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Go to SolutionXPS 13, USB Type-C hub?
I'm going to be buying a new xps laptop that only comes with 2 thunderbolt 3 ports but I have different devices that need to plug into usb 3, hdmi, and a large sd slot. I have 4 usb devices that I use regularly so I need a hub with at least 4 ports. I'm confused as to what I should buy and hope someone can give me some suggestions.
@Sheryl66 in addition to my reply above, I actually found two other options that would be somewhat simpler.
This adapter would plug into your system's USB-C/TB3 port and give you HDMI output, a built-in SD card reader, and a pair of USB-A "regular USB" ports. So compared to the DA300, you lose Ethernet and some video output ports you might not care about, as well as a USB-C data port, but you gain an extra USB-A port and a built-in SD card reader. However, the USB power issue I described above would still apply here since this adapter doesn't use external power, so you'd still want to get a powered USB 3.0 hub to plug into this thing to support your other devices.
Or for a bit more functionality and only a bit more cost, there's this adapter. Compared to the adapter above, this adds a USB-C data port (could be handy for future use) and also a USB-C charging passthrough port. The latter would mean that you could actually plug your laptop's charger into this thing and have it simultaneously power both this adapter (in order to make additional power available out of its built-in USB ports) and the laptop itself, thereby keeping the system's other built-in TB3/USB-C port free for something else. You might still need to get a powered USB 3.0 hub since you'll have more devices you want to use than ports available, but this gets you a bit more functionality and flexibility overall. Oh and by the way, if you want to use that USB-C data port with regular USB devices for the time being, you can get one of these adapters so you can plug a regular USB device into a USB-C port. It might be handy to have at least one of those anyway if your system will have only USB-C ports built-in. The only potential issue with this adapter is that if you use the charging passthrough port with the power adapter that actually came with the laptop -- which is designed to provide only the wattage the laptop is designed to need -- then the power that the adapter takes for itself before passing power along to the laptop might cause your system to tell you that you're using a "slow USB charger", since this adapter would essentially be skimming from your laptop's power adapter. But even if that happens, you could still plug the laptop's charger directly into its other TB3/USB-C port to avoid that. The alternative if you really wanted to keep that other laptop port free would be to buy a USB-C charger that could supply more wattage than the system requires on its own. If you're looking at XPS 13 models, they're designed for 45W, so for example if you bought a 60W+ USB-C charger, it would be able to provide enough power for both the laptop and the adapter simultaneously. High quality third-party USB-C chargers are easy to find and are fully supported because USB-C charging is achieved using the industry wide USB Power Delivery standard, so there's no need to limit yourself to Dell chargers. I have a couple of 60W chargers from Anker, a 65W charger from Nekteck, and a 90W charger from Nekteck, and I use them with Dell laptops as well as laptops and other devices made by other vendors.Ok yes, from what I know of that system, it's a great choice because it includes the new "Ice Lake" CPUs that should be a significant generational improvement in CPU performance, GPU performance, and battery life, but the fact that it only has two USB-C/TB3 ports and a microSD card reader does create some challenges if you have multiple external peripherals you want to plug in. Anyhow, any of the options I described above should work for you. Good luck!
@Sheryl66 that's correct. Here's how it works: Most hubs like that do not support receiving external power, such as the 5-in-1 adapter I also linked and the Dell DA300. With those hubs, the USB ports built into them can only provide power based on what they can draw from the USB port on the laptop that the hub itself is plugged into -- except the hub is already using some of that available power from to run itself and any other electronics built into it -- so there's less power available for the built-in USB ports. The result is that if you have a high-power USB device such as a USB-powered external hard drive, that hard drive might work when plugged directly into the system (where the full power of that port is available just for that device), but might NOT work if you plug it into a USB port on an unpowered hub. That's especially the case if you also have other USB devices plugged into the other ports, because now you're trying to run multiple USB devices from the power available on a single source port. That's usually fine for things like flash drives and other devices that draw no power from the USB port (such as printers and wall-powered external hard drives), but not so much with USB-powered external hard drives.
By comparison, a hub that's directly plugged into external power has more power available to provide to its built-in USB ports, so this problem should go away. So with the 7-in-1 hub, you shouldn't have this problem as long as you have a USB-C power source plugged into its power passthrough port. That hub by the way will work just fine without that external power source if you ever need to use it that way, but without the benefit of higher-powered USB ports.
However, if you're plugging a separate powered USB 3.0 hub into this Anker hub, then it won't make a difference whether you use the 5-in-1 hub, the 7-in-1 hub without power, or the 7-in-1 hub with power. The reason is that the separate USB 3.0 hub won't be trying to draw power from the Anker hub, since it will have its own power source, and any devices plugged into that separate USB 3.0 hub will have their power requirements met by that hub, without relying on pulling anything from the Anker hub.
The only thing to be aware of as I mentioned above is using your laptop's actual charger to run through the Anker 7-in-1 hub. The XPS 13 is designed for a 45W power source, and consequently Dell ships a 45W charger -- but the Anker hub can sometimes pull up to 20W. So if you use your Dell 45W charger as the power source with that Anker hub, you might end up getting significantly less power through to the XPS 13. It won't cause any damage, but you might see slower battery charging and sometimes slower performance. There are two options to deal with this:
- Keep plugging the laptop's charger directly into the laptop and use the Anker hub unpowered, which will be fine as long as you'll be using some other powered USB 3.0 hub as well. The downside is that you now have both of your laptop's ports in use, so if you ever had a Thunderbolt 3 peripheral you wanted to use (which you would not be able to run through the Anker hub), the only way to have that peripheral, the Anker hub, and your charger simultaneously connected would be to run the charger through the Anker hub and accept reduced power. Otherwise, you'd only be able to have 2 of those 3 things plugged in at a time.
- Buy a higher wattage USB-C power source, such as a 60W, 65W, or 90W charger. That way, even if the Anker hub is skimming off its full 20W, there will still be at least 45W of capacity available to pass through to the XPS 13. You won't damage the system by using a higher wattage power source than it's designed for; the system will simply ignore any additional capacity it doesn't want. Note that if you want to use a power source over 60W, you'll need USB-C cables rated for up to 100W. USB-C cables are rated to carry either up to 60W or up to 100W over power, sometimes written as 3A (amps) or 5A, because those amperages at the current standard's maximum 20V work out to 60W and 100W. If you use a 60W/3A USB-C cable, then you'll only ever get 60W even if the power source can provide more and the device on the other end could use more.I've been researching all the devices you talked about and just want to be sure I fully understand the choices I'm looking to make.
If I buy the Anker USB C Hub Adapter, 7-in-1 USB C Adapter I can power my laptop through it and plug another hub with usb 3 ports and not have to worry about how much power I'm using?
@Sheryl66 one other thing I forgot to mention. If you go with the 7-in-1 Anker hub that has a power passthrough port, be aware of one behavior you might observe that most people find unintuitive and unexpected. If you switch that hub between powered and unpowered mode, the hub will essentially have to reboot. As a result, any USB devices connected through that hub, even if they're directly connected to an "upstream" hub, will be briefly disconnected and then reconnected. This isn't a design deficiency in that particular product, but rather the result of complying with mandatory provisions of the current USB Power Delivery spec, which basically says that if there's a change in the USB PD power source, the device has to perform a new power negotiation with that new power source. Since the Anker hub doesn't have an internal battery to cover that transition, this renegotiation entails briefly cutting power and therefore essentially rebooting the device. So whenever you'll be switching between powered and unpowered mode, make sure you're not actively reading or writing data on an external hard drive connected through that hub, for example. And when you're about to plug the hub into the system, if you plan to use it in powered mode, you should plug the power source into the hub before plugging the hub into your laptop -- although that's just a convenience to save you a reboot, not an essential requirement.
I'm still trying to decide what Hub to buy and have another question in regards to the powered adapters. I need this adapter so I can plug my HTMI touchscreen monitor into it so it will constantly be plugged into a wall outlet. Does this mean the battery on the laptop will constantly be charging? If so, I didn't think that was good to do.
jphughan
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Posted November 7th, 2019 13:00
@Sheryl66 it would help to specify the exact model of system you're considering. If you're saying the laptop you're considering has ONLY a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports, i.e. no other types of built-in ports at all -- and you need to connect 4 USB 3 devices, an HDMI display, and an SD card reader -- then your options are limited. But I can think of two possibilities.
The least expensive way to do this would probably be to buy the Dell DA300 and then a USB 3.0 hub that has however many ports you want. In this setup, you'd plug the DA300 into one of your system's TB3/USB-C ports, which would give you two USB ports (one USB-C and one USB-A, aka "regular USB") plus an HDMI output, and then you'd plug your USB 3.0 hub into one of the USB ports on that adapter. Finally, you'd plug all of your other USB devices plus an SD card reader into that USB 3.0 hub. The other USB-C/TB3 port on your system would be used for its power adapter. If you go this route, just make sure the USB 3.0 hub you buy is a powered hub, i.e. one that plugs into wall power. Unpowered hubs are typically only work with USB devices that draw very little power from the USB port (e.g. wireless mouse receivers and some flash drives) or no power at all (e.g. printers and some external hard drives), but they typically don't work with USB devices that rely on drawing more power from the USB port, such as certain USB-powered external hard drives.
The other option would be to buy a docking station like the WD19 or WD19TB. The main difference between those two docks is the display setups you can run and the fact that the WD19TB would allow you to connect a Thunderbolt 3 peripheral to it, whereas the WD19 would not. But either way, that would allow you to connect a single cable to your system to get power and access to USB ports and display outputs. You could of course still get a USB 3.0 hub if you needed even more USB ports than were on the dock. Note that if you go with the regular WD19, there are two different power adapter sizes it can be ordered with, and if you're using an XPS 15, you'd need the larger 180W version. If you're using an XPS 13, you're fine with the 130W version. The WD19TB always comes with a 180W adapter.
Hopefully this helps. Feel free to reply back if you have any further questions!