Powered USB hub recommendation for Mac Studio

[spacecadet1968]

HI,

I've just gotten the Mac Studio and am trying to fan a powered USB hub that will connect with the Thunderbolt ports.

I've got the Xcellon 10 port powered hub,



https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod..._ylOMGK42a-lR4NdSeIx-1wq_odcsSckaAvb8EALw_wcB)

but it's connection to the Mac is USB C, not Thunderbolt, so it'll work, just not a the data rates of Thunderbolt. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!
Michael

 

[Randy B. Singer]

but it's connection to the Mac is USB C, not Thunderbolt, so it'll work, just not a the data rates of Thunderbolt. Anyone have any suggestions?

I have no personal experience with these hubs, but they were highly recommended elsewhere:


Plugable 14-in-1 USB-C and Thunderbolt Dock - 40Gbps with 96W Charging, Compatible with Mac and Windows, 2X HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort, 7X USB Ports, Ethernet, Audio, SD/MicroSD
$269
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HR3T837/?tag=macforums0e4-20

Satechi THUNDERBOLT 4 DOCK
three Thunderbolt 4, four USB-A (three data, one charging), Gigabit Ethernet, UHS-II card reader, and 3.5mm audio jack port
$300

Thunderbolt 4 Dock | USB-C Docking Station

satechi.net

That said, I want to point out something that is extremely important. It's highly likely that all, or just about all, of your peripherals connect via either USB 3.0 or USB 2.0. That being the case, you don't need a hub that supports Thunderbolt 3/4, as none of your connections will be able to take advantage of the extra speed.

What peripherals do you need to connect to?

 

[MacInWin]

Also, it appears that using TB devices with a hub can slow them down. Here are a couple of articles on the subject:

Thunderbolt 4 hub performance with 3 SSDs

What happens to read and write speeds of three SSDs connected to the same hub, and working at the same time? Can they exceed the maximum of 3 GB/s?

eclecticlight.co

How connecting your SSD to a Thunderbolt hub can slow it to a crawl

In the worst case, an expensive TB3 SSD with a regular write speed of 2.2 GB/s could only write at 400 MB/s when connected via a hub and contending with faster SSDs.

eclecticlight.co

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Also, it appears that using TB devices with a hub can slow them down.

Very interesting articles! Thanks!

This is probably inconsequential for any attached peripheral other than a storage device (SSD or RDHD.) Most peripherals don't require a wildly fast connection. (There are monitors that connect via TB, but they are rare and ultra-expensive.)

Also, it's always been that if you attach an external storage device to a hub of any kind (any flavor of USB, or TB) that it's performance is going to be effected negatively compared to connecting directly to your Mac.

The overwhelming majority of USB 3.0 hubs (not USB 3.1 AFAIK, or TB) won't even allow you to boot from a connected storage device. (Actually, at this point, there may not be any USB 3.0 hubs on the market that allow booting.)

It always best to attach your external storage device directly to your Mac. Even then, for a Mac with multiple, seemingly identical, ports to attach to, in some models of Mac one of the ports may offer superior performance to all of the others. It might be worthwhile to attach your drive to all of them and test them to see which is best. You can use:

AmorphousDiskMark (free)
AmorphousDiskMark for macOS - measures storage read/write performance

 

[MacInWin]

Yes, Randy, that was a very interesting set of experiments Howard did. I don't think I would have anticipated that a TB3/4 hub would throttle SSD performance that much. If you think about it, the total throughput is well below the max capability of the port, which is why Howard suspects it's the Intel controller in the hub that is the limiting factor. I wouldn't be surprised if I heard that somebody engineers one with a different controller, or set of controllers, to improve performance.

Or, maybe most consumers won't even notice.

I'd bet on number 2.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Or, maybe most consumers won't even notice.

I'd bet on number 2.

There are very different quality chipsets in various USB hubs, and in various USB-C to HDMI adapters. No one goes around telling consumers this. They only notice when they have a high-end peripheral and it's performance is disappointing.

 

[MacInWin]

In the research from Howard, he said this:

For these tests, I’ve used only one of the two Thunderbolt 4 hubs that I’ve got; although models from different suppliers do vary in size and features, they all rely on one Intel chip, the Goshen Ridge controller JHL8440. Because of that, their performance and behaviour in this context should be identical.

I took it from that statement that the Goshen Ridge controller was the only TB4 controller available. Maybe there are others?

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I took it from that statement that the Goshen Ridge controller was the only TB4 controller available. Maybe there are others?

I don't have any reason to believe that there are other chipsets for TB4 hubs right now. TB4 hubs are currently rare and expensive. I'm sure that there will be a selection of chipsets available in time, and TB4 hubs will come down in price and become more prevalent.