CES 2021: OWC Introduces Thunderbolt 4 Dock, New Storage Drives, and More

[manu chao]

I don’t get why there are any USB Type A ports at all. I‘m beyond ready for an exclusively USB Type C conector world when it comes to docks. If I have a Type A device I have more than enough Type C to Type A, B, lightning or whatever to tide me over until the rest of the peripheral world catches up and is exclusively Type C USB and Thunderbolt. I am also confused as to why there isn’t an Ethernet 10G interface on this.

I have Fitbit and Jaybird devices that came with special charging cables with USB-A plugs at one end.

 

[Digital Dude]

As a 15+ year OWC customer, I usually like their products. Back when I purchased my 1st GEN MacBook, I bought one of these from them. It became obsolete almost immediately, and it could not be upgraded to work. Never again~

 

[joevt]

The trashcan Mac Pro had six TB 2 ports.

And the new Mac Pro can have twelve TB 3 ports.

 

[theluggage]

Docks are great.

...and nobody is asking for them to go away. Docks have been an option for a decade now (OK, you used to have to plug in Thunderbolt 1/2 and magsafe... oh, the humanity!) but the post-2016 designs, especially the lower-end models with only two ports, made them a necessity for many.

Apple had one job to do - replace the two TB2 ports on the 2015 MacBook Pro with TB3/USB-C and keep the other ports & magsafe. Everybody would have been happy.

 

[davidjschloss]

Dongles, hubs, and the likes would be a thing of the past if apple just puts the ports back into their Macs. Plenty of space given how small the M1 based logic boards so it shouldn't be a brainer.....but maybe apple doesn't want to lose on that cash train on accessory sales huh?

Oh cool, someone has a better understanding of the design requirements of Apple's devices than their own engineers, finally.

 

[davidjschloss]

...and nobody is asking for them to go away. Docks have been an option for a decade now (OK, you used to have to plug in Thunderbolt 1/2 and magsafe... oh, the humanity!) but the post-2016 designs, especially the lower-end models with only two ports, made them a necessity for many.

Apple had one job to do - replace the two TB2 ports on the 2015 MacBook Pro with TB3/USB-C and keep the other ports & magsafe. Everybody would have been happy.

I mean, Apple had a few other jobs to do too? Not just keeping MagSafe on the logic board?

 

[manu chao]

...and nobody is asking for them to go away. Docks have been an option for a decade now (OK, you used to have to plug in Thunderbolt 1/2 and magsafe... oh, the humanity!) but the post-2016 designs, especially the lower-end models with only two ports, made them a necessity for many.

Apple had one job to do - replace the two TB2 ports on the 2015 MacBook Pro with TB3/USB-C and keep the other ports & magsafe. Everybody would have been happy.

But how would Apple be able to steer some customers towards the more expensive models with four TB ports if the entry-level ones came with more than two ports?

 

[Mac Prodigy]

USB 2.0 on the front. They still make USB 2.0? If they do, they shouldn't.

 

[Rafterman]

To be honest I even prefer removing that USB 2 port for cleaner look, or moving one of USB 3 ports from back to front. Don't know what they are thinking putting USB 2 port at the most accessible location.

I can only assume they meant it to be a useful "power" port to charge stuff, with the high speed peripherals connected to the back ports. But still, what did thy save on the cost, $2?

 

[theluggage]

USB 2.0 on the front. They still make USB 2.0? If they do, they shouldn't.

Sure, because it's not like there are millions of perfectly good USB 2 devices still in use that can't use and often don't need anything faster - like keyboards, mice, cheap pen drives, many mobile phones, DRM dongles, many audio interfaces and USB MIDI devices...

I can only assume they meant it to be a useful "power" port to charge stuff, with the high speed peripherals connected to the back ports. But still, what did thy save on the cost, $2?

Bandwidth costs money, and a USB 3 port needs 10x the bandwidth of USB2. There are already enough high-speed ports on the back to saturate the 40 Gb/s link to the computer.

My guess is that they needed a USB 2 controller for the SD card reader and audio (neither of which need USB3 - the SD card is only 312MB/s) and it gave them a spare USB2 port - something that is always useful to have around.

(Edit - scratch the SD ref - misread it as 312Mb/s)

 

[Eithanius]

Dang it...! I just bought myself an original Travel Dock recently and still a virgin, and now a new one got introduced...?

 

[joevt]

My guess is that they needed a USB 2 controller for the SD card reader and audio (neither of which need USB3 - the SD card is only 312MB/s) and it gave them a spare USB2 port - something that is always useful to have around.

312MB/s is much faster than USB 2.0, which means the SD card reader is attached to a USB 3.x hub. The USB Audio is probably USB 2.0 though. There may be other USB devices such as billboard or firmware connected to USB 2.0. These questions and more can be answered with the system_profiler and ioreg output that I asked for #46

 

[macduke]

All I want from CES this year is a portable SSD with 4TB of storage and speeds of 1GB/s or faster for less than $800. Hoping Samsung comes through with a T9. Also, if it’s not too much trouble, Space Gray to match my 16” MBP. Icing on the cake would be if it had a UHS-II SD card reader built-in with push button copy. Thanks CES Santa!

 

[theluggage]

312MB/s is much faster than USB 2.0

Duh... you’re right - after all those TB4 speeds in M-bits-per-sec I had a brain fart.

 

[Jimmy James]

They are actually small computers, like a router is

They are actually small computers, like a router is.

Sure. It still annoys me that I need to buy and use a second “computer” to use my computer as before.

 

[haddy]

All I want from CES this year is a portable SSD with 4TB of storage and speeds of 1GB/s or faster for less than $800. Hoping Samsung comes through with a T9. Also, if it’s not too much trouble, Space Gray to match my 16” MBP. Icing on the cake would be if it had a UHS-II SD card reader built-in with push button copy. Thanks CES Santa!

Okay....does anyone know where you can buy short (6 inch) Thunderbolt cables?

 

[chekie]

I can only assume they meant it to be a useful "power" port to charge stuff, with the high speed peripherals connected to the back ports. But still, what did thy save on the cost, $2?

I don't think it is for charging stuff. For one, it is only 7.5w, same as back ports. And like most other docks, this port probably doesn't provide any power if no PC is connected.

 

[pray2crom]

Oh cool, someone has a better understanding of the design requirements of Apple's devices than their own engineers, finally.

oh cool, someone who doesn't know the concept of money and loves paying more for less because....Apple.

 

[joevt]

Just a couple commands:

This one command outputs the information that you see in the System Information.app (About this Mac -> System Report...). The information included is: PCI, Displays, Thunderbolt, USB, and Ethernet.
system_profiler SPPCIDataType SPDisplaysDataType SPThunderboltDataType SPUSBDataType SPEthernetDataType > system_profiler.txt

This command shows the hierarchy of devices connected to the Thunderbolt ports on an Intel Mac that has Alpine Ridge or Titan Ridge such as your 16 inch MacBook Pro:
ioreg -filrw0 -k "TBTPCI_LC" > ioreg_Thunderbolt.txt

The above may only work for Thunderbolt 3 Macs. For Thunderbolt 2 Macs, this should work:
ioreg -filrw0 -k "PCI-Thunderbolt" > ioreg_Thunderbolt.txt

If you have an M1 Mac then this command should be used:
{ ioreg -filrw0 -k "thunderbolt-drom"; ioreg -filrw0 -k "atc-apcie-oe-fabric-tunables" } > ioreg_Thunderbolt.txt

I'm not sure what to do with Ice Lake Macs (10th gen CPU). I would need the entire ioreg to find out how to extract just the Thunderbolt bits.
ioreg -filw0 > ioreg_All.txt

Part of ioreg and system_profiler for the OWC Thunderbolt Hub has been posted at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/thunderbolt-3-m-2-nvme-ssd-enclosures.2027925/post-29486933 . The hub works with a Thunderbolt 2 Mac (including more than one downstream Thunderbolt port). I suppose the dock might be similar - just more USB stuff - probably from a second USB hub?

 

[polaris20]

Thinking of getting an M1 Air with 16GB RAM but stock 256GB SSD, then velcroing one of these:

OWC Envoy Pro Elektron: Rugged Portable Thunderbolt SSD

Experience the OWC Envoy Pro Elektron: a compact, waterproof, and crushproof portable SSD with up to 1011MB/s speeds for all your storage needs.

eshop.macsales.com

to a Speck Shell case. Then it could be used for both additional storage and TimeMachine.

 

[CrispUnix]

Why wouldn't they offer 100W power in the Thunderbolt dock? It's so frustrating to see al these new devices cap out at 90W or less. This won't be able to charge the MacBook Pro 16" at high load.

USB PD spec supports 100W charging. Why limit what would otherwise be a fantastic Thunderbolt dock?

 

[junior]

Oh cool, someone has a better understanding of the design requirements of Apple's devices than their own engineers, finally.

 

[beanbaguk]

Well....that's annoying....I literally just purchased an OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock! 🤯

 

[ninetyCent]

Anyone knows the refresh rate for each of those resolutions of external monitors?

 

[beanbaguk]

Anyone knows the refresh rate for each of those resolutions of external monitors?

60Hz for 2x 4K
60Hz 1x 5k