The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC • Hacker News Board

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#71

Post by robotnikman » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 3:40 PM UTC

gehwartzen wrote: post #21

Thunderbolt 3 really is amazing. Im using a OWC Thunderbolt Dock to connect my MacBook to: an eGPU thats driving a 5K monitor, a 1TB TB3 SSD, and 24/96 USB audio to my stereo. All over one cable. BTW if your using TB3 as your main connection to your laptop I highly recommend a magnetic TB3 adapter. This has been working great in my setup for over a year and makes docking/undocking a snap. https://www.amazon.com/Magne…

Same. My workplace provided me with a thunderbolt dock for home, and I use it to connect my work laptop or personal laptop to my multi monitor setup. Its easy to just swap between them.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#72

Post by benfrain » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 3:40 PM UTC

gehwartzen wrote: post #64

benfrain wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazing, like MagSafe again. I'm thinking that may be the way forward to avoid a KVM. With TB — can you literally just unplug from one Laptop/PC and connect to another and everything is back up and running on the 2nd computer?

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.

One more question — those magnetic connections, can it connect both ways? What I mean it, cable running away in either direction or is it orientation specific?

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#73

Post by benfrain » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 3:44 PM UTC

geerlingguy wrote: post #23

treve wrote: post #2

I just also started looking into Thunderbolt 3 docks after only getting 4k30hz. $400+ CAD is so much though! Im curious if anyone here has recommendations

After trying out 4 of them for the past year, the only TB3 Dock I recommend is the CalDigit TB3. Works great for 4K@60 and has every port I need for my media production needs.

Which ones did you try that were no good or not suitable?

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#74

Post by xorcist » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 3:47 PM UTC

On the topic of silent PCs, I've been very happy with the HD-plex.com H1 chassis. It's about $200 and you have to stick under 65W. It's basically a big heatsink. They have bigger ones as well that can handle GPUs, haven't tested those.

Ever since SDDs became available for consumers I wanted a PC without any moving parts or fans. I've had it for over two years now and having a dead silent PC has been just as great as I had imagined.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#75

Post by other_herbert » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 3:48 PM UTC

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 have this dock.. I basically just use it for the power and DisplayPort to a 4k60 display... since USB is awful on it I have a USB hub I plug in to the notebook also...

So I guess calling that thing a “dock” is generous

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#76

Post by emilecantin » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 3:50 PM UTC

I have the Plugable TBT3-UDZ dock for my MacBook Pro, and I have to say, I'm pretty happy with it. It supports 2 displays, has a bunch of ports, and has its own power supply (i.e. my power brick can stay in my laptop bag). Construction quality is nice as well. Only "problem" I've had with it is finding the correct adapters, as I'm using it with DVI & VGA displays (it needs "active" adapters for this).

I have finally achieved the "dream" of only having a single cable to connect / disconnect when I want to bring my laptop with me.

Full specs here: https://plugable.com/products/tbt3-udz#nav-specifications

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#77

Post by yboris » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 3:52 PM UTC

My favorite blog on the "silent" / "fanless" topic: https://www.fanlesstech.com/

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#78

Post by nwah1 » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 3:54 PM UTC

xorcist wrote: post #74

On the topic of silent PCs, I've been very happy with the HD-plex.com H1 chassis. It's about $200 and you have to stick under 65W. It's basically a big heatsink. They have bigger ones as well that can handle GPUs, haven't tested those. Ever since SDDs became available for consumers I wanted a PC without any moving parts or fans. I've had it for over two years now and having a dead silent PC has been just as great as…

Have one. It looks very sharp. But, after only two years my rig bit the dust. A particular component must have fried from overheating, but I don't know which yet.

Realistically you should be more in the 35W range with this setup.

And alas, finding a good 35W Ryzen APU is a challenge.

There simply aren't any of a recent generation for sale anywhere.

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#79

Post by cat199 » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 3:59 PM UTC

lloeki wrote: post #56

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…

> the ETH is on the USB hub and corrupts Ethernet frame I have a USB-C Novoo thingy (PD passthrough, HDMI, 3x USB-A, Ethernet) that might do something like that. If I plug Ethernet into my home router it ends up killing all other ethernet links on this router in about two minutes. I unplug it and things come back to life in under a second. The thing also has a habit to produce EM interference that makes WiFi useless.…

iogear usb-C -> 3x USB+ethernet -

had the same EM interference with a MacBookPro, ended up wrapping the cable in an antistatic bag fragment, and good to go..

Re: The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

#80

Post by yboris » Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 3:59 PM UTC

Another way to "silence" a PC is to put it in another room. Mine is across the wall - with just the HDMI and USB cables coming through a small wall hole (PVC pipe to make the edges smooth). I highly recommend it.