Plugable USBC-SATA-V USB 3.1 Gen 2 HDD Dock Review

TweakTown's Rating: 90%

The Bottom Line

With its current MSRP of $39.99, the Plugable USB-C Dock is a great value, considering its top-tier performance capabilities and portable form factor.

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Plugable probably isn't a brand many of you have heard of; they are an up and coming vendor that specializes in connectivity solutions. Their portfolio includes Docking Stations, Hubs, and Adapters featuring USB 3.0, USB-C, and Thunderbolt technology.

The solution that was sent over for review is their latest hard drive docking station. This device features USB 3.1 Gen 2 connectivity over the new Type-C connection at 10Gbps; this enables you to get the most performance possible out of the connected SSD or HDD. On the thought of drives, this dock supports both 2.5" and 3.5" hard drives and SSDs, and it is also compatible with Windows, OS X, and Linux.

The MSRP of the Plugable USB-C Dock comes in at $39.99 with a one-year warranty.

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Packaging shows off an image of the device with features laid out along the bottom.

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The spine of the box houses a full specification list.

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In the box, you will find the power adapter, USB-C cable, and Type-C to C cable.

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The dock is quite similar in appearance to previous solutions. The front houses branding while the top the 3.5" drive slot and blue LED.

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The backside houses the USB-C connection, power input, and switch.

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For performance testing, I am using the Intel 730 480GB SATA SSD. In ATTO, I was able to get 562 MB/s read and 513 MB/s write out of the Plugable dock.

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Moving over to CDM, performance was a bit lower at 438 MB/s read and 430 MB/s write both at QD32.

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Using a new bench called Parkdale, we see 423 MB/s sequential write and 10220 Random write IOPS. Read performance comes in at 385 MB/s sequential and 5700 random read IOPs.

Running this dock through testing took a few hours, but after that, I have used it on a number occasions just to move data from older hard drives to my OneDrive account and NAS. I enjoyed the portability of the unit and while it does require external power, the included adapter is quite compact. Build quality is on par with expectations for a plastic enclosure, and internally they used the ASmedia1351 chipset, so it's a perfectly capable Gen 2 solution.

Performance with our SSD was quite good; I was able to get some solid numbers out of ATTO at 562 MB/s read and 513 MB/s write while CDM and Parkdale were a bit lower.

Overall, the Plugable USB-C Dock stands out as a true Gen 2 dock solution, and at its current MSRP, it's a solid buy.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IX Hero (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K (buy from Amazon) / (Read our Review)
• Memory: G.SKILL TridentZ DDR4 3200 (buy from Amazon)
• Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Hybrid (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Intel 730 480GB SSD (buy from Amazon) / (Read our Review)
• Secondary Storage: MyDigitalSSD BP5 512GB SSD (buy from Amazon)
• Case: EVGA DG-86 (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 P2 (buy from Amazon)
• Networking: ASUS PCE-AC88 AC3100 (buy from Amazon)
• Networking: ASUS ROG 10G Express
• Networking: ASUS Thunderbolt EX3 (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)