4 ms·

I like the TB4 page. But I wish there were some deep level reviews. I've tried every brand name TB3 dock. At least at the time, there were no simple "power exp

I like the TB4 page. But I wish there were some deep level reviews. I've tried every brand name TB3 dock. At least at the time, there were no simple "power expander" type docks, just the kind with a variety of ports. They are all buggy af. Although people do rave about the reliability of CalDigit, it's also buggy IME. I think people plug and unplug. If you leave any of these plugged in at all times, they all crash in some way. Now with TB4, I have an Anker simple 1-up 3-down compact dock. It works great in my testing and I'm happy to use dongles as the dock isn't portable anyway. But I had to put it in the drawer for the future, since it only works in TB3 mode with Bug Sir and above, and I'm holding out with Catalina as long as possible.

microtonal 4y ago
I think people plug and unplug. If you leave any of these plugged in at all times, they all crash in some way. Do you mean keep plugged in the laptop or keep the dock plugged into power all the time? I have three StarTech Thunderbolt 3 docks and so far no issues. Except that the first two that I bought have a Realtek NIC (which has subpar performance on macOS). The third has an Intel I210 and I am completely happy with the dock.
- jiveturkey 4y ago
  Plugged into the laptop (and into power) at all times. I found if I was moving the laptop from location to location (home to work, etc), most of the docks performed well. But if I leave my laptop for a week, eg only removing it on the weekend, all of the TB3 docks get squirrelly and in need of reset. Seems they all have problems with sleep or hibernate type situations -- even though macs don't hibernate unless on 2% power. Nowadays I use amphetamine and never let my laptop sleep or display sleep while on power, ever. I also now set my display to never enter energy saver mode. I don't have to gumption to go back and retest any TB3 docks with those settings though. I rather like the Anker TB4 I have now. IIRC I found CalDigit to be the most reliable, but it too would eventually crash or otherwise become invisible to the Mac.
  - microtonal 4y ago
    Thanks! I haven't tested that scenario, I plug/unplug every day at home and at the office. I do quite a lot of sleep/wake cycles, but didn't have any issues. I sort of settled on StarTech because they were the only docks that were available here at the tail-end of the COVID lockdowns, etc. But looking at reviews of ThunderBolt Docks on Amazon et al., it seems I have made the right choice by accident, because so far both my wife and I haven't had any issues with the StarTech docks that we have. If I only knew that some models have Realtek NICs, I'd have paid more attention to getting the model with Intel I210. I guess I was expecting that 300 Euro docks that can use PCIe all have decent NICs.

microtonal 4y ago

I think people plug and unplug. If you leave any of these plugged in at all times, they all crash in some way. Do you mean keep plugged in the laptop or keep the dock plugged into power all the time? I have three StarTech Thunderbolt 3 docks and so far no issues. Except that the first two that I bought have a Realtek NIC (which has subpar performance on macOS). The third has an Intel I210 and I am completely happy with the dock.

jiveturkey 4y ago
Plugged into the laptop (and into power) at all times. I found if I was moving the laptop from location to location (home to work, etc), most of the docks performed well. But if I leave my laptop for a week, eg only removing it on the weekend, all of the TB3 docks get squirrelly and in need of reset. Seems they all have problems with sleep or hibernate type situations -- even though macs don't hibernate unless on 2% power. Nowadays I use amphetamine and never let my laptop sleep or display sleep while on power, ever. I also now set my display to never enter energy saver mode. I don't have to gumption to go back and retest any TB3 docks with those settings though. I rather like the Anker TB4 I have now. IIRC I found CalDigit to be the most reliable, but it too would eventually crash or otherwise become invisible to the Mac.
- microtonal 4y ago
  Thanks! I haven't tested that scenario, I plug/unplug every day at home and at the office. I do quite a lot of sleep/wake cycles, but didn't have any issues. I sort of settled on StarTech because they were the only docks that were available here at the tail-end of the COVID lockdowns, etc. But looking at reviews of ThunderBolt Docks on Amazon et al., it seems I have made the right choice by accident, because so far both my wife and I haven't had any issues with the StarTech docks that we have. If I only knew that some models have Realtek NICs, I'd have paid more attention to getting the model with Intel I210. I guess I was expecting that 300 Euro docks that can use PCIe all have decent NICs.