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Entertainer

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 24, 2013
38
6
I'm finding the same problem I had with my 2015 MBP - all thunderbolt hubs cost upwards of $300.

It's damn near impossible to find something portable and inexpensive under that price - everything I have found have been USB-C hubs.

I need the following connections:

USB3, SD Card, HDMI. And it needs to be portable. F8CK OWC hubs.


I just want to use the power that Thunderbolt 3 provides - because why include Thunderbolt 3 connections if there practically isn't anything good out there that connects to it?
 

Thysanoptera

macrumors 6502a
Jun 12, 2018
910
873
Pittsburgh, PA
So you need TB3 hub, that ... doesn’t provide TB3 port. May be difficult, I don’t really see a reason why would anybody produce such device. And why usb-c is not enough for you? You really only need TB3 if you want to drive 4k@60hz or multiple lower res monitors. Or have some fancy external RAID that can do more than 10Gbps. Or eGPU, but in this case you don’t really want to use a hub because the bandwidth will be shared with other connected devices.

Oh, and no TB3 would be ‘portable’, like the usb-c dongles.
 
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chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,702
7,264
I'm finding the same problem I had with my 2015 MBP - all thunderbolt hubs cost upwards of $300.

It's damn near impossible to find something portable and inexpensive under that price - everything I have found have been USB-C hubs.

I need the following connections:

USB3, SD Card, HDMI. And it needs to be portable. F8CK OWC hubs.


I just want to use the power that Thunderbolt 3 provides - because why include Thunderbolt 3 connections if there practically isn't anything good out there that connects to it?
It seems like a USB-C hub is exactly what you’re looking for.
 

Entertainer

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 24, 2013
38
6
But I don't understand why they make all 4 ports be Thunderbolt 3, but then the only devices you can really get are USB C. Thunderbolt 3 is 40 GB/s, USB-c is only 5. Makes no sense.
 

BLUEDOG314

macrumors 6502
Dec 12, 2015
379
120
Its just forward looking. Same physical connection so why not use the faster standard? Once TB3 is more widely adopted prices will come down.
 

apiro

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2017
169
104
I'm finding the same problem I had with my 2015 MBP - all thunderbolt hubs cost upwards of $300.

It's damn near impossible to find something portable and inexpensive under that price - everything I have found have been USB-C hubs.

I need the following connections:

USB3, SD Card, HDMI. And it needs to be portable. F8CK OWC hubs.


I just want to use the power that Thunderbolt 3 provides - because why include Thunderbolt 3 connections if there practically isn't anything good out there that connects to it?
Depends what you mean by portable.

If small but still stationary - buy this http://shop.caldigit.com/us/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=171, it's now 299.99. No one can beat it in ports/power.

If portable as in take with you every day, such a portable device would not be able to spend all the bandwidth Thunderbolt 3 has (except if you want it to drive 5K display) so not worth the cost. Buy USB-C 3.1 gen 2 (10 Gbps) device instead.
 

Entertainer

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 24, 2013
38
6
Thanks for the replies. I have the Caldigit in the Thunderbolt 2 format actually, so I’m gonna try and get a T3 to T2 cable for it.
 

Entertainer

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 24, 2013
38
6
Its just forward looking. Same physical connection so why not use the faster standard? Once TB3 is more widely adopted prices will come down.

You know they said the same thing about thunderbolt 2, and pretty much nothing existed for thunderbolt 2. By the time there will be anything in thunderbolt 3 available they’ll be using a new connector format, probably whale sounds and penguin chirps.
 

zhenya

macrumors 604
Jan 6, 2005
6,931
3,681
But I don't understand why they make all 4 ports be Thunderbolt 3, but then the only devices you can really get are USB C. Thunderbolt 3 is 40 GB/s, USB-c is only 5. Makes no sense.

The speed difference for the kind of hub you are looking for doesn't matter one bit because USB has more bandwidth than your use requires. Making the hub TB3 would add cost and complexity for zero benefit.

All 4 ports on the MBP are TB3 because it gives maximum flexibility, with minimum confusion. All ports have the same capability, so you have the option of using any port you like. Left-handed mouse users can plug in their charger/dock/accessories on the right and out of their way. You can charge, connect 2 4k monitors, and a TB3 external disk without the need of involving a dock if you so wish. And so on.
 
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