Similarly, adding up the bandwidth that the three TB3 downstream ports and the USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports would exceed the total 40Gbits that Thunderbolt 4 has to allocate by at least 50%. It’s worth mentioning that depending on the number of devices attached, there might be a slight power oversubscription here, and we’d assume under that scenario that the laptop would get slightly less power to avoid pulling more from the PSU than it is rated. That capacity must cover not only the 96W that can be passed to the connected laptop but 15W that each the downstream Thunderbolt port demands, the 7.5W that the USB 2.0 port can relay for charging a phone or tablet, and whatever power is needed to run the dock. The included PSU, made by Liteon, can output 135W.
That makes it ideal for those mobile workstations that need 90W+ to run and charge, specifically those that aren’t adequately supported by docks with only 60W or even 85W power delivery. Where this design stands out is that the Thunderbolt 4 connection to the host system supports up to 96W charging, the biggest amount of power that we’ve seen on a Thunderbolt dock so far. The approach taken by StarTech is to offer the greatest amount of flexibility for the customer, knowing that often these devices are repurposed over their working lives. Those chips provide a raft of choices about what functionality hardware makers wish to support through USB, Thunderbolt, and other connection technologies. Like all the Thunderbolt 4 hubs and docks currently available, at their heart, they use the same Intel created silicon. On the right side are two security slots, and the left side has no details on it at all. There are no HDMI or DisplayPort outputs, although it is possible to convert any of the three Thunderbolt ports into monitor connections using adapters that, unsurprisingly, StarTech makes. The front face has a full-sized SD card slot, a single USB 2.0 Type-A port, a 3.5mm audio jack and a single Type-C Thunderbolt link from a connected computer.Īround the back is the power receptacle, not less than three USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-A ports, three Type-C Thunderbolt 3 ports and a single 1Gbit Ethernet LAN port. This choice makes some sense, as most ports are on the back of the device, and the sheer number exceeds the available space on the narrower front face.
One slightly strange twist on the wing aesthetics is that when placed on the desktop for use, the narrow trailing edge faces the user and the thicker leading edge faces away.
Being aerodynamic might not impact the technology housed inside the dock, but it certainly looks better than some docks we’ve seen. Thankfully StarTech’s engineers have slightly more flair, and its design seems to borrow inspiration from an aircraft wing.
#DOCKING STATION FOR MAC DUAL MONITOR WINDOWS 10#
Just wondering if this hardware is even compatible with windows 10 at this point.Over the past year, we’ve seen some disturbingly unimaginative Thunderbolt dock and hub designs that are little more than aluminium tubes. Scratch that, it worked fine last wk and when I logged in this morning, stopped working all over again.
#DOCKING STATION FOR MAC DUAL MONITOR UPDATE#
Located the driver on this website:ġ) Download driver, save it onto desktop for easy accessĤ) Right Click "Qualcomm Atheros AR 8161."Ħ) Click "Browse my computer for driver software"ġ0) Locate & Select the files that have been downloaded (if its saved onto your desktop, you should be able to scroll down to see that there's a file called "netl1c63圆4" setup file (I'm running 64bit btw)).ġ0) Update the driver and mine worked instantly!! Took me few hours of trial and error with various drivers. So after doing some digging, I found out that for Win 10 you have to be using Driver v2.1.0.26 which was released in 2016.