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Which TB4 Dock for Mac Mini M4 Pro?

Shelly74

Shelly74

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 24, 2023
31
1
I need a Dock with 3x TB4, 2.5Gbit Lan, 3 or more USB C 3.1 and DisplayPort 1.4. Can you recommend something to me? It shouldn't get too hot and, above all, run stable.

I found this but i read its not very stable:
www.amazon.de

Thunderbolt 4 Dock USB C Docking Station 3 Monitore für Laptop mit USB3.1, HDMI DP 8k, 2,5 Gbit/s Ethernet, 150W Ladegerät, TB4 Dock für Dell, HP, MacBook (Intel Thunderbolt™ Zertifiziert)

Thunderbolt 4 Dock Triple Display: Die USB C Dockingstation enthält 2 Thunderbolt 4, 1 HDMI 4K, 1 DP 8K und ein Paar Alternative Videoschnittstellen(HDMI+DP). Unterstützt 4K@144Hz auf einem einzigen Display. Unterstützt drei 4K Displays. Darüber hinaus unterstützt es HDCP v1.4/2.2, HDR und 12-Bit...
www.amazon.de
 
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@ Shelly74 "3x TB4, 2.5Gbit Lan, 3 or more USB C 3.1 and DisplayPort 1.4."

That's a lot to expect a TB4 dock to connect to.
It's 40Gbps bandwidth limitation means only some of the attached devices will not be bandwidth limited.

You would get better performance using a TB5 dock, which doesn't limit things in their way.
 
There is only 1 or 2 TB5 Dock out and the price is to high.
 
I don't want to spend so much. Looking for something under 200 euros.
 
Do there tend to be good sales around major holidays in your region, and are any such holidays coming up? In the U.S., we often benefit from the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period in late November, Amazon Prime days, etc...

Are you open to used? Do you have some equivalent of FaceBook Marketplace, and I presume eBay? I'd 2nd the idea that maybe 2 docks would work best for you.

What do you think of the Sonnet Echo 20 Thunderbolt 4 SuperDock? Shows up as priced at 308.46 (I'm guessing that currency sign is Euro.s?).

"About this item​

  • Twenty interfaces: three Thunderbolt 4, four USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A and four USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C charging ports; HDMI port; RJ45 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet; 3.5mm combo audio; 3.5mm microphone; line-level R+L RCA audio out; SD 4.0 card slot; and M.2 SSD slot place place place
  • Support for 4K, 5K, 6K and 8K @ 60Hz displays
  • CHARGE YOUR LAPTOP Provides up to 100W via the included Thunderbolt 4 cable
  • Features an M.2 NVMe SSD slot: add up to 8TB of storage and get data transfer speeds of up to 800MB/s (SSD sold separately)"
It can even hold an internal SSD (albeit NOT at Thunderbolt 4 speeds, but it would serve as a nice backup drive, etc...). Rated 4/5 Stars, and it's a known brand name and you should be able to find reviews on YouTube!, likely Mac Rumors, etc...
 
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I found now this with 4x TB4 downstream and the price is nice. This Dock have 2 TB 4 Chips!

amzn.eu

Angebot: iVANKY 20-in-1 FusionDock Max 1 Dual Thunderbolt 4 Dock, Quad 6K@60Hz Monitor MacBook Docking Station mit 2*HDMI, 7 * 10Gbps USB, 2,5GbE, 96W PD, SD/TF 4.0, 40Gbps Dock für Mac M1/M2/M3/M4 Pro/Max

【Vier 6K@60Hz-Bildschirme】Nur 2021/2023 MacBook Pro Serie mit M1/M2/M3 Max Chips unterstützen vier erweiterte Bildschirme. 2021/2023 MacBook Pro Serie mit M1/M2/M3 Pro Chips unterstützen nur zwei 6K@60Hz Bildschirme. Mac-Serie 2020/2022 mit M1/M2 Chips unterstützen ein einzelnes erweitertes Displ...
amzn.eu

This is the only dock that has 2 TB4 chips.
 
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Shelly74 said:
This is the only dock that has 2 TB4 chips.
Click to expand...
I think this is the same product on the U.S. Amazon site, which I include for English reviews. If so, be aware it is sort of a '2 docks built into 1 body' in that it connects to 2 of your Mac's Thunderbolt 4 ports rather than one.

And under About This Item, they put:

  • "【NOTE for 14.4 MacOS】Due to a conflict between the automatic sleep-wake feature of the MacOS 14.4 version and our docking station, we recommend that you unplug the dual USB-C cables when not in use to ensure that your MacBook can enter sleep mode properly"
I don't know if that's still a 'thing,' but it caught my eye so I pointed it out.
 
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@Shelly74 It looks like the neat dual-TB4 cable that comes with that Ivanky dock only fits in MacBook Pro or M2 minis, so with an M4 mini you would need to run 2 TB4 cables to the dock.
 
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I'm all for moving away from "legacy" ports, but Apple should really beef up their accessory game. Single use adapters are clean and minimal when using one at a time, but there are many dock/hub users. Most hubs my company has ordered over the years from Amazon have died within a year or two. No first-party solutions only reinforce the headaches to me.
 
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Yes i read on Amazon many Docks are dead after month. For the high price its a no go.
 
mansplains said:
Most hubs my company has ordered over the years from Amazon have died within a year or two.
Click to expand...
Is there any brand that you guys had better results with? I realize anybody can get a 'lemon' from any brand and model, and likewise good results from one user with one product is barely anecdotal, but if your company has bought a number of docks, that experience might be good to know.
 
drrich2 said:
Is there any brand that you guys had better results with? I realize anybody can get a 'lemon' from any brand and model, and likewise good results from one user with one product is barely anecdotal, but if your company has bought a number of docks, that experience might be good to know.
Click to expand...
I think Mokin was one of them? But even then some users would have issues that I couldn't replicate when testing before planned disposal. We don't have a database of failure rates or anything lol. I get what you mean, but Amazon is different since it could be any random-generated brand name you can't pronounce out of China, and be the same drop shipped product as the rest.
 
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What Mac are you running it with? For a desktop Mac you could consider two Amazon Basics Thunderbolt 4 hubs, and then run dongles off those.

www.amazon.com

Amazon Basics Thunderbolt4/USB4 Docking Station, 3X Downstream TBT4 (Dual Display), 1xUSB A 3.1, Black, ‎4.76 x 2.84 x 0.86 inches

An Amazon Brand
www.amazon.com

And if you haven't bought your Mac yet, you can configure a Mac mini with 10 GigE for cheap.

Or else an Amazon Basics Thunderbolt 4 dock for a desktop or laptop.

www.amazon.com

Amazon Basics Thunderbolt4/USB4 Pro Docking Station,2xTBT4,1xHDMI2.1,3xUSB A 3.1,RJ45,Dual Display, Black, 7.86 x 2.95 x 1.23 inches

An Amazon Brand
www.amazon.com

I don't know if these are available at Amazon.de but they ship internationally from Amazon.com.
 
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“Most hubs my company has ordered over the years from Amazon have died within a year or two.”

Since TB4 multi-port ‘hubs’ have only been available for a couple of years or so, so ‘over the years’ purchases were presumably USB 3 devices, which are very different to TB3/4 products…

Mokin ‘Thunderbolt’ hubs aren’t TB at all, just USB low grade junk, totally unlike certified TB products… 😧
 
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drrich2 said:
Is there any brand that you guys had better results with? I realize anybody can get a 'lemon' from any brand and model, and likewise good results from one user with one product is barely anecdotal, but if your company has bought a number of docks, that experience might be good to know.
Click to expand...
Not TB4, but I've had a TB3 dock/hub from Anker since the M1 Air came out. It was an early model and has some oddities... like I need to unplug my usb-c to Displayport cable and plug it back in when I re-dock the laptop. (True for both the Air and the M1 Pro that replaced it.) It does get pretty hot, too.

The current version is the Anker 577, I think. The 777 has tb4.
 
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Bigwaff said:
CalDigit just announced the TB5 Element hub.. 3x downstream TB5 ports.. w/out built-in ethernet.. not exactly the built-in port expansion you are looking for, but close... you will need to make some compromises to get everything you want...

Thunderbolt 5 | USB4 | Element 5 Hub | CalDigit – CalDigit

www.caldigit.com www.caldigit.com
Click to expand...
Looks good but not aviable on Amazon or Europe. On the Page i read end of this month. I think this Hub is good and i wait for this.
 
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cawsllyffant said:
It was an early model and has some oddities... like I need to unplug my usb-c to Displayport cable and plug it back in when I re-dock the laptop.
Click to expand...
Just to add: I remembered that this didn't start until I transitioned to the Samsung 49-inch display (5120x1440). It's entirely possible the issue is with the monitor's display port implementation.

Also, as @EugW said. Don't buy TB3 today, but definitely do check out Anker's options. I've had really good luck with them, and in the once case where I didn't... they shipped a replacement promptly. (That was 10 years ago and a USB-A hub that failed intermittently, replacement was rock solid.)
 
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cawsllyffant said:
Also, as @EugW said. Don't buy TB3 today, but definitely do check out Anker's options. I've had really good luck with them, and in the once case where I didn't... they shipped a replacement promptly. (That was 10 years ago and a USB-A hub that failed intermittently, replacement was rock solid.)
Click to expand...
For a Thunderbolt 4 hub, Plugable also treated me well. After several months of usage, I started to have some reliability issues with my setup. After some troubleshooting myself, I narrowed it down to their Thunderbolt 4 cable that was provided with the hub. Thus, under warranty I asked them to replace the cable.

They asked me to troubleshoot again with them, but after going through their troubleshooting process, they were not convinced it was the cable. So, instead of just replacing the cable like I asked, they gave me a brand new hub with all the accessories as well and let me keep the old one too. It turns out it was indeed just the cable so I then bought a new Thunderbolt 4 cable and now I have two fully functional Thunderbolt 4 hubs. :)
 
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