Thunderbolt Docks

[hopkins802]

Alright guys and gals, what are you favorite thunderbolt docks. I need something with a bunch of fast USBC ports and supports two 4k 60p monitors. I'm using this QGeeM Thunderbolt 4 dock and although the DisplayPort and HDMI ports work, their scaling options are horrible. You either can do UHD or 1080p. I'm using two 27" UHD monitors which need around 150% scaling to look right. You have the option to do other resolutions at "low resolution", so the text is all blurry. Anyway, I'm solving this by daisy chaining it to another dock. It's causing some things to disconnect and it's not stable.

While I do love the portability of going from a desktop setup to a laptop, I am missing the robust port support of a true desktop. What is everyone using?

 

[Sterkenburg]

OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock. Has all the ports I need while still being relatively compact, and handles my 27" UHD monitor well even at 144Hz. The newly released CalDigit TS4 is a tempting big boy as well, if you don't mind the price.

 

[Gnattu]

Caldigit recently announced their latest Thunderbolt dock, the THUNDERBOLT STATION 4, which is so far the most powerful(personal opinion) Thunderbolt 4 dock. It is going to be available in March and cost around $359.95 in the US which is a little bit costly.

 

[hopkins802]

OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock. Has all the ports I need while still being relatively compact, and handles my 27" UHD monitor well even at 144Hz. The newly released CalDigit TS4 is a tempting big boy as well, if you don't mind the price.

Yeah the OWC is also out of stock. It also doesn't have that many ports if you plug two monitors into the TB4 ports. Leaves only one fast data port at that point, doesn't it? I will absolutely get that CalDigit one once it becomes available, it's out of stock everywhere though.

 

[hopkins802]

Caldigit recently announced their latest Thunderbolt dock, the THUNDERBOLT STATION 4, which is so far the most powerful(personal opinion) Thunderbolt 4 dock. It is going to be available in March and cost around $359.95 in the US which is a little bit costly.

Just saw that. Take my money though. I'll happily pay for a beast of a dock that just has it all, vs creating a mess of dongles and daisy chains on my desk. I'll definitely keep an eye on that.

 

[Sterkenburg]

Yeah availability is an issue, we're in the middle of a supply chain crisis and these are expensive low-volume products to begin with. I live in Japan and ordered the OWC for Xmas because it was literally the only decent full-sized dock that someone had in stock locally. Wait for the CalDigit to become available again, it literally came out yesterday.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Caldigit recently announced their latest Thunderbolt dock, the THUNDERBOLT STATION 4, which is so far the most powerful(personal opinion) Thunderbolt 4 dock. It is going to be available in March and cost around $359.95 in the US which is a little bit costly.

It really depends what mix of ports you need. The TS4 only has two output Thunderbolt ports, so if your need is plugging in true TB drives like Samsung X5, you would be better off with others which have up to four, including Caldigits own Thunderbolt 4 Element hub

 

[hopkins802]

It really depends what mix of ports you need. The TS4 only has two output Thunderbolt ports, so if your need is plugging in true TB drives like Samsung X5, you would be better off with others which have up to four, including Caldigits own Thunderbolt 4 Element hub

This is a good point. I guess if you had multiple NVMe, USB 3.2 2x2, USB4 or TB drives then the TS4 might not give you what you want. I didn't realize that those extra USBC ports on the TS4 were "only" 10gbps. I use a dual NVMe enclosure that will definetely need to be hooked into one of the TB4's, then I was going to use a TB4 for one monitor, and the displayport for the other. Now that I look at it again, it doesn't have as many TB4's as I was hoping...Too bad the Element Hub doens't have ethernet or audio outputs. Though, I suppose you could daisy chain those or use adapters...

 

[Inutopia]

It really depends what mix of ports you need. The TS4 only has two output Thunderbolt ports, so if your need is plugging in true TB drives like Samsung X5, you would be better off with others which have up to four, including Caldigits own Thunderbolt 4 Element hub

You're really better off not doing that anyway, at least not if you want decent speeds from your pcie flash. The displays already take up a massive amount of the TB4 bandwidth. Better plug a device like that in to a bus that is not running a display.

 

[hopkins802]

You're really better off not doing that anyway, at least not if you want decent speeds from your pcie flash. The displays already take up a massive amount of the TB4 bandwidth. Better plug a device like that in to a bus that is not running a display.

My current workaround has been using a QGeeM 16-in-1 (https://www.qgeem.com/products/qgeem-thunderbolt-4-docking-station) and daisy chaining a OWC Thunderbolt Hub from one of the TB4 ports of that. All in, it cost me like $500, but I have 5 active TB4 ports (8 total), 2x USB 3.0 (5gbps), 1x USB 3.2 Type A (10Gbps), 2x USB 2.0 ports (for mice and keyboards and such), SD card reader, ethernet and audio outputs. The QGeem also has DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 ports, but the way they allow scaling on a Macbook M1 is really annoying. You either have to choose full UHD, or 1080p, or a "low-resolution" mode for the other options. On a 27" UHD screen, setting scaling to UHD makes everything absolutely tiny, and 1080p, too large. So, I'm using two of the TB4 ports to drive my 2x UHD 60hz monitors, and the rest for connecting fast TB4 SSDs, NVMe enclosures and card readers. It's all a bit overkill, but I really like not having to dangle things from the laptop itself. I still have 2 TB4 ports free on the M1 Max if really needed.

 

[Inutopia]

My current workaround has been using a QGeeM 16-in-1 (https://www.qgeem.com/products/qgeem-thunderbolt-4-docking-station) and daisy chaining a OWC Thunderbolt Hub from one of the TB4 ports of that. All in, it cost me like $500, but I have 5 active TB4 ports (8 total), 2x USB 3.0 (5gbps), 1x USB 3.2 Type A (10Gbps), 2x USB 2.0 ports (for mice and keyboards and such), SD card reader, ethernet and audio outputs. The QGeem also has DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 ports, but the way they allow scaling on a Macbook M1 is really annoying. You either have to choose full UHD, or 1080p, or a "low-resolution" mode for the other options. On a 27" UHD screen, setting scaling to UHD makes everything absolutely tiny, and 1080p, too large. So, I'm using two of the TB4 ports to drive my 2x UHD 60hz monitors, and the rest for connecting fast TB4 SSDs, NVMe enclosures and card readers. It's all a bit overkill, but I really like not having to dangle things from the laptop itself. I still have 2 TB4 ports free on the M1 Max if really needed.

So sounds like your NVME will still be extremely limited then? If it's all plugged in to one port on the laptop then you've only got 1x40gbps bus. Doesn't matter how many ports you decide to make out of it, those displays will murder the SSD performance

 

[hopkins802]

So sounds like your NVME will still be extremely limited then? If it's all plugged in to one port on the laptop then you've only got 1x40gbps bus. Doesn't matter how many ports you decide to make out of it, those displays will murder the SSD performance

It's very close... I'm not going to get 40gbps on my nvme's anymore. I'm getting 1500MB/s writes and 2400MB/s reads with it plugged into my TB4 dock, and getting 1900MB/s and 2400MB/s reads when plugged directly into an empty TB4 port on the M1.

 

[Inutopia]

It's very close... I'm not going to get 40gbps on my nvme's anymore. I'm getting 1500MB/s writes and 2400MB/s reads with it plugged into my TB4 dock, and getting 1900MB/s and 2400MB/s reads when plugged directly into an empty TB4 port on the M1. View attachment 1957544

Explain to me how you get those speed with 2 (!?) monitors also running over the same TB bus? Either I'm missing something in your setup, or you're telling porkies. It's not possible to see those transfer speeds with 1 monitor plugged in to the same TB bus, let alone 2.

 

[MRxROBOT]

Explain to me how you get those speed with 2 (!?) monitors also running over the same TB bus? Either I'm missing something in your setup, or you're telling porkies. It's not possible to see those transfer speeds with 1 monitor plugged in to the same TB bus, let alone 2.

This displays refresh rates slow to a crawl when the SSD's go full throttle.

 

[hopkins802]

Explain to me how you get those speed with 2 (!?) monitors also running over the same TB bus? Either I'm missing something in your setup, or you're telling porkies. It's not possible to see those transfer speeds with 1 monitor plugged in to the same TB bus, let alone 2.

Just realized that I have one of my monitors plugged into the Macbook's HDMI, haha. I'll run the tests again on Sunday when I get my TB4 to DisplayPort cable.

However, it's 100% possible to get those transfer speeds with 1 monitor plugged in, because I am. I have one plugged into the OWC Thunderbolt Hub, which is plugged into one of the TB4 outputs of my main dock. I'll just upload a video of the setup and show you when I get home Sunday. Nothing to try and prove, just figured I'd show you it's possible. It'd be pretty funny to make this up.

 

[Gnattu]

This is a good point. I guess if you had multiple NVMe, USB 3.2 2x2, USB4 or TB drives then the TS4 might not give you what you want. I didn't realize that those extra USBC ports on the TS4 were "only" 10gbps. I use a dual NVMe enclosure that will definetely need to be hooked into one of the TB4's, then I was going to use a TB4 for one monitor, and the displayport for the other. Now that I look at it again, it doesn't have as many TB4's as I was hoping...Too bad the Element Hub doens't have ethernet or audio outputs. Though, I suppose you could daisy chain those or use adapters...

A single TB port has only that much capability. If you really need that much devices, you still have two more TB4 ports on your MacBook Pro. You can think of the TS4 as an Element hub but with some adapters pre-installed to one of the downstream TB4 port, just like the you are already doing the daisy chaining.

 

[Gnattu]

It really depends what mix of ports you need. The TS4 only has two output Thunderbolt ports, so if your need is plugging in true TB drives like Samsung X5, you would be better off with others which have up to four, including Caldigits own Thunderbolt 4 Element hub

I'm using the Element hub at home now, using it to connect to 10Gb Ethernet and a couple of USB devices, and I have to say that although it has one more downstream TB4, you may not able to use that if you are using it to connect to your monitor, eventually you have the same amount of downstream TB4 ports as using TS4 and connecting monitor with the DP port.

 

[Gnattu]

it's 100% possible to get those transfer speeds with 1 monitor plugged in, because I am.

A single DP up to a certain resolution (UHD at 60Hz if I remembered it correctly) does not hurt Thunderbolt data rate by design. But it does when you going to higher resolution or using multiple monitors or higher refresh rate.

 

[hopkins802]

Explain to me how you get those speed with 2 (!?) monitors also running over the same TB bus? Either I'm missing something in your setup, or you're telling porkies. It's not possible to see those transfer speeds with 1 monitor plugged in to the same TB bus, let alone 2.

Confirmed, with one UHD 60Hz monitor plugged into my hub via TB4, the NVMe enclosure gets the speeds reported above. When I plug another one in, the NVMe enclosure drops to 900MB/s R/W. So, I’ll just continue using the HDMI port of the MacBook, and return my daisy chained TB4 hub!