User guide
Page 11
Elgato told me it “has xed a nuisance bug of the ref-
erence design by eliminating the irritating buzzing
noise that the hardware makes when the Mac is no
longer connect-
ed to the Dock.”
The company
tosses in an El-
gato Thunderbolt
Dock software
utility that ejects
all connected
storage devices
at once with a
click in the menu bar “so you can immediately see
when it’s safe to unplug your Thunderbolt Dock and
avoid potential data loss.”
The Desktop Dimension – Thunderbolt docks are
positioned as laptop accessories, but there’s nothing
keeping you from using them with a Thunderbolt-
equipped desktop computer. Since Apple stubbornly
continues to make its iMac ports semi-inaccessible
by placing them all in the back, connecting a Thun-
derbolt dock to one of the computer’s two Thunder-
bolt ports can
make things
more conve-
nient while add-
ing additional
USB ports.
Then there’s
Apple’s Thun-
derbolt Display,
which doubles as a Thunderbolt dock.
The display, intended for users of Thunderbolt-capa-
ble Apple notebooks such as the MacBook Air and
MacBook Pro, incorporates a Thunderbolt cable for
connecting it to a laptop, along with one Thunder-
bolt port for expansion. With an Ethernet port, three
USB 2.0 ports, and a FireWire 800 port, the display is
essentially a Belkin Thunderbolt dock that incorpo-
rates a display. If you have a MacBook Pro with two
Thunderbolt ports, go crazy and plug in two of the
Thunderbolt displays. You know you want to.
This hot display is my dream Thunderbolt setup after
several Apple-loaner sessions over the product’s
three-year lifespan, but it’s a pricey one at $1,000.
Plus, a Retina Display model is surely coming down
the pipe sooner than later.
More Thunderbolt Docks – Dock-style Thunderbolt
peripherals extend beyond the ones I was able to
test for this article, but some don’t seem worth pur-
suing while others t more-specialized needs.
Matrox’s DS1 dock does not seem like a good deal
at $250 because it has only one Thunderbolt port
(along with one USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, an
Ethernet port, and audio in and out).
Henge’s Apple notebook docks ($70 to $119) also
incorporate Thunderbolt capability. You drop a
MacBook Pro or MacBook Pro with Retina Display
vertically into one of the docks, with integrated
Thunderbolt plugs hook-
ing into the notebooks’
corresponding ports.
The docks then provide
Thunderbolt ports of their
own so you’re not out any
expansion capability.
Sonnet’s Echo 15 Thun-
derbolt Dock means
business with a couple of Thunderbolt 2 ports along
with dual eSATA ports, four USB 4.0 ports, dual audio
inputs, dual audio outputs, one gigabit Ethernet port
and a FireWire 800 port, plus built-in hard drive and
optical (DVD-burning or Blu-ray) drive, at $400 to
$650 depending on specs. What, no beer dispenser?
If the eSATA-
compatible
Echo 15 is
overkill for
you, but you
want eSATA
connectivity, Kanex’s $80 Thunderbolt to eSATA +