StarTech Unveils 15-in-1 Thunderbolt 4/USB4 Dock with Quad Display Support
by Anton Shilov on March 18, 2024 12:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Docking Stations
- Thunderbolt
- StarTech
- USB4
- Thunderbolt 4
StarTech.com has introduced its latest Thunderbolt 4/USB4 docking station, which has a plethora of ports and supports four display outputs. This makes it suitable for 4Kp60 quad-monitor setups often used for professional applications. The Thunderbolt 4 Quad Display Docking Station can also deliver up to 98W of power to the host, which is enough to feed a high-end laptop, such as Apple's MacBook Pro 16.
StarTech's 15-in-1 docking (132N-TB4USB4DOCK) has pretty much everything that one comes to expect from a dock engineered explicitly for demanding professionals, such as those involved in photography, content creation, video production, and computer-aided design. The unit comes with one Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 port with a 98W power delivery capability to connect to the host, a 2.5 GbE adapter, six USB Type-A ports (three supporting 10 Gbps, two supporting 5 Gbps, and one being USB 2.0 for up to 7.5W charging), one USB Type-C connector (at 10 Gbps), four display outputs (two DP 1.4, two HDMI 2.1), an SD Card reader with UHS-II, a microSD card reader with UHS-II, and a 3.5-mm audio jack.
The dock's main selling feature is, its support for up to four displays. Of course, this is a valuable capability, but it has a couple of catches. The device can support four 4Kp60 displays when connected to a laptop featuring Intel's 12th or 14th Generation Core processor using a Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4 connector and with DSC enabled. With AMD Ryzen 6000 and Intel's 11th Gen Core-based systems, only three 4Kp60 displays are supported. Meanwhile, with MacBooks, users must get on with two 5Kp60 or one 6Kp60 display. The good news is that the Thunderbolt 4 Quad Display Docking Station requires no drivers and works seamlessly with MacOS, Windows, and ChromeOS.
The docking station has a 180W power supply, so it can simultaneously charge a laptop and power on all the remaining ports.
Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 docks with rich capabilities are not cheap as they have to pack loads of quite expensive controllers, and StarTech's 15-in-1 docking station is no exception, as it costs $330.99.
The StarTech.com Thunderbolt 4 Quad Display Docking Station is available for purchase directly from the company and through various IT resellers and distributors such as CDW, Amazon, Ingram Micro, TD SYNNEX, and D&H.
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meacupla - Thursday, March 21, 2024 - link
Other World Computing (OWC) might have something you are looking for. ReplyReflex - Thursday, March 21, 2024 - link
Very nice callout, this Thunderbolt Pro Dock is actually damn close to what I would call a pro level content creator dock: https://www.owc.com/solutions/thunderbolt-pro-dock10GbE
CFexpress Type B
SD 4.0
2xTB4
If I have any complaint it's that it's a bit light on USB-C, but beggars can't be choosers and this ticks most of the boxes. Great find! Reply
FL Guy - Monday, March 18, 2024 - link
+1. It seems like most Thunderbolt hubs have several non-USB-C/TB ports, or USB-C/TB ports, but generally not both.For the price that TB4 hubs sell for, it would be really nice to have multiple of both types of ports imho. Reply
DanNeely - Tuesday, March 19, 2024 - link
As expensive as these things are a few dollars for another internal hub to go from 7 to 10 total ports wouldn't cost much more and would give plenty of room both for legacy devices and forward looking expansion.I'm guessing this already has 2 internal hubs for a total of 10 downstream ports. 6 USB A, 1 USBC, (other C port is upstream), and then USB network, audio, and card reader modules internally.
As is, I'd probably look for a model that was USB-C heavy; I've got lots of 4 port A hubs for manual daisy chaining. Reply
Reflex - Wednesday, March 20, 2024 - link
This. I don't get the dearth of ports on modern USB-C hubs/docks/etc. Replywatersb - Monday, March 18, 2024 - link
I had thought that Thunderbolt 4 specifically required TB4 docks to support daisy-chaining to another Thunderbolt 4 dock.It's all eventually sharing 40Gbps to the host computer, of course. Reply
bernstein - Monday, March 18, 2024 - link
Since going all in on a 8K 65” monitor i really see no need for more than a single display.I mean whats the point, surround myself in 4 of those? Might be nice, if only they had 90 degree curvature…
Those multimonitor docks are a thing of the past, now that we have truly highres super big displays. Reply
meacupla - Monday, March 18, 2024 - link
Yes, you can solve almost anything by throwing money at it.8K 65" costs what? $4000~$5000?
4K 28" or 32" monitors only cost around $400~$800 a piece. Reply
tuxRoller - Monday, March 18, 2024 - link
Must be really hard to make these.Apparently it's impossible for one to be made that has at least 4 usb c & usb a (that all offer at least 4.5W).
However, lots pad their ports numbers with hdmi (just use a usb c DP & get an adaptor cable; active if you're using something older than 1.4 (iirc)), SD card, micro sd card, Ethernet and the all important Kensington for those sticky fingered home thieves!
Someone, sponsor a kid to get his ee so he can make the future better (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ Reply
TechnoRobert - Wednesday, March 20, 2024 - link
Did I read the table right? Four 4K60 displays not supported on any TB3 computers; not on any Macs, not on any AMD USB4 computers; not on any Intel 11th Gen CPU; not on some Intel 12th and 13th Gen CPU Windows computers... Per tech specs: ”Some computer manufacturers, such as Dell, disable Display Stream Compression (DSC) on some of their models reducing overall video performance.” Reply