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So I notice that cheap $20 USB-c hubs (no power supply) lower transfer speed for connected devices. This isn't surprising, after all my laptop only have 1 lane and now all the mouse, keyboards, external SSDs are sharing it.

I recently bought an expensive $300 Belkin TB3 Dock Pro, it is independently powered by it's own power brick, and everything is fast, almost as fast as it would be without a dock. So I wonder, what is the technology behind this?

40pro
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    Simple math: USB3: 5Gbit/sec, TB3: 40GBit/sec. Some el-cheapo docks may only run at USB2.0 0.5Gbit/sec speeds. Most SSDs won't hit 40GBit/sec when reading. – Turbo J Jul 30 '21 at 11:08
  • so i guess cheap docks are lying when they say they are TB3 dock? – 40pro Jul 30 '21 at 11:26
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    Basically yes: USB-C (the connector) doesn't guarantee USB-3 (the protocol) speeds. It's a valid but annoying design to have a USB2 hub with a USB-C connector. – pjc50 Jul 30 '21 at 12:09
  • Nothing wrong with “you get what you pay for”... – Solar Mike Jul 30 '21 at 14:06
  • You can use USBview or similar utility to see what speed individual devices are running at. If it doesn't show up on USB, then it is actually using TB (at least for TB3 and below). – user1850479 Jul 30 '21 at 14:53
  • So I'm guessing TB3 Controller is much more expensive than USB2 controller? ' – 40pro Jul 31 '21 at 12:36

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