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I tried Thunderbolt on my M2 Mac mini, and my brand new M4 Mac mini. Disconnects almost once every 24 hours. Tried new cables, different enclosures. Seems a very common issue.
Interesting, I've never heard of or experienced this issue. We have a TB3 dock connected to an M2 Max Studio since day one with no issues, and I've had a Mac with TB3 since 2017 that never had any problems with various TB/USB devices.
 
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Nice. They put the upstream port on the back! I'm looking forward to what Caldigit has to offer... hope to see the TS5 soon!
 
Does anyone know what that plastic shelf is under the monitor that the memory is on? Looks like it would fit nicely under my iMac screen.

Edit: nevermind, I found it. I didn't realize the monitor was on it in the phone. It's too tall to use as storage under the iMac anyway.
 
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It would be sooo awesome if they made one of these that also had a thunderbolt 2 bi-directional port on it. The more flexibility on a dock the better, particularly since they are limited on the actual computer.

I would love to be able to swap in one of my older intel Macbooks, easily use it in my setup and then be able to pop a new M series Mac back in. And of course if you happen to have any older peripherals, it would also be great - there’s not much downside. I wouldn’t even mind a firewire port for some things we have lying around that are still useful. And obviously it should have hdmi. What’s the point of empty space on the back of the dock or having to use dongles?! particularly at a premium price.
 
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I've used the same Kensington TB3 dock for the last 7 years with multiple monitors for several hours a day without issue... I'm sure some people have disconnect issues with some Thunderbolt devices, but it's hardly a universal issue.

A bigger issue I've had is monitors that improperly implement DisplayPort(especially when tunneling over USB-C). I've run into several monitors that implement some part of the spec in some asinine or wrong way that makes their USB-C port unusably flaky. A workaround is to use one of the monitors HDMI or DisplayPort ports instead of trying to use USB-C directly. A poor implementation of DisplayPort without USB-C can be rectified by adding a repeater/hotplug-maintainer/DCC-fixer that allows you to ignore the broken parts of the monitor. e.g.
 
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I've had their USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 docks... they were wonk filled boxes of crap... never buying their crap again... but hey, if you like them, you do you... but when your docks jank you remember, I told you so.
 
It doesn't add ports, it splits one.
It's a marketed as a "hub," not a "docking station" (but it actually does add a USB-A port!). This is typical and not unlike their Thunderbolt 4 (I think? the generation isn't clear...) hub and Belkin's "Connect" hub.
 
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TB4 products are in the $130 range with more ports. Price for this seems reasonable since it is an early option and one of few.

That said, not 100% sure the need for TB5 as IIRC we still can't do EGPU options on M-Series devices.
 
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I can pick up a similar USB dock for 12 bucks on amazon. Who would pay 190 bucks for this thing???

similar only in that both have the words 'usb' and 'dock', totally dissimilar in terms of the power they can provide, the speeds they can run at and the devices they support. but hey, why buy a Mercedes for $70K when you can buy a pedal go kart on amazon for $249.
 
I recently discovered my external thunderbolt drives are all connecting as usb 3 devices instead (Mac m1 ultra). After looking into it it appears to be a design problem where Apple didn’t provide enough power for all the ports to be used at once, so they knock down to usb-c? Maybe this would solve that problem for me as currently my programs lag for a second when they save to these drives.
Each downstream port has a 15W USB-C connector (without Power Delivery). However, the upstream port will not have any remaining 140W USB-PD power.
 
I'm of mixed opnions on OWC. I bought one of their external SSD TB3 drives and it's incredible, a great buy despite the expense. I'd highly recommend it. But I bought the TB3 version of this hub and it was the worst experience. The thing constantly refused to reconnect if the computer was rebooted or if the hub lost power. I wasted so much time after reboots trying to get the darn thing to reconnect. I wound up buying a TB hub from Satechi and it's been far more reliable than the junk hub OWC made.
 
$189.99 isn't a bad price but adding just 2 TB5 ports (since you will be sacrificing one port on the Mac) and 1 USB-A port isn't much of an upgrade.
 
It seems interesting to add additional power supply, as high-performance peripherals tend to have high energy consumption. Devices like M2 drives or external Thunderbolt 10G network cards would be powered by the Thunder5 hub
 
I have their Thunderbolt 3 dock (not hub) and love it. I close my MBP, put it in a stand, and plug one cable in. You get video, audio, Ethernet, card readers, USB ports, and computer-charging in a very tidy setup.

I've had their USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 docks... they were wonk filled boxes of crap... never buying their crap again... but hey, if you like them, you do you... but when your docks jank you remember, I told you so.
I read some bad reviews, but so far my dock has been very solid. I had video issues at first, which appear to have been due to a bad USB DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter. Now all is good.

Do you have a recommendation for a better dock?
 
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Do you have a link to that go kart?


It's even in stylish black. No doubt a finger print magnet. A tad small for full sized folks, but hey no doubt fits fine on a plane.

How about you? do you have a link for the TB5 dock for $12?
 
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Looks like there is also a AC power brick again. The USB-A port is a great feature for thumb drives and older accessories. I have an Apple DVD player under my MacStudio so can play my music CD collection....

I can't help but ask... as someone that had a CD collection, whenever I popped one in to play, I found it easy to load it into my iTunes so I never had to put the actual disk in again. So.. why keep playing physical media from a device designed to store it?
 
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