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OWC kicked off a new Halloween sale this week, offering big discounts on a variety of USB-C docks, external drives and enclosures, and Mac accessories. Some of these deals won't be applied until you add the items to your cart, at which time an automatic coupon will be applied to your order.

owc-dock-sale.jpg
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with OWC. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

There are a few notable deals in this sale, including $100 off the popular 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock for Mac, available for $179.99, which is the steepest discount we've seen since the summer on the accessory. If you purchase a qualifying new or used Mac at the same time as this dock, you can get an additional $20 off the accessory at checkout.

Docks and Hubs

External Drives and Enclosures


If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.



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Article Link: OWC Takes $100 Off Popular 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock During Halloween Sale
 
I originally bought one of these for my i7 Mini. When I replaced my Mini with my M3 Pro MBP, I had to get something with much better display connectivity.

I ended up selecting a dock from Pluggable. The trade off was optical out, however my Adam Audio speakers and Monoprice Dolby Atmos headphone amplifier already had a USB interface.

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I'm hesitant to try any Thunderbolt accessories from OWC. I bought a TB5 SSD enclosure from them, and it's FAST, but if my computer goes to sleep, it hard crashes my mac HARD, requiring me to hold power button down to shut it off and reboot. My m3 MBP never crashes except for when this drive is attached.

The crappy $60 usb-c samsung drive I have doesn't have that problem. It's not as fast for a scratch disk, but at least it is stable.
 
This dock has routinely been marked down to $99 during major sale events, so this is by no means a good price. And most people who have actually used it have remarked that it's not particularly good.
 
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All of these hubs try to be all things to all people. I’d like to see a more opinionated hub with just Thunderbolt 5 ports and a 10 GB Ethernet port. I suspect there’s a large market of MacBook Pro users who at this point only use USB-C connectors (including adapters) and who prefer a wired Ethernet connection. I like adapters because they give you mobility. I don’t want those old ports on the hub except Ethernet.
 
All of these hubs try to be all things to all people. I’d like to see a more opinionated hub with just Thunderbolt 5 ports and a 10 GB Ethernet port. I suspect there’s a large market of MacBook Pro users who at this point only use USB-C connectors (including adapters) and who prefer a wired Ethernet connection. I like adapters because they give you mobility. I don’t want those old ports on the hub except Ethernet.
Any suggestions for good hubs from brands you trust?
 
I'm hesitant to try any Thunderbolt accessories from OWC. I bought a TB5 SSD enclosure from them, and it's FAST, but if my computer goes to sleep, it hard crashes my mac HARD, requiring me to hold power button down to shut it off and reboot. My m3 MBP never crashes except for when this drive is attached.

The crappy $60 usb-c samsung drive I have doesn't have that problem. It's not as fast for a scratch disk, but at least it is stable.
The OS shouldn’t crash, blame Apple.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: marte91
All of these hubs try to be all things to all people. I’d like to see a more opinionated hub with just Thunderbolt 5 ports and a 10 GB Ethernet port. I suspect there’s a large market of MacBook Pro users who at this point only use USB-C connectors (including adapters) and who prefer a wired Ethernet connection. I like adapters because they give you mobility. I don’t want those old ports on the hub except Ethernet.
How about one without Ethernet and HDMI. There are Mac Mini and Studio users who could use some extra thunderbolt 4 and USB-C ports. A lot of these docks just don't offer anything an old fashioned USB hub and some cheap dongles can't provide. And the extras thrown in like a headphone jack are redundant, and only there to up the "port count" on the spec sheet.
 
I originally bought one of these for my i7 Mini. When I replaced my Mini with my M3 Pro MBP, I had to get something with much better display connectivity.

I ended up selecting a dock from Pluggable. The trade off was optical out, however my Adam Audio speakers and Monoprice Dolby Atmos headphone amplifier already had a USB interface.

View attachment 2574105
THIS dock is junk. I don't know who the OEM actually is, I've seen it both Plugable and Saetechi branded. It requires DP MST support, so the claimed multi-monitor support is cr*p on a Mac. I had a Plugable-branded one and half the USB3 ports on it would randomly stop working.

I now have a Plugable TBT4-UD5, which is deficient in that it only has HDMI, no DisplayPort. But is otherwise workable.
 
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Reactions: marte91
How about one without Ethernet and HDMI. There are Mac Mini and Studio users who could use some extra thunderbolt 4 and USB-C ports. A lot of these docks just don't offer anything an old fashioned USB hub and some cheap dongles can't provide. And the extras thrown in like a headphone jack are redundant, and only there to up the "port count" on the spec sheet.

I agree with you except for Ethernet because Ethernet remains relevant. It's not an outdated port on its way to the computer museum. People are still wiring new homes and offices. In fact, it's arguably more important than 5-10 years ago in homes because security systems work best with Power Over Ethernet.
 
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Reactions: marte91
The OS shouldn’t crash, blame Apple.
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Googling shows lots of similar results to my experience, with some articles pointing out mac incompatibility with chipsets.

Apple earns plenty of blame for this, IMO, but did OWC not test these things on macs? Their official support says to disable sleep mode on the mac to prevent a crash. That's crappy.
 
This device is neither popular nor "on sale", since it is always "on sale" and by many accounts garbage. Do not waste your money

This device is neither popular nor "on sale", since it is always "on sale" and by many accounts garbage. Do not waste your money.
I've had 2 of these. I'm still using one. No problems whatsoever. Your reply seems to infer you've never owned one. So how would you know?
 
THIS dock is junk. I don't know who the OEM actually is, I've seen it both Plugable and Saetechi branded. It requires DP MST support, so the claimed multi-monitor support is cr*p on a Mac. I had a Plugable-branded one and half the USB3 ports on it would randomly stop working.

I now have a Plugable TBT4-UD5, which is deficient in that it only has HDMI, no DisplayPort. But is otherwise workable.

My experience with it has been flawless. I'm running two monitors (4k on DisplayPort and 1440 HDMI) and all my USB peripherals off it without issue via my MBP M3 for a couple years now. I have zero complaints. I would have run my 1440 off DisplayPort as well, however I use the Display Port on the monitor for my gaming rig.
 
I agree with you except for Ethernet because Ethernet remains relevant. It's not an outdated port on its way to the computer museum. People are still wiring new homes and offices. In fact, it's arguably more important than 5-10 years ago in homes because security systems work best with Power Over Ethernet.
Not disagreeing with you there. My point was the extra Ethernet would go unused for Mac Studio and Mac Mini users, so it is redundant.
 
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