Club3D USB 3.0 Ultra Smart Docking Station Review

Testing & Methodology

The graphic part of this docking station works straight out and as such isn’t anything to benchmark here. The USB and LAN abilities on the other hand, is something that I can test and compare. I will be connecting my trusted Angelbird SSD2go Pocket 512GB USB 3.0 SSD to the docking station and test how it is performing there. Then I’ll disconnect the docking station and connect the drive directly to the same USB connector on the motherboard that previously connected the docking station. This will give us a great view on performance impact, if any, happening from the docking station. We should expect a minor fluctuation, but it is to be seen on the next pages how it will hold up.

The network connection is the second thing that I can test and compare, and in a very similar way to the USB testing. Naturally, I won’t be using my SSD here but rather connect the system through the LAN port on the docking station and run both TCP and UDP network benchmarks there. When those are done,  I’ll connect it my onboard LAN controller instead and run the same benchmarks. Again, this will give us a great comparison of performance impact through the conversion via USB 3.0, if any.

Test system:

• GA-Z170X-Gaming 7-EU
• Intel Core i5-6600K
• EVGA GTX 980 SC
• Kingston Fury DDR4 2400MHz 32GB
• Samsung SM951 NVMe 256GB in RAID 0
• be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W
• Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate

Software

• Anvil’s Storage Benchmark
• AS SSD Benchmark
• ATTO Disk Benchmark
• CrystalDiskMark Benchmark
• PassMark PerformanceTest Suite
• Windows 10 Pro