Matrox Announces DS-1 Thunderbolt Docking Station for $249

[Konrad]

No digital audio IO and no FW?

That count's out many pro users. There is no USB soundcards for pro use and only one that uses TB. Sure in the future we will see more TB soundcards, but there is tens of thousands PRO FW soundcards that more than perfect for years to come.

Really not looking forward for the next MBP specs

That's right. The TB pressure apple built is not going to get the desired hysterical momentum, as there are too few TB and too many FW devices on the market people will not dispose of anytime soon. This type of transition can be a much longer one and in the process it is vital for both parties to accommodate all.

 

[CplBadboy]

Don't get why on earth you would use USB 2 .0. Not worth the money Im afraid. USB 3.0 is here and fully backwards compatible. We shouldn't be seeing USB 2.0 ports these days on new products. No thunderbolt out either??? in conclusion yet another poor attempt and an overpriced one at that. 75 bucks maybe.

 

[SoldOnApple]

It's nice to see a gigabit ethernet port on these things. I've been using the USB Apple adaptor on my Air, and I'm pretty sure it's 10/100 only. My Air isn't a TB model anyway I've been using it as a workhorse and I'm finally starting to outgrow it. Yet, I cannot afford to replace it.

But yeah, this thing looks like a monster.

 

[SBlue1]

DVI? Really??

 

[morpheuzlal]

Econnomically the price might not be considered so bad since if your try to buy the different docks you`ll get a similar price. Plus the fact that, for those who need it, its the only solution that allows you to connect simultaniously with different products....


Will it succeed?! I honestly dont know what means success for a company like matrox. 100 k is success?! Then they certainly have it!

 

[wizard]

Major fail

Way over priced and no daisy chain port!

Oh well in 6 months the same thing will come from China for $50.

 

[ValSalva]

So this is the future? Macs with one port and one or two soldered, non-upgradable hard drives requiring these ugly break out boxes?

Are Macs going to go from having some minimal clutter along their sides to being virtually port-less and yet requiring all kinds of daisy chaining clutter?

I sure hope the next generation MacBook Pros don't do away with using the 2.5" HDD/SSD form factor. These breakout boxes are awful.

 

[timROGERS]

This is missing the one thing I actually want: better monitor support.

 

[justperry]

$249, not good enough. Its a glorified hub.

I'll pay attention to thunderbolt when I can get a hub in the $99-$120 range.

Me too, but it shouldn't cost more than $50-$60

When a hub costs twice the price of a Monitor, I can keep waiting.

You'll be in for a long wait.

On another note, why does it take 2 years to get thunderbolt to any reasonable price?

Intel support.(Ivy Bridge)

AND, $49 saved for losing FW and additional Thunderbolt, not very impressed.

FW is here to stay for quite some time, lots of people still have external drives with FW.

For comparison, think about the hardware that a raspberry pi can cram in for just $35, this thing costs ~8x more and technically isnt much more complex

Exactly, it will take time but if they start shipping 10s-100s of thousands the internals will be priced more like the Raspberry Pi.


Now, I wish that they started of with optical instead of this first based copper product, problem is though optical cables are not yet made for everyday use.
With this I mean that people tend to roll them up with sharp bends and optical cables can't take that stress.
There is some good news on the horizon though, there are optical cables which you can fold but still expensive.
Another problem is that optical can't carry power so another wire is needed if the external device needs it.
(Just got an earthquake when typing this)

 

[Konrad]

So this is the future? Macs with one port and one or two soldered, non-upgradable hard drives requiring these ugly break out boxes?

Are Macs going to go from having some minimal clutter along their sides to being virtually port-less and yet requiring all kinds of daisy chaining clutter?

I sure hope the next generation MacBook Pros don't do away with using the 2.5" HDD/SSD form factor. These breakout boxes are awful.

Probably. And they will look so "cool" and "modern" and "trendy" and "fast". They will be the object of envy at Starbucks and at your local mall. Hurray!

 

[theluggage]

Are Macs going to go from having some minimal clutter along their sides to being virtually port-less and yet requiring all kinds of daisy chaining clutter?

If they can get the balance right - with everything that most people regularly need "on the road" in the laptop and a "dock" with a good range of extra ports that can stay on the desk (and which is cheap enough to buy one for work and one for home), then its a good idea.

My MBP is currently hooked up to a large display via a DVI dongle, a USB hub serving a full-sized keyboard, mouse and card reader, an optical cable to the speakers, and ethernet. That's 4 cables (+ power) to unplug when you want to move it, and quite a lot of clutter on the desk. At work, I have something similar + a Firewire backup drive (another cable).

A decent dock would do all that with one cable, and cut down on the clutter. The Thunderbolt display is a neat solution if you don't mind having to buy an $800 screen to get it.

This Matrox hub is just too mean with the ports, though.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Do you think Apple will stop using the FW port with the new Macs this year?

 

[dokujaryu]

Gonna get this. Need the USB 3 for an external hard drive!

 

[doctor-don]

Remember when Monster was selling HDMI cables for $100?

Yep. Now they cost ONLY $120 for a 16-foot HDMI cable at BestBuy. Monster - M Series 8' HDMI A/V Cable costs $150.

Monster - 3.3' HDMI A/V Cable (1-star rating) is $17 (list is $50) and the Monster Cable - Digital Life 4 ft HDMI A/V Cable is $20.

 

[OllyW]

Do you think Apple will stop using the FW port with the new Macs this year?

I think they'll need to offer a reasonably priced Thunderbolt > FW800 adapter if they do drop it.

 

[autrefois]

I don't know what all the negativity is about. I think people are missing the key feature:

From a single Thunderbolt connection, users can add multiple peripherals including [...] a full-size keyboard, and a mouse.

This is space-age technology, folks!

 

[cgk.emu]

Don't get why on earth you would use USB 2 .0. Not worth the money Im afraid. USB 3.0 is here and fully backwards compatible. We shouldn't be seeing USB 2.0 ports these days on new products. No thunderbolt out either??? in conclusion yet another poor attempt and an overpriced one at that. 75 bucks maybe.

At first the negativity toward this product was irritating me...but I can definitely see your point here. Why they decided not to put a TB out is a bit perplexing. For $75 it would be a good buy, the $200+ price tag as is seems a bit excessive.

 

[Thunderhawks]

I'm not sure I get the appeal for this product.
You can simply:

- get a USB hub if you wanted more ports
- use a dongle for DVI
- use a dongle for ethernet

All will cost less than $249. If it had another thunderbolt and firewire it would make sense, but without it, I don't get it.

Leo

Yes, that thing is DOA in my book.

No Firewire 800 is a nono. FW not dead yet for a few years.

Any hub with TB for now must still have all of what is possible.

Otherwise don't bother, especially at that price.

And yes to all posters who mentioned it:

Why do manufacturers insist to plaster their logos on everything in
huge letters?

We don't care about your logo, we buy your product if it is good or a good value.

Less is much more and classy!

 

[Lahmy88]

No 2nd TB port = deal-breaker for me

 

[manu chao]

Firewire is all but dead. Who needs it if there is USB 3.0?

Why is USB 3 compatible with USB 2 (and 1)?
(a) Because it is technically easy enough, not least because it has the same physical connector, but also
(b) because there are tons of existing USB 2 devices that absolutely need to be served. Imagine you would get a new computer and basically all your USB devices would no longer work because the new computer only had USB 3 and USB 3 would not be compatible with USB 2?

The same applies for FW, there are tons of existing FW devices that need to be served.

 

[robvas]

I miss the days when you could plug anything into your computer, and when the most you had to spend on an adapter would be like £1.

Now you have to spend 20% of your computer's price on… a box with plugs in it! How fantastic! Just spend the extra money on a MacBook Pro or something that has the ports that you need.

As if ports were that expensive to manufacture. It's just a bunch of cables!

I think you need to go back to 'the days' and remember when you needed to buy a card to plug anything into your computer. Serial ports? You need a board. Parallel port? You need a board (if you're lucky there's one on the serial card you just bought). Game ports? Gotta buy one unless you bought a sound card with that port. Bought a scanner? Get a SCSI card and good luck setting that up if you don't have a Mac! Modem? You need a card. Ethernet? You need a card. Light pen, optical mouse, those all need a special card that you can't use for anything else!

 

[KnightWRX]

These things are costly for a reason. Remember folks, TB is just a PCI-E extender. This thing thus needs controller chips for Ethernet, USB 3, USB 2, the actual TB controller chip, etc..

It's basically a few add-in cards rolled into one box, using TB technology (which seems to drive up the price of everything it touches, how much does Intel charge for those controllers ?).

TB is not consumer tech, no matter how much Apple tries to tell you it is. We haven't yet seen the "consumer" products that are made for USB for TB. It's firewire all over again. Apple wants to be a consumer company but they are pushing the high-end features instead of the consumer features.

 

[LordVic]

it's great to see the USB3 support and aditional video output.

But.. SWING AND A MISS for me.

I've said from day one that these breakout boxes are the perfect uses of the TB standard. adding a myriad of port and options that are just not available on the diminutive form factors of ultra books.

This device is almost there. But Almost.

DVI as the only video output? If you can support DVI you can support HDMI.

Would have been nice to see digital audio outputs. At least one. This is a docking station, people want to dock and get better options than they can get direct from their machine.

Lack of a passthrough for TB also means this needs to be the end of a chain. not the middle.

The only two real pro's this will bring is the gigabit network card and USB3.0 capability.
and lets not forget the elephant in the room.

at $249.99, you will be paying roughtly 1/4 the price of a brand new laptop, just to in affect add a single USB3 port and Gigabit network.

 

[shaown]

I have mixed thoughts. The more Thunderbolt Docks and related items we see - the better off we will be. I suspect this will be PERFECT for those who want this feature set (DVI, USB 3, etc) - and not for those who want FW, etc. The idea would not be there is one perfect dock everyone buys - but dozens of different options - and you pick what you like.

The price, well my main concern is simply whether its high cause its still a low volume niche market or cause it HAS to be? I think all of you complaining don't realize this is not a port replicator, but rather an expansion chassis with a bunch of card equivalents built in - which could end up real expensive. I hope the prices come down - but i am not optimistic that these fully featured (ish) docks will be below a 100 anytime soon.

 

[Riemann Zeta]

Do you think Apple will stop using the FW port with the new Macs this year?

The new MacBook Pro drops FW800 and Ethernet in favor of a thunderbolt port only, so a dongle box like this will be required, sadly. This one, however, is missing critical ports like FW800 and HDMI.