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Review: CalDigit's Thunderbolt Station 4 Offers 18 Ports to Level-Up Mac Connectivity

Xgm541 said:
I have one of these. Been using it for nearly 10 months. Excellent device. Had to update firmware using my windows machine since at the time there was no utility to update the device via mac. Occasionally have some issues with device wake up, but generally, having so many ports has been very helpful. I use a dual monitor setup, external audio, ethernet and peripherals. i also charge my devices using the dock.

It does run warm, hot even, while in use.

I just recently purchased the previous version, TS3+ for my office.
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I recall reading about needing a Windows computer to run updates. Can this be done with a Mac now?
 
Heck yea I’ve been waiting for a good dock to come along to replace my old brydge or whatever that companies name was 🤣
 
I have one of these...sitting in a box because it died and the company completely bailed on me. Never going to see a dime from me again. It lasted around 6 months. They responded once telling me to replace the thunderbolt cable which i did and then nothing. Absolutely the worst customer service i have ever had on such an expensive product. I moved on to the OWC and it has actually lived up to the hype. No issues and it ALWAYS remembers which monitor was where unlike the Caldigit which couldn't do that when it did work. And the OWC is way cheaper! lol Amazon.com: OWC 11-Port Thunderbolt Dock, 96W Charging, 8K Display or Two 5K displays, 3 x Thunderbolt, 4 x USB, GbE, Audio, SD, Compatbile M1/M2 Macs, Thunderbolt 3 Macs, Thunderbolt 4 PCs, and USB-C Devices : Electronics
 
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MrCubes said:
I was worried about that before I bought one. They don't look that appealing in the photos. But in practice they're a lot nicer. Very solid and high quality looking. Looks right at home on top of my Mac Studio. They're not going to win any design awards but for something that is just a box of sockets its much nicer than I had expected.
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I k now why a dock is useful to me with an M2 MBP, but what does a dock add that a Studio lacks?
 
For those looking for a slimmer tb4 dock, you may want to check out the Microsoft Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock - suited my requirements quite well.
 
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I've had mine for about a year now, and it's great.

However, note that the power supply can have a slight whine to it (like "weoh-weoh-weoh"). They are replacing mine - which is great - but say that the whine may not be entirely fixed by this and is caused by the power coil in the adapter.

It's not making the noise all the time - I suspect only when the Macbook is drawing more power.

Other than this, I really love it. It's been incredibly stable.

Here's a YouTube video I made of this noise - it's hard to hear, sorry:
 
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MrCubes said:
I was worried about that before I bought one. They don't look that appealing in the photos. But in practice they're a lot nicer. Very solid and high quality looking. Looks right at home on top of my Mac Studio. They're not going to win any design awards but for something that is just a box of sockets its much nicer than I had expected.
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Velcro it to the back of a monitor - do some cable mgmt - won't even know it's there
 
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Saturnine said:
I recently bought a TS3. It worked great with my MacBook. No issues.

Unfortunately, I bought it as a “one cable solution” to be used with my personal MacBook and my work-provided Microsoft Surface Laptop.

As the Surface Laptop 3 and 4 only have USB-C connectivity (no Thunderbolt) I knew that only one 4K60 monitor would work, as per CalDigit’s documentation. In reality, however, I could only get 4K30.

I tried two different Surface Laptops. Upgraded drivers, downgraded drivers. Checked all firmware levels. Purchased brand new, certified, cables. I went through everything and could not get 4K60 working on a single monitor.

I contacted EU support, who passed the issue to US support who eventually escalated it to the engineering team. The issue went unresolved and I ended up returning the dock.

I don’t know if these issues are resolved in the TS4. Potentially great products but they’re certainly not perfect and may not fit all use cases.
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I have the TS3 at work and the TS4 at home. The TS3 apparently doesn't provide enough power to the Mac to support eternal drives, because they kept disconnecting. Eventually I added a MagSafe charger to the Mac, and now everything is fine. But with the TS4, one cable works perfectly to run (one) monitor, external drives, and anything else I have plugged into it. So it might be better for you.
 
kevinbal said:
If you bought the dock in the last couple of years, firmware should be fine -- but you'll want to install both "optional" links, the updater for the Superdrive, Keyboard, and charging as well as the utility.
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unfortunately, i purchased it used so i'm not sure. do you know if i use it for both windows and mac, should i be using both the links? as in for the "Thunderbolt Firmware Updater" should i go through both the windows installer and mac installer? would you know?
 
Slightly OT. Have a Mini and want more USB-A and -C ports as well as an SD card slot. This one has those, but obviously don't need the charging, Ethernet and Audio ports. Haven't found one with this large number of USB ports and SD.
 
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MacRumorUser78 said:
Slightly OT. Have a Mini and want more USB-A and -C ports as well as an SD card slot. This one has those, but obviously don't need the charging, Ethernet and Audio ports. Haven't found one with this large number of USB ports and SD.
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I have the same issue. I’ve looked without success. If you find one let me know. USB hubs are all around but finding a true TB4 hub that will provide a lots of FULL SPEED USB ports is a challenge
 
I've had this dock for almost a year. Works great. I have two 5K Studio Displays connected to it along with speakers, keyboard, mouse, external SSD, ethernet and a few other items for a single-cable solution attached to my 14" MBP.

No firmware issues. Mine had the newest version out of the box.
 
fc4090 said:
You can use the Caldigit Element Hub, small enough to tuck it away in the back of the desk, or stick it under the desk; has enough USB A and C ports to run two monitors. Except the output is 60w, but 60w is good enough if you are working long time connected to the hub. :)

​

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Ah thanks. I was looking at lower powered docks for a while but I read that it can be bad for the laptop battery. Not 100% sure how true that is, but didn’t wanna risk it.
 
MikeNielsen said:
I've had mine for about a year now, and it's great.

However, note that the power supply can have a slight whine to it (like "weoh-weoh-weoh"). They are replacing mine - which is great - but say that the whine may not be entirely fixed by this and is caused by the power coil in the adapter.

It's not making the noise all the time - I suspect only when the Macbook is drawing more power.

Other than this, I really love it. It's been incredibly stable.

Here's a YouTube video I made of this noise - it's hard to hear, sorry:
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thanks for the warning! Please let us know if the new supply is silent~~
 
vegetassj4 said:
Is it just me, or do most of these more powerful (TB vs USB C) docks look ugly. (Performance trumps aesthetics in most cases, but still..). Maybe I just don't like all of the logos and text alll over the things.

OWC's probably have the best look IMO.
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Razer’s looks really nice. I have one of them.
 
It took me the last 5 months (and 4 m2 drives & 6-7 external TB enclosures) to figure out my CalDigit Element Hub was responsible for random drive disconnections (and in one case, complete data corruption).

For a $250 hub purchased new in March, it's unacceptable. If you're thinking about paying $400 for this one, good luck... [insert MorganFreemanDarkKnight.gif]
 
I've been very happy with mine, no issues.

Mine sits flat on my Desk. I added some felt pads to the bottom to raise it up. I use a USB powered fan with variable speed (set to low). That's just enough to move air over & under the TS4 and keep it cool to the touch.

When doing the Thunderbolt firmware update: RTFM. I skimmed it and my first update attempt failed. Once I followed it carefully it worked perfectly.
 
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Saturnine said:
As the Surface Laptop 3 and 4 only have USB-C connectivity (no Thunderbolt) I knew that only one 4K60 monitor would work, as per CalDigit’s documentation. In reality, however, I could only get 4K30.

I tried two different Surface Laptops. Upgraded drivers, downgraded drivers. Checked all firmware levels. Purchased brand new, certified, cables. I went through everything and could not get 4K60 working on a single monitor.

I contacted EU support, who passed the issue to US support who eventually escalated it to the engineering team. The issue went unresolved and I ended up returning the dock.

I don’t know if these issues are resolved in the TS4. Potentially great products but they’re certainly not perfect and may not fit all use cases.
Click to expand...
In USB-C mode, a Thunderbolt 3/4 dock only gets two lanes of DisplayPort since the other two SuperSpeed lines of USB-C are used for USB 3.x (one line for receive and one line for transmit).

4K60 is usually handled by 4 lanes of DisplayPort at HBR2 link rate.

2 lanes of DisplayPort with HBR3 link rate or DSC is enough for 4K60. However, most 4K60 displays don't support DSC or HBR3.

To solve this, you can connect a DisplayPort 1.4 MST Hub. The MST hub can convert 2 lanes of HBR3 to 4 lanes of HBR2. You'll be limited to 8 bpc though unless DSC is used. The MST hub can take DSC input and decompress it for output. However, some MST hubs don't support decompressing 10 bpc (CalDigit SOHO, etc. - actually, I don't remember seeing any hub that can decompress 10bpc?).

Of course the MST hub solution for 4K60 requires a GPU that supports HBR3 or DSC. Older Intel iGPUs only support HBR2.

Even for a GPU that supports only HBR2, an MST hub is useful for DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI adapters (1440p60) which all require 4 lanes of HBR link rate. A DisplayPort 1.2 or 1.4 MST hub can take 2 lanes of HBR2 and convert that to 4 lanes of HBR.
 
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I'm envious of those with the one cable setup. I'm in the market for my first hub/dock and I'm wondering if you all could double-check my potential set up. I'd like to connect the following:
- One monitor via DP 1.4
- Second monitor via USB-C
- Two external drives via Thunderbolt ports
- One external drive via USB-C (either TB or not, doesn't mater)
- Wired keyboard via USB-A

Would this dock work for this setup? I guess my primary concern is the two monitors that connect with different connections to the dock; one with display port 1.4 and the other USB-C. It probably shouldn't matter but would like to know for sure.
 
How would I plug this into a Mac mini?

I like that it has an audio line in jack which apple removed on the newer Mac mini’s.

I have a late 2012 Mac mini with a line in that I use to record vinyl records into my pc with audacity. I want to upgrade my Mac mini to the new one but it’s missing the audio line in jack.

This TS4 has the line in jack but how would I connect this to a Mac min?
 
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