Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

OWC's 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock for Mac Hits Record Low $99.99 Price ($180 Off)

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,560
30,891


OWC has again knocked the price of the popular 14-Port Thunderbolt 3 Dock down to $99.99, from its original price of $279.99. This is a match of the all-time low price on the accessory, which we last tracked earlier in March. Besides this dock, you'll find a large collection of accessories on sale at this time on OWC, including USB-C hubs, external drives and enclosures, and internal memory upgrade kits for Mac.

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.

In regards to the 14-Port Thunderbolt 3 Dock, this accessory features two Thunderbolt 3 ports, five USB Type-A ports, one USB Type-C port, one Mini DisplayPort port, one gigabit Ethernet port, one S/PDIF digital audio output port, and one 3.5mm stereo audio input/output port. There are also two memory card slots for microSD and SD cards.



All of the devices listed below are in new condition at OWC, although the retailer does provide various item condition options for anyone who might want to save money by purchasing open box items. Be sure to visit OWC's sale landing page to browse the full sale, which also features deals on cables, Mac accessories, keyboards, and headphones.

Docks and Hubs

External Drives and Enclosures

Memory

Miscellaneous

Keep up with all of this week's best discounts on Apple products and related accessories in our dedicated Apple Deals roundup.

Article Link: OWC's 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock for Mac Hits Record Low $99.99 Price ($180 Off)
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/03/23/owcs-thunderbolt-dock-record-low/
Marco Klobas

Marco Klobas

macrumors 6502
Jul 14, 2017
439
896
Italy
My experience with this specific dock has not been great:

  • The micro SD slot broke after the 3rd use. I mean, mechanically: the slot is electrically working – the spring keeping the card in place is broken so it's unusable anymore. Now I use an adapter through the regular SD slot on its right. And no, I didn't use a hammer to push the micro SD card in the slot...
  • The headphone audio output is noisy: a ticking background sound is present. Not a big deal for me since I don't use it. Still, annoying.
  • The optical audio output never worked. I casually discovered it during a test I intended to do leveraging the Toslink output. Again, not a big deal for me. Still, bummer.
  • The USB bus is "noisy" too: there's a ground issue or something similar. I discovered it by attaching a USB DAC. It introduced a "cyclical loop" in my Hi-Fi rig hearable through headphones. I went crazy to spot the culprit (I have 5 components in my Hi-Fi chain). Connecting the DAC directly to the Mac solved the issue. Granted, it's clearly an audio specific issue. The USB data transfers aren't affected. Still, disappointing.
For the record, I own other OWC devices and I'm mostly satisfied with them. I'm not bashing the whole company. This dock has been disappointing, though. I keep it because the remaining ports works and it's still useful/convenient.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: ZZ9pluralZalpha, FasterQuieter, Burnincoco and 20 others
B

Brandon42

macrumors regular
Jul 24, 2019
186
565
I bought this during the previous sale. I was a bit surprised at the lack of a HDMI port. I tried a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter and had distorted colors. A USB-C to HDMI cable worked for me though.

My unit came with a 100 watt rated thunderbolt 4 cable rather than the expected thunderbolt 3 cable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bob Bane, FasterQuieter, artifex and 7 others
S

shuckit

macrumors member
May 28, 2009
41
18
I've used this dock for a few years and can't comment on the audio issues or SD card as I don't use those ports. I run two external monitors through the back of the dock and my biggest complaint is when waking my macbook pro from sleep the 2nd monitor often doesn't turn on and I have to manually unplug it twice from the back of the dock before my computer recognizes it. OWC said this is an apple problem and not their problem. I will be looking at other brands when I go to upgrade my dock.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jimthing, DEXTERITY, ThomasJL and 3 others
bradman83

bradman83

macrumors 6502a
Oct 29, 2020
916
2,258
Buffalo, NY
Brandon42 said:
I bought this during the previous sale. I was a bit surprised at the lack of a HDMI port. I tried a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter and had distorted colors. A USB-C to HDMI cable worked for me though.

My unit came with a 100 watt rated thunderbolt 4 cable rather than the expected thunderbolt 3 cable.
Click to expand...
I had a similar experience with a work-issued HP Thunderbolt Dock G2. I had two monitors, a newer one with native DisplayPort and USB-C, and an older one with just HDMI that I had to use an HDMI to DisplayPort adapter to connect to the dock. My work-issued Windows laptop recognized the monitor just fine but my MBP would "see" the monitor was there but refuse to output a video signal to it.
 
mazz0

mazz0

macrumors 68040
Mar 23, 2011
3,132
3,579
Leeds, UK
Why would someone designing products specifically to pair with Macs make the front so cluttered? I understand your desire to put your logo on the front (I don’t like it, but I understand), but why the words “Thunderbolt 3 Dock”, or all the labels for things that don’t need labels? So un-Apple. Being un-Apple is fine, it’s just odd, since the design of the dock is otherwise obviously meant to be very Apple.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Stenik, jimthing and CombatCaptured
macduke

macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,142
19,684
shuckit said:
I've used this dock for a few years and can't comment on the audio issues or SD card as I don't use those ports. I run two external monitors through the back of the dock and my biggest complaint is when waking my macbook pro from sleep the 2nd monitor often doesn't turn on and I have to manually unplug it twice from the back of the dock before my computer recognizes it. OWC said this is an apple problem and not their problem. I will be looking at other brands when I go to upgrade my dock.
Click to expand...
Thanks for answering the question I had about this.

The other day I sent back an Anker TB3 dock that was doing the same thing. They said I needed a firmware update but it only worked with Windows. I got ahold of a Windows laptop and tried updating it but it wouldn’t take the update. Hopefully the new version fixes it, but for $99 I was tempted to get this in case the Anker dock keeps having problems when I get it back sometime later next week. So I’m glad I saw your comment.

I kinda do wonder if it’s a macOS thing, though. It didn’t do this when I had my old Intel iMac plugged into it but when I got my M3 Max MBP this autumn I switched from using two Macs to one powerful and portable system. But I had some stability problems with that iMac when using the dock, so I’m not sure. It would kernel panic about once every week or two when using that dock, and I’m pretty sure I narrowed it down to that because it didn’t do that before using it or when I stopped for a few weeks to test.
 
  • Like
Reactions: artifex, drrich2 and ThomasJL
N

nt5672

macrumors 68040
Jun 30, 2007
3,340
7,070
Midwest USA
Not sure I trust them with docks. I have a smaller one (Thunderbolt Hub) and it does not work well with multiple displays using Apple dongles. Same response as above, someone else's problem. Nope I'll try a different manufacturer for my next dock.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ThomasJL
F

fredn

macrumors member
Aug 2, 2011
74
40
macduke said:
Thanks for answering the question I had about this.

The other day I sent back an Anker TB3 dock that was doing the same thing. They said I needed a firmware update but it only worked with Windows. I got ahold of a Windows laptop and tried updating it but it wouldn’t take the update. Hopefully the new version fixes it, but for $99 I was tempted to get this in case the Anker dock keeps having problems when I get it back sometime later next week. So I’m glad I saw your comment.

I kinda do wonder if it’s a macOS thing, though. It didn’t do this when I had my old Intel iMac plugged into it but when I got my M3 Max MBP this autumn I switched from using two Macs to one powerful and portable system. But I had some stability problems with that iMac when using the dock, so I’m not sure. It would kernel panic about once every week or two when using that dock, and I’m pretty sure I narrowed it down to that because it didn’t do that before using it or when I stopped for a few weeks to test.
Click to expand...

My M3 Max MBP can wake up all my monitors (2 plugged into a Dell WD19TB Dock, 2 more plugged directly into the MBP) no problem. So the problem may be dock-specific.

My problem is that while the MBP is sleeping, random monitors will wake up for a second (blasting light even though the screen is black) and then fall asleep again. I don't know whether it's the monitor or the Mac that's doing this.

I don't think it's the dock doing this as I had the same behaviour when I was using a USB-C hub with one monitor and three more plugged into the MBP directly.
 
filmgirl

filmgirl

macrumors 6502
May 16, 2007
370
302
Seattle, WA
macduke said:
Thanks for answering the question I had about this.

The other day I sent back an Anker TB3 dock that was doing the same thing. They said I needed a firmware update but it only worked with Windows. I got ahold of a Windows laptop and tried updating it but it wouldn’t take the update. Hopefully the new version fixes it, but for $99 I was tempted to get this in case the Anker dock keeps having problems when I get it back sometime later next week. So I’m glad I saw your comment.

I kinda do wonder if it’s a macOS thing, though. It didn’t do this when I had my old Intel iMac plugged into it but when I got my M3 Max MBP this autumn I switched from using two Macs to one powerful and portable system. But I had some stability problems with that iMac when using the dock, so I’m not sure. It would kernel panic about once every week or two when using that dock, and I’m pretty sure I narrowed it down to that because it didn’t do that before using it or when I stopped for a few weeks to test.
Click to expand...
The wake from sleep thing plagued so many TB3 docks during the Intel era that I absolutely do think it is a driver issue on Apple's part (maybe they ultimate fault is Intel but since Apple maintains the drivers and there are fixes for other OSes, I will put the onus on them).

I haven't done a lot of testing with Apple silicon because when I use my Caldigit TB4 dock, it usually isn't with a permanently docked setup these days, but issues there wouldn’t surprise me either.

I haven’t used this specific dock but I will say anecdotally that although I really like OWC, especially as a longtime Mac-oriented place, I've had way better experiences in the TB dock world with Caldigit. They can cost more, but the TS3+ and TS4 are both just fantastic. The Caldigit TB4 hub is really good too. My last OWC TB3 dock (which was different from this one, tho it has been 5 or 6 years) was returned because of bugginess.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mastercheif91 and bradman83
J

joevt

Contributor
Jun 21, 2012
6,660
4,078
Brandon42 said:
I bought this during the previous sale. I was a bit surprised at the lack of a HDMI port. I tried a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter and had distorted colors. A USB-C to HDMI cable worked for me though.
Click to expand...
You chose the wrong HDMI adapter at first but were able to replace that with a better adapter without buying a new dock.

USB-C and Thunderbolt docks must use a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter to provide HDMI. What if OWC also chose the wrong adapter? At least with a DisplayPort or USB-C port, you can choose an HDMI adapter and you can upgrade the adapter without buying a new dock.

HDMI 2.1 adapters exist now. If the dock had a HDMI 2.0 adapter, it would not be useful for HDMI 2.1 applications and you would need a new dock (or buy an HDMI 2.1 adapter to be used with the dock's downstream Thunderbolt port which means the downstream port couldn't be used for a USB 10 Gbps device or Thunderbolt device).

The USB 3.1 gen 2 port is provided by an ASM1142 which really only supports up to 8 Gbps which is why the downstream Thunderbolt port is preferred for 10 Gbps devices (though you probably won't notice a difference between 8 Gbps and 10 Gbps).
 
Rafterman

Rafterman

Contributor
Apr 23, 2010
6,874
8,175
I have a couple of the OWC TB4 11 port docks and they have been rock solid. It drives one 32 inch 144mhz display and one 32 inch 60mhz display, at 4k or 1080p, both work well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom