a power outage caused by high wind, but it was DOA. We looked locally for a replacement because we needed one fast, and could not find one that had this many ports for less than $150. Fortunately, I found one with fewer ports that could get my spouse through to a delivery of the new one. Highly recommended, it's the best one I've found for this price. I also appreciate the design, with the power plug on the opposite side of the USB plugs. The one I found locally has the plug jack on the same side as the USB ports, which is awkward to have on a desk.

There are reports of these hubs failing. Okay, that happens. And, as it turns out it happened to me. Okay, that happens. But in my case it failed in the worst possible way: It destroyed everything attached to it. Two small disk drives and a Raspberry Pi 4. That is poor engineering. Possibly I was drawing too much power. If so the proper thing to do is to detect that and shutdown. If that is too much to ask for, the next best thing to do is to fail on the model of blowing a fuse: I drew too much power and broke it. This product took a third path: Run just fine for months, then fail in the worst possible way, destroying everything connected to it. That is bad engineering. Irresponsible. Incompetent, Do not buy.

This hub kinda sucks. Randomly turns off power to individual devices. Every few minutes I hear the windows "device attached/detached" sound. Same deal when attached to any of my Linux devices. I've had to use power splitters to keep essential storage devices powered, which works and demonstrates that the hub at least keeps the data-relevant pins connected despite turning off power. Works great when it does work, truly fast usb3 speed & awesome when transferring between two portable SSDs on the same hub, and ports 1&7 are definitely capable of 1.5A (I have a bunch of USB multimeters, I am a serious dork) which is nice... I just wish I didn't have to keep my essential storage devices on power splitters with a separate 5vdc power supply. Have a dozen of those darn things & about to order more :/ Gonna bite the bullet and buy a bigger fancier more expensive USB3 hub and relegate this one to use on a rarely used Pi4b. In summary, this is probably a fine hub for most users and the price is fantastic, but doesn't exactly work as hoped for me. Maybe defective, idk, but if it is then a non-defective one would probably work great. I let the return period lapse & investigating any potential warranty doesn't seem worth my time for a semi-functional device this cheap.