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USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)

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Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)

#231

Post by corndoge »

wwalexander wrote: post #154
moritonal wrote: post #7

If you want a decent dock you have to spend a bit of money. I went through this pain before accepting the cost and buying a CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub[1]. Run's two 4k displays at 60Hz, any peripheral and charges my laptop. So good I bought a second. 1. https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-4-element-hub/

I’d just like to chime in with the Kensington SD5700T [1]. I’ve tried a CalDigit TS3 Plus, an Anker PowerExpand 13-in-1, and the Kensington has by far been the most reliable. It doesn’t have built-in HDMI/DisplayPort out, but it’s easy to buy the appropriate cable to connect to your monitor (I recommend Club3D [2]). Especially if you’re trying to use an HDMI 2.1 or DisplayPort 1.4 display, as I’ve found most built-in…

See, that's crazy, because Sonnet "makes" an identical board. Same case too. Only difference is the logo.

https://www.sonnetstore.com/products/echo-11-thunderbolt-4-d...

And $40 cheaper than the Kensington branded one.

So even though it's thunderbolt and it works for you - it really is the same thing TFA is talking about.

Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)

#232

Post by lstamour »

nwallin wrote: post #224

Also note that if you have a laptop that supports Thunderbolt, you need a docking station that supports Thunderbolt. If you have a laptop that supports Alternate Video Mode, you need a docking station that supports Alternate Video Mode. AFAIK no laptop supports both modes, and very, very few docking station supports both. (you'll usually get reduced features if you have a mismatch; for instance, you'll get just one m…

Personal anecdote but I’ve found many thunderbolt or USB-based displays seem to suffer from the plug and unplug issue. I’ve had the most success historically using the DisplayPort over USB-C spec with an 8K-compatible cable (that means it’s the latest spec version): https://www.displayport.org/displayport-over-usb-c/

Outside of that… some USB-C based docks likely use the above standard internally, plus USB-C spec support for driverless Ethernet, hubs, etc.

That said, there’s always something to complain about with these accessories and cables, it seems…

Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)

#233

Post by satrday »

nwallin wrote: post #224

Also note that if you have a laptop that supports Thunderbolt, you need a docking station that supports Thunderbolt. If you have a laptop that supports Alternate Video Mode, you need a docking station that supports Alternate Video Mode. AFAIK no laptop supports both modes, and very, very few docking station supports both. (you'll usually get reduced features if you have a mismatch; for instance, you'll get just one m…

The thunderbolt protocol is backwards compatible, so a USB-C dock should work when plugged into a laptop’s Thunderbolt port. CalDigit has a USB-C dock and one of the biggest “features” they push is its compatibility.

Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)

#234

Post by dragonwriter »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #209
moffkalast wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remind me to never buy a laptop without a healthy array of dedicated external ports. This is lunacy.

Yup when you see both the price and the size of these docks, you gotta wonder why even bother with buying a laptop in the first place. If the goal is to hook up two 4K monitors, I'd rather have, say, a desktop computer powered by a threadripper.

Well, I mean, 2 4k monitors is possible on a laptop in laptop configuration these days (4k internal + 4k add-on attached slide-out), so I don't see why it's an unreasonable thing to have where you dock a laptop.

Sure, you could buy a separate desktop for that, but if you also go portable, don't want to bother with some kind of online sync solution, and want to move between laptop mode for on the go and something docked to big monitors and a no laptop keyboard/mouse for when you are at your primary workspace, getting a good laptop plus a dock rather than spending more for a laptop plus a separate desktop which makes you have to compromise on syncing somehow makes a lot of sense.

(Obviously, if you need desktop processing power, thermal envelopes mean that laptops aren't going to be competitive. But if that's your need, you aren't going to be looking at laptops, and how to connect peripherals isn't going to be your limiting factor.)

Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)

#235

Post by Eric_WVGG »

I just knew that this — like every — article about USB-C hubs wouldn’t mention a single USB-C hub.

A hub is an accessory that turns one port into several of the same kind. Everyone understood this back in the USB-A days.

What this article discusses are port replicators. You might wanna call them docks although a pedant might take issue with that.

To the best of my knowledge, six freakin years after USB-C came to the market, there are no real USB-C hubs available. Some Thunderbolt hubs, but not simple USB-C.

Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)

#236

Post by bingohbangoh »

I bought a DisplayLink dock for my ubuntu laptops (2015 XPS and 2021 XPS) and it doesn't really work with either. It's quite maddening.

It requires a strange driver I would've preferred to avoid. I tried a strange workaround on both and neither really works; one still doesn't display through the DisplayPort or HDMI, the other doesn't work with the M.2 2280 built into the dock.

\[0\]: https://github.com/AdnanHodzic/displaylink-debian

Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)

#238

Post by Phrodo_00 »

moritonal wrote: post #7

If you want a decent dock you have to spend a bit of money. I went through this pain before accepting the cost and buying a CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub[1]. Run's two 4k displays at 60Hz, any peripheral and charges my laptop. So good I bought a second. 1. https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-4-element-hub/

While there certainly is something nice about plugging in a single cable, I just use a usb-c hub with a usb ethernet and a usb switch with my peripherals and then connect my screen directly

This is cheaper in the same way I don't use a KVM and instead change the inputs in my monitor (Also, I'd have to figure out what DP KVM supports G-Sync and 1440p 165hz).

Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)

#239

Post by chevman »

dogma1138 wrote: post #65
moritonal wrote: post #7

If you want a decent dock you have to spend a bit of money. I went through this pain before accepting the cost and buying a CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub[1]. Run's two 4k displays at 60Hz, any peripheral and charges my laptop. So good I bought a second. 1. https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-4-element-hub/

You can get them on the cheap as you can buy enterprise Dell/HP USB-C/TB for like $50-70 on EBay… Do not waste your money on high end consumer stuff, the enterprise stuff is better and the market is flooded with disposed units…

I'd second this.

Work in a large F50 and all the enterprise grade ones we've had are decent.

This is the current model they are giving folks:

https://us.targus.com/products/usb-c-universal-dv4k-docking-...

I've been running an Intel MacBook Pro (last intel version I think) on it the last few months with 2 external HP displays, keyboard, mouse, and it is a solid performer.

Re: USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021)

#240

Post by Forgeties79 »

moritonal wrote: post #7

If you want a decent dock you have to spend a bit of money. I went through this pain before accepting the cost and buying a CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub[1]. Run's two 4k displays at 60Hz, any peripheral and charges my laptop. So good I bought a second. 1. https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-4-element-hub/

I’ve been very happy with this OWC thunderbolt dock. No monitor outputs, but as someone who is juggling so many hard drives for video/audio projects - mostly running 3-2-1 backup protocol for my salaried job AND freelance clients AND personal work - the large number of ports and wall power are critical. I had so many problems with bus powered drives drawing too much and then randomly ejecting because I have too many plugged in. This thing solved it immediately.

On my M1 Mac mini, between the OWC dock and another dongle (bus powered) and the remaining ports on the Mac, I can run 10+ drives with no problem plus multiple peripherals. That may seem excessive, but when you’re juggling between drives trying to find old projects for people or trying to build a demo reel, it speeds up the process immensely. It also enabled me to consolidate a bunch of old 1 to 3 TB drives onto a couple of master 16 TB drives with everything in front of me at once, saving a ton of time, stress, and double checking.

Frankly it’s just nice not having to unplug something two or three times a day just to be able to plug in something else. I always have an available port now and it’s got me so much better organized.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-thunderbolt-dock

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