Plugable5-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Hub,Single 8K or Dual 4K Display, 4K HDMI Adapter Included, Thunderbolt 4/3, USB4,USB-C Expansion for Modern Mac and Windows Systems, Driverless

TL;dr it works great, no setup, plug and go. Just buy one and be happy.First and Foremost; do NOT even think about using ANY TB4 device without a genuine Intel Certified TB4 cable. In this case Cables Matter and Plugable supplies the correct one (plus the correct TB4 to HDMI as well)Like me, you are probably reading all the TB4 Hub reviews before purchasing and this is my experience.I looked long and hard at the Caldigit Element and the Plugable hub. I debated the cost, the size, the power cube, over thought and considered every little detail over and over again because, well because.I concluded that whichever I bought I’d regret not buying the other, so I ended up with the pluggable.Take it out of the box, it comes with a high quality TB4 cable and a big power cube. So lets talk about the elephant in the room, or on the floor. I somehow doubt that pluggable (or Caldigit since their power cube is the same size) are into power supply manufacture so they OEM’ed someone else’s. Given a choice between this power cube that lives on the floor with all the other *)*@%(& power cubes or paying more for a smaller one that will still be on the floor with the others, I’d pay less every time. So it sits on the floor with the others, it doesn’t even get warm.The actual hub on the other hand *does* get warm during use but then my laptop does too.Does it work? Yup, just plug it in and as advertised it just … works. I have a USB 3.0 (plugable) hub hanging off the USB 3.2 port and that’s where all my angst kicked in.Is it better to get the Caldigit Element with it’s FOUR builtin USB 3.2 ports or this one with one USB 3.2. Wait, what? Exactly how many 1050Mbps devices do we actually have? Like, seriously.TB4 can only(?!!!) support 40Gpbs which is a mere FORTY 1Gbps (1050Mbps) devices. There aren't enough ports for all of those so….. ok, ok, you want to daisy chain but guess what! You’re still limited to the 40Gpbs from the laptop to the Plugable or Caldigit. But wait you say, not all devices will max out at the same time so you can attach more devices. Well that’s what I’ve done via the USB 3.2 Gen-2 (10Gbps) port to the daisy-chained hub and:Attached to the Plugable:Samsung T7-1TB SSD (1050Mbps ) USB CSamsung T7-2TB SSD (1050Mbps ) USB CSamsung T5-1TB SSD (500Mbps) USB CUSB 3.0 Hub (via the USB 3.2 Gen-2 port)Attached to the USB 3.0 HubWD 5TB driveWD 5TB driveand a couple of other things that don’t make a difference.All this is attached via the TB4 cable to a Surface Pro 8 with 2 monitors running of the MS Dock. OK, ok, I know I need more storage and am looking at another monitor but here we are.Results? I can’t shovel disk data from the SP8 to keep up with the capacity of the USB-C drives and the USB 3.0 drives. I just can't max out the 40Gbps TB4 port so everything else is just moot. All that *would* change if I ran the monitors off the Plugable (but then ALL TB4 hubs have that problem).The T7’s are slightly faster than the T5 and the T5 is slightly faster than the WD HD’s.Now when it comes to data processing the T7’s win every time but in terms of overloading the Plugable, I’m nowhere close to being able to do that in normal use.I’m going to plug another T7-2TB into the plugable and move the T5 to the hub (since they are 500Mbps bandwidth matched) and see how I can overload things.Conclusion?I love the plugable, it just does it’s job without fuss and doesn’t occupy a ton of space; it’s about as small as it can be.Do I regret the decision?Actually, no. I can’t think of a reason why I’d need 4 USB 3.1 ports and 3 TB4’s in the same box. Other people will though and the Caldigit will be worth the extra $50 or so.Will I buy another Plugable?Actually yes, I might get that 3rd monitor going :-D :-) :-D (The Surface Pro 8 has two TB4 ports)

This is one of the best thunderbolt hubs a thunderbolt 4 and USB4 hub. It is compact extremely versitile in that I can daisy chain it to my caldigit element hub and it works incredibly and gives many extra usb 4 or thunderbolt 4 hubs. I connect through a thunderbolt cable male to male into one of the ports on the element hub and it is perfect everythime I can use it the way I described or by itself. I love it 💗 worth every penny. It like most thunderbolt 4 anything is downcompatable so will work with anything previously thunderbolt 3, etc any usb-c works of course host if thunderbolt 4 will benefit by all speed capabilities but its fast just the same. I use it daisychained or by itself between my Samsung note 20 5g ultra phone and thunderbolt 4 laptop i use a usb4 extension cable by LEIRUI 2.62 ft. All I do is swith from phone to laptop if I want and all 7 drives always appear in a good file manager like solid explorer, xplore, etc. Great to use your phone to access all your hard drives I use westernn digital my passport ultra usb-c, sundisk usb-c, Adata etc the drives offer usb adapters too. GREAT GREAT PRODUCT and never gets hot. Each offers 40Gbps bandwidth and 15W charging power.These ports are very flexible, and you can use them for all sorts of devices.You can attach external displays using this hub without needing an adapter if the monitors have a USB-C connection. If your display instead has HDMI or DisplayPort connections, you’ll need the relevant USB-C adapter to attach via the dock.Plugable includes a USB-C-to-HDMI 2.0 adapter with the hub, which is a nice.

I've tested this device alongside a CalDigit USB-C SOHO hub for a barebones docking station with DP1.4 output, and the combo works great with both my 16-inch MacBook Pro w/ M1 Pro and my wife's 13-inch MacBook Pro w/ M1. My chief complaint is that the power brick is quite large relative to the hub's paltry 60W charging capacity.I also have an older PC in my office with an ASUS ThunderboltEX 3 add-in card (AIC) based on Intel's Alpine Ridge (TB3) host controller. This PC runs Linux and hosts a variety of virtual machines/appliances and other niche use-cases that require certain kernel command-line options. Unfortunately, these requirements don't play well with the AIC; in particular, it breaks hot-plugging on the TB3 port, even with simple USB devices.I was interested in answering the following questions:* Can I use a Goshen Ridge (TB4) device controller downstream from a Alpine Ridge (TB3) host controller?* Will the Alpine Ridge host controller delegate some duties to the Goshen Ridge device controller such that it fixes hot-swapping for USB devices? for TB devices?* Can I get everything working in Linux??I'm happy to report that—in my case, for the most part—the answers to the above questions are YES. After enrolling the Plugable 5-in-1 hub via boltctl I was able to hot-swap USB devices on the Type-A port as well as the Type-C ports, and hot-plug a TB device. I was actually able to hot-plug a TB3-to-TB2 adapter with a downstream TB1 device, and that got me nerding out a bit. I'm running Ubuntu Desktop 22.10 (kinetic) and there's even a GUI for authorizing devices these days.Unfortunately, the long-standing issue(s) with hot-UNplugging TB devices in Linux are still present. I was able to use the suspend-to-RAM trick to clear out disconnected devices. It's an imperfect solution but that has absolutely nothing to do with the Plugable 5-in-1 hub; I only mention it for the sake of completeness.One other note: I ordered two of these in new condition and one of them came in open-box condition (very clearly so). Even though this appears to be a fulfillment issue on Amazon's side, Plugable support has been responsive and helpful, which is great to see. Again, nothing to do with Plugable other than to highlight their excellent customer service team.