Best Thunderbolt 4 USB-C Docking Station Solution?

[torontotim]

I picked up a used Targus DOCK220 Thunderbolt 3 dock and it works perfectly with my 14" MBP.

I like it because the Dock <> Laptop cable is a separate cable, not hardwired into the dock. So I can position the dock anywhere I choose and have no concerns over the cable failing.

I run an ASUS PB287 28" 4K display which uses full size DisplayPort, and the DOCK220 has DP on it. Not that it couldn't be solved with a cable, but it was nice to not have to drop another $40 on a cable.

It delivers 85w over the USB C PD, which is plenty. Most of the time my MBP is sitting on a tray next to my display, and is always plugged in. I'm letting Apple manage the battery charging to optimize battery life.

Sure do wish the MagSafe cable was also Thunderbolt - that would have been awesome. As it is, my MagSafe cable and charger are sitting in my backpack, but I'll probably just put it back in the box as when I travel I have a multi-port USB C charger I carry with me. Not going to get 'fast charging' but it's one small GaN charger and I can plug a couple of things into it.

 

[MFJones]

I just got the Caldigit Thunderbolt 4 hub and so far its working OK.

My intention is to use the MBP in clamshell mode most of the time when I'm at the desk. I think the biggest hang up there is you have to set the MBP not to sleep. If you let it go to sleep, it won't wake up properly without you opening the lid.

I tried the OWC Thunderbolt hub first since it was cheaper, but it barely worked. Peripherals were not recognized most of the time when connecting to the MBP. I would constantly have to shuffle cables to get something working, which defeated the purpose of a hub.

I have had nothing but issues with a Dell D6000 and Kensington SD4900P. CalDigit Element is incredible and solved all my problems.

 

[gank41]

I have had nothing but issues with a Dell D6000 and Kensington SD4900P. CalDigit Element is incredible and solved all my problems.

I think I’m going to save up for the CalDigit TS3 Plus & Element combo he talks about at the end of the Element demo video on its page. I’ve got a lot of older USB A devices and have had nothing but problems with various docks. Haven’t tried the CalDigit docks, though. My Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro has served me well for about a year, and I’m not sure if my problems are Dock related or macOS related.

 

[funkysmurf]

Does anyone know of a dock that can reliably drive 2 x 4k monitors at 144Hz?
The CalDigit Element Hub claims to support 2 x 6K @ 60Hz, so about 36.64 Gbps bandwidth for 8-bit panels.

A single 4K 8-bit panel @ 144Hz needs about 35.83Gbps, so theoretically this should work, but has anyone seen this work?

 

[gank41]

Does anyone know of a dock that can reliably drive 2 x 4k monitors at 144Hz?
The CalDigit Element Hub claims to support 2 x 6K @ 60Hz, so about 36.64 Gbps bandwidth for 8-bit panels.

A single 4K 8-bit panel @ 144Hz needs about 35.83Gbps, so theoretically this should work, but has anyone seen this work?

Check out the video in the Element link I posted just above. At the end he talks about combining the Element Dock with their TS3 Plus, for more versatility. I would think one monitor could be plugged into each dock, no? I’ll probably have to wait until tax return time, but I’m planning on buying both of those docks. I’ve got between 8-10 USB A external drives and dongles I need connected, along with a monitor. I’ve got another monitor I’ll end up using once I get this setup, but they’re not 4K. But I think it should work if it’s connected thru different TB4 ports on the Mac. I’m not sure if there’s enough bandwidth for two 4K monitors thru one port, unless maybe they’re the only things connected to the dock.

 

[Teledatageek]

Question for CalDigit TS3 Plus users out there - I bought one, it's working well except for one big issue. I cannot wake my MBP 14 in clamshell mode via keyboard or even opening the MBP and putting in my password. I have had to power cycle the dock each time. I worked with tech support yesterday - my complaint to them was that I couldn't wake the dock up via the wireless Logi keyboard. Their initial response was to try a wired keyboard - not an option I told them.

My prior Startech dock worked fine with the keyboard wakeup - I had a video challenge so wanted to try the CalDigit.

Seems like it'll need to send it back.

Given that - for my use, any recommendations? I originally had a dock so I could use my Dell U3818 as two separate displays. Worked great until I got the MBP 14 and something is messed up with the resolutions and PIP feature. I blame the Dell monitor (my wife has the identical set up and we get identical results). I've gotten used to one big screen and using the Mac OS features to place screens on the left and right.

I need three USB-A ports and the hub built into the Dell monitor is really flaky as it relates to the Logi camera and we are often caught without a working camera with Teams and FaceTime calls. Haven't had that problem since the CalDigit dock.

A solution that provided charging, at least three USB-A ports, and USB-C out for the monitor would be ideal. I'm also ok with no charging and I'll plug in an extra USB-C or MagSafe.

Thanks!

 

[anthonymoody]

@Teledatageek feel like I've read about this complaint a lot. I *think* the upcoming Mac OS update is supposed to fix this and until then IIRC people are setting their MBPs to not sleep in clamshell mode.

 

[Tozovac]

Agreed. Also, what about Anker’s :-

PowerExpand 5-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Mini Dock​

the above has up to 85watt power delivery.

Can anyone chime in on - what are the disadvantages, if any, to using a higher wattage power delivery for say, an M1 MBA that arrives with a 30 watt USB-C power adapter? Impact to battery health? Or is there any limit to the power delivery wattage that shouldn't be exceeded for a given MB that arrives with a specific wattage power adapter?

Sounds to me like the MBA itself throttles input charging wattage (to even below 30w at times), so it's "safe" to use higher-wattage power adapters:

Apple MacBook Air M1 with 50 % longer battery runtime, but the weak power adapter limits the charging performance

Apple advertises much longer battery runtimes for the MacBook Air with the new M1 processor. We can confirm this after our initial tests with an improvement of more than 50%. However, Apple still uses the small 30W power adapter, which limits the charging performance.

www.notebookcheck.net

Assuming an M1 MBA needs 30watt input, then a dock/hub like this which might use, say 15 watts itself (guess), would need a 45 watt (minimum) power adapter, right?

 

[Carlson-online]

Beware of the cal digit ones, they have issues with the Ethernet that can result in a network storm when your Mac goes to sleep

 

[Tagbert]

Can anyone chime in on - what are the disadvantages, if any, to using a higher wattage power delivery for say, an M1 MBA that arrives with a 30 watt USB-C power adapter? Impact to battery health? Or is there any limit to the power delivery wattage that shouldn't be exceeded for a given MB that arrives with a specific wattage power adapter?

Sounds to me like the MBA itself throttles input charging wattage (to even below 30w at times), so it's "safe" to use higher-wattage power adapters:

Apple MacBook Air M1 with 50 % longer battery runtime, but the weak power adapter limits the charging performance

Apple advertises much longer battery runtimes for the MacBook Air with the new M1 processor. We can confirm this after our initial tests with an improvement of more than 50%. However, Apple still uses the small 30W power adapter, which limits the charging performance.

www.notebookcheck.net

Assuming an M1 MBA needs 30watt input, then a dock/hub like this which might use, say 15 watts itself (guess), would need a 45 watt (minimum) power adapter, right?

There is no risk using a higher wattage power adaptor. The MBA negotiates the power levels with the power adaptor and it only gets the power it can use.

 

[Tozovac]

There is no risk using a higher wattage power adaptor. The MBA negotiates the power levels with the power adaptor and it only gets the power it can use.

Sure but is there any negative to that, for the battery or MacBook. How are the extra amps in the higher incoming wattage input managed or mitigated? Converted to heat? Does anyone know?

 

[Tagbert]

Sure but is there any negative to that, for the battery or MacBook. How are the extra amps in the higher incoming wattage input managed or mitigated? Converted to heat? Does anyone know?

The power adapter and the laptop negotiate a current level and the adaptor only supplies the current that the laptop requests. This is the same as what a phone power adaptor does.

 

[Tozovac]

The power adapter and the laptop negotiate a current level and the adaptor only supplies the current that the laptop requests. This is the same as what a phone power adaptor does.

Thanks. Is that to say that it works as: using an M1 MBA as an example which arrives with a 30 watt power adapter, the MBA recognizes when a 30 watt power adapter is being used and then runs "standard charging," and it recognizes when it's connected to a power supply of > 30 watts, after which the MBA then runs "fast charging," but only where the MBA can take advantage of fast charging up to a certain amount of input wattage?

 

[Tagbert]

Thanks. Is that to say that it works as: using an M1 MBA as an example which arrives with a 30 watt power adapter, the MBA recognizes when a 30 watt power adapter is being used and then runs "standard charging," and it recognizes when it's connected to a power supply of > 30 watts, after which the MBA then runs "fast charging," but only where the MBA can take advantage of fast charging up to a certain amount of input wattage?

Something like that, though the MBA doesn't have "heat up the battery" fast charging.
They exchange their min and max amperage range and negotiate the highest compatible level.

 

[gank41]

In my case, I'm almost always docked, too. I'll venture out maybe once a week with my M1 MBP and use it a lot, but the battery still only drops to maybe 75%. Last Thursday was my last time not docked, and my battery is showing as being 'Paused' at 78% charged. Which is great!. I think at that point it solely uses the supplied power to run, right? Battery is basically bypassed/not used at that point?

 

[Teledatageek]

If anyone is interested, using the second monitor over Thunderbolt (I am using the USB-C dongle from Apple and an HDMI cable) and setting both screens to 60Hz works just fine. I have now two independent external screens when working with the MBP 14 M1 Pro.

Do you happen to use it in clamshell mode? Curious if keyboard presses will wake up the MBP from sleep. This used to work perfectly with my old Startech dock in the MBP 13 (along with two external monitors). My CalDigit dock will not wake up and requires me to wake up by opening the laptop. At least with 12.1, I no longer have to power cycle the dock to get the display.

 

[gank41]

Do you happen to use it in clamshell mode? Curious if keyboard presses will wake up the MBP from sleep. This used to work perfectly with my old Startech dock in the MBP 13 (along with two external monitors). My CalDigit dock will not make up and requires me to wake up by opening the laptop. At least with 12.1, I no longer have to power cycle the dock to get the display.

I use mine in clamshell mode and I usually press the CAPS lock on & off a few times until it lights up and also wakes my Mac.

 

[uBetchya]

Thank you for all of your feedback guys. I've still been using the Sonnet ECHO 11 Thunderbolt 4 Dock, and still every now and then I'll get some of those ethernet issues, as well as issues with the USB where it can't detect anything connected to the dock, so I have to power cycle it. Other than that, it seems to be working okay. I think I'll try out the OWC dock whenever they become available again. I typically use the MacBook in clamshell mode as well and I don't appear to have any issues with waking it up with a wireless keyboard or mouse. It just takes a little bit of time sometimes as I'm usually used to responsiveness of an iMac.

 

[Teledatageek]

Happy to report that the CalDigit Element Hub works perfectly. Wakes up the laptop with the wireless keyboard, everything works great, etc. Sent back the CalDigit 3. The Element does everything I need it to do.