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Super Sticky Thread for USB-C Docks, Cables and Accessories [MERGED]
- Thread starter Truefan31
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Amazon Basics now has:
US$140 - Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 Dock
US$100 - Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 Hub
The links are from Amazon USA. I don't see these in Canada yet. I didn't check elsewhere in the world.
EDIT:
These seem to be based off / rebrands of the Goodway docks:
www.goodway.com.tw
The Sonnet Echo docks are also Goodway rebrands:
www.sonnettech.com
US$140 - Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 Dock
US$100 - Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 Hub
The links are from Amazon USA. I don't see these in Canada yet. I didn't check elsewhere in the world.
EDIT:
These seem to be based off / rebrands of the Goodway docks:
Thunderbolt™ 4 / USB4 專業級擴充基座 (鋁合金外殼) | 台灣高品質Thunderbolt™ 4 / USB4 專業級擴充基座 (鋁合金外殼)製造商 | 東碩資訊股份有限公司
東碩是台灣專業製造Thunderbolt™ 4 / USB4 專業級擴充基座 (鋁合金外殼)及提供Thunderbolt™ 4 / USB4 專業級擴充基座 (鋁合金外殼)服務的優良廠商(成立於西元1983年)東碩擁有超過30年的產業專業經驗，提供最先進的擴充基座、會議設備，以及針對資訊、電信、醫療與教育產業量身打造的軟硬體整合解決方案。
The Sonnet Echo docks are also Goodway rebrands:
Thunderbolt Docks and Hubs - SONNETTECH
Docks for Mac, PC, Chromebooks, and iPad Pro with options such as Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, M.2 storage, SD card slot, audio jacks, Ethernet, and multiple displays.
www.sonnettech.com
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A brother model with ethernet and airprint
Amazon Basics now has:
US$140 - Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 Dock
US$100 - Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 Hub
The links are from Amazon USA. I don't see these in Canada yet. I didn't check elsewhere in the world.
EDIT:
These seem to be based off / rebrands of the Goodway docks:
Thunderbolt™ 4 / USB4 專業級擴充基座 (鋁合金外殼) | 台灣高品質Thunderbolt™ 4 / USB4 專業級擴充基座 (鋁合金外殼)製造商 | 東碩資訊股份有限公司
東碩是台灣專業製造Thunderbolt™ 4 / USB4 專業級擴充基座 (鋁合金外殼)及提供Thunderbolt™ 4 / USB4 專業級擴充基座 (鋁合金外殼)服務的優良廠商(成立於西元1983年)東碩擁有超過30年的產業專業經驗，提供最先進的擴充基座、會議設備，以及針對資訊、電信、醫療與教育產業量身打造的軟硬體整合解決方案。
The Sonnet Echo docks are also Goodway rebrands:
Thunderbolt Docks and Hubs - SONNETTECH
Docks for Mac, PC, Chromebooks, and iPad Pro with options such as Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, M.2 storage, SD card slot, audio jacks, Ethernet, and multiple displays.
daaaang the *******s at Amazon sniping again
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My LaCie Rugged 4 TB USB-C hard drive's port was getting a little finicky over years of use and transport, and it was almost full, so I got another storage device specifically for doing digital media work when on the go...
A Samsung T7 Shield portable SSD, with 4 TB of storage! We use such SSDs at my college's TV studio, and so I figured I may as well hop on the bandwagon. (The T9 would've been nice but it would've cost more and it wouldn't have worked at the advertised 20 G/bps on my M1 MacBook Air, so the T7 with its 10 G/bps speed was good enough for me.)
Re-locating the Logic Pro sounds/loops library from the LaCie rugged hard drive to the Samsung T7 Shield. Now I need to find out how to do that with GarageBand, since that doesn't have such a "Relocate Sound Library" option anymore and I REALLY don't have the space for the full loops library on my MacBook Air's SSD.
A Samsung T7 Shield portable SSD, with 4 TB of storage! We use such SSDs at my college's TV studio, and so I figured I may as well hop on the bandwagon. (The T9 would've been nice but it would've cost more and it wouldn't have worked at the advertised 20 G/bps on my M1 MacBook Air, so the T7 with its 10 G/bps speed was good enough for me.)
Re-locating the Logic Pro sounds/loops library from the LaCie rugged hard drive to the Samsung T7 Shield. Now I need to find out how to do that with GarageBand, since that doesn't have such a "Relocate Sound Library" option anymore and I REALLY don't have the space for the full loops library on my MacBook Air's SSD.
Well, last week my CalDigit TS3 Plus dock somehow shorted out. It'd still get power, as the USB-A ports could still charge my iPhone and my portable charging brick, but it wouldn't do anything else when connected to my M1 MacBook Air. So I had to buy a replacement...
Another CalDigit TS3 Plus dock, but this time it's in Space Gray! I will admit it does look cooler than my older silver one. But it's nice to have all that versatility again, without having to just use my Falwedi USB-C hub and needing to daisy-chain to my Thunderbolt 3 external hard drive.
Another CalDigit TS3 Plus dock, but this time it's in Space Gray! I will admit it does look cooler than my older silver one. But it's nice to have all that versatility again, without having to just use my Falwedi USB-C hub and needing to daisy-chain to my Thunderbolt 3 external hard drive.
I don't know enough about apple hardware that old. Printer cable? RS-232 25 pin were the old PC atrocity cables I remember.
Hello. Here a bit disappointed with the Caldigit TS4: I tried to use it for docking my MacBook Air m4 with to monitors (Lg 27” 4k 60 Hz and Xiaomi 34” 2k 144 Hz) using DP-DP and/or usb C - DP cables and doesn’t work… I tried with different cables and configurations and nothing. Any advice? Finally, I think the Lg should be connected using usb c - HDMI cable…
The only ports on the Caldigit TS4 that support monitors are the DP output, and the Thunderbolt output ports.
The other USB-C ports are data only.
Does either monitor work on it's own connected through the dock?
If a single monitor works, but both don't, then it may be the highest refresh rate of the Xiaomi monitor is a bit too fast, and you may have to use a lower rate.
The other USB-C ports are data only.
Does either monitor work on it's own connected through the dock?
If a single monitor works, but both don't, then it may be the highest refresh rate of the Xiaomi monitor is a bit too fast, and you may have to use a lower rate.
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I saw a lot of Anker's hubs and docks support dual 4K displays, but they make it very clear that on Mac those displays can't be independent -- only mirroring is supported. (A couple of the docks do support independent displays on Mac, but the vast majority don't.)
Is this the case for other brands of hubs/docks that claim Mac-compatible dual 4K display support? If there's no info either way, how safe is it to assume that a dock/hub does support dual independent 4K displays? I'm especially looking at OWC's and CalDigit's offerings -- neither of which have any info about what dual display modes they do or don't support on Mac.
Is this the case for other brands of hubs/docks that claim Mac-compatible dual 4K display support? If there's no info either way, how safe is it to assume that a dock/hub does support dual independent 4K displays? I'm especially looking at OWC's and CalDigit's offerings -- neither of which have any info about what dual display modes they do or don't support on Mac.
@splitpea
USB-C hubs only support one 4K monitor, which will be 4K/30 if DSC isn't used.
Using MacOS, two 'daisychained' MST monitor ports don't work.
This is a Windows feature, and docks that support this can only run a monitor on the first port using MacOS.
So for MacOS:
Early TB 3 docks (like the Caldigit TS3) support one monitor, which can be 5K through the downstream TB 3 port, or 4K/60 through either a DP or HDMI port.
Later TB3 docks (after 2018 with a Titan Ridge controller chip) can support two 4K/60 monitors through DP/HDMI ports, or one 5/6K through the second TB 3 port.
TB4 docks can support two 4K/60 through DP or HDMI ports, or two TB3/4 5K/60 monitors through downstream TB 4 ports.
However none of these docks will necessarily work faultlessly with two dissimilar monitors.
For higher refresh rates, one 4K120 monitor needs the bandwidth of 5K/60, and at higher rates, 6K/60.
A TB 5 dock is needed for two monitors to work without problems - unless they are well suited for use with MacOS.
USB-C hubs only support one 4K monitor, which will be 4K/30 if DSC isn't used.
Using MacOS, two 'daisychained' MST monitor ports don't work.
This is a Windows feature, and docks that support this can only run a monitor on the first port using MacOS.
So for MacOS:
Early TB 3 docks (like the Caldigit TS3) support one monitor, which can be 5K through the downstream TB 3 port, or 4K/60 through either a DP or HDMI port.
Later TB3 docks (after 2018 with a Titan Ridge controller chip) can support two 4K/60 monitors through DP/HDMI ports, or one 5/6K through the second TB 3 port.
TB4 docks can support two 4K/60 through DP or HDMI ports, or two TB3/4 5K/60 monitors through downstream TB 4 ports.
However none of these docks will necessarily work faultlessly with two dissimilar monitors.
For higher refresh rates, one 4K120 monitor needs the bandwidth of 5K/60, and at higher rates, 6K/60.
A TB 5 dock is needed for two monitors to work without problems - unless they are well suited for use with MacOS.
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Thank you -- really appreciate this summary, @PaulD-UK!
So USB-C hubs are out. TB3 docks are a maybe but I should probably skip them anyway. TB4/5 docks are in.
What about TB4/5 *hubs*?
For instance https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-4-element-hub/ or https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-thunderbolt-hub -- which each claim to have 4x TB4 out and support dual 4K displays. Will those displays have to be mirrored?
Or with https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-5-element-5-hub/ or https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-thunderbolt-5-hub
-- could you please expand on what you mean by "working with two dissimilar docks"?
If it makes a difference wrt what will work, I'm running two nearly-matching 4K monitors from different years of the Dell U272*Q series. They're both capable of using USB-C/Thunderbolt, DisplayPort, or HDMI connections -- I currently have both connected to my Mini's TB5 ports. (Also used to run one of them over TB3 from an Intel Mac laptop). And 60Hz is more than enough for my use cases, fwiw.
I've had the older one for almost 6 years, and MacOS seems to be perfectly happy with both of them as displays. I can even control the brightness/contrast of each independently via keyboard shortcuts using Lunar. (The old Intel Mac sometimes had hiccups with recognizing peripherals connected through the displays' built-in USB hubs, but the M4 is perfectly happy with them so far.)
@splitpea A TB4 'hub' is just a TB4 dock with TB4 ports, but without lots of additional USB/Ethernet/Audio/SD card ports.
Any TB4 hub will connect to two 4K/60 monitors, using two downstream TB4 ports.
You can use USB-C to DP/HDMI adapter cables if required.
DP is better, as no digital signal conversion is needed, as USB-C cables carry a DP (Alt-mode) signal.
Sorry, "working with two dissimilar docks" was a typo - two dissimilar monitors... 😉
Your two Dell monitors should work fine connected to a TB4 dock.
However there may be a problem with switching desktop orders if one monitor doesn't wake from sleep as fast as the other...
The advantage of a TB5 Mac is that you can have two 4K/*,5K/* or 6K/60 monitors connected to one of a TB5 dock's ports, with 4K or 5K monitors running at higher frame rates.
Any TB4 hub will connect to two 4K/60 monitors, using two downstream TB4 ports.
You can use USB-C to DP/HDMI adapter cables if required.
DP is better, as no digital signal conversion is needed, as USB-C cables carry a DP (Alt-mode) signal.
Sorry, "working with two dissimilar docks" was a typo - two dissimilar monitors... 😉
Your two Dell monitors should work fine connected to a TB4 dock.
However there may be a problem with switching desktop orders if one monitor doesn't wake from sleep as fast as the other...
The advantage of a TB5 Mac is that you can have two 4K/*,5K/* or 6K/60 monitors connected to one of a TB5 dock's ports, with 4K or 5K monitors running at higher frame rates.
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Thank you, @PaulD-UK -- I feel so much better informed now!
And yeah, the monitor order issue is already partially evident just plugged into the Mini. The one I use as secondary usually wakes a second or two before the primary, and is auto-assigned primary until the other wakes. But they almost always sort themselves out automatically once they're both awake.
It'll be interesting to see how resilient that is across disconnections, since the reason for getting a dock/hub is to be able to swap them out between two computers. My recollection is that the last time I disconnected/reconnected the secondary, there was some futzing needed to get everything set up properly again. Phooey -- but I can't think of any solution to that other than Apple putting more effort and focus into their operating system.
And yeah, the monitor order issue is already partially evident just plugged into the Mini. The one I use as secondary usually wakes a second or two before the primary, and is auto-assigned primary until the other wakes. But they almost always sort themselves out automatically once they're both awake.
It'll be interesting to see how resilient that is across disconnections, since the reason for getting a dock/hub is to be able to swap them out between two computers. My recollection is that the last time I disconnected/reconnected the secondary, there was some futzing needed to get everything set up properly again. Phooey -- but I can't think of any solution to that other than Apple putting more effort and focus into their operating system.
Amazon is clearing out some older docks on Woot.
Branks include Belkin (3), Satechi (1) and Kensington (1)
computers.woot.com
Branks include Belkin (3), Satechi (1) and Kensington (1)
Big Savings on Docking Stations!
"You are cleared for docking station #12, welcome to the Woot space station."
computers.woot.com