Thunderbolt Hubs and docking stations

I guess "workable" is ok, maybe a bit generous. I should mention that you can't boot from a USB drive plugged into the Belkin dock. And you can't use a USB keyboard plugged into it until Mac OS Mtn Lion is up and running. More than a bit lame but it is what it is.

As long as you use compatible peripheals (I had a bad monitor in the mix), and use 10.8.4, the belkin express dock works fine. If you do not use 10.8.4, or have incompatible peripheals, kernel panics may result.

That monitor was always suspect though, it could never find the right source input and took awhile to sync.

The apple store analyzed my kernel panics and said it was the dock or something plugged into it.

So I got lucky.

--Sam

Updates to info posted in this discussion earlier this year

"CalDigit's $199 Thunderbolt Station Shipping November 4"

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1663167

3 USB3 (1 front 2 back)

1 ethernet

1 HDMI

Daisychain Thunderbolt

CON

$199

No Firewire

No hard drive interface

No optical drive

(See my post of 16 April)

Henge Horizontal Docking Station

http://hengedocks.com/order_horizontal_dock.php

PRO

FW800

6 x USB3 !

Ethernet

3 DVI display out (same style of port but not TB)

SD card sloy

Dual Audio - can switch via OSX

CON

$349 for TB version

No hard drive interface

No optical drive

No daisychain TB?

(see cpage's post of 6 March)

Still no sign of the Sonnet Echo 15 TB Dock shipping:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo15thunderboltdock.html

TB Dock has vanished from the Sunix website:

http://www.sunix.com/

The Sonnet still seems to be the one that best fits my needs.

Still no sign of the Sonnet Echo 15 TB Dock shipping:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo15thunderboltdock.html

B & H Photo is taking orders for shipment 7 to 14 days:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/973515-REG/sonnet_echo_dk_dvd_0tb_echo_15_ thunderbolt_dockstation.html

Or anticipated early Nov:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/973529-REG/sonnet_echo_dk_bd_0tb_echo_15_t hunderbolt_dockstation_blu_ray.html

I can only go by the website, which says "3 Video ports" - they look like MiniDPs (which look the same as TB, of course)

Well there is always this for us 2011 minni users with no usb 3.0.

http://www.kanexlive.com/article/thunderbolt-adapters

Sholuld be comming soon.

As for price I don't know why everyone says its a con. 200 dollars is not bad for a hub. The caldigit is the cheapest at 200 and has a second thunderbolt port so you don't waste your main thunderbolt port. No thunderbot hub with usb 3.0 is cheaper than 200.

Thanks, looks like an interesting device. If it performs at close to spec'ed USB 3.0 speed (unlike the Belkin dock), it will be a decent product for many people. We're still not at "economy of scale" with TB, though. It will come - if TB doesn't lose support first.

xgrep wrote:

Thanks, looks like an interesting device. If it performs at close to spec'ed USB 3.0 speed (unlike the Belkin dock),

I have the Belkin with a 2012 MBP, I get full speed (5Gb/s) from the USB ports, and I can boot from them (with a bootable hard drive)

I use a Bluetooth keyboard so can't comment on the earlier claim that USB keyboards don't work prior to loading the OS.

StarTech docking station looks promising; $254 at Newegg.

Thunderbolt Laptop Docking Station | StarTech.com

Looks good but the startech dock is only 231 at cdw. And that'st local for me so no shipping. Will consider. Not bad.

Csound1 wrote:

I have the Belkin with a 2012 MBP, I get full speed (5Gb/s) from the USB ports, and I can boot from them (with a bootable hard drive)

That's interesting, because the spec on the website says 2.5GB/s:

http://www.belkin.com/my/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=680653

I certainly don't get 5GB/s on my USB 3.0 flash drive, but that's not a totally informative test. Maybe you got a "special"?

The drives that I can't boot from are all USB 2.0 (as is the USB keyboard that's not recognized at boot time). It's conceivable that it would boot from a USB 3.0 drive. By the way, I'm running Mtn Lion 10.8.5, so the OS shouldn't be the problem.

I get high speed only from an external HDD (Seagate Hybrid in OWC enclosure), it is probably far less using other devices, but they are all USB2 so I don't expect to.

And as my measurement system is a bit 'adhoc' (I connected 2 OWC SSD drives simultaneously and got 2Gb/s plus from both, simultaneously) it may not be 5Gb/s (which is the USB3 standard speed) but it is way faster than a USB2 connection. Good enough for me.

Flash drives have a max speed of about 0.07 Gb/s, so that's all you get. The speed of the device is what you get, the bus speed (unless it is lower than the connected device) has no effect.

I am running 10.9.1, so it is not a problem either.

It is very common for USB keyboards attached to a Hub (even a USB Hub) to not be seen until the Login Window (which is when the Driver becomes functional). The legacy solution has been to plug into a port on the chassis when needed for "snag keys" and similar very early use.