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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)

#341

Post by bayindirh »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #338
bayindirh wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think a MacBook Air M1 has a lot places to add ports [0]. The latest generation of MacBook Pros bring a lot of the ports back [1], so that point doesn't hold anymore. Also, of all the MacBook Air users I know, I'm the heaviest user in terms of processor load, and given that it's the company computer, it wouldn't be my first choice for a personal MacBook (in fact, I have a personal MacBook Pro). At the end of…

Looks like there's enough room for USB A ports to me. They're not massively thicker. HDMI would require curving the bottom differently but would easily fit in a laptop of that thickness.

Reporting from my MacBook Air M1, there's actually not enough thickness. The (male) plug itself is as thick as the side of the laptop. Considering the (female) socket's size & surrounding machinery, the Air needs to be at least 20% thicker to accommodate a USB-A port.

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

#342

Post by wonnage »

Jhsto wrote: post #5

If you use a laptop with an external monitor, a better idea is to get a premium monitor which handles charging, video, and data transfer of USB devices connected to the monitor for you. This allowed me to get rid off the wonky USBC hubs, but before my employer got me a Dell monitor I didn't know that a single USBC connection can deliver all three.

These are great if you just have a laptop. I use the Dell S2719DC and I love being able to just get everything by plugging in one cable. However, I switch between a laptop and desktop, so I wound up buying a separate USB switch for peripherals, and it gets kinda confusing:

KB/mouse -> switch -> desktop/monitor

Monitor laptop (usb-c)

Desktop -> monitor (HDMI)

The downsides are that it only supports 45W charging, and you can't really use dual monitors.

Ideally I could use a KVM so everything is switched in one device. But USB switching is cheap and reliable (my switch cost $25 and has been rock solid), whereas the cheapest KVM I could find to do this cost $150, doesn't support 144hz, is stuck on hdmi 2.0, etc.

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

#343

Post by muro »

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 found a random USB-c monitor to be a decent hub (I used a cheap Lenovo, was great). No ethernet cable, however wifi is usually good enough, if not faster.

If it needs to be Thunderbolt and money is no object, there is the Apple Studio Display with 3 USB-C ports.

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

#344

Post by Dylan16807 »

Roritharr wrote: post #261
djur wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem here isn't related to the standardized port and incompatibility between devices, though, is it? It's a matter of the functionality of the hardware in the peripheral, which has been an issue with USB hubs forever. Your comment is all about device compatibility, not devices being cheap and shitty.

One begets the other is my implied argument, if the standard wouldn't be this wide and allow for so much missing functionality, devices being this cheap and shitty would stick out more. Overall prices would be higher, but the quality per device would increase, even if just for economy of scale reasons. How many bad USB 2 Hubs did you have to deal with?

What missing functionality?

When chips die, that's not something the standard could affect.

When a USB to Ethernet converter happens to be on the same circuit board as an actual hub, the USB standard isn't responsible for the Ethernet part.

The screen connections are pretty much just passthrough. That's the narrowest you can get.

And it doesn't sound like the USB ports on the hubs had any problems.

If you split things up by standard, you'd have a USB hub that always works, with a flaky ethernet converter plugged in one port and a flaky HDMI converter plugged in another port.

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

#345

Post by icelancer »

mey wrote: post #326
icelancer wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, a perfect example are all the people in this thread recommending Thunderbolt devices while a bunch of us sit here and type away on our Ryzen or Threadripper powered machines. USB-C has been such a massive disappointment.

ASUS has Thunderbolt 4 motherboards for Ryzen. https://www.asus.com/ProArt/Motherboards-Home/

Unfortunately I've never really needed USB-C for my desktops/servers - primarily my laptops.

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

#346

Post by d1sxeyes »

katbyte wrote: post #335
sho wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some want a machine that works on the move but can be expanded to bigger screens and such when at certain locations I wouldn't say "some". Probably 90% of developers I know require exactly this, in fact off the top of my head I can't think of any who don't. Even the permanent, full-remote, no-really-there-is-literally-no-office types want to sit in a different room sometimes or work from a coffee shop. It's pretty…

Personally I like having a laptop for on the go and a desktop that’s always in one place and use syncing to make it pretty seemless to switch between them.

That's a good solution, but it comes with its own set of compromises. I think the argument here really is:

'... where we came in. Having to buy an external dock is such a compromise! I want to have all the ports on my laptop!'

'But if all your peripherals are connected directly, you need to connect and disconnect them every time, so you have to compromise on mobility. Isn't this...'

And different variations on this same spiral.

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

#347

Post by xattt »

microtonal wrote: post #325
xattt wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ended up getting a Lenovo USB-C Gen 2 hub a couple of years ago, and it’s still on sale. Also very satisfied. I’m able to switch my personal (Lenovo) and work (Dell) laptops, mostly without issue. I say without issue because the Dell/Intel only supports HBM2 so won’t do two monitors if one of them is more than 1080p. I settled on using the HDMI out from the laptop to split the difference in frustration and convenie…

I ended up getting a Lenovo USB-C Gen 2 hub a couple of years ago, It works fine on ThinkPads. Unless you are using Linux, where 4k@60Hz does not work due to lane misconfiguration (maybe this is fixed by now?). On Macs, I have found this Dock to be a complete disaster. It would often not charge unless you plug/unplug the Dock several times. Also Ethernet often doesn't work (it uses a Realtek NIC). I had two and sold…

There have been a couple of firmware updates over my couple years of ownership. I had a couple of issues with the dock simply not connecting to the non-Lenovo computer, but this was fixed with the fw update early last year.

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

#348

Post by seszett »

theshrike79 wrote: post #332
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.

I swap between three different computers. Everything is attached to the same dock. I just need to swap the USB-C connector between the three and I get the same displays and peripherals. Doing this with a "healthy array of external ports" would be a huge pain in the ass.

You could do it the same if you had an array of ports (as long as one of them is USB-C). You would just also have the possibility to use the other ports without a hub.

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

#349

Post by prmoustache »

asdff wrote: post #181
ugjka wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you go for cheap, you might get someone selling stuff with manufacturing defects

Usually you will see that in the reviews. Depending on the defect rate, stars will drop accordingly I find.

Problem basing on reviews is that people mostly only review when they receive and test the product for the first time.

Not many will bother finding the item and review it n months ago when the bad capacitors dies or they gave up frustrated by a recurring but intermitent issue.

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

#350

Post by Dylan16807 »

drstewart wrote: post #228
Evidlo wrote: post #135

Why do people buy laptops that don't have this stuff already on it? I run an engineering course and it's almost comical how often students have to set aside their $2000 Macbooks and use the desktop workstations because they forgot their dongles at home. My Thinkpad has 6 USB ports (2 USB 3.0), SDCard, DisplayPort, VGA, ethernet and also e-sata and Firewire which I've never used.

You bought a laptop without a SCSI port? Can I ask why you bought a laptop that doesn't have that already on it?

Is this really supposed to be a counterargument?

The question is obviously why people buy laptops without ports they need.

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