Review of Belkin Thunderbolt dock

[pRICE cUBE]

B&H Says this will ship in August. I wonder if it will ever ship.

[bazookaman]

I'd get one for my mini...if it weren't $300.

[DRR]

It'll do just fine, aimed at pro-level MBP/MBA users.

My Mini at home, has FW, USB3, GigE, and TB which is currently unused. That's as many connection options as I need.

At work I have a MBPr and if I need to add external storage to it, I'm already at the point where I'd need to disconnect something. I connect a USB hub on one side, Tablet on the other USB port, TB port used for GigE, TB port used for external display. At that point I'm already out of ports. Having this would free up both a TB port and a USB port. Would free up 2 USB ports if I wanted.

[Black]

jdc wrote:
Although price is an a issue -- the cable thing is standard.

No printers come with USB cables -- and BB, Staples, etc all steer you to the $29 USB cables -- when they are $1 from monoprice.

I don't recall ever buying a peripheral of any sort that didn't come with at least one cable.

[jdc]

Black wrote:
[quote=jdc]
Although price is an a issue -- the cable thing is standard.

No printers come with USB cables -- and BB, Staples, etc all steer you to the $29 USB cables -- when they are $1 from monoprice.

I don't recall ever buying a peripheral of any sort that didn't come with at least one cable.
Not trying to defend either Apple or Belkin -- but you guys must have short memories -- or be like me an have a dozen USB cables just sitting around and never thought twice about it. =)

$99 Epson: USB cable not included --- $500 R2000: USB and Ethernet cables not included

$99 Brother: Telephone Line Cord (no USB)

$99 Canon: Telephone Line Cable (no USB) --- Pixma Pro Line comes with one, they start at $500.

First hit for "USB Cable" at Staples is $20.99 -- OD is $19.99

[sekker]

I remember an ad for Office Max which ran, 'Buy a cable, get a free printer!'

TB is a technology that really needs to get cost down. Reminds me of original DVD or BR players. The first ones were ridiculous - $500 or so. Now, good BR players are under $100.

Intel and Apple really need to get TB down where the cables are $10 (from monoprice), and a dock like this is $100 with the cable.

I don't expect this for another 6 years or more.

I looked hard at this dock, but it literally only removes a single cable over what I normally connect.

[Chakravartin]

sekker wrote:
I looked hard at this dock, but it literally only removes a single cable over what I normally connect.

Look at the Sonnet.

It could even make a MacBook Air useful.

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo15...tdock.html

[Fritz]

that sonnet is a nice little box. bet it'll be $$$.
and no Lion support.

[thermarest]

Chakravartin wrote:
[quote=thermarest]Price is steep, and it doesn't serve as a thunderbolt hub! Wouldn't that be part of the idea??? Only two TB ports..one goes to computer, one to display...what about your TB hard drive....? Stupid.

It's a pass-through port. You can chain other devices through it. Sonnet does that, too. You plug your Thunderbolt RAID into the dock and plug the monitor in through the RAID.

The Matrox dock doesn't even have Thunderbolt pass-through. It has to be at the end of the chain.
unless the external hd only has one port, which is true for several 2.5" cases I've seen

[Chakravartin]

thermarest wrote:
unless the external hd only has one port, which is true for several 2.5" cases I've seen

If you only need to connect one little 2.5-inch external hard drive, don't blow the extra cash on an enclosure that has Thunderbolt. It's a gimmick. USB 3.0 is fine for that.