Elgato's $300 Thunderbolt 3 Dock With Dual 4K Display Support Launches June 6

[MacRumors]

Elgato today announced that its upcoming Thunderbolt 3 Dock, which was first introduced in January at CES, will be available starting on Tuesday, June 6 for $299.95.

Elgato's Thunderbolt 3 Dock, designed to work with the new 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models Apple introduced back in October, features three USB 3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, two Thunderbolt USB-C ports, one DisplayPort with DisplayPort 1.2 support, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 3.5mm microphone input jack.

The dock is able to provide up to 85 watts of power and can charge a MacBook Pro while also offering multiple ports for connecting displays and accessories. It can drive one 5K display at 60Hz through the Thunderbolt 3 port or two 4K displays simultaneously at 60Hz using the DisplayPort and a Thunderbolt 3 port.

- DisplayPort output: up to 4096 x 2160 pixels at 60 Hz

- Thunderbolt 3 output: up to 5120 x 2880 pixels at 60 Hz

- Dual displays: up to 4096 x 2160 pixels at 60 Hz each

- 4K60 over HDMI 2.0 supported using active adapters (not included) via USB-C and DisplayPort

USB-C accessories are powered with up to 15 watts and the dock's USB-A ports can charge an iPhone or iPad at full speed. Elgato's dock is priced similarly to other Thunderbolt 3 docks on the market, with a 1.6ft Thunderbolt 3 cable included in the $299.95 price tag.

It can be purchased in the U.S., Europe, and Australia starting on June 6 from the Elgato website.

Article Link: Elgato's $300 Thunderbolt 3 Dock With Dual 4K Display Support Launches June 6

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Far too high priced when compared to other offerings on the market that offer the same ports or more for far less.

 

[ziggie216]

Far too high priced when compared to other offerings on the market that offer the same ports or more for far less.

Like? I haven't seen any other TB3 dock that will be releasing for that much cheaper price and I don't think there is any TB3 docks at the moment on the market.

 

[Cougarcat]

Far too high priced when compared to other offerings on the market that offer the same ports or more for far less.

$300 is the standard price for a TB3 dock that fully charges.

That said, I'm not sure why you'd buy this when Caldigit offers the same thing with two
eSata ports. New orders of that one don't ship until July, though.

Edit: with Intel dropping Thunderbolt licensing fees, hopefully these will drop in price.

 

[Marx55]

Bring eSATA ports.

 

[theluggage]

Far too high priced when compared to other offerings on the market that offer the same ports or more for far less.

Those are USB-C docks, not Thunderbolt 3 docks. They are superficially similar, but based on quite different technology.

A cheaper USB-C dock may well be the best choice for the job if you don't need the full bandwidth of TB3. However...

• If you want to connect 40Gbps TB3 devices to the dock, you need TB3.
• If you want to "dock" a 5k display, you need a TB3 dock.
• If you want to run dual displays off the dock* you need a TB3 dock.
• If you want to run a 4k@60Hz display or better off the dock and connect USB devices at USB3 speeds (or really get gigabit speeds out of the gigabit ethernet) then you need a TB3 dock. A USB-C link can only carry USB2.0 alongside a 4k@60Hz video signal.

* at least on Mac which doesn't support displayport daisychaining... there are some dual-display USB-C docks but they only work on Windows, and there's the "Hyper" portable dock which - as far as I can tell - is a USB-C snap-on dock that includes a straight through "replicator" connector for the second TB3 port on the MacBook Pro that the dock would otherwise block.

 

[Mobster1983]

Very nice. I have been waiting for the Henge Dock, but this one is tempting.

My main issue is my logitech mouse and keyboard dongles interfere with each other so need to be spaced out a bit. Would prefer to put both on the back, but one on the front may work. Has all the other ports I need, the none wasted.

 

[unashamedgeek]

Very nice. I have been waiting for the Henge Dock, but this one is tempting.

My main issue is my logitech mouse and keyboard dongles interfere with each other so need to be spaced out a bit. Would prefer to put both on the back, but one on the front may work. Has all the other ports I need, the none wasted.

I'm holding out for the Henge Tethered Dock as well. But it will get harder to wait the longer it takes. They still are just saying that it should ship this year.

 

[emm386]

A 300$ port replicator? I beg your pardon?! This thing shouldn't even be necessary in the first place!

Looking at the MacBook's price, the port selection it offers is abominable... no idea how people can get serious work done on these in a rough, heterogeneous enterprise environment.

Yet again, Apple created a market for niche solutions (that should not exist) by patronizing its customers my omitting industry standards.

 

[ziggie216]

Bring eSATA ports.

http://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-3-dock/thunderbolt-station-3/

 

[theluggage]

A 300$ port replicator?

Thing is, it's not a port replicator. It's a box with a TB3 controller, an internal PCIe bus driving USB and Ethernet controllers, and prbably a fair bit of gubbins to split off a DisplayPort signal.

Problem is, people are seeing it as an essential solution to the lack of regular ports on the MBP where, previously, they would have got a $50 USB hub. Unfortunately, Apple have built themselves a little echo chamber full of people who think USB-A, DisplayPort and HDMI are somehow obsolete.

As per my previous post: if you just want some USB ports and a HDMI port, get a USB-C dock for a lot less - only get TB3 if you need the bandwidth and dual display capability.
[doublepost=1495662381][/doublepost]

My main issue is my logitech mouse and keyboard dongles interfere with each other so need to be spaced

Doesn't your Logitech stuff support their "unifying receiver" technology so you can use the same dongle for both?

 

[brbttyl]

When are these fools going to put out a dock that can drive two displays with dedicated ports, leaving at least one free thunderbolt port for drives, enclosures, etc downstream?

 

[Mobster1983]

Doesn't your Logitech stuff support their "unifying receiver" technology so you can use the same dongle for both?

You would think. The keyboard I have does. However the mouse, a G602 gaming mouse, requires its own special receiver due to a more accurate action (or something like that). Kinda annoying, but this is the mouse I like best.

 

[sudo1996]

If I'm going to pay $300 for ports, there had better be some Thunderbolt-specific benefit like an external GPU inside. My rMBP sometimes struggles just with one external 2K or 4K monitor, which is the only time the experience isn't smooth, and I hate it when the laptop gets hot. A cheap desktop GPU inside a docking station would easily handle it. Then it can truly be a laptop-becomes-desktop solution since mobile CPU and RAM are already powerful enough nowadays.

 

[foobarbaz]

That said, I'm not sure why you'd buy this when Caldigit offers the same thing with two eSata ports.

eSATA used to be a great thing. But at this point, I'm not sure why I'd even bother ... It's too slow for good SSDs, and USB is fast enough for spinning disks. You lose flexibility, because you can plug it in almost nowhere. And you need another power brick, because it's unpowered.

So I'll get whichever I can find cheaper/on sale. (Though this one looks much nicer, IMHO.)

But I can't believe neither includes an SD card reader ... Such an obvious omission. There's probably 100 times more people needing that compared to eSATA.

 

[Scorder]

But I can't believe neither includes an SD card reader ... Such an obvious omission. There's probably 100 times more people needing that compared to eSATA.

Agreed, the OWC one has a reader if and when it ever ships. Their latest info is the end of this month or sometime into the Summer. To me that doesn't mean much.

 

[Cougarcat]

Agreed, the OWC one has a reader if and when it ever ships. Their latest info is the end of this month or sometime into the Summer. To me that doesn't mean much.

The problem with the OWC is that it inexplicably only supports 60 watts for charging. If you care about SD cards the perfect dock doesn't exist.

 

[unashamedgeek]

The problem with the OWC is that it inexplicably only supports 60 watts for charging. If you care about SD cards the perfect dock doesn't exist.

That is why I'm holding out for Henge's Tethered T3 dock. It has SD card, 85 watts, dual 4k display, etc. It meets my needs and doesn't really have anything I don't want. However, without a shipping date, it sucks.

 

[JTToft]

When are these fools going to put out a dock that can drive two displays with dedicated ports, leaving at least one free thunderbolt port for drives, enclosures, etc downstream?

- Henge Docks is intending to do just that with theirs. But it will probably mean that the Thunderbolt 3 port can't be used for display output.

https://hengedocks.com/pages/tethered-docks

 

[theluggage]

When are these fools going to put out a dock that can drive two displays with dedicated ports, leaving at least one free thunderbolt port for drives, enclosures, etc downstream?

- Henge Docks is intending to do just that with theirs. But it will probably mean that the Thunderbolt 3 port can't be used for display output.

...if it were a PC dock, I'd suspect that it used MST to daisychain two displayports off one of TB's two 'displayport streams - which isn't supported on MacOS. However, Henge a re mac-centric outfit so perhaps they're doing it properly.

I don't think it was possible with Thunderbolt 1/2 (without actually putting 2 TB controllers in the dock) - but TB3 has to allow it for 5k...

However, let's get real: a "UHD 4k"@60Hz screen eats 12.54 Gbit/s of bandwidth. "Proper" 4k a bit more. Connect two of those to a dock and that eats over half of TB3's 40Gbits/s bandwidth. (...and I'm sure, like any other packet-based interface, TB3 will start to get laggy if you get close to full capacity).

So if you're running dual retina-class displays and some USB 3 stuff off one of your Mac's thunderbolt ports, and you have another high performance TB3 device to attach (if it wasn't high performance you'd be using USB) then the smart thing to do would be to put up with the utter humiliation of plugging a second TB3 cable into your Mac and give it a "clean" 40Gbps of bandwidth.

Also, with the 13", only the TB3 ports the left-hand side get the full 40Gbps PCIe bandwidth - which doesn't affect displayPort performance - so it would make sense to run your displays off the right-hand ports.

I know, plug in two cables... what next, take shampoo and conditioner into the shower!?

 

[JamesPDX]

Look at all that wasted space. I won't even ask why the MacBook "Pro" only has four ports (actually, only three. If one is sacrificed as a charging port, then you only have 3 ports. But that's another matter.

Anyway,

What this and every Super-Dongle is missing is at least one more Thunderbolt (2 or 3) port. Having only two is worthless when one of the ports is simply for attaching the device to your Mac.

So listen up, manufacturers: Put in 3 or more USB-C/Thunderbolt ports.


Elgato today announced that its upcoming Thunderbolt 3 Dock, which was first introduced in January at CES, will be available starting on Tuesday, June 6 for $299.95.

Elgato's Thunderdongle 3 SuperDongle, designed to work with the new 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models Apple introduced back in October, features three USB 3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, two Thunderbolt USB-C ports, one DisplayPort with DisplayPort 1.2 support, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 3.5mm microphone input jack.

The dock is able to provide up to 85 watts of power and can charge a MacBook Pro while also offering multiple ports for connecting displays and accessories. It can drive one 5K display at 60Hz through the Thunderbolt 3 port or two 4K displays simultaneously at 60Hz using the DisplayPort and a Thunderbolt 3 port.

USB-C accessories are powered with up to 15 watts and the dock's USB-A ports can charge an iPhone or iPad at full speed. Elgato's dock is priced similarly to other Thunderbolt 3 docks on the market, with a 1.6ft Thunderbolt 3 cable included in the $299.95 price tag.

It can be purchased in the U.S., Europe, and Australia starting on June 6 from the Elgato website.

Article Link: Elgato's $300 Thunderbolt 3 Dock With Dual 4K Display Support Launches June 6

 

[theluggage]

Look at all that wasted space.

...a couple more USB-A ports (even if they're only 2.0) on the front would have been nice... however, its also nice to be able to fit USB sticks/dongles etc. side-by-side into the ports.

What this and every Super-Dongle is missing is at least one more Thunderbolt (2 or 3) port. Having only two is worthless when one of the ports is simply for attaching the device to your Mac.

Unfortunately, thunderbolt doesn't work like that - its a "bus" system rather than a "star" system - i.e. you can chain multiple TB devices in the line but you can't have "branches". So you'll always have, at most, one TB "in" and one TB "out" per device.

They could, potentially, add another USB-C (non-TB3*) out, and the Henge dock that has already been mentioned offers one (but isn't yet available).

However, I think the current reality is that peoples' #1 priority is getting their legacy ports back - not gaining extra USB-C or Thunderbolt connectors. Also, as per my previous post, by the time you've hung a 4k display and some USB 3 devices off a dock like this you'll probably want to add any further TB3 devices direct to the Mac to get the full bandwidth.

...and for anything that doesn't need the full bandwidth you're probably better off staying with USB3 (whether its over an A- or a C- connector).

[*We need a name for a USB-C port that isn't a TB3 port since, technically, TB3 ports are USB-C ports...]

 

[Cavepainter]

A 300$ port replicator? I beg your pardon?! This thing shouldn't even be necessary in the first place!

Looking at the MacBook's price, the port selection it offers is abominable... no idea how people can get serious work done on these in a rough, heterogeneous enterprise environment.

Yet again, Apple created a market for niche solutions (that should not exist) by patronizing its customers my omitting industry standards.

A few weeks ago, we had a big meeting at our studio and the whole crew went in to the posh conference room to hook up to the studio's built in equipment and look at a video the Producer wanted us to see. We all sat down, and a moment later the Producer walked in with her shiny new Mac Book Pro and started to hook up to the built-in equipment to show us all the video. After fumbling around for a few minutes, she gave us a funny look and stepped away from the computer. She paused for a moment, then apologized to the whole crew, saying "Damn- sorry- I can't hook up- I'm missing an adapter. I guess we're done."

She muttered "f****in' Mac" and about 25 people laughed (we all got the joke) and we all left and went back to work.

 

[sudo1996]

A few weeks ago, we had a big meeting at our studio and the whole crew went in to the posh conference room to hook up to the studio's built in equipment and look at a video the Producer wanted us to see. We all sat down, and a moment later the Producer walked in with her shiny new Mac Book Pro and started to hook up to the built-in equipment to show us all the video. After fumbling around for a few minutes, she gave us a funny look and stepped away from the computer. She paused for a moment, then apologized to the whole crew, saying "Damn- sorry- I can't hook up- I'm missing an adapter. I guess we're done."

She muttered "f****in' Mac" and about 25 people laughed (we all got the joke) and we all left and went back to work.

They should have an Apple TV or something for streaming the screen. Gets rid of this problem permanently, plus it's easier. Macs always have had the weirdest display outputs, except for the rMBP when it finally had a frickin regular HDMI port like it should. And adaptors never work 100% of the time, even when you have the right ones.

 

[JamesPDX]

Cough! Lightning to DV/HDMI dongle! No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... No Signal... ...Signal after 15 minutes.

You should be able to plug-in whatever wherever -at least HDMI and it should work. Function and productivity rules over fashion. I wonder how much that "failure-to-project" cost that company.
Even my Full-frame Canon DSLR has a Mini-HDMI out. It's right next to it's Mini-USB port.

BTW, I tried a 2016 MBP again yesterday. The keyboards still feel like crap. But that's just my observation. I think that the USB-C dongle port should also be bigger or wider. For the love of dongles, a wider bus could mean an extra 10Gbps for a total of 50Gbps (per dongle). If the USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 dongle-slot was engineered a little bigger, who knows? It may have delayed USB-D/Thunderbolt 4 until 2019.
[doublepost=1496042304][/doublepost]

...a couple more USB-A ports (even if they're only 2.0) on the front would have been nice... however, its also nice to be able to fit USB sticks/dongles etc. side-by-side into the ports.

Unfortunately, thunderbolt doesn't work like that - its a "bus" system rather than a "star" system - i.e. you can chain multiple TB devices in the line but you can't have "branches". So you'll always have, at most, one TB "in" and one TB "out" per device.

They could, potentially, add another USB-C (non-TB3*) out, and the Henge dock that has already been mentioned offers one (but isn't yet available).

However, I think the current reality is that peoples' #1 priority is getting their legacy ports back - not gaining extra USB-C or Thunderbolt connectors. Also, as per my previous post, by the time you've hung a 4k display and some USB 3 devices off a dock like this you'll probably want to add any further TB3 devices direct to the Mac to get the full bandwidth.

...and for anything that doesn't need the full bandwidth you're probably better off staying with USB3 (whether its over an A- or a C- connector).

[*We need a name for a USB-C port that isn't a TB3 port since, technically, TB3 ports are USB-C ports...]

So you'd need a chip that has more lanes? Or is it also MOBO design? I'm seeing a lot of PC MOBOs out there with many, many ports, including at least two USB-C (or is it Thunderbolt 3? Or do we need to buy a PCI Thunderbolt 3 card?)

And so then it's true. Even with the removal of "legacy" ports, Apple still didn't put enough dongle-slots on the Thinbook Prosumer (Extra-Slim). This skinny jeans sub-conscious thing is really going into overtime.

How about this? If the laptop your selling doesn't have an ethernet port, you're basically hocking a really expensive iPad with a keyboard attached by a hinge. And a fan.

I wonder if Elon Musk could turn Apple around? I wonder what he'd give us in terms of computing. Okay. I'll stop now.