Looking to grab market share from rival makers of Mac Thunderbolt docks, CalDigit today announced Thunderbolt Station 2, an aggressively-priced Thunderbolt 2 docking hub that promises to surpass earlier Belkin and Elgato units in features and build quality. Redesigned from a prior model, Thunderbolt Station 2 includes the expected twin Thunderbolt 2 ports, three USB 3.0 ports, Ethernet, HDMI and analog audio in/out ports. What’s new are twin eSATA 6G ports and an enclosure that can be mounted vertically or horizontally, saving space on a desk.
With a regular price of $200, it’s already $30 cheaper than Elgato’s Thunderbolt 2 Dock and $100 under Belkin’s Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock HD, but a special $170 pre-order price makes it the most affordable Thunderbolt 2 dock yet.
Like its rivals, Thunderbolt Station 2 supports 4K HDMI output, standalone iPad charging through the USB ports, and up to 20GB/second transfer rates through its Thunderbolt 2 ports. CalDigit has upped the ante by choosing a 100% aluminum, professional-grade housing that’s titanium-colored to more closely match the look of Mac Pros, versus the silver aluminum and black plastics used in Belkin’s and Elgato’s units.
But there is one difference: CalDigit doesn’t include a Thunderbolt cable, which you’ll need to supply yourself or buy in a bundle, bringing the total price closer to Elgato’s. Thunderbolt Station 2 can be pre-ordered today, with promised shipping on January 26, 2015.
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soooo… Can I just plugin some SSD or HDD to the eSATA port and it will look like an internal one and I can use Bootcamp with it without any speed loss?
Probably not because you’re not accessing the external drives as block level storage.
Yes, I’d imagine you could do so with no issue.
No you can’t. Apple went out of their way to make sure Bootcamp only works with the builtin flash storage. Sorry.
Finally. These need to be competitive not just with other Thunderbolt docks, but also with USB3 docks that provide much of the same performance at half the cost.
I’m very curious about these “..USB3 docks that provide much of the same performance..” that you speak of. Do indulge us with links, please.
Can anybody get the CalDigit store to allow you to purchase this via Amazon checkout? I sure could not.
I want to see a Thunderbolt 2 dock that has a native, fully powered Firewire port. What I’ve found is the current Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter when connected to a current Macbook Pro doesn’t supply enough buss power to allow my Edirol FA/66 audio interface to work. It does work when connected to a native Firewire port on older Macbook Pros.
Check out OWCs Thunderbolt 2 Dock with a Firewire port:
https://eshop.macsales.com/preorder/OWC-Thunderbolt2-Dock/
I’d give them a call. Their customer service and tech support staff are without parallel.
Customer Service: 800-275-4576 Tech Support: 800-275-4576
(I don’t work for OWC. I’m just a very satisfied customer, albeit one who doesn’t own this dock [yet].)
Or the Akito dock – it has FW800, eSatat & USB3.0
http://www.akitio.com/accessories/thunder-dock
Lots of options coming our way every week. How does someone compare the features to understand the differences?
Glad though to see more of these appearing with various other options.
OWC’s hub with FireWire is interesting. A year ago I’d have bought it, but at this point I’m ready to let FireWire die myself.
Here, CalDigit adding eSATA is really cool, I was wondering if/when that would make it onto one of these TB Docks. It would give new life to a couple old direct attach hard drives that were FireWire/USB2 and eSATA, but then I stopped direct attaching hard drives when my home network became gigabit and 11ac.
Personally though I’m still waiting for one of these to carry multiple mini display ports or at least multiple HDMI ports. I’d gladly pay the $2-300 price for one if I could hook all 3 monitors up to it.
Is there any dock/adapter for the original Thunderbolt (early 2011 MBP with OS 10.6.8) to one or a few USB 3.0 ports?
All these Thunderbolt 2 docks seem to require OS 10.8 and later versions. Even the old CalDigit Station.
HDMI 2.0 on any of these yet?
Fabian , The esata has worked very well for me using the esata and a 7200rpm Seagate . Got my SSD up and running but it was very un predictable in the esata dock . I have three different esata docks , one in fairly new and supports sata III. The few times I did get the SSD working it was the fastest thing I have owned. I did some research and from what I have have read if your computer is thunderbolt TB2 you shouldn’t have any problems. My iMac is 2011 model , , guess I need to get at least a 2013 model , from what I am reading. This is still a very nice gadget , hoping for a firmware update to deal with the SSD working with the esata . IMO this is a real bargain with a few bugs . I went back to running my external SSD off Firewire 800 , works very well on Firewire. I would have no problem putting an internal SSD in my Mac , just watching the prices drop , less than $200 for a 500gb now , about time for an upgrade .