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Apr 12, 2001
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OWC's latest dock, which offers a total of 14 ports and works with Thunderbolt 3-enabled Macs and PCs, is now available for purchase.

The dock, which we reviewed back in October, is one of the best Thunderbolt 3 docks available on the market thanks to its price point, wide port availability, and the fact that it supports up to 85W, which is enough juice to power the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

owctb3dock.jpg

There are two Thunderbolt 3 ports, five 5Gb/s USB-A ports, an 8Gb/s USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 port, a microSD card slot, an SD card slot, a digital audio output port, a Mini DisplayPort Port, S/PDIF output and combo 3.5 mm audio ports, and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

It is OWC's most powerful dock with the highest number of available ports for attaching everything from 4K and 5K displays to your Mac to SSDs, cameras, mice, keyboards, and other accessories. It can also charge your iPhones, iPads, and other devices.

You can buy OWC's 14 port Thunderbolt 3 dock from the MacSales website for $299.

MacRumors is an affiliate partner with MacSales and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.

Article Link: OWC's 14 Port Thunderbolt 3 Dock Now Available for Purchase
 
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twistedpixel8

macrumors 6502a
Jun 9, 2017
868
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What makes these so expensive? I’m just curious but it seems that anything TB3 has something a bit like “Apple Tax” applied. I get that it’s very fast, but damn: 10x the price fast?
 

roland.g

macrumors 604
Apr 11, 2005
7,407
3,126
So far the Henge Docks Stone looks like the best all around dock. Only downside is it only supports a single external screen.
 

Crunch

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2008
701
76
Crazy L.A.
So far the Henge Docks Stone looks like the best all around dock. Only downside is it only supports a single external screen.

Well, that's not a Thunderbolt 3 dock, but rather a USB-C dock. You'll get 10Gbps throughput instead of 40Gbps.

At $199, it is one heck of an expensive USB-C dock, when they mostly go for $100 on the high end and a lot less depending on how many ports you need.
 
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az431

Suspended
Sep 13, 2008
2,131
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Portland, OR
OWC, if you are reading... please less markings on your products and you will sell a lot more... trust me. The OCD kills me!

Why not contact them directly? Do you think vendors really visit forums to seek out feedback?

https://eshop.macsales.com/Service/
[doublepost=1542153370][/doublepost]
What makes these so expensive? I’m just curious but it seems that anything TB3 has something a bit like “Apple Tax” applied. I get that it’s very fast, but damn: 10x the price fast?

Licensing fees to Intel, likely per port x 10 ports. Some of the other connections likely require licensing fees to other parties, and there are probably patent licensing fees for internals.
 

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
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eSATA, like FireWire is old news.
I still have eSATA RAIDs and enclosures.

Sometimes you can only upgrade hard drive firmware with SATA (tricky to do externally).
 
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Crunch

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2008
701
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Crazy L.A.
I still have eSATA RAIDs.

Sometimes you can only upgrade hard drive firmware with SATA (tricky to do externally).

I knew this would be coming hehe...Yes, of course there are plenty of legacy devices out there, but the numbers appear to be small enough to where they can't command the inclusion on a 2018 dock. Hey, even Thunderbolt 2 is way in the rear view mirror now.
 

cube

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May 10, 2004
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I knew this would be coming hehe...Yes, of course there are plenty of legacy devices out there, but the numbers appear to be small enough to where they can't command the inclusion on a 2018 dock. Hey, even Thunderbolt 2 is way in the rear view mirror now.
I tried many things that I had to update firmware. Finally I succeeded with:

- Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 (3 Gbps)
- eSATA cable + eSATA/SATA PC bracket
- SATA power supply
- Windows (required by the update software) running in Bootcamp

Other cards/docks and enclosures that I had were no good for this.

BTW, a dock would need to have two eSATA ports, not just one.
 
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cube

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May 10, 2004
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Yet another dock missing the point of tb3.

It should have at least 6 TB3/USB-C ports, not just 1 for power and 1 for a damn screen. How can nobody get this right ffs.
PCIe cases that have only one TB port are even worse. I would not buy a monitor that only has TB input.

Thunderbolt is supposed to be daisy chained. I don't think there are switch or hub chips.

Maybe you could implement something with PLX (expensive).
 
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borgranta

macrumors 6502
May 9, 2018
304
96



OWC's latest dock, which offers a total of 14 ports and works with Thunderbolt 3-enabled Macs and PCs, is now available for purchase.

The dock, which we reviewed back in October, is one of the best Thunderbolt 3 docks available on the market thanks to its price point, wide port availability, and the fact that it supports up to 85W, which is enough juice to power the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

owctb3dock.jpg

There are two Thunderbolt 3 ports, five 5Gb/s USB-A ports, an 8Gb/s USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 port, a microSD card slot, an SD card slot, a digital audio output port, a Mini DisplayPort Port, S/PDIF output and combo 3.5 mm audio ports, and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

It is OWC's most powerful dock with the highest number of available ports for attaching everything from 4K and 5K displays to your Mac to SSDs, cameras, mice, keyboards, and other accessories. It can also charge your iPhones, iPads, and other devices.

You can buy OWC's 14 port Thunderbolt 3 dock from the MacSales website for $299.

MacRumors is an affiliate partner with MacSales and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.

Article Link: OWC's 14 Port Thunderbolt 3 Dock Now Available for Purchase
[doublepost=1542157592][/doublepost]This item would be handy for people that stream and post videos online for a living
 

jimthing

macrumors 68000
Apr 6, 2011
1,970
1,123
10Gb is significantly more expensive. I highly doubt most people would pay for the extra performance, especially considering few actually need it.
It's not that expensive, in component price terms, to add a vast amount more to the price.

Furthermore, you don't need 10Gb broadband to enjoy its functionality. Running a decent CPU 10Gb NAS with say Plex, means fast transcodes can be transferred en mass to/from it *over a distance* using cheap ethernet cables.
Long Thunderbolt 3 optical cables have never been released, and don't look to be coming anytime soon unfortunately. And when/if they do, if they're anything like the TB1/2 ones (I have a 10m one), they'll cost 10x as much.
 

Emanuel Rodriguez

macrumors 6502
Oct 17, 2018
376
600
It's not that expensive, in component price terms, to add a vast amount more to the price.

Furthermore, you don't need 10Gb broadband to enjoy its functionality. Running a decent CPU 10Gb NAS with say Plex, means fast transcodes can be transferred en mass to/from it *over a distance* using cheap ethernet cables.
Long Thunderbolt 3 optical cables have never been released, and don't look to be coming anytime soon unfortunately. And when/if they do, if they're anything like the TB1/2 ones (I have a 10m one), they'll cost 10x as much.
I am aware of far more use cases than that, yet it still doesn't change the fact that 99% of users will not do any of these things. It wouldn't make sense to include 10Gb networking in a product meant for the mass market, yet.

Also, CAT 6a cabling is on the more expensive side of the passive cabling world. Not quite STP levels, and certainly can't hold a candle to fiber, but the additional cost definitely adds up after awhile. If you don't need it, don't pay for it. A good motto for life.
 
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