Customer Reviews

CyberPower High-Speed 7-Port USB Hub

5 star:		(213)
4 star:		(52)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

Length:: 4:09 Mins

Heath Buckmaster provides a video review of the CyberPower 7 port USB 2.0 hub. It was up and running in less than 30 seconds and you'll see what comes in the package and how easy it is to install!

I must have bought one of just about every powered, USB 2.0 hub on the shelf at Fry's and returned them, one by one, because I wasn't happy with them for one reason or another. Besides those criteria, I was looking for a hub that has both the power jack and USB upstream jack on the same surface of the housing, because I hated the ones that are small, but take up a big footprint on your desk because they have plugs sticking out of them on 3 or 4 sides.

While the CP-H720P does not meet this criteria, it uses that fact as an advantage. First, the housing can be mounted vertically in a weighted stand (provided) to minimize footprint. Then, it has USB downstream ports on both a forward and rearward facing edges, so that plugs for long term connections can attach to the back of the hub and the cables route out of the way, and plugs for temporary connections face forward for easy access. Arranged this way, the power and upstream plugs don't get in the way. But the best feature is the seventh port, on the face of the housing, which is great for frequently accessed flash drives.

On the down side, not so much. The power light is an intense blue LED that lights up my workspace when the lights are off. There are additional less-spectacular green LEDs for each of the downstream ports, but to my dismay, they are not activity indicators but power overload indicators, so they don't normally light up at all.

On the whole, I am very satisfied with this unit. It's a "keeper".

[After over 2 and one-half years of service from this hub, I'm raising my rating to 5 stars. Below is my review from January 2008 followed by my revaluation from Sept. 2010.]

I realized I needed a 7-port hub and checked out the D-Link, Kensington, Belkin--the usual suspects. Then I chanced upon this unlikely contender, looking more like a jukebox in Amazon's picture than a hub. I was intrigued by the off-beat design and noticed that the price was competitive (though a couple of the others are presently offering rebates, a free flylight, and other sweeteners). Now that I'm looking at the CyberPower USB port "in person," I can provide a few initial impressions:

1. It's a lot smaller than the picture might imply. Compactness is nice, but you also want a hub that will stay put and that allows sufficient space between adjacent plugs.
2. Although the hub is designed for either vertical or horizontal use, the added and welcome weight of the detachable base makes vertical use the more sensible option. Otherwise, you've got a lightweight (and fairly generic) loaded-up plug which could easily move around, dislodging the USB mini-plug (a necessary evil except for small cameras) at one end of every USB 2.0 cable.
3. It seems to handle my equipment off of the USB power supplied by the computer, but I still breathe easier using the included AC power adapter. (To the manufacturer's credit, it's one of the slimmer, lighter wall-warts that I've seen.)
4. The flash drive mount is practical (but not unique). Now I can finally use that old Sandisk thumb drive that formerly was taking up the space of two USB ports.
5. The individual port lights are on all the time and, unlike most hubs, are not indicative of the presence or absence of a USB device.

In conclusion, it's a reliable performer and a convenient as well as eye-catching device--providing you go for the vertical look. If I were to suggest one design improvement, it would be to "fatten up" the tower so that it would be wide enough to permit horizontal insertion of USB devices with the hub in vertical position. Doing so would assure unforced accommodation of all your USB plugs, even the most space-devouring ones. Biggest "gripe": the vertical design is not real stable. The hub is easily dislodged from the base and bounces around quite a bit. If I had to do it over, I'd look at the heavy, dome-shaped Kensington.

[Revaluation after almost 3 years: I tried the Kensington. It was no more stable but less reliable. So I returned to the CyberPower, but without the base or vertical position. I velcroed its back side to the wooden surface behind my desktop machine, with printer and two 500GB storage drives inputted to the rear, one USB cable from the front side to the USB of my iMac, and a flash drive connected to the top side of the hub. Absolutely no problems. This item continues to rise in both popularity and price because it's so good. Should it ever fail, I doubt there's any other hub available that could surpass it. Forget the "cuteness" factor; this thing is all business.]

[4 years later: This "off brand" hub continues to be an Amazon best-seller while hubs like the Kensington "round mound" have fallen off the map, so this one is a proven winner. Only lately I've had some difficulty with getting it to recognize really large (1TB) hard drives. Before condemning the drive, I going to try some different cables and maybe a call to the manufacturer. Otherwise, the next step up would be either a 3.0 USB hub or a hub with dedicated switches, permitting you to assign just the power-draining devices to the AC-powered inputs while allowing the other devices (iPods, mouse receivers, flash drives, printers, etc.) to run sheerly on USB power.]

I was having issues with my (non-powered) USB hub sucking too much energy off my laptop. This puppy solved those problems, which has me VERY happy. It was easy to set up, the plugs are arranged nicely, and I like how it's set up for both vertical and horizontal usage. It does have some glow at night, but it's nothing that bothers me at all.

Highly recommended.

Great product. It does just what it's supposed to do--put 7 USB sockets right on your desk for easy access. The USB sockets on each side are far enough apart so that you can actually plug in three items at the same time. It has a power supply plug which doesn't think it's the only thing plugged into your power strip, leaving room on either side for additional plugs (Are you listening, HP?). What I really like is that this unit lets me charge my iPod without turning on my computer.

I recently was in the market for a new USB hub. After a lot of research I purchased this product. It is one of the best electronic devices that I have ever purchased. It has a sturdy construction and with the ability to stand up right, it saves a lot of desk space, and with the jump drive port on the front its the ultimate USB hub. I would buy it again any day.

i have use this product for 6 months it does a great job, the dlink i used on another system kept losing connection in the middle of transfers i threw it away, this one works.

i use lots of usb devices and i have TWO of these on ONE computer and they work fantastic. when i copy movies to my personal video player from my network hard drives these never fail. the other ones would stop sending packets in the middle of a trasfer. i have 2 printers, 2 scanners, video capture, mouse, and keyboard, tv, external hard drives, 2 flash card readers, docking for sandisk mpeg player, docking for ipod player, external game system for updating firmware, wacom drawing board for adobe cs3, and other attachments i hook on and off. these hubs always works.

downside, ive had to learn the tricks of windows xp on keeping track of drive letters and changing them around, there are third party programs that i have tried but i'd rather use disk manager and do it myself.

you will need to do a little cable management because the unit is small and the volume of cables attached to it can physically push it around, but some cable ties or electrical take easily takes care of the problem.

This usb hub is a needed addition for my desk. So much easier than going to the tower every time to connect something. I am running on Vista and it supports ReadyBoost and most things I throw at it. Only had a few problems. Microsoft LifeCam wouldn't send any audio through it so that has to be plugged into the tower directly. The other problem is that The computer tries to boot from it when it starts so I have to unplug it, hit enter so the computer will boot to the normal drive, then plug it back in. That may be a problem with the boot order in the bios trying to boot to removable media first. I am not sure. Overall great product. Lots of LEDs to look good on any techy's desk. Don't forget about the power adapter, that is a great feature to charge your usb periphials like Ipods and cell phones when your computer is off.

I've tried a few different brands, and they all seem to have some sort of quirkiness about them. My last hub was a Belkin, and it had issues like a poor-fitting power connector, random resets and occasional stability issues that required unplugging to correct. While I agree that the light weight of the hub and base may make it prone to falling over, I just balance the wires between the front and back ports and have no problem. I give it 5 stars because it's a reliable unit, which is what matters most to me.

I bought this several months ago after reading all the Amazon reviews. It works well with my 20" iMac and all the peripherals and cards I attach. I use it powered, and everything works all the time. I'd give it 5 stars except that it could has some minor issues with my desk and peripheral configuration. I know this would vary depending on how you're set up. I also run a Compaq Workstation and have a shared printer. Because of limited space, the USB hub has to sit edgewise to me. The power adapter fits into one side and the computer connection into the other. That means the hub is edgewise, and I have to do some bending over it to put cards in the edge that is now in the "back." Because it's next to a scanner, it has to be slid away before I can insert anything into the front slot. I know this a result of my personal set up, but if you wish the hub to face you, it must be positioned either to the right or left edge of your desk, depending on where your power source is. The weight of the base isn't all that great either, so if you have any stiff or heavy USB cables that are kinked, the base won't hold the hub on the table. I can live with it, I'm happy with the performance, and I didn't waste my money, but you may want to consider a hub with the power and computer cables going out the back, one that lays flat on your desk with all, or most of the ports facing you. I suppose none of these hubs are perfect for everyone. The main consideration is that everything I plug into it works.