"Oh, we have this laptop that is so thin and light it is almost like carrying a sheet of paper! Never mind the five pounds of hubs and adapters you will have to carry to turn one USB-C port into a card reader, charging port, video connector, keyboard connector, mouse connector, et cetera. No, we can't put six USB-A ports on the back, that would make it TOO BIG!"
Also, it is a shame this dock doesn't come in black. I can't be the only person that wants to see this with HAL branding.
Why do people need thunderbolt for HDDs? They are so slow I don't see the point. Wouldn't this make more sense if it were much smaller and held 2 2.5" SSDs? Just curious.
The assumption is that your laptop already has an NVMe drive attached to the PCI bus for the OS and your applications, and what you need is a place to store large files with some additional ports.
Given what I'm assuming will be a very healthy profit margin, I'm a bit shocked to only find a single USB A port, a single USB C port, and no Ethernet.
You mean you'd rather this use a USB Type-A port rather than a USB Type-C port? Or do you mean you'd rather see this use the slower USB 3.1 gen1 (aka USB 3.0) rather than the gen2 that TB3 provides?
See, either way you're using USB. But the whole point of this device is to wrap up several functionalities in one. So when you come home, you want to plug in your laptop to your display, a full size keyboard and mouse, and some USB storage, maybe ethernet.
You're seeing this done through docks, like the Dell TB3 dock that they match with their XPS computers. But this is no dock of yesteryear, this is a standard port, so you're seeing high end monitors with USB Type-C! Plug your laptop into your monitor, which then charges the laptop, works at 4K 60Hz, and has a USB hub for keyboard/mouse and fast storage.
This is another great use case where you eliminate the need for a separate dock. Lots of people like external hard drives and this keeps the desk real estate way down, while still bringing you charging and external display support on top of your ~440 MB/s (!) massive storage through exactly ONE cable.
So is there currently any advantage to Thunderbolt over USB 3 in something like this with hard disk storage given the limiting factor of hard drive speeds? Does a 2-drive RAID 0 speed things enough to make Thunderbolt connectivity any faster?
I've read tests showing the Thunderbolt is actually slower than USB 3 due to the longer chain needed, but other tests showing it wins in transfer speed (actually a lot in write speed).
TB3's biggest advantage comes with mixed usage. USB3 and DP-Alt mode cannot mix with USB-C (mostly due to the 4 high speed lanes being used by DP). While VirtualLink and smarter controllers exist, they just don't populate the market (or have basically no availability in reality).
TB3 itself provides a massively higher speed connection, which then hosts DP and PCIe protocols (still using the same 4 high speed lanes). The PCIe is then able to connect to an XHCI (USB3.0) controller on the dock's end (among other things, such as an Ethernet controller. SD card reader, etc). The TB3 connection still leaves the old USB2.0 link in the USB-C cable untouched, so in most docks that I am aware of, the USB2.0 traffic is passed directly to the host's controller.
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BrokenCrayons - Thursday, April 27, 2017 - link
-As discussed multiple times, modern high-end laptops are so thin that they're totally useless trash.Fixed that for you. :3 Meow!
Lord of the Bored - Friday, April 28, 2017 - link
Pretty much, yeah."Oh, we have this laptop that is so thin and light it is almost like carrying a sheet of paper! Never mind the five pounds of hubs and adapters you will have to carry to turn one USB-C port into a card reader, charging port, video connector, keyboard connector, mouse connector, et cetera. No, we can't put six USB-A ports on the back, that would make it TOO BIG!"
Also, it is a shame this dock doesn't come in black. I can't be the only person that wants to see this with HAL branding.
fasterquieter - Thursday, April 27, 2017 - link
Why do people need thunderbolt for HDDs? They are so slow I don't see the point. Wouldn't this make more sense if it were much smaller and held 2 2.5" SSDs? Just curious.HomeworldFound - Thursday, April 27, 2017 - link
No, unless you have a freaking 20TB SSD.PixyMisa - Friday, April 28, 2017 - link
That was my first thought - it would be much better as a 2 x 2.5" (or 3 x 2.5" with RAID-5).Barilla - Friday, April 28, 2017 - link
With current drive sizes and URE rates, RAID-5 is a great way to brick your array during rebuild. I would advise to avoid it whenever possible.BillBear - Friday, April 28, 2017 - link
The assumption is that your laptop already has an NVMe drive attached to the PCI bus for the OS and your applications, and what you need is a place to store large files with some additional ports.Given what I'm assuming will be a very healthy profit margin, I'm a bit shocked to only find a single USB A port, a single USB C port, and no Ethernet.
kingmouf - Friday, April 28, 2017 - link
Exactly my thinking. The biggest problem with ports missing on laptops is Ethernet, especially in office or production environments.edgineer - Tuesday, May 2, 2017 - link
You mean you'd rather this use a USB Type-A port rather than a USB Type-C port? Or do you mean you'd rather see this use the slower USB 3.1 gen1 (aka USB 3.0) rather than the gen2 that TB3 provides?See, either way you're using USB. But the whole point of this device is to wrap up several functionalities in one. So when you come home, you want to plug in your laptop to your display, a full size keyboard and mouse, and some USB storage, maybe ethernet.
You're seeing this done through docks, like the Dell TB3 dock that they match with their XPS computers. But this is no dock of yesteryear, this is a standard port, so you're seeing high end monitors with USB Type-C! Plug your laptop into your monitor, which then charges the laptop, works at 4K 60Hz, and has a USB hub for keyboard/mouse and fast storage.
This is another great use case where you eliminate the need for a separate dock. Lots of people like external hard drives and this keeps the desk real estate way down, while still bringing you charging and external display support on top of your ~440 MB/s (!) massive storage through exactly ONE cable.
AKMtnr - Friday, April 28, 2017 - link
But, can it charge at 85W? There's a gross shortage of TB3 peripherals that can charge a 15 inch MBP at this rate!mikato - Monday, May 1, 2017 - link
So is there currently any advantage to Thunderbolt over USB 3 in something like this with hard disk storage given the limiting factor of hard drive speeds? Does a 2-drive RAID 0 speed things enough to make Thunderbolt connectivity any faster?I've read tests showing the Thunderbolt is actually slower than USB 3 due to the longer chain needed, but other tests showing it wins in transfer speed (actually a lot in write speed).
jeremyshaw - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
TB3's biggest advantage comes with mixed usage. USB3 and DP-Alt mode cannot mix with USB-C (mostly due to the 4 high speed lanes being used by DP). While VirtualLink and smarter controllers exist, they just don't populate the market (or have basically no availability in reality).TB3 itself provides a massively higher speed connection, which then hosts DP and PCIe protocols (still using the same 4 high speed lanes). The PCIe is then able to connect to an XHCI (USB3.0) controller on the dock's end (among other things, such as an Ethernet controller. SD card reader, etc). The TB3 connection still leaves the old USB2.0 link in the USB-C cable untouched, so in most docks that I am aware of, the USB2.0 traffic is passed directly to the host's controller.