expired Posted by turns2stone • Dec 25, 2024
Dec 25, 2024 6:14 AM
Item 1 of 3
Item 1 of 3
expired Posted by turns2stone • Dec 25, 2024
Dec 25, 2024 6:14 AM
Select Stores: Western Digital WD Black D50 RGB Game Dock (Thunderbolt 3)
& More In-Store Purchase Only$50
$80
37% offMicro Center
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https://www.owc.com/blog/whats-th...nderbolt-4
We also have to thank Intel for HDCP whose sole purpose was to prevent some niche pirating that was not a huge problem. A shitty evil
Corp all around.
Thunderbolt 3 docks inherently have 40Gbps of combined throughput for the ports, whereas those USB-C dock have 10Gbps of bandwidth shared among all of the peripherals, including display. If you're really pushing the limits with simultaneous heavy use of a 4K display, 1Gbps LAN and and attached USB device, you're going to run out of bandwidth.
Even more importantly, those hubs either don't come with a charger, and/or don't support pass-through charging. A Thunderbolt dock does both. And the Kensington supports 60w vs. 87w on this Western Digital.
In summary, you're not comparing apples-to-apples for those (cheaper) USB-C docks. If you're using this D50 dock with a MacBook (or even Mac mini), you'll get two independent video outputs.
I realize you're probably on Windows, but if you bought any of those for use with a Mac, that 'dual HDMI' would literally get you two identical monitor outputs, mirrored to each other.
EDIT - clarifying extended monitor support/mirroring.
EDIT #2 - the other nice thing about the D50 (compared to the cheaper docks linked) is the ability to add/change to a longer cable to your laptop/PC. Most of the hubs have permanently-attached cables, and they're typically short to reduce the chance of signal degradation.
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This was $16 from Slickdeals, and is now $41 (from BaseUS): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BWCC78K1/ (no Ethernet, though)
This is from Kensington - as you mentioned. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZNVR6BH?th=1 ($45 )
This one for $24 (though no dual HDMI): https://www.amazon.com/Docking-St...2FYBW?th=1
This is $50 after a coupon: https://www.amazon.com/Docking-St...NZ8M/?th=1 (with ethernet, triple display)
There were a number of other hubs that were reasonable. I think I picked up my Aukey dongle a few years ago for $18 - dual HDMI, gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0x2, usb 2.0x2 (no audio interestingly enough). For me, the Dual HDMI is more important than the storage.
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This was $16 from Slickdeals, and is now $41 (from BaseUS): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BWCC78K1/ (no Ethernet, though)
This is from Kensington - as you mentioned. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZNVR6BH?th=1 ($45 )
This one for $24 (though no dual HDMI): https://www.amazon.com/Docking-St...2FYBW?th=1
This is $50 after a coupon: https://www.amazon.com/Docking-St...NZ8M/?th=1 (with ethernet, triple display)
There were a number of other hubs that were reasonable. I think I picked up my Aukey dongle a few years ago for $18 - dual HDMI, gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0x2, usb 2.0x2 (no audio interestingly enough). For me, the Dual HDMI is more important than the storage.
Thunderbolt 3 docks inherently have 40Gbps of combined throughput for the ports, whereas those USB-C dock have 10Gbps of bandwidth shared among all of the peripherals, including display. If you're really pushing the limits with simultaneous heavy use of a 4K display, 1Gbps LAN and and attached USB device, you're going to run out of bandwidth.
Even more importantly, those hubs either don't come with a charger, and/or don't support pass-through charging. A Thunderbolt dock does both. And the Kensington supports 60w vs. 87w on this Western Digital.
In summary, you're not comparing apples-to-apples for those (cheaper) USB-C docks. If you're using this D50 dock with a MacBook (or even Mac mini), you'll get two independent video outputs.
I realize you're probably on Windows, but if you bought any of those for use with a Mac, that 'dual HDMI' would literally get you two identical monitor outputs, mirrored to each other.
EDIT - clarifying extended monitor support/mirroring.
EDIT #2 - the other nice thing about the D50 (compared to the cheaper docks linked) is the ability to add/change to a longer cable to your laptop/PC. Most of the hubs have permanently-attached cables, and they're typically short to reduce the chance of signal degradation.
… with a Mac, that 'dual HDMI' would literally get you two identical monitor outputs, which would be mirrored to what's on your MacBook screen. Useless.
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Is the WD stable / runs without getting hot without using the internal SSD storage in the base model?
Thanks for your input! Cheers!
The only machine that gave me trouble was a SFF with an ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 motherboard. Although I enabled all the proper UEFI/BIOS settings for Thunderbolt, it doesn't recognize the Western Digital D50. It never shows up in the WD_BLACK dashboard utility, even when the internal WD SSD (of the PC) is recognized fine.
I'm certain it's a problem with the ASRock board, as Reddit is littered with people having similar issues with ASRock's Thunderbolt implementation.
I'll edit my original comment.
I'll edit my original comment.
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Cause tv enclosures are more expensive than this
But also 3.1 —- thunderbolt 3
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