Do they make TB3 hubs for more ports?

[tmal85]

Hi

I am looking into a new Imac to replace an aging 2013 Imac. I have more devices that are TB 3 and some legacy TB 2 in my recording studio. With the Imac still having only 2 TB3 ports i was wondering if they made a hub you can plug into 1 of those ports and say add 4 more or something?

the new devices I have i would like to keep TB 3 connected or chained together and not have to go thru the TB 2 devices

So just wondering if they have something exlusively to give you more, more direct TB 3 ports

thanks

 

[Fishrrman]

I could be wrong, but...

I don't think thunderbolt3 is functional with a "hub-style connection scheme".

Rather, it uses a "daisy chained" connection paradigm.

Looking on the net, I see "thunderbolt3 hubs", but they all have only ONE tbolt3 "out" connector (as well as a tbolt3 "in" connector).

How many tbolt devices do you have?
How many of these devices have 2 tbolt ports (one "in", one "out")?
How many of these devices have only a single "in" port?

If you need more thunderbolt ports "at the source", perhaps you ought to be looking at the 2018/20 Mini, which has FOUR tbolt3 connection ports.

 

[tmal85]

Hi and thank you for the help

i have a recording studio with multiple devices that connect to my current Imac, along with some newer devices that have TB3 now. basically the new TB 3 pegasus hard drive tower only has one TB3 port so it would have to daisy chain thru the apple 27 inch TB2 monitor and I was hoping to directly connect it to the Imac and then the monitor seperate as well which would need min 3 TB 3 ports

its a large setup so to get the new devices in the daisy chain process would have to have some TB 3 going thru TB 2 ones to reach the imac, since the TB 2 ones have the extra port but the TB 3 ones do not.

i looked at the macmini and the chip just isn't powerful enough but it has the 4 ports. plus the video card wont work and I don't want an external eGPU

the imac I have spec'd is the new i9 10 core which i need.

I guess its not the end of the world to daisy chain TB 3 thru TB 2 devices I was just hoping it might be possible to not have to do that.

basically I have an Apollo MKII TB connected to a UA Octo card to the first TB 3 port and there arent any more ports on those to daisy chain anything and they are TB 2 anyway

then I have the Apply 27 inch TB 2 monitor which is great and is a hub in that it has a TB 2 port i can put the new Pegasus TB hard drive tower in if I have to, but the Hard drive tower only has 1 TB 3 out port so it would have to go to the monitor and then the monitor to the imac. which i have now in a way but with multiple hard drive TB 2 drives that the pegasus is replacing

sorry for all the info, then of course the USB ports are filled with controller, consoles, midi devices, powered USB hubs, iloks, e licencors etc

everything is rock solid on this old Imac and works great

i just don't knwo what the speed reduction is on the new Pegasus TB 3 device going thru a TB 2 to a TB 3 imac port. the Pegasus contains numerous large libraries to feed the recording programs.

anyway, i think your right though, there are no TB 3 hubs to add direct connections to. i either have to daisychain thru TB2 devices or ditch the apple monitor

 

[pldelisle]

Thunderbolt 4 will let multiplex ports. For now, it's impossible.

 

[PaulD-UK]

The iMac Pro was made for exactly this kind of use...
If the Pegasus unit is a 4 drive RAID hard disk unit (not SSDs) then its most likely not fast enough to need the full TB3 data rate. That means it should not be slowed down too much by running it off the Apple monitor (via an Apple TB2/3 adapter).