2023-10-16 03:26:16
Of the four USB hubs Corsair offered at the time of testing, the USB100 was the most affordable model. For this price, it offers a total of seven USB ports with a fast transfer rate of 5 gigabits per second and a partially increased power of up to 15 watts for fast charging of connected devices. It also comes with its own power supply and is compatible with Mac and Windows systems.
For our test, we connected the USB100 to a Windows 10 desktop computer and tested, among other things, file transfer and mobile device charging.
Technical details of the USB100
Type of product
USB hub
guarantee
2 ans
Operating systems
Mac OS 10.1 or later
Windows 10 or later
Power source
Up to 15W for front USB-C ports.
up to 7.5W for front USB-A ports
Ports USB
USB-A SuperSpeed 5 Gbit/s (4),
USB-C SuperSpeed 5 Gbit/s (3)
Prix
94,90 € *
Packaging and delivery contents of the USB100
1x USB-C hub 1x 1m USB-C to USB-C cable 1x 65W power adapter 1x power cord
Design and finish of the USB100
In total, the Corsair USB100 case has nine ports, including the power connector and the USB-C port for connecting to the main device (Mac, PC, laptop).
The USB100’s seven USB ports are distributed across the front and back of the case. Three of the ports are type C and four are type A. Two of the front ports type A and C are used not only for data transfer, but also for faster charging of connected devices, for which they are equipped with more power than other ports, namely 7.5 (Type A) and 15 watts (Type C).
The hub comes with a USB-C connection cable (Type C to C connector) for connecting to a Mac or Windows system. Depending on the usage scenario, the cable can quickly prove to be too short with a length of only one meter; here, at least half an extra meter would have been desirable. If the PC or Mac system does not have a USB-C port, a suitable USB adapter (Type C port to Type A port) would be required for connection. Here you need to pay attention to high speed so that the adapter does not become a bottleneck.
The thin and relatively light hub housing is made of raw graphite-look plastic. Our test model was perfectly manufactured in terms of quality. All USB ports fit well and have minimal play, and no wobbly contacts were revealed during operation. Two elongated rubber soles on the underside of the case provide slip resistance.
The 65W power supply is larger and heavier than the filigree hub itself. The same goes for the included power cord, which is generously sized (around 1.70 meters) and could easily be used for a PC or monitor in an emergency. The power supply of the hub is therefore solidly equipped and leaves nothing to be desired.
How the Corsair USB100 works
Transfer files between devices
At up to 5 gigabits per second (625 MB/s), data can theoretically be transferred to connected devices, provided there are no bottlenecks in the system. In the confusion of the USB jungle, it is not always clear which connectors and adapters meet which requirements. Blue-colored plugs or sockets typically indicate USB-3 technology, and that’s exactly what’s needed to fully utilize the USB100.
Unfortunately, even the new Type-C port doesn’t guarantee a high transfer rate, and that’s exactly the problem we initially encountered during our test. Due to the lack of a working USB-C port on our test PC, we used a simple USB Type-C to Type-A adapter, which unfortunately only provided poor transfer rates. Only after purchasing an internal adapter suitable for our motherboard were we able to connect the USB100 to the USB-C port on the front panel of our PC case and achieve higher speeds.
We didn’t use any high-end devices for our test, but two USB 3.0 sticks and two portable USB 3.0 hard drives. In order to use the USB100 to its full potential, we connected our four data carriers to it and performed a file test on each of them at the same time via the HD Tune Pro software. All four devices achieved their individual test values, which were between 100 and 123 MB/s. In total, we were able to transfer around 450 megabytes per second between the PC and the storage devices. The hub could probably only be exhausted with several high-end data carriers read or written simultaneously at several hundred MB per second.
Even during longer transfer processes, some areas of the case did not become more than lukewarm.
Charging portable devices
We chose a Samsung smartphone with a micro-USB jack as our test device for charging portable devices. For comparison, we used both its normal and fast charging modes as well as different types of cables and ports on the original hub or charger. We estimated around 10-15% of the battery capacity as a starting point for a charging process. The charging time shown below was then estimated by the smartphone after a few seconds and turned out to be lower in real terms. Times shown below are estimates.
If the smartphone was connected via a normal USB port (Type A) via a charging cable, the charging process was interrupted every few seconds as long as the screen was off or the lock screen was active. This could be remedied by unlocking the smartphone, but for that, the screen had to remain active.
Test device: Samsung smartphone
Device
loading mode
Loading time
(Charging cable)
charging time
(Data cable)
Original charger Normal 1h30 USB100 Type-A (rear) Normal 1h30 5:50 p.m. USB100 Type-A (front, 7.5 watts) Normal 1h30 3h10. Original charger Fast 1h30 USB100 Type-A (rear) Fast 1h30 5h50 USB100 Type-A (front, 7.5 watts) Fast 1h30 3h10
Charging time with the USB100 was extremely short with a USB charging cable and comparable to the manufacturer’s original charger. The type of port used (front/rear) doesn’t seem to play a role here, at least not on our review device. In contrast, the time difference between the front and rear ports was clearly present when using a USB data cable. The smartphone’s normal and fast charging modes did not affect the estimated charging time in either case, but the actual times could have been slightly different.
Conclusion
The USB100’s build quality was satisfactory across the board, as was the power provided by the AC adapter and a sufficiently long power cord. The included USB-C cable could, however, have been longer and the possible uses could be limited here.
High data transfer rates, at least when using adequate hardware, and sufficient charging current to quickly charge mobile devices, are two things we can attest to with Corsair’s USB100. If you want to use the hub to its full potential, you should use fast data carriers (e.g. SSD) and current USB 3 interfaces in as many places as possible. Such a fast USB-C port must also be available on the Mac or Windows system used, or a suitable USB-C to USB-A adapter if such a port is missing.
Of course, the USB100 can also be used wonderfully to connect other less power-hungry devices. However, there are also much cheaper hubs for this, especially if you can still do without USB-C. For users who, on the other hand, often want or need to process large amounts of data and don’t want to endure excruciatingly long wait times, the Corsair USB100 is an excellent choice for adding seven powerful USB ports to an existing system in a visually appealing way.
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