MacRumors Giveaway: Win a TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock From CalDigit

[MacRumors]

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with CalDigit to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a Thunderbolt Station 3 Plus dock, which offers 15 ports for Apple's Thunderbolt 3-compatible Macs.

Priced starting at $299.99, the TS3 Plus can replace all of your other dongles because of the sheer number of ports that it offers. Available in both silver and a new space gray option, the TS3 Plus will match Apple's devices.

Design wise, the TS3 Plus, which is designed to be a desktop dock, is made from aluminum with ribbing on the sides, and it can be positioned either horizontally or vertically to work with any desk setup.

At the front and back, the dock includes two Thunderbolt 3 ports, an SD card reader, five USB-A ports, one USB-C Gen. 1 port, one USB-C Gen. 2 port, a DisplayPort 1.2 port, a Digital Optical Audio port, Audio In & Out, and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

The included USB-C Gen. 1 port offers 5Gb/s throughput, while the USB-C Gen. 2 port offers 10Gb/s throughput, ideal for high-performance SSDs.

The TS3 Plus provides 85W of charging power so it's able to charge Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro models, along with the 13-inch 61W models with an included Thunderbolt 3 cable. It supports one 60Hz 5K display via Thunderbolt 3 or two 60Hz 4K displays using the DisplayPort and Thunderbolt 3 connections.

CalDigit's TS3 Plus is compatible with 2016 and later 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models that support Thunderbolt 3, the 2017 iMac models, and the iMac Pro. We have two of the CalDigit docks to give away.

To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

a Rafflecopter giveaway​

The contest will run from today (September 7) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on September 14. The winners will be chosen randomly on September 14 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

Article Link: MacRumors Giveaway: Win a TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock From CalDigit

 

[TheAppleFairy]

Now that's a nice giveaway.

 

[oneMadRssn]

This image looks super fake:

 

[tennisproha]

Heads up, that Rafflecopter portal is not secure on mobile. It’s most likely phishing your info.

 

[djbuddha]

Bought this dock at launch. Use it everyday, love it. Good luck!

 

[jayducharme]

That's a really nice dock, and I agree -- there are plenty of ports. And I love the SD slot on the front. But it's interesting that HDMI is missing in favor of Display Port.

 

[blacktape242]

will this allow me to connect 3 monitors to my 2017 iMac 5k?

 

[theluggage]

But it's interesting that HDMI is missing in favor of Display Port.

Well, they've got to choose one or the other, and Displayport is pretty common on decent monitors. Displayport-to-everything else adapters are available (I notice that the HDMI-out-to-DisplayPort converters to go the other way tend to require an additional USB port for power). Its also the protocol used for sending video data over Thunderbolt, so HDMI would need extra conversion circuitry in the dock.

This isn't a portable dock, its more suited to staying wired-in on your desk, so needing an extra dongle for HDMI isn't quite the annoyance it would be on a mobile solution.

Also, isn't the licensing for HDMI more expensive?

 

[djbuddha]

will this allow me to connect 3 monitors to my 2017 iMac 5k?

It will allow 2 monitors in addition to the 5K display.

Remember though, your output performance is based on how good your GPU is. You may want to consider an external GPU option if you want great graphic performance with all the displays running.

 

[zorinlynx]

That's a really nice dock, and I agree -- there are plenty of ports. And I love the SD slot on the front. But it's interesting that HDMI is missing in favor of Display Port.

An HDMI port is only an HDMI port. It can't easily be converted to anything (besides VGA, and who uses that anymore).

Whereas DisplayPort can be converted to pretty much everything else. It's the closest thing we have to a universal video output. So it's far better to have a DisplayPort output than HDMI.
[doublepost=1536363245][/doublepost]Does anyone here have experience using these kinds of docks with the newer Macbooks?

Can you literally come home, take your laptop out of the bag, plug a single cable into it and immediately your monitor lights up and everything plugged into the dock is just working? Or do you have to fiddle with it?

I'm just wondering how well this works; someday I might consider upgrading my setup and going laptop-only, but I still want a desktop-like experience at home.

 

[guitarman777]

I just got one. The connections are solid. The only issues I had were I needed an active DisplayPort to HDMI connector to get my monitor to work (it’s an older 1080p monitor), and the power supply was causing noise interference. I contacted the company and they sent me a new one no charge as the one packaged with it ended up having grounding issues they’re aware of. Once I got that all sorted, it’s been brilliant. Very pleased with it. I’d like to try 4K monitors with it, but we don’t have any available at work right now.

 

[jonnysods]

An absolute beast!!

Entered!

 

[fpsBeaTt]

An HDMI port is only an HDMI port. It can't easily be converted to anything (besides VGA, and who uses that anymore).

Whereas DisplayPort can be converted to pretty much everything else. It's the closest thing we have to a universal video output. So it's far better to have a DisplayPort output than HDMI.
[doublepost=1536363245][/doublepost]Does anyone here have experience using these kinds of docks with the newer Macbooks?

Can you literally come home, take your laptop out of the bag, plug a single cable into it and immediately your monitor lights up and everything plugged into the dock is just working? Or do you have to fiddle with it?

I'm just wondering how well this works; someday I might consider upgrading my setup and going laptop-only, but I still want a desktop-like experience at home.

Bought two, one for myself, one for my father; they're superb, and will compliment the Razer Core X running off the other TB3 controller on the CPU.

 

[djbuddha]

Does anyone here have experience using these kinds of docks with the newer Macbooks?

Can you literally come home, take your laptop out of the bag, plug a single cable into it and immediately your monitor lights up and everything plugged into the dock is just working? Or do you have to fiddle with it?

I'm just wondering how well this works; someday I might consider upgrading my setup and going laptop-only, but I still want a desktop-like experience at home.

That’s EXACTLY how well it works. I take it for granted now, but seriously, it works magic. The ONLY thing I ever have to change sometimes is my audio output from my 4K LG monitor to my Scarlett interface for my powered monitor speakers.
[doublepost=1536388219][/doublepost]

I just got one. The connections are solid. The only issues I had were I needed an active DisplayPort to HDMI connector to get my monitor to work (it’s an older 1080p monitor), and the power supply was causing noise interference. I contacted the company and they sent me a new one no charge as the one packaged with it ended up having grounding issues they’re aware of. Once I got that all sorted, it’s been brilliant. Very pleased with it. I’d like to try 4K monitors with it, but we don’t have any available at work right now.

Don’t mind the 2012 MBP under the first monitor, I use that for something else. My 2017 Pro is in a TwelveSouth bookarc off camera behind the 2nd monitor.

Dual 27” LG 4K displays. It works well- but the GPU in the maxed out 2017 can only hold up so well over super long periods of time.

I had the same power interference issue (I think I was one of the first, I even sent them an audible noise comparison between the old and new power supply LMAO).

 

[AngerDanger]

This image looks super fake:

View attachment 780125

How so?

 

[Val-kyrie]

Very nice giveaway. Thanks!

 

[Markoth]

Heads up, that Rafflecopter portal is not secure on mobile. It’s most likely phishing your info.

That's now what insecure means... They could "phish your info" as much as they wanted, regardless of whether it uses using TLS or not, since you're still interacting with the same web server. I'm not saying they're not, but who knows.

 

[Marx55]

Is there any Thunderbolt 3 splitter or dock with three or more Thunderbolt 3 ports? The purpose is to increase Mac Thunderbolt 3 ports, as can be done with USB. Thanks.

 

[dragje]

I've got this TS3 Plus from CalDigit and I'm very happy with it. I'm using it with my MacbookPro 2016 model together with my screen monitor, the LG 32inch 4K HDR.

The only "hassle" I sometimes have to deal with is that I need to open my MacbookPro in order to start it up, after login my monitor doesn't automatically detect my MacbookPro, that a bummer but easily solved. I start up my monitor, then putting it off and then on again and voila, it detects my MacbookPro.

Another method would be to take out the Thunderbolt 3 plug, start the MacbookPro and when done loading put the Thunderbolt 3 cable back in. Then the monitor automatically recognizes the laptop.

It's a small minor detail that doesn't spoil the overall experience simply because I hardly see any cables on my desk, it's very clean now. Because of the CalDigit I've been able to attach my scanner, my document scanner, four G technology G drives (using daisy chaining thunderbolt 3), a Scarlett 2i2, a 4K HDR 32 inch monitor, a blu-ray and dvd writable drive, mouse, and a Samsung T5 SSD drive on a USB-C tier 2 (gen2) connection with just 1 thunderbolt 3 cable to my MacbookPro.

So yes, this CalDigit is worth every penny. Also good to know, this model also fully supports windows mode. So if you're using bootcamp on you mac all the extended accessories attached to this CalDigit hub will work just fine as well within a Windows environment.

 

[jabbawok]

I bought one of these on launch and I love it. Works great with my 2016 MBP. I have a samsung t5 ssd on the usb 3.1 gen2 port I user for VMs and its super fast. I like tha app that ejects everything too..

 

[buckwheet]

It would be great to see hub/dock manufacturers start including M.2 slots inside the box. Something like Hyperdrive, losing the SD card and gaining an M.2 slot inside (would need screws, but hey) I'd buy in a heartbeat. Since I need my Steinberg+iLok dongles connected to the thing anyway, having my audio drive in there would be as close to having a decent built-in SSD as you could get. (2016 MacBook Pro here, btw.)