Dock for 9550

Hi.
I am looking for a docking station for my 9550.
Ideally I would like it to power my laptop as well so I only have the one cable going to the dock and all my other peripherals plugged into it.
Does anyone have any recommendations?
It must have dual monitor output as I may be using 2 additional screens in the future.

I have seen the Kensington dock below, but unsure if this powers the laptop, and don't know which connection it would use:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kensington...id=1524984692&sr=8-1&keywords=kensington+dock

Chris

 

If you want to power your laptop while allowing full performance, and also able to drive multiple screens...well your only option is going to be the TB16. The WD15 is also an option, but doesn't allow that many screens. Any other dock is either not going to charge your laptop, be limited at charging your laptop (while also lowering performance of your laptop) or not going to be able to display many screens.

The Kensington dock you posted is going to run everything over a single USB 3.0 port, not being able to charge your laptop. You will be getting a lot of lag on your screens, as well as poor data transmission speeds.

You really want something that uses your Thunderbolt 3 port, which allows for much higher speeds as well as having dedicated (DisplayPort) lanes for using external monitors.

 

thank you

 

See @MrBuzzkill post above (unlike what I did).

Being able to power the 9550 at 130W with the TB3 cord is critical to the laptop's maximum performance. I did not realize this. The regular power cord delivers 130W.

The CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock only delivers 85W of power which is fine for regular use, but for heavy use (e.g. gaming, multiple display playing video / multitasking on another screen) the laptop will underperform if powered solely by the TB3 cord.

Other than that, the device specs are impressive, gets good reviews, and was very reliable based on my limited (1 week) use. It's capable of supporting two 4K displays at 60Hz or one 5K display.

I bought mine on the CalDigit's website, but they also sell it on Amazon and B&H. They're on backorder. There should be an estimate on when the next batch will ship out on CalDigit's website. I'm assumed CalDigit gets first dibs so I ordered it there at the beginning of the month and it arrived a few days ago.

 

Thank you very much for your in depth reply

 

Just to note, the 84W is not enough for full performance of the XPS 15. You will need the full 130W for that. If you don't do any heavy workloads (both CPU and GPU at the same time), you should generally be fine. But if you are gaming, you should go with the TB16 / WD15. These are the only TB3 docks that support 130W charging on our XPS 15s.

 

Thanks for pointing this out. This is important! I wondered if the 85W < 130W mattered. So without the full 130W my laptop won't perform to it's full potential? Now that I think about, I did notice that when I had a video playing on one screen and doing office/web browsing on the other screen, the video play was having some trouble and things were laggy on the other screen. Could it be because there's not enough juice from the power source? That's not cool. Not cool at all. I'll compare performance with power cord vs only TB3 power. @Chris Wood - I may have spoken too soon.

The 4K only at 30Hz is a deal breaker for me with the WD15. @MrBuzzkill Have you tried out the TB16? works well?

 

I have a TB16 yes, no issues so far. Though I only have a single 1080p screen connected to it now and a bunch of USB stuff. Gonna buy a 4K screen soon.

 

I have been using the TB16 240W with my 9560 for over a year now and have had no issues even while gaming while docked. I was using 2 x 1080p monitors, but just recently switched them out for 1 x 4K monitor which runs great at 60hz. Only having to plug 1 cable in is amazing!

 

That does it. I'm switching to TB16. Are there multiple versions of TB16? Does 240W mean that it's for a region that's outside the US?

 

I no longer recommend the CalDigit TB3 dock as the will not perform to its full potential when only powered by this device. This is a dealbreaker for me as a 9550 owner and I'm returning the product. The moral of the story is don't ever listen to me.

I can confirm this. Long story short, under heavy load plugging in the power cord solved issues I was having when only powered by the my CalDigit TB3 dock (only 85W). I was getting better performance when getting the full 130W power.

 

How do are you connecting the dock to the 60Hz 4K Monitor. I'm planning on using the mini display port. Do you by any chance know if it works at 60Hz?

TB16 should be arriving in a couple days any advice on how to get it to work? i.e. what drivers to install? The reviews seem to indicate that it takes some work setting it up. I'm hoping since I got one TB3 dock to work that TB16 will work out of the box.

 

Setting up is really easy. Just update your TB3 firmwares before using the TB16 (since no TB3 devices can be connected during updating). Install the latest TB3 drivers + all the drivers for the TB16. Then it's just plug and play. Additionaly, you can enter your BIOS to change the TB3 security settings if you want less connectivity hassle.

From opening the package to having the TB16 working took less than 15 minutes for me.

Actually, the most time was spent on positioning the TB16 due to the awkward cable placement in Dell's design choices.

 

My current monitor is hooked up via display port on the monitor to display port on the dock and I would have to assume that the mini display port would work the same way. I did try HDMI from the monitor to HDMI on the dock and that would only get me 30Hz, but going from the monitor to the HDMI directly on the laptop would get me 60Hz. From everything I have read you can only get 4K 60Hz on one display, so if you are going to try two of them you will likely only get 30Hz.

As far as getting is setup it literally was plug and play, but you should make sure you have your TB3 firmware updated as stated above.

 

Both versions of the TB16 will work outside of the US just like a notebook power supply works with voltages up to 240V. The difference is how much power can be supplied to the dock and therefore supplied to your computer. From what I understand going with the 180W version should be good for notebooks requiring 65W or less, but anything above that would require the 240W to ensure your notebook was able to receive the full wattage through the TB3 port.

 

Thanks for the advice. My TB16 arrived a day early. I installed all the firmware/drivers from the XPS 9550 support site and from the TB16 support site. Everything seems to be working fine. Most importantly the laptop is performing at its full capacity. I'm browsing and doing office stuff on my external 4K monitor whilst simultaneously playing a video on my laptop screen and it's handling the multitasking well as is the case when I have the laptop powered by its original power adapter. With the CalDigit dock, frames were being dropped and the playback was choppy. So the power delivery on the TB16 must be better (i.e. 130W as @MrBuzzkill pointed out). I have my 4K monitor connected at 60Hz via the TB3 port (TB3 to displayport cable)

Upon reading the reviews my only concerns are...
1. The dock's fan can get really loud? I can't stand noise.
2. The TB3 cord can become damaged through wear and tear over time and it's irreplaceable. The cord is proprietary and Dell doesn't sell it separately. I'll plugging it in and out a lot so hopefully mine will last.

 

Personally I haven't had that many issues with the fan in the TB16. Sometimes it turns on, but 90% of the time it is off for me (though, I haven't tested it yet with a 4K monitor). As for the cable, it is replaceable, but finding one takes some time. I can see they are currently available on eBay for 30 euro. That said, the cable seems pretty study to me, so I recon it can handle some plugging action.

 

Once in a while I can hear the fans spin up for a second or two, but it really does not happen often. As for the cable I have plugged and unplugged the cable at least 4 days a week for over a year now and do not see any wear on it. I am really happy with my TB16 and I do not think that there is anything else on the market that can compete with it.

 

Your responses are reassuring. I'll be returning my CalDigit dock. 15% restocking fee + shipping fee... I should have bought it on Amazon.

 

Just bought a HP Spectre x360 and am testing it out. I'm wondering if it's okay to use it with the Dell TB16 (240W) Thunderbolt 3 Dock. My primary concern is that the TB16 delivers 130W of power. But Spectre power adapter is only 90W. Will using the TB16 on the Spectre damage the laptop? Any alternative TB3 dock that is more appropriate for the HP Spectre? @MrBuzzkill what do you think? Thank you

 

No for 2 reasons. First of all, the 130W power delivery only counts for Dell laptops. Non-Dell laptops will receive 100W max. Second of all, wattages don't work that way. Your laptop doesn't pull 90W from the wall all the time, it only does that when it needs it. In other words, wattage is variable, and while a device may be able to supply 100W or 130W or whatever, the laptop will never take more than it needs. So you will be perfectly fine in that regard. Do note though, that the TB16 is only officially supported on Dell devices. Unofficially, it should work fine, but you may run into random issues.

 

Thanks for the education! I'll try out the TB16 on my HP Spectre, see how it works.

 

I finally got around to using my TB16 TB3 dock again and realized it's broken. The USB ports don't work (thumb-drive not recognized) and the TB3 port doesn't work either (which I use to connect my 4K monitor via TB3 to DP cable). But it does supply power from its TB3 cable and USB ports. This whole time I thought I couldn't use it because my computer broke (XPS 9550) but everything works fine when I use a different TB3 dock. My 9550 did indeed break -- the dedicated GPU fried (no longer in device manager) and the keyboard and mouse doesn't work sometimes and I have to reboot the computer.

When I first got my TB16, everything was working fine for a couple of weeks with my XPS 9550. And then when my GPU was under load/stressed one time everything just shut down (no BSOD or warnings, just turned off). Clearly, my computer breaking and the TB16 breaking occurred simultaneously and I'm trying to figure out what caused what -- did my computer breaking cause the dock to break? or did my dock cause my computer to break? Maybe a 1 cord solution overloads the whole system (having one TB3 cord both power the laptop and connect all the peripherals). There's a lot going on in that small cord.

@MrBuzzkill and @Xanius I was wondering if you can give me an update on how your TB16 is working out. No issues? Do you mind giving me some details on how you use it? Is the TB16 the only thing connected to your laptop (are you using a power adapter as well?). What do you have connected to the dock? Which laptops have you used the dock with? Can you be more specific about how long you've been using the dock?

@MrBuzzkill did you end up getting a 4K monitor? If so how did you connect it to the dock? @Xanius uses the DP for his/her 4K monitor and it seems everything works fine. I'm wondering if using a TB3 to DP cable may have caused all this?

The reason why I'm asking all this is because Dell's sending me a new TB16 and I'm wondering how I'll use it. If I use it with my XPS 9550, I wouldn't want the same thing to happen again. I would like to use it with my new HP Spectre (90W power adapter). I understand it's not a Dell approved device, but as far as I know the TB16 is still the only dock out there that provides >90W of power (100W for non-Dell devices as @MrBuzzkill pointed out). Since my broken TB16 still provides power, I tried plugging it into my HP Spectre and it seems to power and charge the device fine. When I plug in the CalDigit TS3+ which supplies up to 85W of power, my HP laptop keeps switching back and forth between battery mode and plugged-in mode (without anything plugged into the dock). And when I plug in the external monitor it keeps recognizing and unrecognizing it as it switches from batter to plugged-in mode. Things seem to work fine when the laptop is plugged in using the power adapter.

 

I tested the TB16 with a Spectre x360 here in our office, works just fine, but ASMediaUSB Driver has to be installed (no USB on Dock otherwise).

Edit: of course, the Powerbutton on the Dock is Dell-only, as with all Thunderbolt docks.

 

That's good to hear. Is the TB16 powering the Spectre (i.e. power adapter is not plugged in?). Are any monitors attached to the dock? If so, how? (e.g. 1x4K monitor using displayport)

 

We had a 38" Screen (U3818DW, not a 4K screen),
LAN, Headset, Keyboard & Mouse connected, tested for a Day. Single cable on the Thunderbolt connection of the HP, everything worked as expected.

 

Nice. Thank you. This is very helpful. I'll probably just go for it and try it out since I got the extended warranty.

 

Hey, so I'm using a TB16 with my XPS 9560. No overload issues here. Been plugged into that dock only for about a year straight.It's the only cable going into the XPS for me.

Connected to the dock is a lot of stuff: a Dell S2417DG Monitor running 1440p @ 144Hz, a wireless mouse/keyboard dongle, an Xbox controller dongle, Ethernet, a USB-C external SSHD Enclosure running a Seagate 2TB drive, and the monitor's USB Hub (which has a USB headohones set, a printer, a USB 3.0 Toshiba 1 TB drive).

 

Wow, sounds like it's been fully loaded. This is reassuring. Thanks.

 

Yes I did buy one. I am running an LG27UK650 4K monitor and a secondary 1080p monitor. Combined with ethernet, a Coolermaster Mechnical Keyboard, a G502 Mouse, external Samsung 840 Pro SSD, external 2TB harddrive and a M40x headphone and I have no issues whatsoever. The 4K monitor is connected via a DP1.2 cable and the 1080p monitor via a normal HDMI cable.

 

Thanks you for the details! Your setup is fully loaded. I ordered a DisplayPort Cable. Awaiting the replacement TB16 to try it out on my spectre.

 

The replacement TB16 they sent me works fine with my XPS 9550. Unfortunately, I can't get it to work with my HP Spectre. The 4K display works fine via displayport but the usb devices keeps connecting and disconnecting despite trying many driver versions. Also, I noticed that Dell's TB16 troubleshooting site says that it provides only 60W of power to non-Dell laptops, not 100W. I guess I'm just going to have to go with a 2 cord solution (power + TB3 for a different dock) for now, until they come out with TB3 docks that can provide more power.