ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station In-Depth Review
Based on work requirements, many NVMe models of hard drives, hard drive enclosures, and Type-c input docking stations have been tinkered with recently. The two seem to be unrelated, but in fact, there is the biggest problem, which is heat generation and compatibility. Heat can easily lead to transient loss of components, and compatibility problems seriously affect the user experience. A necessary product can integrate the two functions and solve the heat problem to a certain extent. That’s right. ORICO, a peripheral computer product, recently launched a 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station with a Type-c interface, and it integrates the function of an NVMe hard disk box. Players call experts.
Table of Contents
Unboxing
The packaging of the ORICO 9-in-1 docking station uses the main colors of sky blue and white, which is consistent with the packaging style of other products of the brand, such as the NVMe 10Gbps transparent hard disk box I purchased before. The front of the package is printed with the real visual effect of the product, and printed with the product model: CDH-9N, product features: 9-in-1, 10Gbps, 100W PD fast charge, 4K video output, USB 3.1-A; The other four features of the product are printed on the left side: Type-c interface, AUX audio interface, SD/TF card reader interface, Gigabit LAN interface; on the back of the package are the product specifications and manufacturer information. Although the package is not especially proposed, this docking station can support up to 2T NVMe protocol solid-state drives. The docking station not only expands the interface but also expands the storage.
After opening the package, the docking station also comes with: a 10Gbps Type-C TO Type-C data cable (1 meter), a screwdriver with a magnetic attraction that you forgot to enter, two screws, a manual, and a thank you card.
Design
Why did the ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station mentioned earlier solve the heat dissipation problem? You can guess by looking at the appearance. Heat dissipation plays a vital role in docking stations and hard disk enclosures. For example, it can prolong the life of electronic components and make electronic products have more stable performance. I have a deep understanding of this point. I used an ASGARD AN2 NVMe M.2 hard drive before. After putting on the hard drive case, it will be hot to read, write, and write.
The ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station is printed with the brand’s logo on the front, and the combination of white and aluminum alloy looks relatively simple. The overall style of this product is a line type, which is relatively “tough”.
Products such as docking stations for daily use are generally relatively hard desktops. After the metal and the desktop are attached, the friction force is small, and it is not easy to place them in a stable position. The bottom of the docking station can also be seen from the side of the ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station. Four non-slip rubber pads are also designed at the four corners so that the docking station can be stably placed on the desk when in use.
The ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station provides nine output interfaces. To facilitate practical use and the back of the LOGO, different interfaces are also designed on both sides. An AUX 3.5mm jack is designed next to the Type-c input interface to provide an audio interface. The main consideration is that some models similar to some Macbooks do not support 3.5mm audio output. Although you say that you can use Bluetooth, sometimes Wired headphones are also indispensable; on the other side is a Gigabit LAN port and a USB3.1-A socket that supports 10Gbps.
The main expansion interfaces of the ORICO 9-in-1 docking station are all on the back of the docking station. In addition to the 10Gbps rate logo printed, from left to the right are the HDMI output interface that supports up to 4K60HZ and the Type-c that supports up to 100W PD fast charge. Interface, TF/SD socket, and two USB3.1 interfaces supporting 10Gbps.
The word HD is printed on the HDMI interface to indicate that the ORICO 9-in-1 docking station supports HD-level video output, specifically, high-quality video output that supports up to 4K60HZ. Of course, this output requires both the computer and the monitor to support 4K60HZ. Display only.
The three USB3.1-A ports in different locations are marked with 10Gbps.
The difference from the traditional docking station is that there is a screw that can be unscrewed at the bottom of the ORCIO, which is where the NVMe SSD can be inserted.
Some specifications and product information are printed at the bottom of the NVMe SSD location.
4K Video Output
The Mi Notebook 15-inch pro-2019 is used as the video output, and the Mi TV 65 is used as the signal receiver.
Connection method: The docking station has dual C-port cables to connect the ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station and the notebook. The HDMI cable connects the HDMI interface of the docking station to the Xiaomi TV.
After connecting, you can set the display mode of the extended screen. In the display settings of the notebook, the default display is 1920*1080 resolution because the screen display of this Xiaomi notebook is 1920*1080 resolution, so the recommended resolution is 1920*1080.
You can also customize the display resolution of the TV side to 4096*2160, and the system will automatically adjust the magnification level of the display to 300%. There are many optional resolutions from 2K to 4K, depending on the screen ratio of the extended screen or personal needs, which the ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station can meet.
Whether it is 2K or 4K resolution when playing 4K movies on the computer, the screen will not freeze, and the sound will be synchronously issued, which is normal playback.
SD Card Reading
The ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station provides a TF/SD card reader, which solves that most thin and light notebooks do not have a dedicated slot.
After the actual measurement, the drive letter is displayed instantly when it is inserted into my computer, and the speed is very fast. It happened that the photos I took with the SLR were read through the docking station, and dozens of photos were copied to the computer. I didn’t see the progress bar, and the copy was completed directly.
Gigabit LAN Port Test
The ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station also provides a LAN port that supports Gigabit. This interface seems to be a chicken rib, but it is used in server troubleshooting in an industrial environment, routing, and network repair in a home environment. But the existence of a “must-have” and the network stability provided by wired transmission when playing games make the LAN port indispensable.
After actual measurement, the LAN port of the ORICO 9-in-1 docking station does support the Gigabit network.
There is no further test network speed because the external network speed is related to the attributes of home broadband and various other environmental conditions. The test results cannot reflect the real performance of the docking station shared this time.
USB3.1-A Port Test
The ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station provides 3 USB3.1-A sockets, all of which support 10Gbps transmission speed. Don’t worry about the transmission speed drop due to expansion.
A Lexar P30 solid-state U disk was selected for the speed test. A 10GB+ video file is used for testing in terms of transferring files.
In terms of writing speed, it can be seen from the transmission progress bar that the writing speed in the later period is stable at about 350MB/s, which guarantees the performance of the U disk itself.
In terms of reading speed, it can be seen from the transfer progress bar that it is around 300MB/s from the beginning of the transfer to the end of the transfer. The same tests were carried out on the three USB3.1-A ports, and the performance was the same, mainly stable.
It can be seen that the ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station has excellent and stable performance on the three USB3.1-A sockets supporting 10Gbps, and there is no need to worry about the speed being affected by the expansion.
Built-in NVMe SSD Expansion Test and Benchmark
Unlike ordinary docking stations, the ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station also provides an SSD expansion slot that supports the NVMe protocol.
The SSD slot of the ORICO 9-in-1 docking station supports four sizes of SSDs and two types of interfaces, basically satisfying all sizes of hard drives with the NVMe protocol on the market.
The dock comes with a small Phillips screwdriver for removing the SSD for easy removal. There is also a layer of protective film attached to the 2280 size fixing screw holes, and the SSD can be fixed normally after tearing it off.
A series of tests were conducted using the Aigo P2000 512GB version of the SSD.
After installing the SSD, connect it to the notebook. Because the SSD has just been unpacked, it will not display any information. It needs to be partitioned and formatted through the system or third-party hard disk management software before being used normally. For convenience, I directly used the hard disk management of the windows system to perform simple partitioning and formatting operations.
After the hard disk is recognized normally, use the large file used in the previous test to perform the speed test as usual.
In terms of writing speed, the speed is very stable, basically maintained at around 220MB/s, which is basically in line with the speed performance of this SSD.
In terms of reading speed, the speed is also very stable, basically maintained at around 300MB/s, which is basically in line with the speed performance of this SSD.
In all the previous articles ‘ hard disk/u disk speed test sessions, I especially felt the temperature performance of the ORICO 9-in-1 docking station. Under the environment of room temperature of about 25°, the touch is warm; even if it is a large heat generator such as SSD, it has not reached the hot state, and the heat dissipation effect of the fin design is still very obvious.
Up to 100W PD Charging
Notebooks like MACBOOK provide a multi-function C port. For the sake of appearance, many ports that should have been omitted are omitted. There are many times when the C port of the notebook is connected to the docking station and cannot be charged. The ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station is also Capable of PD charging up to 100W.
3.5mm Headphone Jack/AUX Audio Output
It also has a 3.5mm audio jack on the input side of the C port of the ORICO 9-in-1 docking station. All the previous tests were performed using wired headphones to listen to music through this interface. The whole process does not have any problems such as stuttering, noise, etc. The output is always normal. In other words, the daily use of the docking station will not affect the audio output.
Conclusion
After several tests and experiences, the ORICO 9-IN-1 Type-C Docking Station has performed well.
