Suggestions needed - USB C Multiport Hub for HP Victus Laptop

[superczar]

lol, for 1080p buy the cheapest hub and you are done, portronics one on amazon is decent.
as rightly mentioned, 4k 60 is a challenge, everything else is easy peasy.

Just one thing to keep in mind.
Cheap hubs are fine if you are not using PD pass-through. Worst case, connections will be unstable /flakey.

But If you are, please stay very far away from the generic white labeled ones.

A good hub/dock is a one time expense that will be reusable for many years for several devices. Don't skimp on quality ..
Bad/low quality PD pass-through implementation can (and has ) very easily fry the host. Plenty of horror stories on Reddit and at least one personally known case for an old time TE member.

Personally I swung to the other extreme and got 2 TB docks for work desks at home - overkill perhaps but again, with 40gbps bandwidth and , I expect them to last 7-8 years if not more.

 

[rdst_1]

Just one thing to keep in mind.
Cheap hubs are fine if you are not using PD pass-through. Worst case, connections will be unstable /flakey.

But If you are, please stay very far away from the generic white labeled ones.

A good hub/dock is a one time expense that will be reusable for many years for several devices. Don't skimp on quality ..
Bad/low quality PD pass-through implementation can (and has ) very easily fry the host. Plenty of horror stories on Reddit and at least one personally known case for an old time TE member.

Personally I swung to the other extreme and got 2 TB docks for work desks at home - overkill perhaps but again, with 40gbps bandwidth and , I expect them to last 7-8 years if not more.

Maybe it makes sense for the OP to spend a lot on a good USB hub, but for most people it doesn't make sense. Even if I bought a 70k laptop, I wouldn't be interested in spending another 12-15k just for ports. These companies keep finding new ways to fleece customers. It's the same thing as removing the 3.5mm jacks from phones.
Also, for a person with my kind of usage (connecting phone to HDMI/USB), buying an expensive hub is just totally out of question. I would never use any of the cheap hubs for PD pass-through, but people are reporting that even using just the HDMI and USB together causes connection issues in some of these hubs. It's ironic, how, nearly a decade ago, we got MHL adaptors for free with my Nokia phone and it used to work flawlessly, but now, even a paid product is not working well.

 

[superczar]

Maybe it makes sense for the OP to spend a lot on a good USB hub, but for most people it doesn't make sense. Even if I bought a 70k laptop, I wouldn't be interested in spending another 12-15k just for ports. These companies keep finding new ways to fleece customers. It's the same thing as removing the 3.5mm jacks from phones.
Also, for a person with my kind of usage (connecting phone to HDMI/USB), buying an expensive hub is just totally out of question. I would never use any of the cheap hubs for PD pass-through, but people are reporting that even using just the HDMI and USB together causes connection issues in some of these hubs. It's ironic, how, nearly a decade ago, we got MHL adaptors for free with my Nokia phone and it used to work flawlessly, but now, even a paid product is not working well.

One can’t have it all, can you?
Even today, there are good options for laptops with multiple ports - but most people won’t buy them because they will be too bulky.
Everyone wants an ultraportable so something’s gotta give.

Also, the complexity of a hub has gone up exponentially in the last 10 years. Adapters from 10 years ago needed to handle a very small fraction of the bandwidth that people want now.
Those free adapters would need to handle a few 100 mbps, if at all on a single cable as against the 40gbps, multiple 4k60 monitors, 5-10gbps USB ports + charging… All this over a single cable is what people expect today.

If all you need is HDMI out, even a 1000-1500 will get you a good 4k60 C-HDMI adapter/cable that will work flawlessly. Even cheaper if you are ok with 1080p.
C to A female adapters are similarly very cheap.
One needs to go up the value chain only if the ask /expectation goes higher.

 

[smnrock]

i've been using couple of cheap chinese usb-c hub(with PD passthrough) for last few years atleast with two different laptops. There was no issues at all with that and working fine till now. All this frying talk came into light or at least famous due to macbook, till then there was not much issues with these cheap hubs, but now suddenly after this apple fiasco, poor hubs has to take the blame . This is no different than, if any accident occurs, its always bigger vehicle is at fault

Only con i faced was, 2nd display was limited to 4K@30. Now my setup changed, dell precision 7560 and 4K display, so had to get WD19TB.

 

[superczar]

i've been using couple of cheap chinese usb-c hub(with PD passthrough) for last few years atleast with two different laptops. There was no issues at all with that and working fine till now. All this frying talk came into light or at least famous due to macbook, till then there was not much issues with these cheap hubs, but now suddenly after this apple fiasco, poor hubs has to take the blame . This is no different than, if any accident occurs, its always bigger vehicle is at fault

Only con i faced was, 2nd display was limited to 4K@30. Now my setup changed, dell precision 7560 and 4K display, so had to get WD19TB.

There are plenty of Asus and Lenovos too that have been fried by cheap hubs. (Try searching for usb c pd + dead zephyrus for instance)
The TE member whose laptop got fried via pd was incidentally using Acer. Thankfully mobo got replaced under warranty.

It is just that it got media attention only after The MacBook coz well, appol

Fact is pd as a protocol is orders more complex than a dumb dc barrel. Eventually it’s up to the user whether he/she wants to take a chance or not.
The WD19TB you got , while pricey is a no nonsense device that will last you long enough , maybe a decade or so to get you through at least a couple of laptop/ tablet cycles

 

[rdst_1]

One can’t have it all, can you?
Even today, there are good options for laptops with multiple ports - but most people won’t buy them because they will be too bulky.
Everyone wants an ultraportable so something’s gotta give.

Also, the complexity of a hub has gone up exponentially in the last 10 years. Adapters from 10 years ago needed to handle a very small fraction of the bandwidth that people want now.
Those free adapters would need to handle a few 100 mbps, if at all on a single cable as against the 40gbps, multiple 4k60 monitors, 5-10gbps USB ports + charging… All this over a single cable is what people expect today.

If all you need is HDMI out, even a 1000-1500 will get you a good 4k60 C-HDMI adapter/cable that will work flawlessly. Even cheaper if you are ok with 1080p.
C to A female adapters are similarly very cheap.
One needs to go up the value chain only if the ask /expectation goes higher.

Yes, I understand your point. I think PD pass-through is what has increased the complexity many-fold. But looking at reviews, even simple USB hubs which people are using just for HDMI and USB, people are facing issues after spending anywhere between 2.5-6k. Many people reported that the Belkin (which I would assume is a reputed manufacturer) had misaligned ports and too many glitches and a guy had multiple device failure within 2 years of warranty because he was someone who used it daily for 5-6 hours.
I think even ultraportables come with 2-3 USB ports these days, so why do people need PD pass-through. Wouldn't it be better to just use one port for charging and another one to connect to a hub.

 

[smnrock]

incidentally using Acer

in my case, the two laptops going strong with cheap hub is, xps13 and acer. I was using one hub at work and another one at home. Now last two years due to wfh, i gave the work hub to a family member, and he is using with acer. So far no issues at all. Both the laptops are used with 65w charger.

 

[superczar]

Yes, I understand your point. I think PD pass-through is what has increased the complexity many-fold. But looking at reviews, even simple USB hubs which people are using just for HDMI and USB, people are facing issues after spending anywhere between 2.5-6k. Many people reported that the Belkin (which I would assume is a reputed manufacturer) had misaligned ports and too many glitches and a guy had multiple device failure within 2 years of warranty because he was someone who used it daily for 5-6 hours.
I think even ultraportables come with 2-3 USB ports these days, so why do people need PD pass-through. Wouldn't it be better to just use one port for charging and another one to connect to a hub.

I had it that way for a while
1 cable for power and another that would go to a hub.

This however had two problems.
a) We have 2 desks in our house that wife and I use interchangeably. Additionally, I also need to swap between work and personal devices from time to time . Additionally, some devices had USB C ports while some had USB A + single USB C. This was making two wire swaps a major chore .

b) The hub (non pd) would struggle with 4k60 monitor. The bandwidth needed for 4k60 gets very close to the peak rate of USB C already which means that you cant use USB 3.1 speed devices on the hub.

It was far from unusable - but did get annoying.
Considering the longer term shift towards greater % of WFH, I felt that plonking down on a really long term solution would make more sense
So when I spotted a deal on a HP G2 , I got that.
It ended up making the user experience on wife's desk a whole lot better so I got a wd19tb for myself.

As an added benefit, this also freed up the laptop chargers for usage elsewhere + added a couple of extra USB C ports on the desk for charging