Nice, not too expensive dock for M3 Pro/Max MBP?

[VitoBotta]

Hi all. At the moment I use an M2 Pro mini as the main computer at home, with an Intel MBP when I am on the move. I am going to receive a new laptop from work, either M3 Pro or M3 Max, and since this will be faster than my mini I am thinking I might just sell the mini and always use the laptop.

So I would like some nice dock so when I am home, I just plug the laptop in the dock and it gets connected to various peripherals right away. I have one 4K display and one 1080p display - both currently connected to thunderbolt ports on the mini, a thunderbolt NVME drive, and a bunch of USB things (microphone, speakers, webcamera and a drive) via a USB hub.

Which dock do you recommend? Thanks in advance!

 

[Bigwaff]

“Not to expensive dock”… Thunderbolt or USB-C? … your budget?

 

[VitoBotta]

“Not to expensive dock”… Thunderbolt or USB-C? … your budget?

Thuderbolt. I am not sure about the budget since I am not familiar with these docks. What do you recommend?

 

[PaulD-UK]

If you want to drive two USB-C monitors from the dock, then it needs to be a Thunderbolt 4 dock, as TB3 docks will have DisplayPort or HDMI connectors for the second monitor.
The dock's single downstream TB3 port can be used to connect to a USB-C monitor.

However, from a budget point of view, TB3 docks are older, so often they are cheaper.
So one of these would work fine if one of your monitors has a DP/HDMI port.

If you go with TB3, preferably choose a dock with enough USB ports to run your peripherals, as a TB dock is more stable than a USB hub, because the dock controls its own USB ports, not the Mac, and this can eliminate a lot of Apple<>USB incompatibilities.
TB4 docks are different and pass through the Mac's control of the USB ports.

For TB3 it's best to get a 2018 or later dock, with a Titan Ridge (Intel JHL7440) controller chip, as these have a better USB port controller. Earlier docks had a JHL 6540 Alpine Ridge controller.

To choose one, I'd stick to the brands that are known to be Mac compatible.
Not all Windows brands or random brand docks work well with a Mac.

 

[Fishrrman]

My advice is different:

Use the "work" MBP for work... ONLY.

Keep your existing "personal" Macs and continue to use them for personal (non-work) activities.

Things will go better that way.

 

[VitoBotta]

If you want to drive two USB-C monitors from the dock, then it needs to be a Thunderbolt 4 dock, as TB3 docks will have DisplayPort or HDMI connectors for the second monitor.
The dock's single downstream TB3 port can be used to connect to a USB-C monitor.

However, from a budget point of view, TB3 docks are older, so often they are cheaper.
So one of these would work fine if one of your monitors has a DP/HDMI port.

If you go with TB3, preferably choose a dock with enough USB ports to run your peripherals, as a TB dock is more stable than a USB hub, because the dock controls its own USB ports, not the Mac, and this can eliminate a lot of Apple<>USB incompatibilities.
TB4 docks are different and pass through the Mac's control of the USB ports.

For TB3 it's best to get a 2018 or later dock, with a Titan Ridge (Intel JHL7440) controller chip, as these have a better USB port controller. Earlier docks had a JHL 6540 Alpine Ridge controller.

To choose one, I'd stick to the brands that are known to be Mac compatible.
Not all Windows brands or random brand docks work well with a Mac.

I am fine with a TB4 dock if that's required to use two displays. Which one do you recommend?

 

[Alameda]

Hi all. At the moment I use an M2 Pro mini as the main computer at home, with an Intel MBP when I am on the move. I am going to receive a new laptop from work, either M3 Pro or M3 Max, and since this will be faster than my mini I am thinking I might just sell the mini and always use the laptop.

So I would like some nice dock so when I am home, I just plug the laptop in the dock and it gets connected to various peripherals right away. I have one 4K display and one 1080p display - both currently connected to thunderbolt ports on the mini, a thunderbolt NVME drive, and a bunch of USB things (microphone, speakers, webcamera and a drive) via a USB hub.

Which dock do you recommend? Thanks in advance!

I use this one. Does everything. Single cable including power. Fast and reliable.

Cheap = Problems. This one works.

OWC 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock - Space Gray

Features 14 Ports of connectivity: USB 3.1 Gen 2 / Gen 1, Thunderbolt 3, microSD, SD, mini DisplayPort, Gigabit Ethernet, S/PDIF, and Audio I/O.

eshop.macsales.com

 

[VitoBotta]

I use this one. Does everything. Single cable including power. Fast and reliable.

Cheap = Problems. This one works.

OWC 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock - Space Gray

Features 14 Ports of connectivity: USB 3.1 Gen 2 / Gen 1, Thunderbolt 3, microSD, SD, mini DisplayPort, Gigabit Ethernet, S/PDIF, and Audio I/O.

eshop.macsales.com

i forgot to update the thread. In the meantime I ordered this one https://www.amazon.de/dp/B097TVLB4F?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

It's a bit expensive but it gives me 3 downstream thunderbolt ports.

 

[Alameda]

i forgot to update the thread. In the meantime I ordered this one https://www.amazon.de/dp/B097TVLB4F?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

It's a bit expensive but it gives me 3 downstream thunderbolt ports.

This is the one I bought also not is excellent.

 

[VitoBotta]

This is the one I bought also not is excellent.

Is it or is it not?

 

[Alameda]

Is it or is it not?

Sorry, autocorrect destroyed my comment!!!

This is the same brand as mine. I bought the OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock, which is very similar.
The difference between Thunderbolt 3 and 4 is not performance or speed; a Thunderbolt 4 dock can branch to more downstream thunderbolt hubs, which is important inside the Mac but not for my needs. Which is a long way of saying that I don’t have the exact same hub that you ordered, but mine is very similar and excellent.

I bought this one.
You bought this one.

The difference between Thunderbolt 3 and 4.

 

[VitoBotta]

Sorry, autocorrect destroyed my comment!!!

This is the same brand as mine. I bought the OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock, which is very similar.
The difference between Thunderbolt 3 and 4 is not performance or speed; a Thunderbolt 4 dock can branch to more downstream thunderbolt hubs, which is important inside the Mac but not for my needs. Which is a long way of saying that I don’t have the exact same hub that you ordered, but mine is very similar and excellent.

I bought this one.
You bought this one.

The difference between Thunderbolt 3 and 4.

Cool, I hope mine works well too. Can you actually chain 2 or more of these? How would that work if all the devices would share the same thunderbolt bandwidth?

 

[Alameda]

Cool, I hope mine works well too. Can you actually chain 2 or more of these? How would that work if all the devices would share the same thunderbolt bandwidth?

I’d ask the manufacturer to be certain, but I think you can daisy chain them. More likely, someone like a video producer would daisy chain Thunderbolt drives into perhaps a soft RAID or large storage container. The only thing that takes up a fixed amount of bandwidth is the video display; I don’t think that varies unless you have the advanced DSC monitors. But 4K60 is roughly 20 Gbps.

I don’t know exactly, but you probably don’t use all 40 Gbps on all devices at once, so you get the bandwidth where you need it. It may be that the laptop itself has a total of 40 Gbps for Thunderbolt; I think we can see this in the System Info page where it lists the Thunderbolt controller/root hub (I’m away from my computer at the moment). It’s a very good question and useful to know, but for me, I’m very happy with the convenience and neatness of the single cable connection.

 

[VitoBotta]

I’d ask the manufacturer to be certain, but I think you can daisy chain them. More likely, someone like a video producer would daisy chain Thunderbolt drives into perhaps a soft RAID or large storage container. The only thing that takes up a fixed amount of bandwidth is the video display; I don’t think that varies unless you have the advanced DSC monitors. But 4K60 is roughly 20 Gbps.

I don’t know exactly, but you probably don’t use all 40 Gbps on all devices at once, so you get the bandwidth where you need it. It may be that the laptop itself has a total of 40 Gbps for Thunderbolt; I think we can see this in the System Info page where it lists the Thunderbolt controller/root hub (I’m away from my computer at the moment). It’s a very good question and useful to know, but for me, I’m very happy with the convenience and neatness of the single cable connection.

Yeah if I have to cope with the drive being connected as USB I will have to deal with it. I prefer being able to connect/disconnect just one cable when I dock/undock the laptop.

 

[Alameda]

Yeah if I have to cope with the drive being connected as USB I will have to deal with it. I prefer being able to connect/disconnect just one cable when I dock/undock the laptop.

Well… do you have a 40 Gb/sec drive? I have a Thunderbolt SSD and a Thunderbolt CFExpress card reader both attached to my Thunderbolt hub. File copies are VERY fast, but I don’t think they use even 10 Gb/s.

If you go owc.com, I think they have special Thunderbolt SSD RAID products that can go ultra-ultra-fast, for people doing video production, I assume.