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Which Hub (TB4 ./. USB-C) Should I Get For a 14'' MBP M1max

Dembo

Dembo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 14, 2007
185
13
London, UK / Frankfurt, Germany
So finally my late 2013 15'' MBP will be off to greener pastures (it has been a fantastic machine). It will be replaced by a fancy new 14'' with M1max. I am currently rocking a CalDigit TB2 hub on the old machine mainly because I like the convenience to just plug in a single cable when using the machine on my desktop.

Along with the MBP I would like to upgrade my hub setup but I kinda dropped the ball a bit during the last 8 years. The hub should be able to:

- drive/connect two displays, one 4k (probably via DisplayPort / TB but I think my LG 27UK670 can do 4k via HDMI and maybe even USB-C) and one 2k (most likely HDMI)
- provide plenty of USB3 ports for my legacy pile of HDDs
- having a full PD passthrough of the 96W delivered by the Apple charger would be very nice but I don't think there are any hubs out there that can deliver 100W?

optional
- LAN port for backup purposes
- audio / headphone port to connect to my stationary speakers (CalDigit had it (until it died on me) so I am using a basic USB sound card attached to the CalDigit right now to, again, minimized the cables I need to plug in)
- anything else that might come in handy

As there is a massive price difference between USB-C and TB4 hubs I am unsure why I should invest into a TB4 hub. The machine is mainly used for photo editing but so far external SSDs connected via a hub and the CalDigit provide enough speed for this kind of work. I am happy to invest more for good quality but am totally unsure what I should look out for in this sparkling modern world.
 
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I think you can take a look at Caldigit's TS3 Plus. They just posted a compatibility chart there

CalDigit Docks and Apple M1, M2, M3, M4 Pro/Max & M1/M2 Ultra Compatibility – CalDigit

www.caldigit.com www.caldigit.com

it's important to know, based on Apple's site, the new MacBook Pro 14" and 16" can delivers the same performance whether it’s plugged in or not. So doesn't matter if you are using a 140W, 90W or 60W charger, the performance won't be different.
 
TS3 Plus looks nice and would be a logical follow-up to my TS1, thanks. It looks like CalDigit has some nice docks available: Both the Elements Thunderbolt hub and the dual HDMI USB-C dock appear to be what I am looking for - with the later claiming 100W of charging power so that would get me to the one-plug situation.

Since I have to wait to the 29th anyway I am hoping from some early user reports. The alternative would be to just get a cheap USB-C dock off amazon and upgrade to a more permanent solution once the dust settles.
 
I really like my twelvesouth stay go hub - it’s so well built and practical. Has what I need (and now an extra HDMI port and a surplus and card slot).
 
Thanks for all the ideas and pointers guys! I am still trying to catch on approx. 6y of technology I basically missed, but so far it appears that:

  • TB3 vs. TB4 - don't bother
  • TB3/4 hub vs. USB-C hub - the main difference from a user standpoint appears to be that a TB4 hub offers TB4 connections with the full 40 GB/s speed so the most likely scenario appears to be some form of tree-like structure, i.e. start with a TB4 then connect a display adapter to one branch, (pure) USB-C hub to another, USB-A hub to the next etc. - don't really know whether I need all this to be honest
So with regards to your suggestions I think:

  • TwelveSouth Stay Go Hub: seems to be geared towards the travel and I would like to have a solution with two working HDMI or DP ports
  • OWC TB4 Dock: looks like I would like to build a tree structure, so this might be more useful for Macs with a single TB4 port
  • Anker Apex: getting very close and pretty much does what I need it to do although the main difference to substantially cheaper USB-C solutions seems to be the one downstream TB4/40 GB/s port or am I missing something?
  • Plugable TB3 Dual Display 96W Dock: this could be it I think (especially if my assumption regarding TB3 and TB4 is correct), however, the only way to get it delivered to Germany would be via ebay.co.uk which most likely will result in import duty and such - shame that it appears to be sold-out all over the EU
So, getting closer but not fully there yet, I am afraid.
 
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Just an update: I am pretty much ready to throw in the towel for a single-plug TB4 solution right now. Looks like the only unit that is actually shipping right now is the Anker Apex and while that is somewhat close to what I am looking for - at least for the price it is currently trading at.

So the most likely scenarios are:

(1)
Get 2 Anker PowerExpand 8-1 USB-C hubs, plug in two cables for the time being, and live with the 86W charging power. I guess manufactures will adapt to the new MBPs and push out new TB docks in 2022.

(2)
Get the OWC TB4 dock (that might be possible) or the, for some reason more expensive Kensington, and a get a bunch of adapters to build a tree.

Option (2) would be significantly more expensive while still not offering 100% of what I want (the OWC has a marginally lower output power than the 96W provided by the original power supply and I wouldn't mind more 10GB/s USB 3 ports). Still it might be viable because I like tidy things.
 
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Just some suggestion, if you read the details, all the current shipping TB4 docks can not provide the charging power, for example, 90W, they claimed for their product when your TB4 dock is under full loading or light loading. I read some reddit article saying TB4 would drop the host charging power to 70W or 60W if you plug in USB devices or downstream TB devices. The power supply that came with TB4 docks is simply just not big enough. There is no TB4 dock that can give you full and sustained 90W charging, they would drop like 20W to 30W if you start plugging devices to TB4 dock. So mind as well just stay with TB3 dock since there is no huge difference and you pay much more on TB4 docks I believe.
 
Yeah, power is a bit of a concern but I am on the 14'' train so it'll ship with a 96W power supply - with up to 90W charging power. So less than the brick, but if I run into prolonged power issues I can always plug in the power brick.

So just to let you know I went for the OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock and added a TB/USB-C to dual Display Port and a USB-C to USB-C hub (not sure about the later). I'll test things when the MBP arrives on Friday and let you know.
 
Just a warning - I have a CalDigit TS3+ For my 2019 MBP and it has weird issues with my Universal Audio interface and my Logitech webcam. It seems if I’ve had the TS3 on for a few days straight and my laptop connected, sometimes the UA and/or webcam will stop working correctly. The UA software won’t be able to connect, the webcam will be black. If I restart my computer it doesn’t fix the issue. If I restart the TS3, it’s fixed. I’ve spoken to support and they replaced the unit but it’s still happening. Just letting you know..
 
Thx for the heads-up. I own the original CalDigit TS and blew it's audio port twice. The first time it was under warranty, and got replaced without any issues, the second time it was long out of warranty so to keep using the one (two if you count power) cable solution I got a cheap USB sound card and attached it to an USB hub connected to the TS. Works fine for the occasional beep - for anything requiring descent audio I use Airpod Pros.
 
Just let you know I got my 14" MBP M1 Max today. Connect it to Caldigit's TB4 Element Hub, plenty of USB 3.0 ports and 3x extra TB4 downstream ports for my Samsung T7 and 2x 4K monitors. So far so good.
 
does anyone know if the MacBook 14 should support 2 displays using the brydge stone lite dock please? It states windows support only so imagine it’s a DisplayPort MST dock, but perhaps support has changed with the m1 pro/max

 
Just to give you guys a quick update:
  • the 14'' M1 Max is a beast
  • the OWC Thunderbolt 4 hub works like a charm - so far the power delivery seems to be totally sufficient ("tested" this with a 45min BluRay encode, battery stayed at 100% all the time
  • this is (as of now) truly a one cable solution
  • I am running:
    • two HDD connected to the USB 3.2 ports
    • one 13 port USB 3 hub connected to the third USB 3.2 port because I am lazy, so this one host a range of cables to connect whatnot (Garmin devices etc.)
    • an SDD connected one of the outgoing TB 4 ports
    • an UBS-C hub connected to the second outgoing TB 4 port - no need for this atm, but I am sure it'll come in handy
    • a dual HDMI adapter to the final outgoing TB 4 port - I planned on buying a dual DisplayPort adapter but put the wrong device into my amazon shopping cart ??‍♂️ - anyway, this works totally fine with my current (4k and 2k 27'' monitors) setup so I'll use it for now
    • a Gigabit LAN connection just in case
    • a reasonably fast 512GB SD card as some sort of initial storage / dump drive - I am thinking about moving my iTunes library there: My iTunes usage has gone way down, so it isn't really justified to put all my old CD rips onto the internal SSD and if I really need to take my library with me there is always the option to use the MBP's internal SD card slot
All in all I am super happy with the setup as it is very convenient and so far nothing seems to slowing me down. I'll be in setup hell for next weeks since I want to use the switch to start fresh but once the dust settles this will be a monster photo editing machine.
 
Talalal said:
does anyone know if the MacBook 14 should support 2 displays using the brydge stone lite dock please? It states windows support only so imagine it’s a DisplayPort MST dock, but perhaps support has changed with the m1 pro/max

Click to expand...
this brydge stone dock would not work due to MST limitation in macOS. your best bet is still thunderbolt dock or hub to drive two displays externally.
 
carestudio said:
this brydge stone dock would not work due to MST limitation in macOS. your best bet is still thunderbolt dock or hub to drive two displays externally.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Ended up going for the Anker 5 in 1 TB4 hub. Will update on performance
 
As a portable hub the Anker 8 in 1 with 4k60, 100W PD and 10Gbit Ethernet works well for me.
 
Just to report in that I picked up a CalDigit Thunderbolt 3 DisplayPort Mini Dock last week and it's working great for me. I don't have high demands but making full use of it with dual monitors, ethernet and my Time Machine on the usb.

Very happy to use magsafe for power. Continuing to use the audio jack for my desktop speakers as I'm not a fan of any of the solutions for using keyboard volume control with external audio devices. Rarely plug anything else in.

My one complaint that seemingly applies to all bus powered docks is that the cable is waaaay too short. I've managed to stash the dock down the back of my desk in just the right place so that it isn't too much of an issue. Slightly annoying when I need to flip the laptop open from time to time as it can't move out from its spot under the monitor without being unplugged. Tried a Thunderbolt 3 extension cable but the monitors wouldn't work ?‍♂️
 
As a stationary dock I'm using my external LG display which is connected via USBc to the MacBook and has itself two USB3.1 ports where two USB hubs are connected with all my external hard disks and periphery. Since I can only charge the MacBook with 60W through the display I will still use MagSafe though.
 
Can update that the Anker 5 in 1 Thunderbolt 4 dock works great with 2 external 4k60 monitors. Charges MacBook 14 fast too with the included power brick. And it's compact.
 
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