OWC 14-port Thunderbolt Dock on sale until 8/14

[tremo]

Just saw this in an email -- regular price $279 (or sometimes $249) on sale at $179. I've been running mine since I got my Mac Studio in April 2022 -- flawless.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/docks/o ... olt-3-dock

Here's the link to the sale page:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3 ... _Weekender

[CharlzS]

It appears that they are giving $30 - $50 off on most/all docks and hubs. I just bought one of these hubs
(https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-thunderbolt-hub) for $99.

[mikehalloran]

It appears that they are giving $30 - $50 off on most/all docks and hubs. I just bought one of these hubs
(https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-thunderbolt-hub) for $99.

I just rang the bell on this, too. Thanks for the heads up!

[mhschmieder]

My experience has been the opposite, even when they replaced my first one under warranty terms. Very frequently, anything attached to it simply fails to be seen by any part of macOS even when digging in to the command line.

Now that eLicenser has gone away (I had to have three of them, plus iLok!), I keep meaning to reassess my dock needs to see if I should get rid of mine as it is by far the weakest link in the chain on my desktop.

I even bought a supposedly superior cable, but it had little if no impact, nor does it seem to matter whether I connect with a TB3 or TB4 cable (some say TB4 cables are better quality; others say the opposite).

As I needed TB expansion vs. USB expansion once I bought three SSD's, I bought the TB Hub as well. That one seems to be working better, maybe because it's smaller and doesn't have to deal with heat buildup as much as the TB 3 Dock.

[stubbsonic]

Just ordered the 14-port one.

My current hub isn't super reliable. Stuff disconnects without rhyme or reason. Also, my fairly new M1 MBP has a thing where some attached USB devices get very hot-- so I can't/don't use them. And, I've had that issue with the RME fireface-- which is perhaps unrelated to the USB port.

It is possible that this new hub will be more reliable than what I have. Also, I may be able to use some of those devices without the heat issue. And maybe.... maybe.... the RME won't have it's weird issues if connected via this hub vs the built-in USB port. I'll tamp down my expectations.

[mikehalloran]

Thunderbolt connections are rock solid for me as is Ethernet (Time Machine). My ancient OWC TB2 dock has a pair of SATA III SSDs through an Apple TB2–TB3 adapter.

USB hubs have not been since my G4. Some brands are better than others. I only need to refresh my Anker hub every couple of months or so by unplugging and re-plugging live (iLok not found AGAIN???). Sometimes, I have to do the same with the cables and iLok in the hub. This is the best performance I ever experienced. I have a drawer with a number of USB hubs that I consider unusable — USB-A or USB-C makes no difference at all.

USB direct connections without a hub do not give me grief. I connect my MIDI devices such as my P125 and MTP AV USB direct only. When I tried through a hub, they would sometimes disconnect — not good!

Every now and then, Apple says that they have fixed this. Nope, just a fairytale as far as I am concerned.

FireWire hubs were the worst. Those would collapse the FW ports. Apple told me they knew of none that worked properly and my experience was the same. My 628mkII is the only FW device I still use and it works great through the Apple FW–TB adapter into my OWC TB2 dock into the Apple TB2–TB3 adapter.

[stubbsonic]

Well that is reassuring.

Good tip about disconnecting the hub (as opposed to reconnecting the device to the hub). Will try that.

Thanks.

I'll let you know how it goes with the RME. I think Apple actually recommended this hub way back when as a possible solution. Nice that it was on sale. Thanks.

[stubbsonic]

An important question has come up (which might help me decide whether to return this new dock or not). It might not be a cut-and-dry question that can be answered. I have an M1 Max MBP, and an RME Fireface 800 audio/MIDI interface. It is useable, but I always have to quit the TotalMix as soon as I launch or it will become unquittable (i.e., I can't shut down without force quitting it). Also, I can never sleep my computer as the MIDI driver stops working after a sleep cycle.

OPTION 1: use OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock with Apple's FW-to-TB2 adapter into Apples TB2-to-TB3 adapter.

OPTION 2: I try to get a (used) version of the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock that has the FW port already on it-- and if it works, return the new one.

Any thoughts?

[James Steele]

I remember when I bought my dock, I looked at both and I went with the 11 port model (there was a pretty good deal at the time), but that's because when I was reading the specs of both models, the 11 port model indicated Thunderbolt 4. Which probably doesn't matter... but I went for it on that basis.

11portdock.png (243.84 KiB) Viewed 3793 times

[mikehalloran]

An important question has come up (which might help me decide whether to return this new dock or not). It might not be a cut-and-dry question that can be answered. I have an M1 Max MBP, and an RME Fireface 800 audio/MIDI interface. It is useable, but I always have to quit the TotalMix as soon as I launch or it will become unquittable (i.e., I can't shut down without force quitting it). Also, I can never sleep my computer as the MIDI driver stops working after a sleep cycle.

OPTION 1: use OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock with Apple's FW-to-TB2 adapter into Apples TB2-to-TB3 adapter.

OPTION 2: I try to get a (used) version of the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock that has the FW port already on it-- and if it works, return the new one.

Any thoughts?

Amazon still has a few of those TB3 docks with a FW port:
https://www.amazon.com/OWC-Port-Thunder ... B01N51P3BB

when I was reading the specs of both models, the 11 port model indicated Thunderbolt 4. Which probably doesn't matter... but I went for it on that basis.

Remember that TB4 allows multiple TB3 devices via a hub or daisy-chain. According to Intel, up to four; according to Apple, up to six. No bus power after the first device on the chain unless it's the hub.

[stubbsonic]

Thanks, MH. Had no trouble setting up the return with OWC. I know there are no guarantees, but getting more life out of the FF800 would save me some time/hassles.

[stubbsonic]

Just got the used OWC Thunderbolt 3 13-port dock (w FW) yesterday, and connected it up today. Installed the driver (which provides some eject functionality).

One improvement is that the MIDI driver survives sleep. TotalMix becomes unresponsive, as before, so that is still an issue.

Will try booting in Safe Mode. Are there other resets for M1/AS Macs?

[Michael Canavan]

Just got the used OWC Thunderbolt 3 13-port dock (w FW) yesterday, and connected it up today. Installed the driver (which provides some eject functionality).

One improvement is that the MIDI driver survives sleep. TotalMix becomes unresponsive, as before, so that is still an issue.

Will try booting in Safe Mode. Are there other resets for M1/AS Macs?

IMO it sounds to me like you're having problems unrelated to the dock. I have an OWC Thunderbolt 2 do and a OWC TB 4 dock attached to the M1 macbook air and now M2 studio. Attached are a FF800, Babyface Pro FS, a 16 port USB 3 hub, two monitors, a 4K 32" and a 28" Slate Raven, a 16TB drive in a USB3 enclosure, two 4TB SSDs in USB4 and USB 3.2 enclosures, and two 1TB SSDs in USB3. Almost all of the 16 ports on the USB3 hub are filled with controllers, iLoks, hardware synths etc.

Oh, and a big no on sleep. the Sleep function on Mac OS has caused all kinds of issues with external drives, things get ejected instead of put to sleep all the time. It's one of the first things I disable on all my macs. Especially with the new apple silicon macs there's not really any reason to use it anyway, and I would flatly say that the only SSD failures I had were likely due to Mac OS not recognizing any drive on the USB bus and not ejecting them when it puts itself to sleep, thereby abruptly removing power.

IMO again, but I can't see why any of you would disagree, the only advantage of Windows over Mac OS that is a glaring plus is that Windows external drives do not need to be ejected before unplugging them.

[stubbsonic]

Thanks for that report & advice.

I don't mind disabling sleep. Boot time is pretty quick.

As you suggest, the issue with TotalMix occurs regardless of whether I'm using the dock's FW port, or Apple's adapters. I can reach out to RME again, but they really didn't have any answers last time. I've not seen any crash reports come up when it becomes unresponsive. Sometimes I can quit TotalMix easily/quickly, sometimes it takes a long time, but if I don't quit it, it ALWAYS becomes unresponsive, requiring a force-quit.

It's a nice dock, and replaces a USB hub that was not especially reliable, so I've got no regrets.

[James Steele]

...Windows external drives do not need to be ejected before unplugging them.

I don't use external drives on Windows other than USB sticks, but there actually is an eject function in Windows 10, at least when I use USB sticks. Nobody ever uses it apparently, but it is there.