Automate Item Movement and Management with Sophisticated Storage Upgrades
Sophisticated Storage provides various upgrades to automate item movement and management within your storage blocks. These upgrades include different tiers of hoppers, filters, and void capabilities.
Hopper Upgrades
Hopper upgrades facilitate the automatic transfer of items into and out of your storage blocks.
- The
Hopper Upgrade can pull items from a block positioned directly above the storage block. It can also push items to a block located directly below the storage block. - The
Advanced Hopper Upgrade offers more versatile item movement. It can move items between a storage block and any adjacent block. This upgrade is faster than the basic hopper and allows for configurable input and output from any side of the storage block.
Filter Upgrades
Filter upgrades allow you to specify which items can be moved into or out of your storage blocks.
- The
Filter Upgrade enables filtering of items that are piped into or out of the storage block. - The
Advanced Filter Upgrade also filters items piped into or out of storage, but it provides more filtering options compared to the basic filter.
Void Upgrades
Void upgrades are used to automatically remove unwanted items from your storage system based on specified filters.
- The
Void Upgrade voids (destroys) items that are selected in its filter. - The
Advanced Void Upgrade also voids selected items, offering more filtering options than the basic void upgrade.
Piping items in and out
Upgrades handle movement inside a block, but a network needs entry and exit points, and those are separate blocks:
Storage Input lets items be piped into a storage multiblock, and is built to keep its tick cost low.
Storage Output lets items be piped out.
Storage I/O does both from one block.
Storage Link joins a separate multiblock of storages to the same controller.- Storage Connector bridges a gap between storage blocks so a multiblock does not have to be physically continuous.
Sitting above all of them, the 
Storage Controller is what lets you deposit into, and pipe from, a whole connected group of storages as if it were one inventory.
Choosing between a hopper upgrade and a controller
For a single chest with one machine beside it, an Advanced Hopper Upgrade is the simpler answer — configurable input and output on any face, no extra blocks. Once several storages need to behave as one, the controller and its input, output and link blocks are the better shape, because you address the group once instead of configuring each container.
Compacting on the way in
Two more upgrades belong in an automation chain. The 
Compacting Upgrade turns incoming items into their compressed forms as they arrive, and the 
Advanced Compacting Upgrade handles both 2x2 and 3x3 recipes with more filtering. Placed on the receiving chest of a cobblestone or iron farm, it keeps the incoming flood as blocks rather than as loose items.
Covers the mod’s in-game guide topics: Hopper Upgrade Advanced Hopper Upgrade Filter Upgrade Advanced Filter Upgrade Void Upgrade Advanced Void Upgrade