I believe you're right but it's even a little more complex, at least how we got there. Techlinked made a good video on it (th-cam.com/video/gShRBsahzXg/w-d-xo.html) or you could just look at the Wikipedia page (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Naming_scheme)
For those who wish to use this with an iPad pro... When you plug this in the audio will default to the 3.5 mm headphone jack on the hub and there is no way to switch it back to the internal audio on the iPad currently. This is a limitation with iPad OS and not really the hub. For sound when plugged into the hub you can either plug in headphones/speakers to the hub audio jack or use bluetooth audio. There is no option to use the hub and use the speakers on the iPad at the same time. You also must format your NVME drive on a PC or Mac to exFAT (NTFS can be read but not written to currently with iPad OS). The iPad has no way to format a NVME drive natively with current OS (iPad OS 15). Other than that it is probably the best hub on the market currently for this form factor, features and price.
I ordered one of these to use on my iPad Pro, bummer to hear that you can’t use the internal speakers with this plugged in. Planning to use it for photo editing when capture one iPad app comes out, and things like that.
Thank you for your post. I was wondering what happened to my sound also. It was also helpful to know which format I need to use to format the drive. If you have a channel, I’d follow.
Anybody find a workaround? maybe a Bluetooth speaker JBL Flip? But kind of a hassle, the iPad pro has 4 amazing speakers.. what a waste not to use that feature? Thanks for the info, I get a headache using headphones for prolonged periods, so this is a deal-breaker for me.. Not to mention the heat issue. my insane researching for the on the way, M1 12.9, just paid off..The search continues.. any suggestions for a Thunderbolt 3 Hub? I do not want to spend $250 for a hub & Thunderbolt 3 or maybe even no thunderbolt? considering Thunder4 not working on a Ipad anyway? I am interested in headphones for travel when watching Movies anywhere offline, Are there USB-c adapters that work for 3.5mm headphone jack? (I do not like wireless headphones as they give me a headache sooner than wired headphones..
If the company really wanted to, they could have put the hub chips into an idle state for reduced power consumption, heat, and battery waste. But they chose not to. I like the idea of reduced clutter, but not if we're going to get sloppy in design and implementation.
I think this is not an "on the go" hub, more like a "plug everything you need and leave on the desk" for people with only a laptop. You come home, plug your laptop, and you charge, have your 2nd screen, MnK, ssd, maybe ethernet if wifi is wack etc.
Just found this channel about a week ago while looking at cases for a new PC build, and I’m loving it. I can feel it, this channel is going places. I can tell, because I don’t even need this hub, but I wanted to watch your video about it, just to learn. Keep doing what you’re doing, because this is some good quality content. See you at 1M.
I have been subbed for awhile and catch your videos occasionally. They are always informative and entertaining and your passion always shines through. This was one of the most thorough breakdowns of a product and the most thorough breakdown of a hub, I have ever seen. Please regardless of your sub count don't ever lose that passion. Great work as always!
Great review. Informative, thorough, relevant, organised and concise. I particularly like the balance between specifying the technical specifications and evaluating them in context with the more "human" element of some use cases. Being entertaining enough to maintain interest but not so entertaining as to distract from the product is a fine line that this video negotiates expertly. Shout out for also including the price, as for some reason that is often missed. It's as though we're all pretending that pricing shouldn't be a primary concern for evaluating tech?
This is the best and most detailed explanation I have read of almost all reviews, even providing a good a temperature check, thanks much appreciated. You have my subscription,
I also own this hub, and use it from time to time. Its quite neat. I keep installers and some games on it to take around. Playing of it is definitly possible. The downside is the popup if you dont have a thunderboltport and Windows tells you that display might not work everytime you plug it in.
I recall the Kickstarter for this. I thought to myself : *FINALLY!!!* Someone making a hub+disk enclosure that's small, rugged, portable enough for pros on the road, and is nog gonna overheat, which is a big engineering feat. Definitely on my must buy list. This is the only one you need, except iDigit thunderbolt 4 hub with 4x USB/thunderbolt 4 and 4x USB4 A ports, but this one isn't portable as it requires a big PSU of course.
Didn't see your video until after I'd ordered this hub, but you helped me realise that I made the right choice. I have a 4TB WD 850X to go in it, which is obviously overkill for this hub but will upgrade when I find one that's right for me. A very good, detailed review that will help people that know their tech and also those that don't. 👍
I got mine during the Kickstart campaign. I used it on a MacBook Pro 15" with just power, hdmi and an nvme going through it and it reached about 125 degrees F. I contacted Acasis support and there reply is that it is normal and it is not intended to be left plugged in but should only be plugged in when needed. Even with only power going through it, it reach an uncomfortable temp to pick up. This eliminates the use case for me for the most part. Also at those temps, I don't think I want to leave my SSD in there, I am afraid it would greatly reduce the life span of the drive. It was interesting that on the campaign they did show a temperature readout fo the surface of the hub during use but it never got near that hot, the current test video on the campaign shows a temp of 38.3 degrees C which is about 100 degrees F. Good Review though and thanks for also noting the temperature problems.
Regarding the whole hub vs switch question: This is a *smart* hub, but not a switch. A *dumb* hub simply wire in all devices directly to the host. Thus the host can talk to all devices, but only one at a time. If some devices are 5 Gb/s and other devices are 10 Gb/s, the host has to switch speed depending on which device it is talking to. Thus, if a 10 Gb/s capable host wants to read equally from two devices, one capable of 10 Gb/s and one only capable of 5 Gb/s, the host will have to spend twice as much time talking the slower device, giving both devices an effective speed of 3.333 Gb/s. If the 10 Gb/s capable host wants to read from two 5 Gb/s devices the effective speed becomes 2.5 Gb/s per device. A *smart* hub speaks individually to each device at whatever speed it is capable of, buffers the data, and then forwards it to the host at whatever speed it is capable of. That means that in both scenarios above the effective speed becomes 5 Gb/s per device. However, a smart hub is still a hub, so all data is routed between a device and the host, never between two devices directly. Thus if you try to copy data from one device two another, you are in actuality first copying it from the first device to the host RAM, and then from the host RAM to the second device. Note however that USB3 is full duplex, so it is possible two do both copies simultaneously at 10 Gb/s if the host, hub and both devices are all capable of that speed. Doing so will however use all available bandwidth between the host and hub, so if you try to simultaneously talk to a third device, speed will have to go down. USB3 switches does not exist, as the USB3 protocol can not handle anything but device to host and host to device communication. Many USB-C devices can act as either a host or a device, and change between the two modes at the fly, but in any given USB3 network, at any one time, there is exactly one host, and all communication on that network is going to or from that host. Dumb hubs with multiple USB-C ports allow any USB-C port to be used by the host, and if multiple host-capable devices is connected they can negotiate a change of who is the network host on the fly, but most smart switches have a single USB-C port designated as the host port, and forwards data exclusively to and from that port.
Dude I literally bought this after watching your review. You definitely know your shit! Using this with my iPad Pro 5th gen so not too worried about transfer speeds. Keep up the good work!
Was very upset to see that the M1 iPad wouldnt support OS11 on the M1 Mac computers I mean, my phone can be used as a desktop, why cant this iPad that has literally the same processor as my desktop
@@scooterjes Its not even limited to samsung, i've got a sony phone, and my cousin has a motorola/lenovo and desktop works fine, but i'd still like to be able to put a full OS on something the size of an iPad, sure, phones would be a bit small for a full OS, but its not like Apple cant just run OS11 on the phone/ipad, and then when you want phone functionality you just open up the iphone/ipad 'app' the same way i do it on my M1 Mac Mini, except it wouldnt be windowed, it would be full screen
I am wondering if altering the case by adding a few good size openings and some micro-screen, to allow air flow and help deter dust; would help with the heat by allowing the thermal draft to pull cooler air in as the heat escapes?🤓 Wouldn't be hard, some 1/2 inch holes top and bottom, glue in some micro-screen fabric, boom, air flow and cooler internals.
My thought exactly. I am not sure if it would need RF shielding, however, as the box serves also a Faraday cage for many electronics. (I am out of my depth on this subject.)
what is the chipset for the nvme? I assume it is fully compatible with M1 mac and it wakes from sleep without disconnecting? no one wants to reboot just to see the data drive
He is admittedly biased: pro-Linux, preferably on a Framework laptop. This is not a strike against Elevated Systems - it's just a fair statement of their position, I hope.
This is how reviews should be done. Thank you so much for being thorough. Is there any place that would be safe to apply thermal paste just for added insurance against overheating?
Damn man this was detailed, definitely helpful with making a purchase of such device. I’m glad I haven’t bought one yet because these things are really cool
So if using this hub with a S22 Ultra, how would you format an NVME drive to work with your device? Im assuming its pretty easy, I just have pretty narrow scope of knoweldge with reformating drives. Abosulutly AMAZING review!
Thanks for an extremely thorough review - very informative. However, I did notice a $99 price was mentioned in the review but the sale link now says $109 - looks like the price went up in the month since the review was posted.
It seems that these hubs could use some active cooling or at least better passive pooling with fins? Also I’d love to see a ssd test where you transfer say a uncompressed windows install - something with tens or hundreds of thousands of small files because that’s the real torture test.
Good content, you'll be up there with linus and steve in no time ;) really tho keep up the good work. I still think you need to hit up Louis rossmann to do something cool with the Framework expansion port customization.
Can you use ethernet to set up an at-home offline (not internet) that runs between rooms in your house? Any tips? Warns? I would want to accommodate Mac mini M1, iPad m series, a dumb tv, amd possibly a dedicated monitor for that !ac mini. Meanwhile, spring cleaning to find all my manuals and parts.
Glad this Acasis hub worked for Elevated Systems, but in my case it was a complete failure. It would randomly turn on and off, the HDMI was hardly recognized and was throttled at 30 Hz, and I finally used it solely as a case for a 2 TB WD NVMe SSD. Even that was a failure, after trying different cables and plugging schemes. I ended up buying an enormous and costly (but reliable) Dell hub, and a Sabrent SSD case: no more glitches. Too bad this apparently elegant hub didn't work for me.
@@ElevatedSystems I have a Dell XPS 15 9500 and an Asus ProArt 4k monitor, and the OS is Windows 10. I tried the Acasis hub as a pass-through between the laptop charger and the laptop, and I was getting a notice of insufficient charge power from the battery status icon at the bottom of the screen (100W needed for the Dell). The main problem was the random turning off/turning on of components. The tone signals from the laptop made it sound like Christmas jingle bells at times. I then bought a UGreen charger to power the Acasis hub separately (UGREEN USB Charger 65W 4 Port USB C Charger Foldable GaN Power Delivery Type C Fast Charger), to no avail. I tried the complimentary USB-C cable sent later by Acasis, and even bought new high-standard USB cables.
interesting; is it available now wordwide? I was wondering if you could plug this hub on a usb 3 or even usb 2 type A so you can at least access the SSD from any computer.
I have an IPad Pro and have this HUB attached. I am trying to use the Ethernet through the hub. It defaults to LTE. Am i missing something. I understood that i could increase the bandwidth of the IPAD by hardwire through the hub. Thanks,
Great review. I got my Acasis via Indiegogo - connected to my M1 24” iMac. Haven’t added an NVMe drive yet - the one you held up looks like a Western Digital Blue - correct?
i have that acasios 10hub it makes great transfer files than my previous 7hub not acasis im happy that im purchase this item makes my external usb and nvme more convenient to use
When in doubt, always read those instructions. Going to try one on my spare desktop. My UPS delivery man hasn't been around for a few days. What's your opinion of a RedComets U22 PCIe to USB 3.2 Gen 2 add-in card? It will not be long before EK brings out an AIO for this.
I just bought this and so far it seems very unstable. I connected a USB 3.0 HDD and started copying files to my Macbook air. My macbook air charger was connected into the hub and after 10 minutes it lost connection and I got an error message that it stopped copying. I noticed that my laptop was not charging anymore, although it should had been thorugh the hub. So I connected a 20W charger to the hub and I also connected the original charger straight in the macbook. The HDD loses electric connection quite often and my HDD beeps when that happens and for a second the copying stops and then continues. This never happened when the HDD was directly connected to my macmini. I am very dissatisfied.
I read these things always happen with contraptions like this. I bought the yodamaster 8 in 1 kinda like this and have similar problems. We’re gonna have to buy a solo hub with separate m.2 enclosure.
Being picky sorry but just note at 3:00 when ya show the specifications - some only flash on screen briefly which means they can be barely read before they disappear. I do find a lot of TH-camrs do this so I’m thinking it’s one of those things that looks good when ya edit them but maybe didn’t have the time to play it back in real time enough to pick up on what’s happening there (how it appears to viewers) 👍🏻
even with the auxiliary controllers, if it's sitting there doing nothing, it should NOT be heading up that much. that's just poor thermal management in the firmware. also, I think a thin copper shim/heat spreader between the chips and the thermal pad could help with dissipation
I think I have a bottleneck with the gigabit Ethernet going into a m1 iPad Air usb-c. Unplugged the Ethernet and the wifi processes just fine. I’m wondering if I connect a 2.5 hub to the 3.1 usb would that work? Or is the actual usb-c the bottleneck?
It really does get hot. mine is reaching 50 Celcius and it's not even doing much. got an SSD in it, using the HDMI and some USB HDDs plugged in that aren't being used. Makes me not want to use it.
ME TOO!!! I have so many Firewire drives, Sony DV camcorder, etc which are still fully functional - but now mostly obsolete due to the lack of a legacy port. I have old Mac Minis that still have FW ports, but it's a hassle moving the data off the old Mini via USB2 or ethernet.
Tengo el mismo celular ando en busca de un hub. Ecelente nuevo suscriptor desde Chile. que modelo de teclado tienes logitech model? hay que hacer algo especial para utilizar el celular en estación de trabajo? dijiste algo de reformat to the correct format? saludos!
I would think the NVMe SSD won't get that hot since it isn't throttled but the hub itself is from the read/write (as in it would be a performance issue with too much heat)
Companies, mainly Apple have really screwed us by removing all the ports that used to be included as standard and making us need hubs like this, making their super sexy, super portable and super expensive laptops super useless if you forget to bring the hub/dongle with you. All this extra needless crap you have to buy is just so impractical next to just including the ports with the machine... My hope is they will one day be regulated into including them like Europe is now forcing them to use usbC for their iphones...Imagine the millions of tonnes of E waste that would be saved, not to mention the practicality and convenience returned to the user.
I've got a daily workflow test and solution for this hub if anyone is interested. I purchased it after this review. When attempting to transfer a 10GB file from an M1 Mac Mini (from a USB 3 5Gbps source), the enclosure kept failing. I tried multiple solutions including the Apple 67w USB-C power adapter. Nothing worked. I swapped out the Thunderbolt 3 cable Acasis ships the device with an Apple USB-C cable (for charging the iPad). Speeds have dropped massively. But large file transfers are completing. I'm not benchmarking, but trying to get some work done, so I don't have exact numbers, but it's feeling like a 300Mbps real world write speed. (Faster than a lot of non-professional grade SATA SSDs.) I wonder now if I'll get better speeds using a beefier USB 3 cable and not use the M1's Thunderbolt ports.
Testing addendum. A large transfer of 140GB still failed with that set up. I swapped out the Apple USB-C (seems to not even be USB 3, tbh) for a USB 3 cable with a USB-A adapter. So I'm exclusively running the device off the Mac Mini's USB-A port. No chance of Thunderbolt confusion, and a 24GB folder transferred without incident, and at far faster speed. My guess is for heavy SSD use, you'll want power delivery and to force a restriction to USB 5Gbps connections.
if anyone asks... can confirm that it works up to 8tb m.2 but you should use a thunderbolt 4 port when going above 2tb or it will "disconnect" also yes 1gb/s is working.
8tb M.2: Corsair MP600 Pro NH Cooler: M.2-THREE M2 2280 (looks like a cpu tower cooler) Fan: Ronyaoko 6010 CPU-Cooler (Has male USB connection for using it on the Hub)
Yikes I have no idea about anything anymore. Ten years ago I was all in this stuff and then I quit software engineering and now I sew 🙈 thanks for all the detail
Great review and great video! Nice additions would be for ethernet testing, iperf will do your max connection between 2 local pc's. Showing wattage via USB-C meter like Klein Tool's ET920 USB Power Meter would be great too!
Hi there, CJ!! Is there any 2TB SSD with low power consumption that you know of, that can work on the M1 Pro without the extra power adapter??🙂 I read this hub uses 5v or so; so perhaps a 2TB SSD that can work with that amount of power from the M1?? Thanks a lot, I’d appreciate your thoughts on this very much🙋🏻♂
Finally ordered a M1 Macbook and now I need to get a great dock, so what should I look for when buying the dock. Definitely required the fastest and durable product. Kindly suggest the specification that I need look for
Any chance you could test this with the Nintendo Switch to see if they play nice? The Switch's weird charging standard is sometimes compatible with 3rd party hubs, but it's rare. I'm probably going to buy this as it is, but i'd still like to know...
Wondering how to get my ipad to connect to this units memory, I formated memory with my PC, but no luck, called support, got 2 word replys. Not much help. Any ideas be helpfu;l. Thanks
Make sure the ssd is formated as exFAT or AFPS and you may need to have USB power connected to the hub. Not sure if the iPad can provide enough power to the ssd.
Hi I bought this device after the review however what I find is with Apple time machine backup the drive disappears and will reappear only when I disconnect and connect the cable. Has anyone come across this?
![Thunderbolt 3 vs. USB-C - What Is The Difference? [Simple Guide]](/img/n.gif)
My apologies for the audio peaking. I'm testing a new mic system and apparently got the gain wrong despite my levels looking fine.
W H A T ? ! 🤣
yeah i noticed that ha to turn my audio up by 30%
After 6 months how does it work?
this is one ridiculously thorough review. I think I learnt more about this hub than any other hub. Fantastic job as usual.
I agree, insta-subscribed to the channel.
What about the p hub though?
2:57 A little correction, USB 3.0 is now 3.2 gen 1, 3.1 (10Gbps) is 3.2 gen 2, and 20Gbps is 3.2 gen2x2. The USB-IF has lost their minds.
I believe you're right but it's even a little more complex, at least how we got there. Techlinked made a good video on it (th-cam.com/video/gShRBsahzXg/w-d-xo.html) or you could just look at the Wikipedia page (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Naming_scheme)
@@remty516 I'm having an aneurysm from reading the USB specs and accompanying names.
Dosen't matter cause the CompTIA A+ hasn't caught up yet ;)
Personally, I just call them for what they mean to me: USB 3.0 (5gbps), USB 3.1 (10gbps) and USB 3.2 (20gbps) haha.
Like others i just wanted to add that this is a ridiculously thorough & comprehensive review.
For those who wish to use this with an iPad pro... When you plug this in the audio will default to the 3.5 mm headphone jack on the hub and there is no way to switch it back to the internal audio on the iPad currently. This is a limitation with iPad OS and not really the hub. For sound when plugged into the hub you can either plug in headphones/speakers to the hub audio jack or use bluetooth audio. There is no option to use the hub and use the speakers on the iPad at the same time. You also must format your NVME drive on a PC or Mac to exFAT (NTFS can be read but not written to currently with iPad OS). The iPad has no way to format a NVME drive natively with current OS (iPad OS 15). Other than that it is probably the best hub on the market currently for this form factor, features and price.
I ordered one of these to use on my iPad Pro, bummer to hear that you can’t use the internal speakers with this plugged in.
Planning to use it for photo editing when capture one iPad app comes out, and things like that.
Thank you for your post. I was wondering what happened to my sound also. It was also helpful to know which format I need to use to format the drive. If you have a channel, I’d follow.
I have a sandisk extreme pro v2 1 tb and when i connected it to my ipad pro m1. It cant recognize my sandisk ssd
@@yeabah13 try formatting as ExFat, if it isn’t already
Anybody find a workaround? maybe a Bluetooth speaker JBL Flip? But kind of a hassle, the iPad pro has 4 amazing speakers.. what a waste not to use that feature?
Thanks for the info, I get a headache using headphones for prolonged periods, so this is a deal-breaker for me.. Not to mention the heat issue.
my insane researching for the on the way, M1 12.9, just paid off..The search continues.. any suggestions for a Thunderbolt 3 Hub? I do not want to spend $250 for a hub & Thunderbolt 3 or maybe even no thunderbolt? considering Thunder4 not working on a Ipad anyway? I am interested in headphones for travel when watching Movies anywhere offline, Are there USB-c adapters that work for 3.5mm headphone jack? (I do not like wireless headphones as they give me a headache sooner than wired headphones..
Literally the best hub review I’ve ever seen. You deserve more subs CJ, keep up the great work!
Thanks!
If the company really wanted to, they could have put the hub chips into an idle state for reduced power consumption, heat, and battery waste. But they chose not to. I like the idea of reduced clutter, but not if we're going to get sloppy in design and implementation.
Thats a marketing idea for you to use and make money off of.
I think this is not an "on the go" hub, more like a "plug everything you need and leave on the desk" for people with only a laptop.
You come home, plug your laptop, and you charge, have your 2nd screen, MnK, ssd, maybe ethernet if wifi is wack etc.
Just found this channel about a week ago while looking at cases for a new PC build, and I’m loving it. I can feel it, this channel is going places. I can tell, because I don’t even need this hub, but I wanted to watch your video about it, just to learn. Keep doing what you’re doing, because this is some good quality content. See you at 1M.
I have been subbed for awhile and catch your videos occasionally. They are always informative and entertaining and your passion always shines through. This was one of the most thorough breakdowns of a product and the most thorough breakdown of a hub, I have ever seen. Please regardless of your sub count don't ever lose that passion. Great work as always!
Great review. Informative, thorough, relevant, organised and concise. I particularly like the balance between specifying the technical specifications and evaluating them in context with the more "human" element of some use cases. Being entertaining enough to maintain interest but not so entertaining as to distract from the product is a fine line that this video negotiates expertly.
Shout out for also including the price, as for some reason that is often missed. It's as though we're all pretending that pricing shouldn't be a primary concern for evaluating tech?
This is the best and most detailed explanation I have read of almost all reviews, even providing a good a temperature check, thanks much appreciated. You have my subscription,
I also own this hub, and use it from time to time. Its quite neat. I keep installers and some games on it to take around. Playing of it is definitly possible. The downside is the popup if you dont have a thunderboltport and Windows tells you that display might not work everytime you plug it in.
An excellent, extremely thorough review backed by hard data. Subbed!
I recall the Kickstarter for this. I thought to myself : *FINALLY!!!* Someone making a hub+disk enclosure that's small, rugged, portable enough for pros on the road, and is nog gonna overheat, which is a big engineering feat. Definitely on my must buy list. This is the only one you need, except iDigit thunderbolt 4 hub with 4x USB/thunderbolt 4 and 4x USB4 A ports, but this one isn't portable as it requires a big PSU of course.
Didn't see your video until after I'd ordered this hub, but you helped me realise that I made the right choice. I have a 4TB WD 850X to go in it, which is obviously overkill for this hub but will upgrade when I find one that's right for me. A very good, detailed review that will help people that know their tech and also those that don't. 👍
I got mine during the Kickstart campaign. I used it on a MacBook Pro 15" with just power, hdmi and an nvme going through it and it reached about 125 degrees F. I contacted Acasis support and there reply is that it is normal and it is not intended to be left plugged in but should only be plugged in when needed. Even with only power going through it, it reach an uncomfortable temp to pick up. This eliminates the use case for me for the most part. Also at those temps, I don't think I want to leave my SSD in there, I am afraid it would greatly reduce the life span of the drive. It was interesting that on the campaign they did show a temperature readout fo the surface of the hub during use but it never got near that hot, the current test video on the campaign shows a temp of 38.3 degrees C which is about 100 degrees F. Good Review though and thanks for also noting the temperature problems.
I have subscribed. I recall enough to trust you teach like somebody with skills and certainly hands on.
Regarding the whole hub vs switch question: This is a *smart* hub, but not a switch.
A *dumb* hub simply wire in all devices directly to the host. Thus the host can talk to all devices, but only one at a time. If some devices are 5 Gb/s and other devices are 10 Gb/s, the host has to switch speed depending on which device it is talking to. Thus, if a 10 Gb/s capable host wants to read equally from two devices, one capable of 10 Gb/s and one only capable of 5 Gb/s, the host will have to spend twice as much time talking the slower device, giving both devices an effective speed of 3.333 Gb/s. If the 10 Gb/s capable host wants to read from two 5 Gb/s devices the effective speed becomes 2.5 Gb/s per device.
A *smart* hub speaks individually to each device at whatever speed it is capable of, buffers the data, and then forwards it to the host at whatever speed it is capable of. That means that in both scenarios above the effective speed becomes 5 Gb/s per device. However, a smart hub is still a hub, so all data is routed between a device and the host, never between two devices directly. Thus if you try to copy data from one device two another, you are in actuality first copying it from the first device to the host RAM, and then from the host RAM to the second device. Note however that USB3 is full duplex, so it is possible two do both copies simultaneously at 10 Gb/s if the host, hub and both devices are all capable of that speed. Doing so will however use all available bandwidth between the host and hub, so if you try to simultaneously talk to a third device, speed will have to go down.
USB3 switches does not exist, as the USB3 protocol can not handle anything but device to host and host to device communication. Many USB-C devices can act as either a host or a device, and change between the two modes at the fly, but in any given USB3 network, at any one time, there is exactly one host, and all communication on that network is going to or from that host.
Dumb hubs with multiple USB-C ports allow any USB-C port to be used by the host, and if multiple host-capable devices is connected they can negotiate a change of who is the network host on the fly, but most smart switches have a single USB-C port designated as the host port, and forwards data exclusively to and from that port.
This is how reviews are done. Real world test results. No bologna feature description. Very nicely done. Much appreciated.
Glad to have found your channel because of the Framework keyboard PC! Amazing review
Dude I literally bought this after watching your review. You definitely know your shit! Using this with my iPad Pro 5th gen so not too worried about transfer speeds. Keep up the good work!
Great review and nice hub. I think they missed in only one area -- if they had two video outputs that thing becomes a proper docking station.
My man just nonchalantly turns his phone into a fully fledged desktop computer 🤯
Was very upset to see that the M1 iPad wouldnt support OS11 on the M1 Mac computers
I mean, my phone can be used as a desktop, why cant this iPad that has literally the same processor as my desktop
Samsung DEX is actually quite nice I have played with it a little and the phone(Note 10+ like mine) is more than powerful enough for everyday tasks.
@@scooterjes Its not even limited to samsung, i've got a sony phone, and my cousin has a motorola/lenovo and desktop works fine, but i'd still like to be able to put a full OS on something the size of an iPad, sure, phones would be a bit small for a full OS, but its not like Apple cant just run OS11 on the phone/ipad, and then when you want phone functionality you just open up the iphone/ipad 'app' the same way i do it on my M1 Mac Mini, except it wouldnt be windowed, it would be full screen
I am wondering if altering the case by adding a few good size openings and some micro-screen, to allow air flow and help deter dust; would help with the heat by allowing the thermal draft to pull cooler air in as the heat escapes?🤓 Wouldn't be hard, some 1/2 inch holes top and bottom, glue in some micro-screen fabric, boom, air flow and cooler internals.
My thought exactly. I am not sure if it would need RF shielding, however, as the box serves also a Faraday cage for many electronics. (I am out of my depth on this subject.)
what is the chipset for the nvme? I assume it is fully compatible with M1 mac and it wakes from sleep without disconnecting? no one wants to reboot just to see the data drive
The M.2 slot is slick. I did'nt even think about that when I bought my hub.
Subbed because you support framework. Just kidding. Thanks for good content!
Killer video. Pretty technical for some but really has all the info you need when you are digging into a product like this! Thank you! 👍
Just discovered your channel and absolutely loved it. Already subbed. Looking forward to more videos 👍
I watched several of your videos in a row… great content! 👌 And I really like the fact that you seem to be unbiased PC/ Mac.
SUBSCRIBED! 😎
He is admittedly biased: pro-Linux, preferably on a Framework laptop. This is not a strike against Elevated Systems - it's just a fair statement of their position, I hope.
Solid little hub device. Perfect for adding to any laptop or SFX PC box.
I almost gave up on the video because of the sound but I am glad I diden´t, great review!
This is how reviews should be done. Thank you so much for being thorough. Is there any place that would be safe to apply thermal paste just for added insurance against overheating?
No. Thermal Paste between the CPU and cooler is the only place it's needed,
Looks like a pretty decent hub for the steam deck to me.
Damn man this was detailed, definitely helpful with making a purchase of such device. I’m glad I haven’t bought one yet because these things are really cool
So if using this hub with a S22 Ultra, how would you format an NVME drive to work with your device? Im assuming its pretty easy, I just have pretty narrow scope of knoweldge with reformating drives. Abosulutly AMAZING review!
Easiest way is to plug it into a PC or Mac and format it as exFAT or FAT32.
Thanks for an extremely thorough review - very informative. However, I did notice a $99 price was mentioned in the review but the sale link now says $109 - looks like the price went up in the month since the review was posted.
It seems that these hubs could use some active cooling or at least better passive pooling with fins? Also I’d love to see a ssd test where you transfer say a uncompressed windows install - something with tens or hundreds of thousands of small files because that’s the real torture test.
Appreciate this review. If you have time, you should do a USB C battery bank with hub review.
Good content, you'll be up there with linus and steve in no time ;) really tho keep up the good work. I still think you need to hit up Louis rossmann to do something cool with the Framework expansion port customization.
oh yes, agreed!
Also +1 for Louis Rossman collab
Could you set the hub up with a finned heat sink on the outside of its case? Might not be so portable😊
Can you use ethernet to set up an at-home offline (not internet) that runs between rooms in your house? Any tips? Warns? I would want to accommodate Mac mini M1, iPad m series, a dumb tv, amd possibly a dedicated monitor for that !ac mini.
Meanwhile, spring cleaning to find all my manuals and parts.
Thanks for sharing, can i use a external power supply to power this device and use the other usb - c to connect to for example my ipad pro ?
Glad this Acasis hub worked for Elevated Systems, but in my case it was a complete failure. It would randomly turn on and off, the HDMI was hardly recognized and was throttled at 30 Hz, and I finally used it solely as a case for a 2 TB WD NVMe SSD. Even that was a failure, after trying different cables and plugging schemes. I ended up buying an enormous and costly (but reliable) Dell hub, and a Sabrent SSD case: no more glitches. Too bad this apparently elegant hub didn't work for me.
What are the specs of the system you were using it on?
@@ElevatedSystems I have a Dell XPS 15 9500 and an Asus ProArt 4k monitor, and the OS is Windows 10. I tried the Acasis hub as a pass-through between the laptop charger and the laptop, and I was getting a notice of insufficient charge power from the battery status icon at the bottom of the screen (100W needed for the Dell). The main problem was the random turning off/turning on of components. The tone signals from the laptop made it sound like Christmas jingle bells at times. I then bought a UGreen charger to power the Acasis hub separately (UGREEN USB Charger 65W 4 Port USB C Charger Foldable GaN Power Delivery Type C Fast Charger), to no avail. I tried the complimentary USB-C cable sent later by Acasis, and even bought new high-standard USB cables.
Have you seen any TB4 hubs with an SFP+ port? That would be the killer deal for me.
interesting; is it available now wordwide? I was wondering if you could plug this hub on a usb 3 or even usb 2 type A so you can at least access the SSD from any computer.
I have an IPad Pro and have this HUB attached. I am trying to use the Ethernet through the hub. It defaults to LTE. Am i missing something. I understood that i could increase the bandwidth of the IPAD by hardwire through the hub. Thanks,
Great review. I got my Acasis via Indiegogo - connected to my M1 24” iMac. Haven’t added an NVMe drive yet - the one you held up looks like a Western Digital Blue - correct?
It's a Sabrent Rocket Q 1TB
i have that acasios 10hub it makes great transfer files than my previous 7hub not acasis im happy that im purchase this item makes my external usb and nvme more convenient to use
When in doubt, always read those instructions. Going to try one on my spare desktop. My UPS delivery man hasn't been around for a few days. What's your opinion of a RedComets U22 PCIe to USB 3.2 Gen 2 add-in card? It will not be long before EK brings out an AIO for this.
Epic review! This is how's done!
I just bought this and so far it seems very unstable. I connected a USB 3.0 HDD and started copying files to my Macbook air. My macbook air charger was connected into the hub and after 10 minutes it lost connection and I got an error message that it stopped copying. I noticed that my laptop was not charging anymore, although it should had been thorugh the hub. So I connected a 20W charger to the hub and I also connected the original charger straight in the macbook. The HDD loses electric connection quite often and my HDD beeps when that happens and for a second the copying stops and then continues. This never happened when the HDD was directly connected to my macmini. I am very dissatisfied.
I read these things always happen with contraptions like this. I bought the yodamaster 8 in 1 kinda like this and have similar problems. We’re gonna have to buy a solo hub with separate m.2 enclosure.
Being picky sorry but just note at 3:00 when ya show the specifications - some only flash on screen briefly which means they can be barely read before they disappear.
I do find a lot of TH-camrs do this so I’m thinking it’s one of those things that looks good when ya edit them but maybe didn’t have the time to play it back in real time enough to pick up on what’s happening there (how it appears to viewers) 👍🏻
Should have tried adding a thermal pad to the hub chips.
It sounds like they should have used some miniature fans for cooling and maybe some better heat sinks?
even with the auxiliary controllers, if it's sitting there doing nothing, it should NOT be heading up that much. that's just poor thermal management in the firmware. also, I think a thin copper shim/heat spreader between the chips and the thermal pad could help with dissipation
I think I have a bottleneck with the gigabit Ethernet going into a m1 iPad Air usb-c. Unplugged the Ethernet and the wifi processes just fine. I’m wondering if I connect a 2.5 hub to the 3.1 usb would that work? Or is the actual usb-c the bottleneck?
ngl it's kinda sad that usb hubs cost so much, we used to have all of these ports originally, now they're being sold back to us for 120 dollars..
i subscribed because of your phone and laptop choice :)
Sir, can a thunder bolt be connected to that?
It really does get hot. mine is reaching 50 Celcius and it's not even doing much. got an SSD in it, using the HDMI and some USB HDDs plugged in that aren't being used.
Makes me not want to use it.
Can anyone recommend an ssd for this that isn’t overkill?
Would a sata or gen 3 Nvme be better?
I have no idea where to start.
I wish there was a hub like this that had some legacy ports like firewire and compact flash.
ME TOO!!! I have so many Firewire drives, Sony DV camcorder, etc which are still fully functional - but now mostly obsolete due to the lack of a legacy port. I have old Mac Minis that still have FW ports, but it's a hassle moving the data off the old Mini via USB2 or ethernet.
I would like to know what Ethernet controller is inside of this hub. This hub sounds amazing 🤩
Tengo el mismo celular ando en busca de un hub. Ecelente nuevo suscriptor desde Chile.
que modelo de teclado tienes logitech model?
hay que hacer algo especial para utilizar el celular en estación de trabajo? dijiste algo de reformat to the correct format? saludos!
do you know if the SD card reader is UHSII?
great review.
Very good video, im befor buying a hub right now
I would think the NVMe SSD won't get that hot since it isn't throttled but the hub itself is from the read/write (as in it would be a performance issue with too much heat)
What hub do you recommend for a 6000-7000 GB SSD drive? 10 Gbit is much too little
Companies, mainly Apple have really screwed us by removing all the ports that used to be included as standard and making us need hubs like this, making their super sexy, super portable and super expensive laptops super useless if you forget to bring the hub/dongle with you. All this extra needless crap you have to buy is just so impractical next to just including the ports with the machine... My hope is they will one day be regulated into including them like Europe is now forcing them to use usbC for their iphones...Imagine the millions of tonnes of E waste that would be saved, not to mention the practicality and convenience returned to the user.
how well is your framework computer working?
it can be used as coffee warmer..
Does the top Type C port support display out?
Man the blooper reel Has to be huge😂😂😂😂
I've got a daily workflow test and solution for this hub if anyone is interested. I purchased it after this review. When attempting to transfer a 10GB file from an M1 Mac Mini (from a USB 3 5Gbps source), the enclosure kept failing. I tried multiple solutions including the Apple 67w USB-C power adapter. Nothing worked. I swapped out the Thunderbolt 3 cable Acasis ships the device with an Apple USB-C cable (for charging the iPad). Speeds have dropped massively. But large file transfers are completing. I'm not benchmarking, but trying to get some work done, so I don't have exact numbers, but it's feeling like a 300Mbps real world write speed. (Faster than a lot of non-professional grade SATA SSDs.) I wonder now if I'll get better speeds using a beefier USB 3 cable and not use the M1's Thunderbolt ports.
Testing addendum. A large transfer of 140GB still failed with that set up. I swapped out the Apple USB-C (seems to not even be USB 3, tbh) for a USB 3 cable with a USB-A adapter. So I'm exclusively running the device off the Mac Mini's USB-A port. No chance of Thunderbolt confusion, and a 24GB folder transferred without incident, and at far faster speed. My guess is for heavy SSD use, you'll want power delivery and to force a restriction to USB 5Gbps connections.
if anyone asks... can confirm that it works up to 8tb m.2 but you should use a thunderbolt 4 port when going above 2tb or it will "disconnect" also yes 1gb/s is working.
8tb M.2: Corsair MP600 Pro NH
Cooler: M.2-THREE M2 2280 (looks like a cpu tower cooler)
Fan: Ronyaoko 6010 CPU-Cooler (Has male USB connection for using it on the Hub)
Is it backward compatible with Windows 7 and or older systems like USB 2 and CF cards?
Yikes I have no idea about anything anymore. Ten years ago I was all in this stuff and then I quit software engineering and now I sew 🙈 thanks for all the detail
Have you tested this hub (particularly nvme speeds) on your M1 macs? Would love to see a review of that. Great video by the way! Made me order one 😅
Great review!
Amazing video 🔥🔥 thank you so much for the info I learned alot 💯✊🏽 god bless 🙏🏾
Reviewed hub not available on Amazon as of 11/6/21.
It never was on Amazon. There is a direct link in in the description.
Great analysis. Do you have de link for that smallish SSD drive?
I'm talking about the one you presented in minute 11:20
How many apps you can open in DEX Mode? because most docks can open 5, but orginal samsung dock can open 20.
Great review and great video!
Nice additions would be for ethernet testing, iperf will do your max connection between 2 local pc's.
Showing wattage via USB-C meter like Klein Tool's ET920 USB Power Meter would be great too!
So the hub can work as a coffe warmer when one doesnt use the top ports.
Migth wanna use the underside though. Reduce chance of spillage in ports. ^^
Will the drive show up in a Raspberry pi
Hi there, CJ!! Is there any 2TB SSD with low power consumption that you know of, that can work on the M1 Pro without the extra power adapter??🙂 I read this hub uses 5v or so; so perhaps a 2TB SSD that can work with that amount of power from the M1?? Thanks a lot, I’d appreciate your thoughts on this very much🙋🏻♂
Finally ordered a M1 Macbook and now I need to get a great dock, so what should I look for when buying the dock. Definitely required the fastest and durable product. Kindly suggest the specification that I need look for
If you can afford it go with a Thunderbolt 3 Dock. If not this ACASIS is a good option.
@@ElevatedSystems thank you so much 🙌
Any chance you could test this with the Nintendo Switch to see if they play nice? The Switch's weird charging standard is sometimes compatible with 3rd party hubs, but it's rare. I'm probably going to buy this as it is, but i'd still like to know...
Wondering how to get my ipad to connect to this units memory, I formated memory with my PC, but no luck, called support, got 2 word replys. Not much help.
Any ideas be helpfu;l.
Thanks
Make sure the ssd is formated as exFAT or AFPS and you may need to have USB power connected to the hub. Not sure if the iPad can provide enough power to the ssd.
Quick question. What speaker stands are you using to get them above your monitor? Thanks for any info.
I Made those. You can check it out in my setup tour video I did a few months ago.
Are we talking about a hub or an SSD? I'm confused
Well the heat can be seen as a feature, especially on a cold night. Grab a usb fan and enjoy.
Hi I bought this device after the review however what I find is with Apple time machine backup the drive disappears and will reappear only when I disconnect and connect the cable. Has anyone come across this?
How well does it work with a raspberry pi 4b and is it compatible with linux
are you able to connect it to your phone and copy more than 1.5GB data without it failing?