The last few weeks the USB ports on my MacBook Pro and the one already connected Aukey 4-port USB-C hub (Recommended hub if you don't have many hard drives!) very scarce. Two external hard drives, a Time Machine drive, an external monitor and various charging plugs occupy even seven USB ports relatively reliably.
For this reason, I recently invested in a USB hub that finally solves the problem with the lack of ports: In the Orico A3H13P2. It is an active USB 3.0 hub (active means that it is equipped with its own power supply unit) that has no fewer than 15 ports. Two of these ports are fast charge ports that can deliver 5 volts and up to 2,4 amps, but which cannot be used for data transfer.
Chapter in this post:
- 1 Technical data of the Orico A3H13P2
- 2 Update 04.06.2022/XNUMX/XNUMX: Alternatives to the no longer available ORICO Hub
- 3 Connection of the hub with USB type C to type B cable
- 4 Enough power for everything? Yes!
- 5 speed test with rotating hard disk and SSD
- 6 Power consumption - comfortably low
- 7 aluminum housing useful for cooling
- 8 My conclusion: a great hub
- 9 25% plus 5% discount on Amazon
- 10 Similar posts
Technical data of the Orico A3H13P2
The Orico Hub has quite impressive specs - in terms of size and weight as well as in terms of the power that it can distribute via its 15 ports. Here are the details:
- 13 data ports + 2 smart charge ports (up to 2,4 A)
- Data ports with USB 3.0 SuperSpeed (5 Gbps)
- Power pack with 12 V and 5 A (total power: 60 W)
- Chip: VL812 USB3.0
- Size: 26 x 5 x 5 cm
- Weight: 414 grams
- Material: anodized aluminum
- Stand-by power consumption (measured by yourself): 0,8 watts
Ok, with its weight and dimensions, the hub is definitely not for traveling around the world, but for me it is stationary on my desk and can weigh as much as it wants. His main tasks for me are:
- many ports to provide connectivity for printers, scanners, iOS devices, SD card readers and hard drives
- provide enough power for iPhone, iPad and various hard drives
- offer fast data transfer between Mac and hard drives or USB sticks
- have low power consumption in standby
Update 04.06.2022/XNUMX/XNUMX: Alternatives to the no longer available ORICO Hub
The Orico hub I presented here is unfortunately no longer available. But I have two recommendations from Orico that are also good - maybe even better. The reason for the assessment that the new recommendations are better is their new feature that allows you to turn off individual ports. This can be used to disable individual hard drives or USB sticks, for example. But here are the two recommendations:
- active ORICO USB 3.0 hub 16 ports 78W, switchable ports, material: plastic
- active ORICO USB 3.0 hub 16 ports 78W, switchable ports, material: aluminium
- Add 16 USB Ports to Your Computer: The USB hub can add 16 USB ports to your desktop PC. She...
- 5 Gbps transfer speed & 2.4A charging: ORICO multi-port USB hub offers data transfer 5 Gbps ...
- Strong Power for Stable Transmission: This hub comes with a 12V/6.5A adapter. He supports the...
- 【16 USB 3.0 ports】：ORICO 16 port USB 3.0 hub offers high-speed data transmission at 5 Gbit / s and ...
- 【Unique Design】：Aluminium alloy transparent design with creativity. The transparent frame...
- 【Single Switch + LED Indicator】：16 USB 3.0 data hub port has a separate switch. Everyone...
Connection of the hub with USB type C to type B cable
It was also important to me that it had a USB connection cable that could be unplugged. I've been working on a MacBook Pro that only has USB-C ports for years. Accordingly, I have to be able to plug the hub into a type C port with an adapter or a cable.
But I don't want to use an adapter here, but to be able to use my own cable. The background to this is that I like to reduce the plug connections to a minimum and didn't want to work with a USB-C adapter, but with a USB-C to USB-B cable.
If you want to adopt this structure for your Mac or MacBook, I recommend this to you USB Type C to Type B cable from CableMatters. When choosing, it is important that the cable supports USB 3, otherwise you run the risk of getting a USB-C printer cable that only supports USB 2 and massively slows down the hub and all connected devices. The Linked Cable from CableMatters fulfills this point.
Enough power for everything? Yes!
After me the Amazon ratings of the Orico Hub I was a little confused because a customer complained that the hub wouldn't even provide enough power for two external hard drives. Another customer reported irregular disconnections - also a condition that you don't want a hub to have.
Despite these two bad reviews (and because of some 5-star reviews), I bought the Orico 15-port hub and I still don't regret this step to this day. Of course, I put it through its paces as soon as I received it.
Several hard drives and various other devices had to be used for my test, because I wanted to know whether the hub really had enough power to operate all my hard drives and also charge the iPad and iPhone.
To make it short: Yes, it has plenty of power reserves and I haven't had a disconnection so far. For my test, I plugged in the following devices:
- three 2,5 inch hard drives, each of which requires approx. 500 mA
- an SSD that consumes around 300 to 400 mA
- an iPad Pro
- an iPhone XS
- an empty 26.500 mAh Power Bank
- a Kindle Fire
- a podcast microphone
- a monitor light from BenQ (highly recommended, here in the test / needs approx. 800 mA)
- two printers and a document scanner
I really felt bad about the hub for torturing it with so many devices, but it put up with it all well. Incidentally, the two smart charging ports are hardly different from the other 13 ports, because although they have no data connection to the connected computer, they also offer plenty of power. My connected power bank charges at these ports with 5 volts and 1,9 Ampere, my iPad Pro and my iPhone XS with 5 volts and 1,5 amps. With this hub, there will no longer be a lack of electricity in the future.
Speed test with rotating hard disk and SSD
Another important point for me is data transfer. It would be a shame if the hub would have to accept speed losses when using hard drives. To check this, I have one Seagate 2,5 inch hard drive (highly recommended!) and the Teyadi SSD with a USB-C port, once directly on the MacBook Pro and once on the hub with the Aja System Test benchmarking tool checked.
Here, too, the result speaks in favor of the hub: I couldn't find any major differences with the two hard drives and would only like to show the screenshots of the Teyadi SSD here. In the screenshot above you can see the speed over the hub and below the results directly on the MacBook Pro. In both cases, the SSD achieves approx. 160 MB / s when writing and approx. 400 MB / s when reading.
Power consumption - comfortably low
The power consumption was another point that I wanted to find out by taking measurements. When all my devices were connected, this one was with one when measuring Socket meter between 25 and 28 watts. After I disconnected all the devices, it went down to 0,8 watts.
Since the hub has a central on / off switch, I also measured whether there was a difference between standby when it was switched on and when it was switched off. Here, however, the measured value was 0,8 watts in both cases. With an electricity price of EUR 0,28 per kWh, this means electricity costs of just under EUR 2 per year.
Aluminum housing useful for cooling
The aluminum housing may at first only be designed for optics, but the solid construction made of the light metal also makes perfect technical sense. On the one hand, the hub is almost indestructible and, on the other hand, the heat dissipation through the aluminum is very effective. After a few hours, the hub got lukewarm, even though I only withdrew 28 watts from it. I can imagine that it will get significantly warmer at the power limit of 60 watts. The aluminum housing distributes the heat very well.
My conclusion: a great hub
The Orico Hub has met all of my requirements so far - and they were quite demanding. Hubs with 15 ports are rare and I'm all the happier that I've now found one that not only looks good, but also works perfectly technically.
I haven't been able to do a long-term test as I've only been using the hub for a few days, but if new findings come to light, I'll add them in the article.
Based on my current experience, you can Orico A3H13P2 Unreservedly recommend, especially if you need many ports and enough power for many hard drives. The on / off switch and the plug-in connection cable are - just like the appealing LED lighting of the ports - the icing on the cake.
25% plus 5% discount on Amazon
If you "hub" the need for an active hub with lots of ports (haha!), check out the Orico A3H13P2 here at Amazon or goes through this product box:
- 【Material】 - Smooth aluminum is ideal for your Mac, Apple-style, aluminum housing a natural extension ...
- 【Interface】 - It has 13 USB3.0 transmission interfaces with a super-potent 5V2.4A ...
- 【Compatibility】 - Compatible with Windows (32/64 bit) 10 / 8.1 / 8/7 / Vista / XP, Mac OS X 10.6 to 10.9, Linux ...
Orico is currently also offering a 25% discount for the hub – valid until November 30.11.2019th, 3. To get the discount, simply enter the code "DEBRCJ5S" at checkout on Amazon. Furthermore, I was just able to activate a 41,29% discount with a mouse click, so that I ended up with a final price of EUR XNUMX. A very good price for so much hub. :D
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Jens has been running the blog since 2012. He appears as Sir Apfelot for his readers and helps them with problems of a technical nature. In his free time he drives electric unicycles, takes photos (preferably with his iPhone, of course), climbs around in the Hessian mountains or hikes with the family. His articles deal with Apple products, news from the world of drones or solutions for current bugs.
The page contains affiliate links / images: Amazon.de
Which hub can you plug into the new iMac on the lower right edge?
Best regards,
Hans
Hello Hans! Actually, you can plug in anyone there that has a USB-A connector. The question is rather what it should do and how many ports you need. For example, if you are using external hard drives without their own power supply, I would recommend an active hub that also provides power. If you have a little more information for me (number of ports, for which devices, etc.), I'll be happy to help with the selection.
hello USB pros!
I'm considering switching from a 2009 Apple laptop to a 2018 one.
a lot has happened in the meantime (technically)
But I also have a lot of USB2 devices ... keyboard mouse, FW and USB hard drives, printer, sound system, ...
Does that even pack this little USB-C thing?
(So you need such an ugly adapter in any case) or can you bury things in a box (2m away) with a long cable?
Hello Dietz! Sure, the small USB port can do that. Incidentally, it has more power than all the USB sockets before. ;-) A 2 meter cable is also no problem. There shouldn't even be a slowdown. You can pack an active USB hub like the Orico in a (ventilated!) Box and then plug everything into it. Only an external monitor needs to be connected directly to USB C.
ok, thank you very much for the detailed answer, it will be more of a mid 2017 with a lot of sockets;)
lg
from Vienna
dietz
Oh ... 2017 MacBook Pro? With the broken keyboard ??? I wouldn't advise ... but ok. To each his own. : D
Hi Jens,
great blog. I also need a lot of USB ports. Have now ordered the Orico, which has become very cheap.
I hope you are still happy with yours.
Hello Ingo! In any case. The thing still runs for me for many hours a day. Works without a hitch. So: the recommendation remains!
Dear Mr Kleinholz,
I find your information and evaluation of details very helpful. Thank you for your above post. Would that device be suitable for my needs?
I would like to receive pointers and, if possible, a recommendation for permanently reliable devices as an active USB HUB - in the direction of an active dock - for my desired scope of use:
The existing end devices (2 iPhones with Lightning sockets, a 2021 iPadPro 12,9 with USB-C socket, a 10-inch tablet with Micro-USB socket and a 17-inch laptop with USB3.0 sockets ) should be connected as well as possible to the peripheral devices (several external 2,5-inch hard drives with USB3.0 cable plugs, an external 18-inch monitor with a DVI-A connection socket, an external 18-inch monitor with a DVI-D connection socket, several USB3.0 sticks) can be connected. The connection solutions for the iPhones and the iPadPro, which only have one socket each, are of particular interest. I am pleased to receive suggestions and verified recommendations from you.
Mit den besten Grüßen
Users
Hello users! I think you have to use different devices here... but I didn't quite understand what should be networked. Do you also plan to connect the iPhone to the two monitors? And if that's going to work for the Mac, you'll definitely have to use a Thunderbolt dock, otherwise you won't have a high resolution with a high frame rate on the monitors. And unfortunately I'm also not familiar with how and whether you can connect an iPad to two monitors. I haven't tried that yet so I can't give any advice. But maybe another reader has an idea?
Good morning Mr Kleinholz,
You have tested this hub Orico A3H13P2 - active USB 3.0 hub with 13 ports and 2 fast charging ports. Unfortunately I can't find a dealer.
I found this entry above:
Ingo says:
Feb 21, 2022 at 09:22 am
Do you know where I can buy this hub. I only found this one: ICY BOX RaidSonic IB-AC6113 USB Hub BC 1.2.
Is it identical?
Thank you very much
Gerhard
Hello Gerhand! No, they are not identical. They are different manufacturers. If I had to buy a hub right now, I would either take this one:
- ORICO 16 port USB 3.0 hub (aluminium and switchable ports)
or this cheaper one here:
- ORICO USB Hub 16 ports 78W (plastic and switchable ports)
I hope the links help you.