Belkin Shows Off Upcoming Thunderbolt Express Dock

[iSayuSay]

Originally Posted by wikus

An adapter being a regular miniDisplay port to HDMI cable, correct? (I use an Asus PA246Q monitor).

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Most, if not all. Regardless, the bottleneck will be USB 2.0 on the laptop itself, it wouldnt make a difference to have USB 3.0 on the hub.

Uhh .. Sir, we're talking about Thunderbolt express dock here, obviously the hub IS the bottleneck if it only use USB 2.0

[danpass]

I'm guessing all the ports face the rear/wall so a nice rounded silver look faces the user.

Just the one TB pigtail cable coming to the computer (from the front as shown in the pic)

I haven't read all the responses but I hope, HOPE, at least ONE person was able to 'see' that aspect, sheesh talk about a bunch of panic filled kids

[PAPO]

Originally Posted by Tazjin

Do you have any links with information concerning this? I've never been much of a hardware guy and it does interest me a lot at the moment :-)

well the basics are

USB 2.0: 480Mb/s
BUT due to overhead of the protocol and other general ****tyness (as it was initially designed for peripherals (keyboard & mouse) and not data transfer) it NEVER achieves this in the real world, and has trouble sustaining high data throughput. it also is quite high latency

FW400 (now mostly) outdated: 400Mb/s
on paper it is slower but it is actually capable of achieving and sustaining the speeds it claims as it was designed for data transfer and is also low latency which is why it is used for high end pro Audio gear like the M-Box Pro

FW800 800Mb/s (this is the more current standard)
all the same as 400 but faster

USB 3.0 5Gb/s
while it was redesigned to be better (less overhead and general ****tyness) it is still just an evolution to fill a need from USB trying to do something it had no business doing.

ThunderBolt 10Gb/s 2 ways (20Gb/s total)
minimal overhead and for all intensive purposes it's just PCI-E on an external cable, capable of supporting multiple protocols at once across a single cable, it WILL achieve the speeds it says it will and maintain them, but everything else becomes a bottle neck when things are this fast. it is also low latency (from what I understand even lower then FW)

[yongren]

Originally Posted by strabes

If it had 1/8" audio out I'd buy it in a second.

I use this with this. Add an USB extension cable to hide the whole ugly thing under your desk and what you end up with is 1 usb cable and magsafe adapter plugged in to get all your connectivity. Unfortunately this solution makes the volume keys on the MBA not work, unless you use soundflower, but that's a pain. I really wish the kensington ethernet adapter/usb hub had audio built in though, with proper drivers so the volume keys worked.

I have almost exact the same setup, but I use an iMic audio adapter and I haven't had any problems using the keyboard's volume keys.

Also, I would be much more interested in this dock if it included a power supply and MagSafe adapter... one or two more video output options would be good too... and what's with the lack of audio output?

[Bregalad]

I'm not buying because it doesn't have the ports I want: eSATA and USB 3.0. It's also rather ugly and, knowing Belkin, will carry an Apple-like price premium.

[jaytv111]

Originally Posted by firestarter

Source?

I've not heard anything of the sort. SATA is a much more efficient and lower latency standard than USB, and supports peer level transfers. It also supports extended data on hard drives like SMART.

Unlikely.

You are right that SATA is staying around, but the SATA protocol itself is supposed to become PCIe-based starting with SATA Express: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4612/t...ta-express-ssd

[dadoftwogirls]

So it shows USB ports. Will using USB 2.0 with Thunderbolt speed things up with things like TimeCapsule or is this just another fancy USB HUB?

[sennekuyl]

Originally Posted by PAPO

well the basics are

USB 2.0: 480Mb/s
BUT due to overhead of the protocol and other general ****tyness (as it was initially designed for peripherals (keyboard & mouse) and not data transfer) it NEVER achieves this in the real world, and has trouble sustaining high data throughput. it also is quite high latency

FW400 (now mostly) outdated: 400Mb/s
on paper it is slower but it is actually capable of achieving and sustaining the speeds it claims as it was designed for data transfer and is also low latency which is why it is used for high end pro Audio gear like the M-Box Pro

FW800 800Mb/s (this is the more current standard)
all the same as 400 but faster

USB 3.0 5Gb/s
while it was redesigned to be better (less overhead and general ****tyness) it is still just an evolution to fill a need from USB trying to do something it had no business doing.

ThunderBolt 10Gb/s 2 ways (20Gb/s total)
minimal overhead and for all intensive purposes it's just PCI-E on an external cable, capable of supporting multiple protocols at once across a single cable, it WILL achieve the speeds it says it will and maintain them, but everything else becomes a bottle neck when things are this fast. it is also low latency (from what I understand even lower then FW)

NO! you are not allowed to be so obviously intelligent, yet make such moronic mistakes! Intents and purposes!

[MobiusStrip]

One one hand, this product shows the promise of Thunderbolt and demonstrates why it, and not USB, represents the future of computer I/O.

On the other, this design is clueless because of its bulk and... a DC power jack? One of the main reasons to buy this is to address Apple's stupid omission of Ethernet from the Air. There are still plenty of hotels that have only wired connections (I was in one last week, in fact the nicest room I've ever seen in a U.S. hotel). And so what does Apple do? Omit the most universal network connector from the computer that's most likely to be taken on the road. Just as they make a matte screen available on only their bulkiest, least-likely-to-travel laptop. Total detachment from reality.

Anyway, why attach the functional part of this unit to a giant V-shaped frame? If the core unit were detachable for travel, then fine. But it doesn't look that way.

And why does it have a DC power jack? Thunderbolt carries up to 10 watts of power. WTF are they doing with more than that?

[AidenShaw]

Originally Posted by MobiusStrip

And why does it have a DC power jack? Thunderbolt carries up to 10 watts of power. WTF are they doing with more than that?

Each USB 2.0 port would need to source 2.5 watts for standard power ports, or up to 10 watts per port for high power ports.

The 1394 port would need to source 7 to 20 watts or so.

The USB controller needs power.

The 1394 controller needs power.

The GbE NIC needs power.

Can't do all that with 10 watts...

Originally Posted by sennekuyl

NO! you are not allowed to be so obviously intelligent, yet make such moronic mistakes! Intents and purpose!

No, it's "intents and porpoises" (http://forallintentsandporpoises.blogspot.com/).

[heisetax]

Originally Posted by cfedu

For the price they will charge, they should have it.


I'd pay 200$ for the below

3 USB 3.0
3 USB 2.0
1 fw
2 mini display port
1 dvi
1 hdmi
2 eSATA
Audio jack
Toshlink
Card reader

If they could add a MagSafe wire I'd pay 300$

Because MagSafe is an Apple patented only item we will not see it on many non Mac items. I know that the non-Apple power adapter that i use with my 17" MacBook Pro uses a used MagSafe cable from an Apple power adapter. I find that the MagSafe is just a more expensive way of doing things. An item that would be as stationary as this lends itself to the much cheaper types of connectors.

But much of the rest is possible. I'd even purchase a new 17" MacBook Pro to bee able to use it. Actually the purchase has more to do when Intel ships the wanted processor. My lastlaptop came out the model before Apple added ThunderBolt. Good luck on your $200 model.

[PAPO]

Originally Posted by sennekuyl

NO! you are not allowed to be so obviously intelligent, yet make such moronic mistakes! Intents and purpose!

well that's what all the people I've heard say it, say and what I've always know it as. I guess it's a bit like chinese whispers (or whatever you call it where you are) thanks for the heads up I'll keep that in mind (I am intelligent enough to admit my mistakes :P )

and thank you for noticing :P

[ksgant]

They really need to get on the ball with USB 3.0. I have things right now that are USB 3.0. I picked up an external HD from Best Buy for $80 bucks that was 1TB that has USB 3.0. Yes, it works fine on my Mac via USB 2.0, but we have actual peripherals that are for sale...today....that are USB 3.0. Not some distant thing that people are working on like Thunderbolt is. While I think Thunderbolt is wonderful technology, it's not setting the world on fire with all the things coming out for it. At least not yet.

[usptact]

Ugly looking. Definitely not worth 999$ ...

[burnout8488]

This dock will be the reason Apple sells a couple more MBAs.

For some users, this eliminates the need to move up to a pro. (gigabit, FireWire, etc..) I know I'm one of those users.

There will be more docks released, my friends. In a couple years we might see some sort of ridiculous thunderbolt megadock, with ten or fifteen different ports on it. It will be $39.99 on Newegg, and be built in China by a less than reputable manufacturer, but it will work.

[weckart]

Originally Posted by firestarter

You don't know what you're talking about.

SATA is the connector standard used on drives themselves... 'USB3 drives' are actually SATA drives in a box with USB3->SATA circuitry.

Why go Thunderbolt->USB3->SATA?

SATA is here to stay.

Not always. I have a WD USB 3.0 drive and a few Samsung USB 2.0 drives, none of which has a SATA controller onboard. WD and Samsung have dispensed with the SATA controller to hook up the drive mechanism directly to a USB board.

[Elijahg]

Originally Posted by weckart

WD and Samsung have dispensed with the SATA controller to hook up the drive mechanism directly to a USB board.

...Which wouldn't be anywhere near fast enough for a SSD. SATA gets frequent upgrades to bump its speed, which doesn't happen nearly as often with USB. Some SSDs are faster than even 6Gbps SATA, USB with all its protocol overhead is miles off SATA. If you've got a mouse and hard disk on the same USB 2.0 bus, moving the mouse interrupts communication between the HDD and host... Not good at all.

[GekkePrutser]

Originally Posted by MobiusStrip

One of the main reasons to buy this is to address Apple's stupid omission of Ethernet from the Air. There are still plenty of hotels that have only wired connections (I was in one last week, in fact the nicest room I've ever seen in a U.S. hotel). And so what does Apple do? Omit the most universal network connector from the computer that's most likely to be taken on the road.

What's wrong with Apple's USB Ethernet adapter for travelling? In a hotel you'll never get more than 100mbit anyway.

This will be nice on my desk to avail of gigabit speeds at home and office but I can't imagine needing that on the road. If you really need firewire, gigabit etc on the road then you might be more in the target audience of a 13" pro.

I agree with you on the matte screens though. Don't know what they were thinking. The air is less glossy than the pro but still annoys me to no end.

[Dionte]

If those are USB 3.0 ports we have a winner.

[tbealmear]

I still need something with two thunderbolt ports so I can use two external monitors with my MBP. Hopefully a solution comes out soon.

[figaro331]

I've never liked any of Belkin's products due to their just horrible customer support. Plus Belkin's products don't last long. I wouldn't even mention anything about this company,period.

[basesloaded190]

I hope either this is truly a prototype and that they do plan on adding things such as usb 3.0( Which we don't know one way or another) or that this only brings more companies into the TB hub game.

[paross2]

I have been looking for an inexpensive docking solution since I first got a MacBook in 2007. With my new MacBook Pro, I thought Thunderbolt had some great potential!

I'd like to see:

• USB 3.0 (as many as you can cram in there)
• Firewire 400 (preferably 6 pin)
• Firewire 800
• Ethernet
• An Audio Jack
• A Microphone Jack
• Another Thunderbolt Jack (so I can plug in my monitor).

And I'd love it if it were a cube shape.

Belkin, you make that, I'll buy it the day it comes out!!!

[paross2]

Originally Posted by usptact

Ugly looking. Definitely not worth 999$ ...

It is ugly, but the $999 reference is for the Thunderbolt Display.

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/12/...rmware-update/

[GorgonPhone]

i get the feeling that apple wants to push TB over USB3... but there are vert few TB devices around..