USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness (2021) • Hacker News Board

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

#51

Post by Sophistifunk » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 9:31 PM UTC

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/

For the sake of anecdata, I have a CalDigit TB3 dock that's been working reasonably well for a few years now, which is actually pretty high praise given the competition, and I'll probably stick with CD when I get around to replacing it.

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

#52

Post by AshamedCaptain » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 9:31 PM UTC

olyjohn wrote: post #46

dijit wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not the conclusion. the Dell TB16 is just about the worst docking station I've ever used and that was Thunderbolt 3, and their USB-C equivalent (WD16 iirc) worked flawlessly. Likely if you tore down the TB16 you would find the chip mentioned in TFA.

I've dealt with a number of these docks. And yeah, it's a Realtek NIC on them, and it's a total piece of crap. Endless issues with these docks, firmware updates, new drivers constantly... None of it ever helps. I tried using it on my Mac. But it's on some kind of an Apple blacklist and won't work on Macs. There was some way to enable it, by turning off system protection or some shit... But even then, you could not ge…

I have never gotten the TB16 to work on anything other than Dells of around the same era. I don't think it's Apple blacklisting it, but rather the dock whitelisting things.

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

#53

Post by bombcar » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 9:31 PM UTC

jvanderbot wrote: post #40

vinhboy wrote: post #13

> It honestly feels like no matter what you buy, you get more or less the same hardware, and you’re most likely getting a heavily overpriced product just because some company printed their logo on it. Isn't this like a known thing? Almost all peripherals on Amazon will have dozens of the exact same form-factor with different logos on it. You just buy the one that is the perfect intersection of costs, positive reviews…

Just to expand on this: I suspect and have been told that almost all powertools follow this model. The markup for most tools in the same class is essentially branding only.

This is mainly because power-tool quality across the board has greatly increased - once you're into a "band" they're much the same, though there are differences it's usually one of "focus" not of quality.

If you're dealing with off-brand or no-brand tools, you can still end up with something entirely usable but crappy. The prices usually tell most of the story.

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

#54

Post by tossoutaccimade » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 9:32 PM UTC

smoldesu wrote: post #21

somethoughts wrote: post #9

It feels like Apple should have done/should do an official in-house docking system instead of outsourcing such a critical component in the overall system/value proposition.

I actually agree. Normally I'm against proprietary ports, but vendors that have done this in the past have traditionally killed a lot of birds with one stone. Both Dell and Lenovo's docking solutions are fantastic, and don't require expensive hardware to manufacture docks. As a result, you can get the full IO of your computer extended to a dock with 10+ ports for less than $30. Pretty great solution IMO.

Totally agree. I keep a dock for my thinkpad t420 hooked up to 2 27" 1440p iMacs in target display mode. Pop it in, the imacs get my laptop's workspaces. I keep a dell laptop docked to my tv as a streaming box. Both of these setups give me no trouble, and all of these things were being thrown out by my university.

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

#55

Post by bombcar » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 9:32 PM UTC

ApolIllo wrote: post #43

> I appear to be paying a lot of money for products that I could buy for cheap on random websites is starting to piss me off a bit at this point. The last 5+ years as an Amazon customer have me feeling this way. > Realtek RTL8153 Could the Realtek issues be related to power? I have a Tbolt dock which is powered using a DC barrel jack (6.5amps @ 20V). The comparison is not great as the dock (TBT3-UDZ) is not a USB C d…

Power is a real concern - and if you have something pushing lots of pixels or data you should be suspicious of it if it doesn't have a power brick.

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

#56

Post by LeoPanthera » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 9:32 PM UTC

This is a weird post, because as far as I can tell, his final purchase (the Anker hub) never went wrong. He just took it apart for the hell of it.

Shouldn't the summary be "Hey, this Anker hub which looks quite different to the other two is actually pretty good"?

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

#57

Post by theta_d » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 9:33 PM UTC

I've had this Thunderbolt Doc for over a month now and I love it. https://www.owcdigital.com/products/thunderbolt-dock

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

#58

Post by bombcar » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 9:34 PM UTC

djrogers wrote: post #14

This may sound a bit pedantic here, but this statement: " I’m writing this on an Apple MacBook Pro, and all I got was four lousy USB-C ports" Is wildly inaccurate, as the author demonstrates in his conclusions where he explains that he's settled on a Thunderbolt hub. Yes, they're more expensive, and yes, they're harder to find, but the fact is, for this type of use USB-C is kinda junky, and Thunderbolt is a much bett…

Thunderbolt is the way to go - my AKiTiO Thunder3 Dock Pro has been doing fine driving monitors and 10GB/s ethernet.

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

#59

Post by somethoughts » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 9:34 PM UTC

zamadatix wrote: post #42

smoldesu wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually agree. Normally I'm against proprietary ports, but vendors that have done this in the past have traditionally killed a lot of birds with one stone. Both Dell and Lenovo's docking solutions are fantastic, and don't require expensive hardware to manufacture docks. As a result, you can get the full IO of your computer extended to a dock with 10+ ports for less than $30. Pretty great solution IMO.

The downside is all of the hardware ends up inside the laptop where you still pay for it and now can't upgrade it separately or reuse it with another laptop. Not that I ever remember Dell/Lenovo docks being $30 new anyways.

I remember I did receive a Dell dock complete with a spring mounted adapter for the actual laptop.

I wasn't thinking that though - I was thinking something like the ones reviewed in the article but perhaps with a Apple Thunderbolt connector to prevent them from having to support Windows PC users.

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

#60

Post by cortesoft » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 9:34 PM UTC

mulderc wrote: post #50

I must be some USB-C unicorn as I can't think of ever having any issues. I have had a couple of USB-C hubs and they have worked for both me and my partner. All my work machines are USB-C only and literally the only issue I can remember is where in one conference room the USB-C to HDMI output only went to 2 of the 3 screens on the walls but I think that was something unrelated to the USB-C connection. Now I don't push…

The author's main complaint is that the network was being downgraded to 100baseTX. If you aren't doing a lot of heavy local network activity, you might not notice if you are being downgraded.