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The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

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Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#171

Post by glangdale »

dijit wrote: post #11

Something I highly recommend avoiding (though it may look tempting) is the TB16 thunderbolt dock from dell. There is something really screwy with the USB controller in that device, the ETH is on the USB hub and corrupts Ethernet frames, under Linux you can force disable hardware offloaded CRC checksumming as a workaround, but still the USB devices that are directly connected can just stop functioning. It also has the…

I've used the WD19. I haven't experimented with Linux, but it's a pretty screwy device. A firmware update meant that it stopped playing "which device is going to work today" lucky dip, but it is always a festival of that Windows "hey, something interesting happened at a hardware level" noise as it takes 10 seconds and 3-4 redraws of the whole screen to finally figure out where all the displays are.

It's workable on PC and Mac, but I don't love it.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#172

Post by glangdale »

I got very excited by his diagram, which seemed to imply that there exists a TB3 dock that's also a KVM. This is a product that needs to exist and I would pay a lot of money for it (as long as it worked well - there seem to be a lot of janky TB3 docks already even without the challenges of KVM).

If I had a slightly less wacky WD19 that had 2 or 4 input ports it would enormously simplify my current and future setups.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#173

Post by izacus »

tutfbhuf wrote: post #147
komali2 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As other people mentioned, egpu container. For what it's worth, I didn't find this to be, well, worth it. I got a razer egpu enclosure and while it was certainly very well engineered, it was comically over-engineered. Weighed something crazy even without my gpu in it, I wanna say 10lbs, maybe even 15. Plus, it was huge, as big as an itx case. Then I had to drop 60$ on a long enough thunderbolt Cable to let me have th…

Yup, this is what I have heard from others as well, that's why I am specifically looking for an adapter/cable without enclosure.

It's not going to be just an adapter because you'll need a beefy power supply with PCIe power outlets as well (modern cards pull up to 400W of power).

This is why mostly you get a box to house all that.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#174

Post by MAGZine »

glangdale wrote: post #172

I got very excited by his diagram, which seemed to imply that there exists a TB3 dock that's also a KVM. This is a product that needs to exist and I would pay a lot of money for it (as long as it worked well - there seem to be a lot of janky TB3 docks already even without the challenges of KVM). If I had a slightly less wacky WD19 that had 2 or 4 input ports it would enormously simplify my current and future setups.

not exactly what you're asking, but i've used a dell monitor that acted as a kvm switch. macbook was connected via usb-c, and dell laptop was connected via HDMI. Though you could also use displayport. Monitor seemlessly switched my magic trackpad/keyboard input between the mac and pc.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#175

Post by greggyb »

vxNsr wrote: post #137
Bud wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I support a LOT of Thunderbolt docks for clients in my IT work and have also had experience with a lot of them personally. My feedback is, almost all of these docks really suck. Spend the money and get a CalDigit. You won't regret it. It's the only one I've found that reliably performs the way a dock should.

issue with caldigit is that it only has one dp out, wd19 has 2, and an hdmi. my optimal dock would have/support: 3 video out (dp, hdmi, etc) 5+ usb-a (2.0 is fine) 2+ usb-c (3.2 preferred) gigEth

DisplayPort supports MST to drive multiple monitors from a single output. Your displays may support this already. If not you can get a relatively cheap hub. Here are some: https://www.monoprice.com/search/index?keyword=displayport+m...

I have a CalDigit and a KVM switch to support a desktop and laptop. The setup works just fine with one DP out from the CalDigit, one DP out from the KVM, and an MST hub driving two 1440p monitors. Cabling looks like below. I'm ignoring power and several peripherals.

The only cable I deal with on a regular basis is the thunderbolt from the CalDigit dock to the laptop. When coming or going, that's the only cable I need to care about. I can switch all input and output at the press of a button on the KVM.

    Laptop   -thunderbolt- CalDigit
    CalDigit -DP-          KVM
    CalDigit -USB-         KVM
    CalDigit -3.5mm-       KVM
    Desktop  -DP-          KVM
    Desktop  -USB-         KVM
    Desktop  -3.5mm-       KVM
    KVM      -DP-          MST Hub
    KVM      -USB-         Mouse
    KVM      -USB-         Keyboard
    KVM      -3.5mm-       Amp
    MST Hub  -DP-          Monitor1
    MST Hub  -DP-          Monitor2
    Amp      -1/4"-        Headphones

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#176

Post by vosper »

gautamcgoel wrote: post #163

For anyone in interested in building a silent PC, I have some simple advice: use a Noctua CPU heatsink and Noctua case fans. They are whisper-quiet, and I spent < $100 for all the fans in my system. They are the most premium-feeling computer product I have ever used; the CPU heatsink was very heavy and solid, and came with all the tools needed for installation including a screwdriver and thermal paste. Highly recomme…

Adding to this: BeQuiet cases. You want that internal sound dampening on all sides of the case (so avoid tempered glass) to get rid of any annoying high-pitched coil whine, not just to silence the drone from fans. I have an overclocked 9700K with a BeQuiet case, the stock BeQuiet fans (which are quiet) plus a Noctua heatsink and extra Noctua case fan. After having adjusted the fan curves it runs cool and is inaudble (from less than 1m away) without headphones.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#177

Post by greggyb »

glangdale wrote: post #172

I got very excited by his diagram, which seemed to imply that there exists a TB3 dock that's also a KVM. This is a product that needs to exist and I would pay a lot of money for it (as long as it worked well - there seem to be a lot of janky TB3 docks already even without the challenges of KVM). If I had a slightly less wacky WD19 that had 2 or 4 input ports it would enormously simplify my current and future setups.

I've had good luck with an IOGear DisplayPort KVM. I would also like the two items merged. As it stands, I'm already in the process of making a new desk-top (like the wood on top of the legs, not like another computer), and I plan to give these items their own space on the underside of the desk top, either on shelves or with some other mounting mechanism.

You can see the major layout here (just listing the connectivity): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25522719

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#178

Post by glangdale »

MAGZine wrote: post #174
glangdale wrote: post #172

I got very excited by his diagram, which seemed to imply that there exists a TB3 dock that's also a KVM. This is a product that needs to exist and I would pay a lot of money for it (as long as it worked well - there seem to be a lot of janky TB3 docks already even without the challenges of KVM). If I had a slightly less wacky WD19 that had 2 or 4 input ports it would enormously simplify my current and future setups.

not exactly what you're asking, but i've used a dell monitor that acted as a kvm switch. macbook was connected via usb-c, and dell laptop was connected via HDMI. Though you could also use displayport. Monitor seemlessly switched my magic trackpad/keyboard input between the mac and pc.

I have 2-3 monitors I'd like in this setup. My Dell monitor can do what you describe, but lacks the ports of a real dock (don't think it has outgoing Ethernet).

At the moment I have 2 monitors on the dock (which is my main setup) and a 3rd monitor on a separate machine with KVM (which means 2 keyboards and 2 mice) - this supports 4 computers (2 laptops, 2 desktops) - work+home laptops on the dual-monitor dock and Linux+PC desktops on the KVM. It's not a pretty setup.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#179

Post by arendtio »

Took me a while to find out that just because my Thinkpad Notebook supports DisplayPort 1.2 and has Thunderbolt, it does not mean I can actually use the specified resolutions with the Thinkpad USB-C Dock Gen 2.

For reference, DisplayPort 1.2 supports 4k60Hz according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort#Refresh_frequency_...

But when I look into the User Guide of the ThinkPad USB-C Dock Gen 2, the max resolution for DisplayPort 1.2 is 4k30Hz (Page 7): https://download.lenovo.com/consumer/options/thinkpad_usb-c_...

I don't know if you have every used 30Hz with a mouse, but it sucks. Especially when you are used to 120Hz... Now I am looking for a Dock that actually supports 4k60Hz with DisplayPort 1.2.

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