iMac upgrade advice / need more thunderbolt / display ports

[MythicFrost]

Looking at upgrading from a 2013 27" iMac to a 2020 27" iMac 6-core i5 (9th gen).

Currently I have a ThunderBay 4 which connects to the Mac via one Thunderbolt port and an Apollo interface which daisychains into the Thunderbay, whilst a display connects to the other TB port on the Mac.

However, I'd like to add an additional display to this setup. Unfortunately the latest iMac still only has two thunderbolt ports.

Is there a way to expand one Thunderbolt to connect two monitors easily? I've seen some docks that include ONE display connection (DisplayPort or HDMI) but include a bunch of other unneeded features for me.

Appreciate any input.

Cheers

 

[PaulD-UK]

Two docks - one connected to each TB3 port - drive two monitors, one per dock.
The downstream TB3 ports from each dock can connect further TB3 devices (or TB2 with Apple's TB3>TB2 adapter).
This even works I think if both docks are daisy chained onto a single TB3 port.
I haven't tried an Audio interface with my 2019 i5 3.7 iMac, so I don't know if that would work. But since its also TB I would suspect it should work?
But I was able to buy the docks cheap locally.

 

[MythicFrost]

Two docks - one connected to each TB3 port - drive two monitors, one per dock.
The downstream TB3 ports from each dock can connect further TB3 devices (or TB2 with Apple's TB3>TB2 adapter).
This even works I think if both docks are daisy chained onto a single TB3 port.
I haven't tried an Audio interface with my 2019 i5 3.7 iMac, so I don't know if that would work. But since its also TB I would suspect it should work?
But I was able to buy the docks cheap locally.

Thanks. Which docks did you use? All the ones I can find are really expensive and include a lot of other unneeded features.

One of the TB ports is taken up by the ThunderBay 4 and the audio interface that daisychains into the ThunderBay has no additional port for further daisychaining. I'd need a dock with two high speed Thunderbolt 3 ports which will probably be really pricey!

 

[CWallace]

Thunderbolt docks by their very nature are expensive, unfortunately, with solid choices around $200 and up.

Wirecutter did a review: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-thunderbolt-dock/

Depending on what kind of configuration you are looking at, the iMac Pro has been on special at a lot of places for prices as low as $3500 for refurbs (which are fully eligible for AppleCare). If you are already looking at an iMac configuration around $3000, adding another $500 in TB3 docks could make an iMac Pro at a similar price a more desirable option as the iMac Pro has four TB3 ports instead of 2.

 

[ssls6]

I bought a refurb iMac Pro for this very reason....along with the improved thermals, FaceTime camera, etc. When I built a normal iMac to specs I wanted then added a OWC thunderbolt dock, a refurb looked pretty attractive.

 

[PaulD-UK]

The TB3 dock I've got is a Glyph Thunderbolt 3 dock, which I got primarily because it has an internal drive bay for an NVMe blade in it, as I found the dock in a local auction for less than the price of the cheapest TB3 NVMe housing.
I also already had a Caldigit TS2 TB2 dock.
All TB3 docks have two TB3 ports - one upstream to the computer and one downstream for further daisy chaining, so a third (or more) port(s) are only USB-C (or USB-A etc).

So you don't get a TB3 dock with more than two TB3 ports, you just daisy chain further docks (or devices) to get the same result.

 

[Fishrrman]

Perhaps you ought to be looking at a Mac Mini (4 thunderbolt ports), in combination with an eGPU if you need it...

 

[lotsevenk]

I know this is very late, but OWC now has a Thunderbolt hub that creates 3 new daisychains off one port, just the TB ports is https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-thunderbolt-hub ($179), and one with that plus additional ports is https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-thunderbolt-dock ($279). Both are on back order, but new ones should be available in July for the bigger one and in August for the smaller one.

 

[mdgm]

For these new hubs etc. you need to be running Big Sur 11.1(?) or later to make use of having multiple thunderbolt ports on the hub/dock.