I am ordering an M1 Air that I intend to plug into an OWC ThunderBay and a Dell 4K monitor. Both the ThunderBay and the 4K monitor provide power through USB-C (up to 85W and 65W, respectively). I understand there is/has been an (older?) Apple support article stating that the Mac will only take power from the best supply available, if multiple ones are connected. Does anyone have a first-hand account to validate that, yes, it is safe to plug two power supplying sources at the same time?
The other option is to plug the 4K monitor into the ThunderBay (daisy-chaining), although I am not sure if this will degrade the audio-visual/data signal a bit. Moreover, you'd still have a situation where both the port on the ThunderBay and the port on the monitor are set up to supply power. Now, I understand the Thunderbolt (and USB?) spec is engineered to negotiate power in most scenarios - I also understand there can be variability in implementation.
While not the default use-case, I don't think my scenario is that far out in left field, which is why I'd imagine Apple, OWC and Dell have engineered for set-ups such as this.
The other option is to plug the 4K monitor into the ThunderBay (daisy-chaining), although I am not sure if this will degrade the audio-visual/data signal a bit. Moreover, you'd still have a situation where both the port on the ThunderBay and the port on the monitor are set up to supply power. Now, I understand the Thunderbolt (and USB?) spec is engineered to negotiate power in most scenarios - I also understand there can be variability in implementation.
While not the default use-case, I don't think my scenario is that far out in left field, which is why I'd imagine Apple, OWC and Dell have engineered for set-ups such as this.