Diamond DS3900V2 UltraDock Docking Station Review

Setup Procedure & Testing Method

Connecting and setting up the Diamond DS3900 is as easy as plug and play, well almost. You do need to install the drivers first, but that only takes a couple of seconds and only needs to be done once. Other than that, just connect it to an USB port and start connecting your monitors, printers, storage, and input devices to the docking station. It couldn’t be any easier.

Test system:

• Supermicro C7Z97-OCE motherboard
• Intel Xeon E3-1230Lv3
• Excelleram EP3001A 2GB PC3-10666
• Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD

We would like to thank our sponsors for supplying us with the equipment needed to perform these tests.

Software used:

• PassMark PerformanceTest Suite
• LAN Speed Test
• AS SSD
• ATTO
• CrystalDiskMark

The graphic part of the Diamond DS3900 Docking Station is at it is, it works like a charm but there isn’t anything to benchmark. The USB and LAN is connections is however something that I can test. I will be connecting my trusty Angelbird SSD2go Pocket 512GB USB 3.0 SSD to the docking station and benchmark how it’s doing there. Then I’ll disconnect the Docking Station and connect the drive to the same USB connector on the motherboard that the hub previously was connected to. This will give us a great view on performance impact, if any, happening from the USB hub. We should expect a minor fluctuation, but it is to be seen on the next pages how it will hold up.

The LAN port is another thing that I can test, and in a much similar way as I did with the USB ports. I will of course not be using my SSD in this case, but rather connect the system through the LAN port on the DS3900 Docking Station and run a couple of my network benchmarks. Afterwards I’ll be connecting it to my onboard Intel LAN connector instead and run the same benchmarks. Again, this will give us a great comparison of performance impact through the conversion, if any.