Thank you for not just talking about the Technical aspects, but showing how it's used. Visual goes a long way for us less Tech Savvy. You helped push me off the fence (so to speak) on my decision. They advertise this as a "Past, Present and Future" solution and it's what I want. You were very helpful, clear and easy to understand.
Thunderbolt 3 maximum speed and Thunderbolt 4 maximum speed are the same (40 Gbps). If you have a Thunderbolt 3 device which can push the full bandwidth of Thunderbolt 3, it'll work the same with this dock as a Thunderbolt 4 device would. The USB 2.0 port is likely just for peripherals, and in particular something like a dongle for a keyboard and/or mouse.
@@LaptopRetrospective I think if you're lucky or you did a lot of research, you might still be able to leverage all the features of the dock, right? My understanding is that TB4 is differentiated from TB3 by making all of TB3's optional features mandatory. So if you did the frankly painful amount of research required to get a fully capable TB3 setup a couple years ago, you should be able to take full advantage of this dock using the hardware you bought for that project. But do let me know (or maybe make a video on TB3 vs. TB4?) if I've missed out on some TB4 features that are categorically unavailable in TB3 devices. This stuff is kind of a nightmare to keep track of, and I only bone up on it when I'm about to make a related purchase, so there are definitely things I may have missed or forgotten. PS: i heard recently from the manufacturer of another TB4 dock that USB3 in particular is associated with substantial EMI that can interfere with the performance and range of dongles for wireless peripherals. Maybe you could compare the actual performance of some devices like that on the front port vs. the back ports to see if USB 2.0 might actually be an advantage for that use case!
Thunderbolt technology isn't something I run into very frequently in my line of work or filming currently, so I will not claim to be fully versed but I can be empathetic to the confusion that all the USB-based standards bring. I believe you are correct in saying that the TB4 standard is all the TB3 optional bits being required. If I get the chance to own more than one device that operations TB3/4 then I will certainly do more testing.
I have the OWC Thunderbolt 4 HUB, which is basically a smaller version of this. Let me give you some additional information. It does not work with Thunderbolt 3 Windows laptops. It works with any Thunderbolt 3 or 4 Macs, but only TB4 PCs. So I ended up using it with my M1 Mac Mini. Funny enough, my hub works with USB C devices, including the iPad pro, but again, not TB3... Also TB3 and TB4 have the same maximum speed, the difference is that TB4 has higher minimum requirements.
Interesting that OWC (somewhat) addresses the achilles of TB/USB-C: the instability of the connection. Of course, this still leaves the TB connection on the workstation vulnerable. I recently started using TB capability on my T580, and thought I could move it around on my desk while connected; the movement was enough to disturb the TB connection and the entire system shut down. Fortunately I didn't have any work in progress.
port mix is a bit lacking compared to the caldigit ts4- with the ts4 you get a micro SD in addition to the fullsize SD, 2 usb c ports (1 with 20 watt power delivery) and a usb-a 3.2 port on the front. on the back the caldigit has one less tb/usb4 port (2 instead of 3), but you do get a displayport 1.4 output, 4 usb a 3.2 ports, a usb c, 2.5 gigabit ethernet, and analog audio in and out. . . Anyway, for my mix of devices the caldigit ports work out better! Also the ts4 does work with my tb3 windows laptop (it's an alienware m15-r3) OWC is a good company though, I've used many of their devices over the years and they've always been high quality.
@@LaptopRetrospective Well, I used a C Hub and thinking about switching to a thunderbolt4 dock, my concern though, I know it can power the laptop but mine's a gaming one (2021 Acer Predator) so I know it wont be enough, what do you think will happen if laptop is pluged-in all the time together with the dock who is charging it as well?
I have the prior version of this unit that has the TB3 passthrough port, not the hub setup as this one has. I have two gripes with this unit (a) The ethernet port is known to be slow--well below the 1Gb specified, and (b) the computer TB connection is on the front face. Being a desktop dock (e.g. it requires a large brick power supply), the front face should be reserved to user interaction and temporary cabling. The back port should be used for more permanently attached cables. That ruins the "neatness" of my cable runs. The TS4 is far better re these two issues, but it's not perfect either. Why, OWC, can you not put all the TB4 connection in the back and give us an ethernet port that's a full 1Gb or even 2.5Gb? In your favor are the holes for your ClingOn devices--a definite plus.
Great question. I can't immediately think of why it wouldn't work. Only having the one machine with TB4 ports means any Linux testing would be limited to a live environment.
Only M1 Pro and Max are TB4, M1 is USB4, which supports Thunderbolts but does not meet the minimum specs of either TB4 and TB3. For instance, M1 Macbooks only support one display out via USB C, so they only qualify as UBS 4.
@@_Digitalguy - The most important distinction between TB3 and TB4 is TB4 requires that it support a hub, meaning it can have multiple separate daisy chains; this is optional for TB3. All Macs with TB3 ports support this.
@@altosack The main reason is that TB4 has to support 2 4K displays, while TB3 only 1, and M1 Macs don't have the GPU power to fully support those displays in addition to the internal one.
It's crazy what these docks go for brand new. Over $200 seems ludicrous for a glorified USB hub. They also retain very little value on the secondhand market. Docks at this price brand new generally go for about $10-20 used.
I thought exactly the same before I bought this. I bought a cheap $100 to plug my MBP2021 with TB4, it sucked, the reliability and drop out made me just throw it away.. then I bought this one.. works perfectly.. you pay for the reliability. This is one of the best things ever. Despite the ridiculous price tag.
@@HenryLam54 This is the exact boat I'm in now. I initially thought similar to Flyboy but 3 out of 3 cheap docks taught me otherwise. Now I'm returning them all and getting (probably) this OWC.
