USB-C without labels remains 10gbps.
USB-C without labels remains 10gbps.
The laptop has a USB-C port without any labels, so I eliminated Thunderbolt. Now I'm unsure if it supports 10Gbps or is limited to USB 3.0 at 600Mbps. I intend to purchase a USB dock to connect several HDDs for storing footage. I have five 1TB HDDs and plan to link them through that hub without any performance drops. Additionally, I'm using three HDD enclosures with external power, each holding two drives. Will choosing a USB-C hub affect performance compared to a USB 3.0 hub?
The majority of SATA 3 drives reach a maximum speed of about 200mbps, meaning you won't notice significant slowdown unless you're accessing or writing to three or more drives at once.
Understanding the laptop's details would make things a bit clearer if we could identify its model and SKU, allowing us to determine the capabilities of its ports.
I checked the manual and found the port to be USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type C, running at 5gbps. Based on the assumption that the HDD write speed is about 100-150 mbps, a USB 3 hub with 600 mbps should be sufficient. It’s unclear exactly how the speed sharing works, but it seems plausible.
Speed sharing explained. USB3 supports double-simplex with separate dedicated lanes for receiving and transmitting at 5Gbps. USB and SATA/UASP introduce additional delays, limiting real-world performance to roughly 500MB/s. Consumer hard drives typically reach 200-250MB/s, which is half the USB3 capability, making full speed usage less of a concern unless multiple drives share the same USB connection.