Thunderbolt Dock / All in one plug

[adamtoone]

Hi,

Hoping you guys have seen something i have missed...I currently have my MBP Retina connected up to 2 monitors when at the desk and its sat on a Griffin stand.

I am looking for something that will tidy up the cables...I have see the 3 items so far:

ZenBoxx - http://zenboxx.com

Currently still in production and has been for the last two years from what i can see - would be my ideal solution as its neat and tidy and looks really easy and simple however, i have a feeling its just never going to be about to buy!

Henge Dock - http://hengedocks.com

Had this for my macbook air, really good however i would then lose my MBP screen which i also use so not really ideal

Elgato Thunderbolt Dock - https://www.elgato.com/en/thunderbolt/thunderbolt-dock

Looks OK, haven't seen much about it and there isn't much on YouTube. It seems expensive for something i can't see a lot about and no one is shouting out about it which is worrying.

There are also others like this including the Belkin but that doesn't have a HDMI so i would rule that out as a dock!



Is there anything else out there that you know of or can help me with?

I wish Zenboxx would sort it out and just get the product to market, how hard can it be????

 

[Freyqq]

The best solution is a USB 3 hub for all USB devices and plug in monitors separately. That gets you down to 4 cables to plug in. A thunderbolt dock would bring this down to 3, as they can only support 1 monitor (unless one of them is a thunderbolt monitor).

 

[adamtoone]

The best solution is a USB 3 hub for all USB devices and plug in monitors separately. That gets you down to 4 cables to plug in. A thunderbolt dock would bring this down to 3, as they can only support 1 monitor (unless one of them is a thunderbolt monitor).

Thanks for the quick response...so am i right in thinking that with a Elgato thunderbolt connected i could or couldn't then connect 1 via thunderbolt to HDMI & 1 straight HDMI to HDMI (if that makes sense)?

 

[Freyqq]

Thanks for the quick response...so am i right in thinking that with a Elgato thunderbolt connected i could or couldn't then connect 1 via thunderbolt to HDMI & 1 straight HDMI to HDMI (if that makes sense)?

doesn't work like that. Without going into the technical reasons why, only one non-thunderbolt video connection per thunderbolt port will work.

 

[adamtoone]

Apologies for 1) my drawing and 2) having to confirm...

If this is not possible is there anything out there in the market that is available?

 

[ColdCase]

If you want to drive mulitple monitors over a single TB cable you need a so called Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis ($500 - $1500). These have PCI slots where you can plug in compatible video and interface cards of your choice. Sonnet makes a couple variations. Akito has a popular $250model but you may need to add a PSU to power a video card. There are hacks to get some non-TB compatible video cards to work.

More discussion here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/77/


I use the recent StarTech dock. Its about as good as it gets. But if you want two monitors, one has to be a Thunderbolt monitor, the other HDMI, same as any of these types of docks. Since you have one VGA and one HDMI, there isn't anything on the market except the $$$ expansion chassis. There is some discussion in both the mini and peripheral sub forums.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GQSBP90/ref=pe_385040_121528360_TE_dp_1

http://www.amazon.com/Akitio-Thunder2-PCIe-Box/dp/B00LTAUTHE with an external PSU

You could try connecting on monitor to USB via a converter but many find the video lag objectionable.

 

[Freyqq]

Apologies for 1) my drawing and 2) having to confirm...

If this is not possible is there anything out there in the market that is available?

You could use the thunderbolt dock, just use a USB 3 to DVI adapter for the other monitor.