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CES 2013: Belkin Drops eSATA Support for Upcoming Thunderbolt Express Dock, Cuts Price Back to $299

iRCL said:
And according to a huge amount of reviews on Apple.com, that display has a ton of problems. I looked at getting an external display (ultimately did not end up purchasing) and I had made up my mind that the Thunderbolt display was an absolute "DO NOT BUY" compared to just the older cinema display
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Many of those reviews have to do with a lack of USB 3.0, or a lack of support with PC's. Not with 'problems' with the display.

A large number of them are individuals who bought them for their windows machines thinking they would work. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Only one Motherboard is known to support the TB display. I do think Apple should be more forward about the compatibility.
 
Perhaps I am completely missing the point of this device but I don't understand who this device is for?!
I have a macbook air, it has audio I/O, it has USB3, it has thunderbolt. It is missing ethernet (but I can add it with a relatively inexpensive and more importantly portable dongle). It doesn't have firewire, but its a portable machine, I have other machines with firewire, I can live without it on this machine (or add it with another small dongle).

I have a mac mini. It has every single port on this device. The only port it didn't have was esata (which they deleted). Mine now has 4 esata ports courtesy of lacie bridges.

I just don't get it?!
 
This same dock could be had for $59 if

1) It wasn't made by Belkin, and
2) It did not have Thunderbolt

Sorry but I don't see myself paying $300 for this device.

I can get a MBP with USB 3.0 ports and buy thunderbolt to GbE for $49 or whatever it costs on Apple.com

Anyone that spends $299 on this should just give me their paychecks. Foolish to spend this much guys! Wakeup and stop supporting Belkin. How can they even take away eSATA and drop it $100? Just goes to show how overpriced it already is and they knew it. They tried to justify removing a port for dropping the price so they could hide the fact at how overpriced it really is.
 
Hellhammer said:
Professionals that already use Macs are quite unlikely to have eSATA equipped devices because Macs have never had native eSATA ports. FireWire 800 is far more likely because it's been integrated into Macs for so long.
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A lot of video editors use esata via some kind of esata adaptor (I've got the Sonnet E34 Pro card) as it gives you a much faster data throughput over FW. For what they cost and give, esata cards are't expensive and are easy to install on both laptops and desktops.

I was holding out for this but now it's not going to have Esata I'll be buying a Lacie t bolt to Esata adaptor next week.
 
Hellhammer said:
Professionals that already use Macs are quite unlikely to have eSATA equipped devices because Macs have never had native eSATA ports. FireWire 800 is far more likely because it's been integrated into Macs for so long.


If you want a cheap eSATA solution, buying the Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter along with an eSATA to SATA cable (electrically the same, just a slightly different connector) should work. Will cost you around $150, which already includes the TB cable (note: I haven't tried this but in theory there is nothing that prevents it from working).
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I have eSATA as do all of my colleagues as in the editing industry we need the speed and throughput, Firewire 800 is redundant to us as its just way to slow.
 
dazey said:
Perhaps I am completely missing the point of this device but I don't understand who this device is for?!
I have a macbook air, it has audio I/O, it has USB3, it has thunderbolt. It is missing ethernet (but I can add it with a relatively inexpensive and more importantly portable dongle). It doesn't have firewire, but its a portable machine, I have other machines with firewire, I can live without it on this machine (or add it with another small dongle).

I have a mac mini. It has every single port on this device. The only port it didn't have was esata (which they deleted). Mine now has 4 esata ports courtesy of lacie bridges.

I just don't get it?!
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Then you are not it's target market, just like people who don't get Mac's, Jeeps, Harley's, and a variety of other things.
 
Could be a decent solution...

I have a 15'' w/ Tbolt that is my desktop during the day and goes home w/ me every night. The convenience for me is a single cable to my MBP so long as I can use both Tbolt ports for displays as I have two. Compared to the DS1, I get 3 x USB3 and a F/W port. I don't need ESATA. I have two 27'' DVI monitors… so if I can use a mini display port to DVI adaptor on each of the Tbolt ports on the rear, than it has value to me. I plug in my MBP's power and Tbolt to this and that's it… everything else is on the dock so no unplugging USB drives, hubs, etc on a daily basis.
 
I don't know how important it is, but the USB 3.0 speed is not the full 5gbs! Each port is 2.5gbs! So which is faster, FW800 or this USB 3.0 (2.5 gbs)?
 
unplugme71 said:
This same dock could be had for $59 if

1) It wasn't made by Belkin, and
2) It did not have Thunderbolt

Sorry but I don't see myself paying $300 for this device.

I can get a MBP with USB 3.0 ports and buy thunderbolt to GbE for $49 or whatever it costs on Apple.com

Anyone that spends $299 on this should just give me their paychecks. Foolish to spend this much guys! Wakeup and stop supporting Belkin. How can they even take away eSATA and drop it $100? Just goes to show how overpriced it already is and they knew it. They tried to justify removing a port for dropping the price so they could hide the fact at how overpriced it really is.
Click to expand...

There were plenty of 2011 Macs sold with Thunderbolt but no USB 3.0. That's the entire point of this product. So is that foolish?
 
I haven't bought a new Mac, display, or any sort of hub for years.

Part of it is that I'm very confused: I want 2+ external displays and ethernet on a mac notebook. So I'm definitely getting a rMBP at some point, and then slowly migrate from my ACDs to TBDs. And ideally I'd have a docked setup that allows me to plug in minimal cables when I arrive at work or home. To get there, like Looper, I feel like I'm going to be here all day talking about it, making diagrams with straws.

Apple, Intel, Belkin and others need to make a chart showing what will work with what. Daisy chaining and navigating new and legacy device limitations and incompatibilities, even for professionals who understand some of this stuff, is not straightforward or fun.

For example, ACDs will work with thunderbolt, but TBDs won't work with displayport. TB allows multiple daisy-chained displays but only if they're TBDs. And what the hell is termination? This Hub will enable what to be plugged into it exactly? Give me an interactive. If they're worried about it being used to flame your precious baby technology standards, include benchmarks (show me what the benefits are for TB vs USB 3.0). I'm convinced there are benefits to TB, but you're also playing musical ports by taking away ethernet and firewire. And until I have a grasp on what will work without trouble for a few years, I keep my money (actually my wife does).

My theory of this general lack of deep understanding of TB is what I'm using to explain away Anti-TB trolls. In addition to not seeing a lot of TB devices in the market, like myself they don't know what devices work with what. General lack of understanding and context, which leads to a lack of appreciation. You have to give USB one thing, it's idiot proof.

That said, this is a slick product and I want one just for looks alone. Let's put this on the market people.
 
Looks great. If they would've thrown in an HDMI port I would be sold! However, without that, I have no need...

I'm sure this will work really well for others, however!
 
GermanyChris said:
Then you are not it's target market, just like people who don't get Mac's, Jeeps, Harley's, and a variety of other things.
Click to expand...
I know that, I was hoping someone could explain who the target market was!? I am sure I must be missing it but after so many years in the planning Belkin must thing there is one.
 
dazey said:
I just don't get it?!
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This:

Instant access to up to 8 desktop devices with one cable
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So you can leave all your peripherals connected, with the cables nicely tucked away. Right now I'd have my display, KB, external HDD, GB ethernet, audio, all ready to go ... set the MBP down, make two connections (power and TB) and I'm done.

Plus being able to connect a 3rd USB device and potentially another TB device (my display is HDMI>TB), and MBA users getting their GB port back when at the desktop.

For $199 I'd be a definite buyer, maybe even at $229 or so. Hoping that after release, there will be enough room in the cost/msrp so discounts will be decent through NewEgg, Amazon, etc.
 
I have 2011 iMac that runs great. I am not going to buy a new machine for a few years. This dock would give me the ability to potentially use USB 3.0 ports on my older machine. If so, then it may be worth the $350 ($50 for the thunderbolt cable which isn't included) to gain some USB 3.0 connectivity. eSATA would be nice to have, but at least they didn't axe USB 3.0.

Honestly though, if there was say a $49 (or even $99) Thunderbolt to USB 3.0 adapter available, I would buy it instantly.
 
Will this allow multiple external displays connected to those TB ports?

(excuse my ignorance, please refer to my post about my ignorance)
 
Supp0rtLinux said:
I have a 15'' w/ Tbolt that is my desktop during the day and goes home w/ me every night. The convenience for me is a single cable to my MBP so long as I can use both Tbolt ports for displays as I have two. Compared to the DS1, I get 3 x USB3 and a F/W port. I don't need ESATA. I have two 27'' DVI monitors… so if I can use a mini display port to DVI adaptor on each of the Tbolt ports on the rear, than it has value to me. I plug in my MBP's power and Tbolt to this and that's it… everything else is on the dock so no unplugging USB drives, hubs, etc on a daily basis.
Click to expand...
Ah, so a possible target market, but no, you can't plug two mini display ports in the back as it only has two thunderbolt ports and one is needed to connect to your MBP.

----------
D.T. said:
This:



So you can leave all your peripherals connected, with the cables nicely tucked away. Right now I'd have my display, KB, external HDD, GB ethernet, audio, all ready to go ... set the MBP down, make two connections (power and TB) and I'm done.

Plus being able to connect a 3rd USB device and potentially another TB device (my display is HDMI>TB), and MBA users getting their GB port back when at the desktop.

For $199 I'd be a definite buyer, maybe even at $229 or so. Hoping that after release, there will be enough room in the cost/msrp so discounts will be decent through NewEgg, Amazon, etc.
Click to expand...
OK thanks, I was having trouble seeing the big picture. I have a permanent docked machine and my mobile machine so it makes zero sense for me.
 
Still a bit pricey, but a good set of ports and would make life a whole lot easier for me in the long run. eSata is slow compared to USB 3.0 and TBolt. Just get a converter and run it through the other ports which are faster anyway....
 
el-John-o said:
Thunderbolt is not dead. When apple introduced USB on the iMac before anyone else was using USB, people said it was stupid, there should be more of the 'older' ports, and it'll never take off. Give it some time.
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You're telling us that the iMac, which came out in August 1998, somehow had USB ports/technology before USB 1.0 was released in January 1996?

Ummmmmmm....

But regardless, My Win98 system (released before iMac) was using USB....and I am pretty sure my old Win95 Micron machine was using USB because I recall I didn't want to upgrade to Win98.
 
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dazey said:
...you can't plug two mini display ports in the back as it only has two thunderbolt ports and one is needed to connect to your MBP.

You answered my question. I thought the weird little port thingy in front was TB input and the back was two TB outputs.
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