GenBasic Powered Aluminum USB 3.1 Gen 1 Hub (4 + 1 Charge Port)

I have tried a lot of other USB 3.0 hubs which were plastic toys, and I had to look long and hard to find one which wasn't a Chinese clone. This one seems to be unique (I don't see any other ones of the exact same design on Amazon) and thus falls in the category of being custom made. The other hubs I tried (including one big name brand starting with "A") exhibited pitiful power output on the USB ports. Plug in an external DVD drive and the hubs had difficulty recognizing it, much less having enough juice to play a DVD. USB HDDs would have the same problem, or while transferring files to the drive, corruption would occur. I tried ones with a dedicated 60W power adapter but they still had power issues. Not this product, which advertises 2.4 amps for each port, and they are not even the charging ports. I tested this unit tonight and power delivery at each USB port is robust. I connected a non-powered external HDD drive and a USB 3.0 optical drive and both were instantly recognized. To test the optical drive, I neglected to connect the auxiliary USB power cable and just powered it off the feed cable, and it played DVDs faultlessly.This hub is twice the height of other USB 3.0 hubs and has an aluminum housing. The ON/OFF switch on the hub is nice. All cables (to and from the power adapter; power pin connector; USB 3.0 feed cable) connect securely with no sloppy connections, and the USB 3.0 ports themselves are nice and snug. The only con is the USB 3.0 cable between the hub and computer is a bit stiff and bulky, but it is nice and long, around 3 feet. My temptation is to replace it, but it is quite thick in diameter so might be crucial for the performance of the hub.The hub has a 3-year warrantee and hopefully the company is around long enough to support it.

Mac reports it as USB 2.0, not 3.1. It certainly looks as if they shipped the right product--no problem there. Everything looked clean and new and all items shown were included. But there is SOME kind of Mac incompatibility.I am uneasy that it was shipped in plain brown cardboard box: no instruction sheet, no warranty sheet, no packing list. The product itself is in a plain black aluminum box with no no model number, no serial number, no manufacturer's nameplate. The box containing the product does have a barcode sticker "GENBASIC X001E6SQAB 2017 GenBasic Industrial AS/UASP FireCharge QC 3.0 New," but the product's black metal housing itself is completely bare of identification.The connector for attaching it to the computer is a USB 3.0 B connector, and it has 13 ports on the front and 2 on the side and thus matches the picture for the USB 3.1 product. I have every reason I was shipped the correct product, clean, new, and complete. HOWEVER, Mac OS System information is REPORTING IT AS USB 2.0.It seems to "work" in the sense that I can can plug USB devices into it and they function.Outside of "System Information," I have no easy way to tell whether USB 3.1 is actually being supported. I'm returning it on the grounds of Mac incompatibility because I don't want to spend any more time troubleshooting. It just "ain't right."System Information is reporting:USB2.0 Hub: Product ID: 0x0610 Vendor ID: 0x05e3 (Genesys Logic, Inc.) Version: 92.24 Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec Manufacturer: GenesysLogic Location ID: 0x14400000 / 6 Current Available (mA): 1000 Current Required (mA): 100 Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

We purchased two of these hubs. On one, when the computer is booted up all devices plugged into the hub are 'seen' by and accessible on the computer. On the other hub (in a different computer) when the computer is booted up with the hub turned on nothing plugged into the hub can be seen or accessed until the hub is turned off and then back on. If the hub is not powered up (turned on) when the computer is booted up the hub must be turned on, off and on again before devices plugged into it are recognized.There were no instruction regarding whether to power it up before or after bootup, but in view of the differences between the two hubs that is understandable. The instructions would have to read, if hub does not work as expected, initially, you may be able to get it to work by experimenting with it, turning it on and off (a couple of times if necessary) after booting up the computer. If it doesn't work as expected do some experimenting and 'Good Luck.'

It works perfectly in windows but its not 100% functional with Mac OS USB drivers. Powered Hard drives work fine, but thumb drives and even my iPhone don't work and just toss up an error message that the device needs power. The manufacture understands this and may have a firmware fix for it, but that update has a convoluted developer installer that only runs in windows.Oh well, its not worth anymore of my time - if it won't work under the new MacOS out soon, I'll give it away for cheap on Craigslist.I got a firmware update from GenBasic for the Mac OS and the hub works fine now.

Ok, now THIS is a well-built product! I have gone through 3 cheezy, underpowered plastic boxes before buying this great metal enclosure with mounting brackets no-less! I have connected 8 external hard-drives, only one of which is independently powered, and am getting full throughput from all and none have been dropped or fallen offline so far. The two white colored ports on the bottom are obviously charging ports and all the remaining blue ports with blue connectivity lights on the face are obviously for drives and other devices -- no confusing the two in the dark. The on/off switch on the other end makes pulling the power-cord to turn it off a thing of the past.Bottom line: Skip the plastic. This guy is worth every dime.