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The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

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Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#191

Post by dghughes »

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 had two jobs both government (not US) those WDx docks are terrible.

The connector is a two inch lever just waiting for something to break it off.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#192

Post by Latty »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #126
Latty wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Thunderbolt in this case is coming from the chipset on the motherboard, not the CPU. He lists the motherboard as an X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 which supports 2nd gen Ryzen, and which has that support built in.

This is incorrect, no AMD chip (CPU or chipset) comes with thunderbolt built in. The x570 Phantom Gaming board uses an Intel Titan Ridge (see the obligatory AnandTech block diagram) controller hanging off of the chipset's PCIe lanes to provide thunderbolt 3. This is functionally equivalent to just buying a thunderbolt add-in card, other than the space requirements. https://images.anandtech.com/doci/14880/ASRock%20X57…

Ah my bad, you are right, I didn't meant to imply that it was actually provided by the x570 chipset, just through it as a part of the motherboard. I just worded it poorly.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#193

Post by arcticbull »

dghughes wrote: post #191
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 had two jobs both government (not US) those WDx docks are terrible. The connector is a two inch lever just waiting for something to break it off.

Personally I disagree, I love my WD19TB. It's hooked up to all my peripherals and monitor, and until a proper TB3 KVM comes into existence, I plug it into my laptop or desktop as needed. Nice to be able to swap a single plug and get full speed everything.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#194

Post by 3r8riacz »

arendtio wrote: post #179

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…

I've tried several docks and cables with no success until I've found this article: https://www.bigmessowires.com/2019/05/19/explaining-4k-60hz-... The recommended CableMatters dock solved the 4k60Hz issue with USB2.0 pheripherals connected (mouse, kb).

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#195

Post by gumby »

swiftcoder wrote: post #139
vxNsr wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The CalDigit only has one dedicated DisplayPort, but you can also plug a USB-C to DisplayPort cable into the outgoing ThunderBolt port - I had dual 4k60 monitors running for a while that way.

Daisy chain is supposed to work for two monitors, but I don’t know if it ever has in the wild. I believe it’s mandatory for TB4

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#196

Post by gumby »

ianai wrote: post #16
mikepurvis wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a bummer to hear; I have the WD15 dock through work and it's been excellent; I have a bunch of complaints about the XPS itself (power management, for example), but that dock has been great.

For the prices, these docks have no excuse for bad behavior.

I dunno, TB is basically a mass of high frequency analog madness with long cables thrown into the mix. I, kind of astonished that it works at all, at any price.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#197

Post by swiftcoder »

gumby wrote: post #195
swiftcoder wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CalDigit only has one dedicated DisplayPort, but you can also plug a USB-C to DisplayPort cable into the outgoing ThunderBolt port - I had dual 4k60 monitors running for a while that way.

Daisy chain is supposed to work for two monitors, but I don’t know if it ever has in the wild. I believe it’s mandatory for TB4

DisplayPort daisy chain is specifically unsupported by Mac OS since forever. If you dual-boot an Intel Mac to Windows (via BootCamp) it'll daisy chain just fine, so the hardware supports it, but booted to Mac it'll just ignore the second monitor in the chain.

If you are lucky enough to own a Thunderbolt (note: not displayport) monitor, that can chain to a displayport monitor. But thunderbolt monitors are rare as all get out these days.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#198

Post by vxNsr »

greggyb wrote: post #175
vxNsr wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 144…

If I'm following this correctly, you have 3 devices (dock, kvm, mst hub) in between your computer and the monitors... what's the latency like?

I personally just refuse (out of principle) to plug a hub into a hub, why am I buying two devices when they could and should be one?

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#199

Post by tutfbhuf »

izacus wrote: post #173
tutfbhuf wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, I know and I already have a beefy enough power supply. I just want that adapter. So is there any cable or not? If yes, where can I buy it?

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#200

Post by muro »

benfrain wrote: post #67
gehwartzen wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep! As long as each PC is setup with all the necessary drivers and such its all plug and play. No issues with just ripping the cable out of my MacBook without "undocking" anything. It just reverts to the internal display without issues. I kind of wish there were manual/dumb TB3 switches for this sort of thing but I have not seen any.

Fantastic, thanks for the clarification. I'll be swapping Macbook Pro (work) for Mac Mini (personal) so this could be the way forward. Thanks.

If you are getting one of the new M1 based mac minis, eGPU doesn't work.
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