Accell DisplayPort 1.2 to 3 HDMI Multi-Display MST Hub Reviewed

I’m a man of simplicity. I’ve often thought of reducing cable clutter on my triple-screen gaming setup in my office in an effort to minimize the amount of wires running from my tower to the monitors. The good news is that there are plenty of options out there that let you customize the wiring arrangement of your monitors to either modify, enhance, or simplify your setup.

Accell is arguably one of the largest manufacturers that offers adapters, hubs, and other accessories beyond your wildest dreams. If you need to do something with a computer or even home theater equipment, chances are they have what you’re looking for. I was fortunate enough to receive the new Accell MST hub that converts a single, full-size DisplayPort, to three HDMI ports. The package includes the hub itself, a manual, and a power adapter. The DisplayPort cable is built into the hub and the short wire (less than a foot long) leads directly to your computer. The only downfall to this is if you’re trying to remotely connect three screens to a tower that’s on the ground, you’ll need three long HDMI cables. You could always buy a DisplayPort extension cable, which will allow you to buy three, much shorter, HDMI cables to go from the hub to the monitors. I did not attempt to use the extension cord, as I was focused more on testing the functionality and performance of the hub itself, while also having a few long HDMI cables lying around.

Connections are simple. I plugged the hub into an Nvidia GTX 770 graphics card from Gigabyte. From there, I connected all three of my Asus gaming monitors and fired the machine up. All three monitors worked right off the bat. All I had to do was rearrange them so the mouse flowed from left to right across all three monitors. To test things further, I unplugged each monitor one-by-one, then plugged them back in to see the hub automatically negotiate the connections, while my graphics card restored the correct arrangement. Everything worked perfectly and the hub itself got a bit warm, but nothing too troubling. I tested dragging locally rendered videos, YouTube content, and even game windows from one screen to the next without any issues. You can run three screens of 1920×1080 at 60hz without any issues. Pushing it further allows you to run two of those monitors at up to 2560×1600 at 60hz before you approach bandwidth limitations of the DisplayPort specification (98% utilization). All in all I was shocked that it took me less than 10 minutes to unpack, run the wires, and plug everything in. I couldn’t see any performance difference than when I ran separate cables for each monitor. That speaks a lot to the build quality of the unit, and I feel comfortable recommending this product to anyone where an application like this would benefit them.

Here are the specs so you can decide if this is the right one for you. Accell makes a Micro DisplayPort version as well, for those with GPU’s or laptops that don’t have a full size port. Full size ports have a locking mechanism built into the cable itself, while Micro DisplayPort plugs rely on friction to hold it in. This product favors Windows machines.

Manufacturer Page: DisplayPort 1.2 to 3 HDMI Multi-Display MST Hub

Joe Currao is a blogger for TMRzoo and Founder of the high tech gaming and gadget site GadgetryTech.com. GadgetryTech.com covers all gaming consoles and platforms including Sony Playstation 4, PS4, Microsoft XBOX 360, XBOX ONE, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP and computer games and peripherals designed for Mac OS, Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. Joe provides his readers with reviews, previews, release dates on the hottest technology trends and up to date tech industry news.