Belkin unveils Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock HD for Apple's Macs

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  • Reply 21 of 39



    @Jeff Fields Since you own one oft the previous model, would you care to offer your thoughts on the unit? Specifically, I'd be interested if you'd had the same kinds of issues/complaints as the reviewers at Amazon [http://www.amazon.com/Thunderbolt-Express-Compatible-Technology-Separately/product-reviews/B00BQHD4B8/]. Problems with sleep, charging iPhone, devices falling off the USB bus, etc.

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  • Reply 22 of 39
    Quote:



    Originally Posted by jlandd View Post

     

    Also, for me, Belkin botched the last model, releasing it with half speed USB without mentioning it until everyone else did, and then not handing this major point either by reflecting it in the price or any info explaining why it shouldn't dissuade us.


     

    Do you know if they ever fixed it, or if the previous version still has half-speed USB3 ports? At half price it's the neighbourhood of getting close to approaching something in the vicinity of a reasonable price, which might make it a good way to add USB3 to my 2011 Mac mini, but if they don't deliver full bandwidth I probably won't bother.

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  • Reply 23 of 39
    They didn't eliminate any USB ports. The old one has 3 on the back, the new one has 1 up front and 2 in the back. The loss of FireWire sucks, though.
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  • Reply 24 of 39
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Jeff Fields View Post



    They also sneakily pulled one of the USB 3 ports, in addition to yanking FireWire 800 without replacing it with anything. There used to be 4 on the old model; now only 3. That's actually a big difference for me; I own the old model and every single port is in use...

     

    Which old model? The one they're now discounting has 3 USB ports on the back, not 4. The only thing this new one lacks is FireWire.

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  • Reply 25 of 39
    It'd be nice if they'd (along with Matrox) fix the bug-plagued original TB docks. What a crock of crap. I have a nice paperweight here if anyone wants.
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  • Reply 26 of 39
    jlanddjlandd Posts: 873member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Lorin Schultz View Post

     

    Do you know if they ever fixed it, or if the previous version still has half-speed USB3 ports? At half price it's the neighbourhood of getting close to approaching something in the vicinity of a reasonable price, which might make it a good way to add USB3 to my 2011 Mac mini, but if they don't deliver full bandwidth I probably won't bother.


     

    Hey Loren.  Don't know for certain (don't own one), but I haven't heard that, and a quick look over at Amazon reviews has one from 8/26/14 that says theirs is half speed.  Also current reviews are saying it still isn't providing bus power.  It's always possible to get a piece of old-ish stock on something but you'd think that if a fix for either of these was in the offing these users would have them by this date.  I would think that they have enough of a backlog of these that they just have to get rid of them as is.  I can't imagine they didn't just put their mind on dealing with those issues in this revamp by the time the Express was three months in.

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  • Reply 27 of 39
    lmaclmac Posts: 218member



    Photo comprehension fail ;-) I don't see any Thunderbolt connector on the front, which is what led to my confusion. That looks like a USB3 port to me. Yes, guys, I realize the dock has other functions, and those look good, but for $300, a 1-->2 Thunderbolt splitter is kind of pricey. I can see why USB3 is so much more widely adopted. These Thunderbolt drives and accessories have never dropped into the consumer price range, and one never knows when Apple is going to decide to throw a standard under the bus. I invested pretty heavily in FireWire 800 drives, but now I have limited options for connecting them to new Macs. I have also noticed that while Thunderbolt devices are daisy-chainable, many of the drives only come with one port, so that forces them to the end of the chain. You need a minimum of two ports to keep the chain going.

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  • Reply 28 of 39
    lmaclmac Posts: 218member

    Ronbo says: "Sorry. I figured the primary connection to the computer was on the side. I have a couple of USB hubs that connect from the side and offer the expansion ports on the back. The limited photos allowed my imagination to fill too much in. Nevertheless, the point stands. The OP was being untruthful, whether by accident or not it doesn't matter."

     

    So what exactly am I supposedly being untruthful about? Show me a picture of the third thunderbolt port? If there are only two ports, one is tied up by the connection to the computer, and one is available for a peripheral.

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  • Reply 29 of 39
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lmac View Post

     

    [...] I have also noticed that while Thunderbolt devices are daisy-chainable, many of the drives only come with one port


     

    Which Thunderbolt drive has only one port? All the ones I've seen have two.

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  • Reply 30 of 39
    lmaclmac Posts: 218member
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  • Reply 31 of 39
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jlandd View Post

     

    Also current reviews are saying it still isn't providing bus power.


     

    That's a deal-breaker right there.

     

    Anyone know if the CalDigit box also suffers from under-oomphed bus power? It seems silly to spend ~$230-250 (with cable) to add USB3 to a $500 computer, but I'm getting tired of waiting for Apple to release a new mini so maybe enhancing the old one is a better value proposition than paying full-pop for a more-current but badly dated model.

     

    If you're in the mood for a laugh, take a look at the "Specifications" on Belkin's web site. Port speed isn't even listed, just a generic "10GB/s" for the box. Power output is listed at 0.5W@240VAC/50Hz. I can't begin to imagine what THAT'S supposed to mean, since it isn't putting out 240V and it's not AC (which renders the frequency spec irrelevant).

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  • Reply 32 of 39
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    ronbo wrote: »
    I see 2 Thunderbolt ports on the back. So he's still wrong.

    I am not into trying to find right or wrong or be a pedant ... I got his meaning ... not enough and a lot of stuff those of us needing TB ports don't need. USB 3 sucks!
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  • Reply 33 of 39
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but why do you think there's a need for that? With daisy-chaing, it seems like all one would ever need is one TB port on the computer and two on each device. Is there something I'm missing?


    A little off-topic, but are TB connections somewhat less than "tight" or is it just the ports on the Mr. Mac Coffee Urn? I pulled out a USB cable from ours last night and three of the five TB connections popped out with it.



    Because a lot of peripherals only have one TB port, e.g. a TB dual HD dock, and some things don't daisy chain ... e.g. an older monitor with a VGA to TB converter cable and afore mentioned TB dual HD dock..

    Yes TB plugs suck to be honest, it is far too easy to dislodge them when fiddling around. I wish they had a 'clip' mechanism of some kind. When you are pumping 4K video to a TB RAID 0 the last thing I need is my cat jumping on the my desk and managing to dislodge a TB in my new Mac Pro that I'd left copying data to whilst i was out of the room ... this happened to me. Thank heavens for Disk Warrior 4 is all I can say, which works with Yosemite GM BTW.
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  • Reply 34 of 39
    mhiklmhikl Posts: 471member

    How long is Thuderbolt going to last. Remember SCUSI (first iMac only had usb) and Firewire. USB3 is great and cheap. Must be for special video needs, certainly at these prices (and past history) not on my dream/desire/needs lists.

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  • Reply 35 of 39
    jlanddjlandd Posts: 873member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mhikl View Post

     

    How long is Thuderbolt going to last. Remember SCUSI (first iMac only had usb) and Firewire. USB3 is great and cheap. Must be for special video needs, certainly at these prices (and past history) not on my dream/desire/needs lists.


    You're comparing apples to celery and toothpaste here.   Thunderbolt is not meant to do what USB3 does.  It's purpose is as an extremely high bandwidth port that can transmit data for both PCIe and DisplayPort.  You can run many peripherals (multiple displays, storage with any port format, audio and video) over a single Thunderbolt connection.   If you think of USB3 as a good front water spigot (and USB2 as a bathroom faucet) Thunderbolt is like a connection that can send many streams of water, electricity and gas through the same hose.  It's just a way to harness more data flow of different kinds through one cable.  Think of it as the replacement for PCIe card slots rather than just a new port.  

     

    True, it's expensive to utilize and Intel totally botched the first few years of its marketing.   If you use a laptop with its own screen and just drives and input devices you don't need to ever plug anything into your Thunderbolt port.   But if it's implemented well its a boon if you need more bandwidth for data than anything else can provide, especially if you want to run PCIe and DisplayPort gear at the same time from a laptop.  

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  • Reply 36 of 39
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    pmz wrote: »
    Is there really such a need for a purely-Thunderbolt hub, considering the way Thunderbolt allows daisy chaining?

    Lots of things don't chain that's the problem. I have six on the new Mac Pro and five are used up simply because they are driving things that don't chain. Only my Apple TB monitor chains and ironically I wanted to chain it with a TB to VGA and drive an analog monitor but then realized analog video signal isn't passed on from a TB Monitor's TB port.
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  • Reply 37 of 39
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    mhikl wrote: »
    How long is Thuderbolt going to last. Remember SCUSI (first iMac only had usb) and Firewire. USB3 is great and cheap. Must be for special video needs, certainly at these prices (and past history) not on my dream/desire/needs lists.

    Both SCSI and Firewire lasted a long time and were used extensively by those needing them in professional editing studios for example. There were even several iterations of each. I have no doubt in years to come Thunderbolt will also be replaced but it will be around for a while for sure.
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  • Reply 38 of 39
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    $300? Way too expensive. And why does it have audio ports? Every Mac already has built-in audio, and headphone outputs. How much could they have saved by leaving out that useless feature? Or maybe left FireWire in its place, or maybe gave more than three USB sockets... Etc.
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  • Reply 39 of 39
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    With the lack of daisy chaining on many devices, I agree with others about the limit of 2 thunderbolt ports... It is kind of dumb. I face this same problem with some of my FireWire devices: no daisy chain ability, despite that being in the FireWire standard.
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