OWC upgrades Thunderbolt 3 Dock with separate SD & microSD slots, new USB-C port
OWC on Tuesday announced a new 14-port version of its Thunderbolt 3 Dock designed to be more convenient than its predecessor with two card readers, and a wider array of modern ports for users than previous versions.
Upgrades include a front-facing 10-gigabit USB-C port, capable of 15 watts of power delivery. That's enough to charge iPhones, iPads, and other compatible mobile devices.
The front also offers separate SD and microSD slots with support for the SD Express format, which can handle speeds up to 985 megabytes per second, and storage up to 128 terabytes.
On the back are two Thunderbolt 3 connections. One of these is a powered port able to supply as much as 85 watts, more than enough for a MacBook Pro.
Other connections options include five USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, S/PDIF audio out, a gigabit Ethernet jack, and Mini DisplayPort 1.2 capable of connecting a display at 4K resolution with a 60Hz refresh rate. The FireWire 800 port has been removed in this version of the dock, however.
Preorders of the 14-port dock are now underway for $299. Space gray and silver models should ship in the next few weeks.
Upgrades include a front-facing 10-gigabit USB-C port, capable of 15 watts of power delivery. That's enough to charge iPhones, iPads, and other compatible mobile devices.
The front also offers separate SD and microSD slots with support for the SD Express format, which can handle speeds up to 985 megabytes per second, and storage up to 128 terabytes.
On the back are two Thunderbolt 3 connections. One of these is a powered port able to supply as much as 85 watts, more than enough for a MacBook Pro.
Other connections options include five USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, S/PDIF audio out, a gigabit Ethernet jack, and Mini DisplayPort 1.2 capable of connecting a display at 4K resolution with a 60Hz refresh rate. The FireWire 800 port has been removed in this version of the dock, however.
Preorders of the 14-port dock are now underway for $299. Space gray and silver models should ship in the next few weeks.
Comments
i don’t know what the problem is.
We're revisiting this very soon. It isn't better.
A company I buy USB cables from. This is their USB C 3.1 line of straight cables.
https://www.newnex.com/usb-3-1-straight-cables.php
https://www.amazon.com/Nekteck-Certified-Thunderbolt-Compatible-Delivery/dp/B0718Z1MWF/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1542157992&sr=8-5&keywords=usb+c+gen+2+cable&dpID=41Z71VOnxCL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch
Oh well, another dock that I'd like, but can't afford. Glad to see they finally got it to 85W Power Delivery.
Lit is very difficult to get copper wire to operate at those high data rates. Making the conductors thicke doesn’t really hep either. Effectively you are building a high speed transmission line in cheap cable. It you remember back a couple of years TB2 cables had active hardware in each cable to match the electronics to the cable.
Apparently USB-C tries to do this on the motherboard. This may be a case of trying to satisfy consumer demand in a compromised way. Frankly I haven’t heard anything about uSB-C opitical cables but if long distances are needed I believe optical is the only real choice here. For intermediate ranges the answer might be out there with high end cable vendors. I would imagine validating a cable for these high data rates would be expensive.
another problem is that, as Apple found out a year, or so ago, you can’t even trust brand name products on Amazon, eBay and others as actually being that product, as Apple found that 90% of Apple branded accessories were fake.
while too many people are cheap these days, and don’t remember when cables were expensive, buying cables is difficult. Looking for the cheapest cable with 50 great reviews is possbly a waste of time.
Even at half that price I would still be questioning a purchase.
Yes, I know. There are usb optical cables. The site I linked to makes them, if you go the and look. But they require, as do all optical transmission sets, converters which are very expensive. But you can get repeaters which cost much less, for copper. But then all of this just works for 5Gbs, so far. I read that newer longer cabling will go to 10Gbs next year.
but as you can see from this link, 10G copper Ethernet cables are available. They cost what good SCSI cables used to cost. The company is a major American manufacturer.
https://www.cablesondemand.com/ClearSV/True/category/91/URvars/Catalog/Library/InfoManage/SFP+_CABLES_•_SFP+_MODULES.htm?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvrb4tsfU3gIVEwOGCh3DqAFBEAAYASAAEgI3xPD_BwE
I only buy USB-C devices now. Not because I need the speed, I'm just future proofing my gear.
In addition, most usb controllers control 2 ports, giving just half speed to each port if both are used at the same time. The 2013 Mac Pro had similar problems with its Thunderbolt ports. Some were faster than others. I wonder what the situation is with the new Mac Mini’s 4 TB ports?
The Mac Mini has 4-ports with 2-controllers (period), because INTEL doesn't make 4-port Thunderbolt interfaces with one controller, it's not an option. The issue is not the number of ports or controllers, it's the PCI Express bandwidth allocated to the controllers.
I'm sure they'll be some 4-port USB-C hubs in the future, considering that almost every new computer comes with USB-C and/or Thunderbolt.
To me all of this is a non-issue.