I just took delivery of my brand new MacBook Pro 14" with an M1 Pro chip. Now I want to hook it up to a dock and a couple of external monitors. I assume the existing USB-C Docking stations work with it? Any in particular you would recommend? Thanks!
The Cal Digit would still get my vote.
A word of caution, I wouldn’t just assume that everything will work. When M1 was released existing docks had issues and caused instability issues. OWC dock for example is specifically designed for M1 chips. I also heard good things about CalDigit that @aardy recommended.
So just make sure that the dock was M1 certified.
Okay, thanks. So in looking for a dock, I should make sure it is at least M1 certified. That should get it working with an M1 Pro machine?
I have the CalDigit T3 Plus and it works perfectly with my new MBP M1 Pro. If you’re connecting dual monitors, one will have to use the DisplayPort and the other with use the USB C. And I haven’t tested with longer USB C cables, but the one I use to connect my MBP to the hub, I use CalDigit’s supplied USB C cable. I have read that longer ones do have issues with the lesser throughput.
I love the OWC Thunderbolt Dock for my M1Pro MBP but I’ve only had it less than a week. It had a hiccup the first day but I think that was a fluke (described here: OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock and MBP Power Settings).
As others have said, make sure it works with the M1 Macs. Think about the ports you want/need. You’ll want to be sure the dock supports the monitors that you have (or maybe even a future monitor). And you may need adapters to connect to your monitors.
I chose the OWC dock because it has 3 Thunderbolt 4 ports in the back. The one on the front connects to the Mac. I only use one external monitor and since I only want one TB cable connected to my Mac, I use one of the TB4 ports on the back to connect to my monitor. Additionally, some USB ports are for data only (I am not sure if this means that they only can’t charge a device, so I’ll defer to others for info on this).
@PlayerToBeNamedLater mentioned the use of longer cables. I currently use the OWC-supplied TB4 cable to connect my Mac to the dock. If you need a longer cable you need one that will provide the necessary speed and power, or else these things will suffer. I purchased an expensive 79" OWC TB4 cable but haven’t tested it yet. I need the longer cable because the dock will reside under my desk and I need the extra length to accommodate when my standing desk is at full height.
I’m no expert and not necessarily recommending the OWC dock for you but just giving you some insight into the thought processes I used before I purchased my dock. Read the specs carefully before you make your decision.
Depends on your needs but I’d STRONGLY suggest going with a powered dock from either CalDigit or OWC. I have both. The CalDigit TB3 dock has the ports I need and is reliable. Think about the devices you’re going to connect and pick based on that.
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I plan on getting the OWC dock you describe. It’s on my Christmas list! However, I plan to have 2 external monitors on the dock setup, but don’t want to use 2 of the dock’s 3 TB4 ports. Does anyone know what I should look for in monitors and cables to daisy-chain them from just one TB4 port?
I remember reading this on the OWC website. I guess this means you can’t daisy chain 2 monitors over 1 TB port. Maybe someone here can confirm this. Their website for this dock does show one monitor at the end of a daisy chain. So if you have a few TB devices maybe you could daisy chain monitors at the ends.
Also, did you see this Cal Digit dock described here? Not available yet. Looks interesting.
I got an OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock for Christmas. I see that Apple has a multiport AV adaptor that is USB-C on one end and USB-C/USB-A/HDMI on the other. Not clear that it is Thunderbolt 3. Can I plug that in to the TB4 port on the dock at one end and use the USB-C and HDMI ports on the other end to drive two monitors?