Hub / Docking Station Suggestions

[antmit]

Hi

As a WfHer these days, I now have two Benq USB-C (with DisplayPorts, too) monitors hooked up to my 2018 MBP. As they don't have inbuilt webcams, I also have a USB-A model, attached to the MBP via a USB-C adapter. I then have my MBP power supply, which obviously is plugged into the last port, and a headphone jack going to some (fairly old) Hamon/Kardon speakers.

So I'm full up. This isn't always a problem for me, as I don't tend to use much else but as the laptop is also in a sideways-style dock behind my monitors, and the schedule to turn on doesn't seem to work properly at the moment, it's quite annoying to have to take it out, wrestle with cables and open the laptop in order to turn it on. To try and fix this, I thought I'd get a USB hub / dock to only then have one or two cables to deal with each morning.

I bought the Elgato Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock, as that seemed to meet all my needs...though I'm a bit confused sometimes as to when a TB3 will work and when it specifically must be a USB-C. However, when it arrived over the weekend (I live in the UK) I found that the UK plug adapter didn't fit the power brick (image attached) and so I am having to send this back For a £300 purchase, I find that incredibly poor service.

My questions are:

1) has anyone else had the same issue with the Elgato in the UK?
2) given my requirements listed above, can anyone recommend a good alternative to the Elgato, and preferably one that doesn't have a short direct connector to the laptop?

Thanks for any advice given.
Ant

 

[mick2]

The Caldigit USB-C dock would match your requirements, as you said your 2 monitors have a display port connection:

USB-C Pro Dock | Thunderbolt 3 – CalDigit

www.caldigit.com

CalDigit USB-C Pro Dock - 85W Charging, Thunderbolt 3, UHS II SD Card Slot, USB C Gen 2, USB A x 3, Dual DisplayPort 1.2, LAN, 3.5mm Audio for Thunderbolt and USB-C Computers (0.7 Meter Cable - Grey)

USB-C Pro Docking Station - USB-C Docking Station with Dual 4K Connectivity

www.amazon.co.uk

No direct experience here, but the Caldigit stuff seems fairly well regarded.

The short cable on your elgato is due to the fact that it's a Thunderbolt 3 dock; the TB3 spec can only deliver its full 40Gb/s bandwidth over a short 50cm cable. After that, you need to get into longer 'active' TB3 cables which are expensive and have other compromises, so most TB3 docks come with a short 50cm cable only. You won't be limited in the same way with the Caldigit dock above, as its only USB-C rather than TB3.

hth

 

[Stephen.R]

For the plug issue, if you like the dock otherwise, I'd just buy a replacement plug cable. You want a UK plug one end, and C5 plug (the Mickey Mouse looking one) the other end.

For the hub question in general, it's gonna depend what other ports you want to use. You could "save" one port without a hub, by using a TB3 to DualDP adapter (I use one to run two 4K displays from a 2018 Mac mini).

If you just have some other USB accessories, you can get USB hubs that allow USB PD pass through - i.e. the hub plugs into the laptop via USB-C, provides 3 or 4 USB-A ports (and/or Ethernet, SD cards, some do HDMI/DP/VGA/etc etc) to connect devices, and then a USB-C port that your laptop charger plugs into, and power is passed through the hub, to the laptop.

 

[antmit]

For the plug issue, if you like the dock otherwise, I'd just buy a replacement plug cable. You want a UK plug one end, and C5 plug (the Mickey Mouse looking one) the other end.

For the hub question in general, it's gonna depend what other ports you want to use. You could "save" one port without a hub, by using a TB3 to DualDP adapter (I use one to run two 4K displays from a 2018 Mac mini).

If you just have some other USB accessories, you can get USB hubs that allow USB PD pass through - i.e. the hub plugs into the laptop via USB-C, provides 3 or 4 USB-A ports (and/or Ethernet, SD cards, some do HDMI/DP/VGA/etc etc) to connect devices, and then a USB-C port that your laptop charger plugs into, and power is passed through the hub, to the laptop.

Thanks for your reply.

On this, let's say I keep the Elgato, as the thought of just buying a new cable had occurred to me. I had also tried it with an older "C5" I had knocking around in the garage, after checking the fuse was correct, etc. However, I didn't feel confident in using it long-term, and the whole thing just put me off using the the unit. BUT...assuming I kept it, this is where I get confused with USB-C / TB3. Would I be able to plug my monitors' via their USB-C ports into the TB3 ports of the Elgato and they would work, or would they HAVE to go into the USB-C ports on it?

Noted re your suggestion of a Dual DisplayPort adapter. That's something I'll look into.

 

[antmit]

The Caldigit USB-C dock would match your requirements, as you said your 2 monitors have a display port connection:

USB-C Pro Dock | Thunderbolt 3 – CalDigit

www.caldigit.com

CalDigit USB-C Pro Dock - 85W Charging, Thunderbolt 3, UHS II SD Card Slot, USB C Gen 2, USB A x 3, Dual DisplayPort 1.2, LAN, 3.5mm Audio for Thunderbolt and USB-C Computers (0.7 Meter Cable - Grey)

USB-C Pro Docking Station - USB-C Docking Station with Dual 4K Connectivity

www.amazon.co.uk

No direct experience here, but the Caldigit stuff seems fairly well regarded.

The short cable on your elgato is due to the fact that it's a Thunderbolt 3 dock; the TB3 spec can only deliver its full 40Gb/s bandwidth over a short 50cm cable. After that, you need to get into longer 'active' TB3 cables which are expensive and have other compromises, so most TB3 docks come with a short 50cm cable only. You won't be limited in the same way with the Caldigit dock above, as its only USB-C rather than TB3.

hth

I had seen the Caldigit ones, too. I might get this one, thanks very much.

 

[Stephen.R]

Ok so that dock like most has two tb3 ports, but one will be used to connect to the computer.

I haven’t checked all their docs on it but the sales page for that dock suggests you need to use the remaining tb3 port (ie with the existing USB-c cable you use for the displays) plus the full size DisplayPort port to drive two displays.

theoretically I’d expect the non-tb3, USB-c ports on the back to also handle dp alt mode (which is how your monitors work over USB-c) but it sounds like they haven’t allowed for that, and only send the dp streams to the tb3 Ports and dedicated dp port.