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Docking station

A

AndersDK

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 15, 2021
16
0
Denmark
Hi.

I have a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports).

I would like a docking station, which is compatible with my MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports), and I would like to use it for transferring all the data from 3 external hardrives(4TB of data, 2TB of data and 2TB of data, all together 8 TB of Data) to a temporary storage device from IDrive(It's part of a service called IDrive express, where you receive a temporary storage device from IDrive, and then transfer your data to the temporary storage device and then resend it to IDrive who then upload your data from the temporary storage device and into the cloud).

Any suggestions?
 
Check the following brands for "Thunderbolt 3 Docks" or Hubs and choose what suits you in terms of price/connectivity:
Caldigit, Belkin, OWC, Elgato, Anker, Startech.
 
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AndersDK said:
Hi.

I have a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports).

I would like a docking station, which is compatible with my MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports), and I would like to use it for transferring all the data from 3 external hardrives(4TB of data, 2TB of data and 2TB of data, all together 8 TB of Data) to a temporary storage device from IDrive(It's part of a service called IDrive express, where you receive a temporary storage device from IDrive, and then transfer your data to the temporary storage device and then resend it to IDrive who then upload your data from the temporary storage device and into the cloud).

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
It would appear that your drives are spin platter drives and not nvme SSDs.
Also, I presume you intend to do the data transfer sequntially (i.e. one drive after the other)

If that assumption is correct then it may be pointless to spend the money on a TB3 dock as even a much cheaper USB C hub - or even a couple of USB C-> USB A adapters (< 10USD for say amazonbasics) will do the job at a fraction of the price of a TB3 dock
Yet offering the same level of performance for your use case (as the bottleneck will be the drive speed and not the port)

On a sidenote, TB3 dock pricing continues to be absurd ( at least in my country) - good TB3 docks are almost 2/3rd the price of a full M1 mini
Barring specialized use cases, I see no justification to get one until prices come down to logically reasonable levels
 
Last edited:
abhi182 said:
It would appear that your drives are spin platter drives and not nvme SSDs.
Also, I presume you intend to do the data transfer sequntially (i.e. one drive after the other)

If that assumption is correct then it may be pointless to spend the money on a TB3 dock as even a much cheaper USB C hub - or even a couple of USB C-> USB A adapters (< 10USD for say amazonbasics) will do the job at a fraction of the price of a TB3 dock
Yet offering the same level of performance for your use case (as the bottleneck will be the drive speed and not the port)

On a sidenote, TB3 dock pricing continues to be absurd ( at least in my country) - good TB3 docks are almost 2/3rd the price of a full M1 mini
Barring specialized use cases, I see no justification to get one until prices come down to logically reasonable levels
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply. Does this mean, that a 'USB C to USB 4-Port HUB' is sufficient?
 
AndersDK said:
Thank you for the reply. Does this mean, that a 'USB C to USB 4-Port HUB' is sufficient?
Click to expand...
Yes.. do get something that is rated USB 3 at least.
The cheaper hubs can be a bit iffy so would suggest getting something from a known make.

The simplest method would be 2x USB -C to A cables from amazonbasics as long as you don't need all drives to connected at once (which is at least how I inferred the use case you have described)
 
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abhi182 said:
Yes.. do get something that is rated USB 3 at least.
The cheaper hubs can be a bit iffy so would suggest getting something from a known make.

The simplest method would be 2x USB -C to A cables from amazonbasics as long as you don't need all drives to connected at once (which is at least how I inferred the use case you have described)
Click to expand...
Okay, thanks for the reply.
 
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