Thunderbolt 3 Dock for MBP and Razer Blade

Does such a beast exist? For work/home reasons, our family is upgrading to the new MBP's as well as a Windows variant (probably a Razer Blade or Dell XPS 13, but I might wait until early next year... In any case, it will support TB3 more than likely).

It is unclear whether there is a universal dock that would support both of these systems? I read about a rather expensive new Belkin that might do the trick (and is not available yet: http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F4U095/) ; not crazy about shelling out 400+ for a dock but if it is the only thing out there then I'll do it.. That said, any other options that would work with these guys? It is difficult to determine TB3 compatibility across vendors for sure!

Thanks for any info

 

Quick answer is yes, it exists. Thunderbolt 3 is a standard. That means a Thunderbolt 3 dock will work with any Thunderbolt 3 port... regardless if it's a MacBook Pro, Windows, Razer Blade, Dell XPS 13, etc).

The more complicated part is what you want this dock to do. The more you want it to do, the more it will cost you. I'm guessing that at the very least, you want a Thunderbolt 3 dock like this so you can quickly dis/connect a laptop to a bunch of peripherals. For most things, you can actually just look for "USB Type C" docks & adapters, and they will do just fine. A laptop with Thunderbolt 3 will work with any USB Type C device / peripheral / dock (but a laptop with USB Type C port is not guaranteed to work with Thunderbolt 3 devices / docks). More information below. The further down this list you go, the more expensive it will be.

If all you need to do is to connect some peripherals, use a simple breakout cable ( Amazon link)






If you need power delivery as well (to connect peripherals and charge your laptop from a single Thunderbolt 3 / USB Type C cable), do a search for something like "USB Type C dock power delivery" like this ( Amazon link)




If you need a true "dock" to add additional connectivity that you don't get above, like audio and multiple monitor outputs, then you'll need a full dock like this ( Amazon link)





If you truly need Thunderbolt 3 for the features that it provides over USB Type C (daisy-chaining multiple Thunderbolt 3 devices; higher transfer speeds for external SSDs; external PCIe breakout boxes), then you'll need a true Thunderbolt 3 dock like the one you originally listed. If you do NOT need any of these features, then just stick with USB Type C docks. The one to get is from OWC, which will be out some time in early 2017.

 

I bought an XPS 15 in May and fiddled with the Dell TB15 dock (I think) their most robust offering, and the best HP TB3 dock.

All I got out if that experience was a bunch of frustrating experiences, finicky drivers, and countless hours online trying to solve my problems.

In the end I sent both docks back and sold that laptop

I'm personally waiting for the technology to age a little more...so I have a USB3 dock for now, it works mostly perfectly. Occasionally my 3rd monitor I have connected via the dock freezes, but that's only happened 2-3 times in the last 3-4 months.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Here's a video review of a USB-C dock that might work for your application.

 

Just a heads up that most don't realize, pretty sure that most if not all USB3 docks out there and likely most USB3 docks use PC-driven graphics when you hook monitors up to them...which means it is not using your integrated or discrete GPU...which means don't do much anything other than productivity on that monitor.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Also important to note that almost all old / current Thunderbolt 3 devices with TI chipset TPS65982 are not compatible with the new macbook:

Source: http://plugable.com/thunderbolt-3/

So I guess it's better to wait a bit.

UPDATE:
Seems like there's a backdoor to make "old" TB3 devices work with MBP:
https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/21/tb3-...orted-thunderbolt-3-devices-hack-macbook-pro/
Anyway, it's just a hack and who knows whether apple will close this backdoor sooner or later