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I need more Thunderbolt 3 ports for my iMac which only has 2

coolbreeze2

coolbreeze2

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 24, 2009
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How can I add more Thunderbolt 3 connections to my iMac (listed in my signature). Everything I see online is a hub. All these hubs will take-up one of the two TB3 ports on my iMac and only has one TB3 on the hub to connect devices to. In other words these, hubs aren't providing any additional TB3 ports beyond what's already available on my iMac.

Is there a hub or some adapter that will INCREASE the number of TB3 connection to my iMac.
 
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Short/best answer: Buy an iMac Pro for 2 more (or a Mac mini, or use your MBP). For more still buy a Mac Pro.
That way each device gets the maximum bandwidth.
As you daisychain more ports off a single host TB3 connection you split/share the bandwidth.

You can daisychain multiple 2-port TB devices up to a maximum of 5 or 6 in practice (+ the host controller), but you share the 40GB/s bandwidth among all the devices.
I got a job lot of cheap TB3 docks (with inbuilt NVMe slot) to do this on a 2019 27" iMac, but a Mac Pro would suit me/you better.

So much for the current consensus here that the iMac Pro is a useless addition to the Mac range. Actually Intel hasn't built in the PCIe bandwidth into their non-Zeon CPUs (so far) to allow Apple to 'build the computers we wish to sell.' :-(
 
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Oh no that's not good because corona has reduced my income. I cant make any purchases now or in the near future.
 
I'm not set up to view signatures.
What kind/year iMac does the OP have?
 
I think thunderbolt 4 is suppose to support hubs (as well as the daisy chain system of thunderbolt 3.). Unfortunately, tb3 does not.

I have been looking into this as well, the reality is all the “cheap” thunderbolt devices are end of chain only.

If you can move any usb-c devices to usb 3.0 usb a ports, that would help. You may be able to get a docking station with display port/HDMI output, which would not end the chain, but again they are not cheap. External thunderbolt ssd drives could be added to an expansion chassis, but again they are expensive.

A lis of what you have, and what you want to add would help with ideas on how to work around the 2 tb 3port limitations of the iMac.
 
Richdmoore said:
I think thunderbolt 4 is suppose to support hubs (as well as the daisy chain system of thunderbolt 3.). Unfortunately, tb3 does not.

I have been looking into this as well, the reality is all the “cheap” thunderbolt devices are end of chain only.

If you can move any usb-c devices to usb 3.0 usb a ports, that would help. You may be able to get a docking station with display port/HDMI output, which would not end the chain, but again they are not cheap. External thunderbolt ssd drives could be added to an expansion chassis, but again they are expensive.

A lis of what you have, and what you want to add would help with ideas on how to work around the 2 tb 3port limitations of the iMac.
Click to expand...

I have an Apollo Twin Quad which only connects by TB3. I have a Midi Keyboard that performs better when connected by TB3. I have an external ssd that only connects by TB3.
 
coolbreeze2 said:
I have an Apollo Twin Quad which only connects by TB3. I have a Midi Keyboard that performs better when connected by TB3. I have an external ssd that only connects by TB3.
Click to expand...

Other than replacing the current tb3 ssd with either a usb 3 (old style usb ports) ssd or an even more pricy ssd enclosures with two thunderbolt ports (for example https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/express-4m2 or https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/thunderbay-4-mini/thunderbolt-3 ) I don’t have any ideas.

There are way to many device ending equipment sold for thunderbolt, they should have insisted all devices have pass through capability by mandating two ports, or changed the design of thunderbolt to allow hubs.
 
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Richdmoore said:
Other than replacing the current tb3 ssd with either a usb 3 (old style usb ports) ssd or an even more pricy ssd enclosures with two thunderbolt ports (for example https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/express-4m2 or https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/thunderbay-4-mini/thunderbolt-3 ) I don’t have any ideas.

There are way to many device ending equipment sold for thunderbolt, they should have insisted all devices have pass through capability by mandating two ports, or changed the design of thunderbolt to allow hubs.
Click to expand...

I like the ssd RAID enclosure with two thunderbolt ports. I didn't know it was available. I now wish my router had a TB3 port. I then would use the ssd enclosure as a network storage. It would be much much faster than my current slow USB RAID network attached storage.

I'm wondering if I did purchase the enclosure and the ssd drives needed, can I use the second TB3 port on the enclosure for a TB3 device such as a MIDI musical keyboard? Will software such as Logic Pro X recognize the MIDI musical keyboard?
 
coolbreeze2 said:
I like the ssd RAID enclosure with two thunderbolt ports. I didn't know it was available. I now wish my router had a TB3 port. I then would use the ssd enclosure as a network storage. It would be much much faster than my current slow USB RAID network attached storage.

I'm wondering if I did purchase the enclosure and the ssd drives needed, can I use the second TB3 port on the enclosure for a TB3 device such as a MIDI musical keyboard? Will software such as Logic Pro X recognize the MIDI musical keyboard?
Click to expand...

I think the only limits are six devices in a chain, And of course any device without two ports will end the chain. (So two devices can be chain ending). You will want to put all your thunderbolt 3 devices before any thunderbolt 1/2 devices (Apple sells a converter for older thunderbolt devices.)

I vaguely remember being told that for the regular iMac, it is six thunderbolt devices total, as they share one thunderbolt “chip”. The iMac Pro/Mac Pro can have more devices (18?) as they have multiple thunderbolt controller chips.
 
coolbreeze2 said:
I have an Apollo Twin Quad which only connects by TB3. I have a Midi Keyboard that performs better when connected by TB3. I have an external ssd that only connects by TB3.
Click to expand...
IME I would think The MIDI keyboard should work as well on a 10Gbps USB-C port - even straight USB3.0 should be more than enough? You could Get Caldigit TS3 Plus and hook Kybd to the 10Gbps usbc port and use the Daisychain TB3 port for External storage. Is the external SSD a TB3 NVme drive? If not then going to a TB3/USB3 adapter to the drive can also be a fix. This leaves the 2nd TB3 port for the Apollo.
 
Hi. Wondering if you resolved the issue regarding the need for an additional Thunderbolt port. I also have an Apollo Twin Quad. I use an Apple TB 2 to 3 adapter for that going in to the MacBook, which leaves me only one port to power the laptop.
I am aware there are Thunderbolt hubs now which addresses the issue since your original post, but I only need one additional TB port port not 4. These new hubs don't seem to have a simple/less expensive option.
 
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