Belkin Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock Question

[satinsilverem2]

I currently have the 1st generation Belkin Thunderbolt dock connected to my 2011 MacBook Pro. I haven't had any real complaints other than the half speed USB 3.0 ports. This wasn't an issue when I was running spinning disks that couldn't go above the 170 MB/s max. However Ive begun to use external SSDs and I would like to take advantage of the speeds. The updated Belkin dock supports full 5 Gbps USB 3.0, however that dock is Thunderbolt 2 and my Mac is Thunderbolt 1. Does anyone know that when the dock is connected over Thunderbolt 1 does it throttle back the speeds or do they run full speed. The other reason for upgrading is that the other thunderbolt port on the dock is being used by my monitor and I would like to regain that extra Thunderbolt port.

 

[ColdCase]

The other reason for upgrading is that the other thunderbolt port on the dock is being used by my monitor and I would like to regain that extra Thunderbolt port.

How will replacing the old dock with a new on save a TB port? Your monitor will still be using it... unless I'm misunderstanding something.

 

[satinsilverem2]

How will replacing the old dock with a new on save a TB port? Your monitor will still be using it... unless I'm misunderstanding something.

The new dock has a HDMI port whereas the older one didn't and I'm currently using a minidisplay Port to HDMI adapter.

 

[ColdCase]

OK, I thought just about all docks had a HDMI out, learn something new every day

 

[dyn]

Difference between Thunderbolt 1 and 2 is very minor. They have the same bandwidth but TB2 can use more of it per channel because it can bond 2 channels. That's why TB1 only goes up to 10Gbps and TB2 can do 20Gbps. I have the Caldigit Thunderbolt Station connected to my MBA 2012 (both are TB1) and this allows for full speed of USB3.0 and it even does UASP so I'm not expecting the TB2 Belkin dock to drop the USB3 speed although this is not something I can test (don't have that dock).

 

[BeatCrazy]

Even when your speed is throttled to TB1, you won't be able to saturate TB1 with even SATA3 SSDs. You've got at least 900MB/s transfer speed to play with on TB1.

So, there would be no reason that the dock would need to throttle lower than 5GB/s even though your machine has TB1. 5GB/s (shared over all the USB3 ports), won't saturate that TB1.