Dock or hub for MacBook Air
August 24, 2015 2:07 PM Subscribe
Looking for a hub or docking station that will connect a 2015 MacBook Air to one, or ideally, two external monitors with VGA ports (I can't buy newer monitors), and enough USB ports for my mouse, phone charger, and hard drive.
The hub will be stationary on my office desk, and I'd like to be able to get into work everyday and connect it to my laptop with a single connection, either USB or Thunderbolt, without fussing with cables. Would prefer something that's not too bulky. My budget is around $50 for the hub and all necessary adapters, but can go up to $100.
Unfortunately, you are looking for a unicorn at that price range. I have an older version of this Belkin one that works great, and multiple colleagues have it too, but I would buy this one from OWC now if I could. Still out of your price range though.
posted by rockindata at 2:28 PM on August 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by rockindata at 2:28 PM on August 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also, put a post on Facebook- I promise that you have multiple friends and family members with perfectly functional monitors with DVI inputs that are just sitting in their basement because they don't know what to do with them. Or go to a garage sale- you can get older monitors for a few bucks.
posted by rockindata at 2:31 PM on August 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by rockindata at 2:31 PM on August 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Mini Displayport -> VGA adapters should work fine with the thunderbolt ports, but the whole thing together is going to cost more than $100.
posted by Oktober at 2:58 PM on August 24, 2015
posted by Oktober at 2:58 PM on August 24, 2015
Smallish monitors (e.g. 20 inch) with HDMI start at $80 these days. It's not worth spending the money to buy an adaptor to use an analog VGA monitor.
posted by w0mbat at 3:09 PM on August 24, 2015
posted by w0mbat at 3:09 PM on August 24, 2015
A single thunderbolt port can only drive one non-thunderbolt monitor. AFAICT there are no devices on the market, at any price, that allow you to get around that.
Apple's description of this limitation:
posted by aubilenon at 3:11 PM on August 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Apple's description of this limitation:
When connecting a Mini DisplayPort display or a display using a Mini DisplayPort adapter to a Thunderbolt peripheral (except as described in question 24), make sure the display is connected at the end of the Thunderbolt chain. You can use only one Mini DisplayPort device in the Thunderbolt chain.But you might be able to do this all over USB. USB hubs are cheap and easy to find. There's USB video cards with VGA, but I can't seem to find any that say they'll work well with recent versions of OSX.
Systems with more than one Thunderbolt port, like an iMac, can have more than one Mini DisplayPort monitor or monitor connected with a Mini DisplayPort adapter connected as each Thunderbolt port can support one Mini DisplayPort display.
posted by aubilenon at 3:11 PM on August 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Thunderbolt to VGA adapter: ~$15. The usual kind of adapter is pretty short, if you want something that's less bulky at the computer end Monoprice has Thunderbolt to VGA cables. If your monitors have HDMI inputs you might be able to use those instead.
USB 3 hub: ~$20-30 depending on how many ports you want.
I really doubt you're going to find something that (inexpensively) combines the two.
posted by neckro23 at 3:52 PM on August 24, 2015
USB 3 hub: ~$20-30 depending on how many ports you want.
I really doubt you're going to find something that (inexpensively) combines the two.
posted by neckro23 at 3:52 PM on August 24, 2015
Response by poster: I should add that I already have a couple of Thunderbolt to VGA adapters.
posted by redlines at 3:58 PM on August 24, 2015
posted by redlines at 3:58 PM on August 24, 2015
A long time ago I saw an annoucement for Henge Docks, which are basically mechanical docking stations that align your computer with a set of cables that attach to the port side of your computer. Never did try one myself (got a Mini instead), but it seems like an elegant solution to the docking-station problem.
Since it electrically doesn't do anything at all it won't solve your two-VGA problem, but you can use it to get your Thunderbolt->VGA and a USB out without cable fiddling.
posted by doomsey at 4:12 PM on August 24, 2015
Since it electrically doesn't do anything at all it won't solve your two-VGA problem, but you can use it to get your Thunderbolt->VGA and a USB out without cable fiddling.
posted by doomsey at 4:12 PM on August 24, 2015
USB "video cards" do exist, but don't expect them to work very well with OS X. For the most part, they all have a DisplayLink chip in them, and they've noted a few problems that they're having with supporting OS X. (For a bit of anecdotes, the one I have became horrendously slow after upgrading I think to Mavericks. Mine is an older USB 2 one, though.) However, if you're not doing anything really graphics-intensive - no movies or whatnot - on one screen, they may work well enough to be bothered with. Here's a Dell one that also includes a mini USB 2 hub and includes Ethernet to boot. Or, this Plugable model, which is a little cheaper but could be combined with a USB 3 hub fairly inexpensively, such as this 7-porter. Definitely buy from somewhere with a good return policy, though, just in case it doesn't work well enough. (And make sure you do a full system backup - you have to install drivers that get in pretty deep to make those work, and while the uninstaller does work well it's usually a good idea to back up your system before doing such things anyway.)
For the sake of completeness: you can, in fact, daisy chain up to 2 monitors off of your Thunderbolt port. The problem here is that they specifically need to be Apple Thunderbolt displays to work, which, while quite nice displays, are rather expensive and out-dated (not Thunderbolt 2).
posted by mrg at 5:02 PM on August 24, 2015
For the sake of completeness: you can, in fact, daisy chain up to 2 monitors off of your Thunderbolt port. The problem here is that they specifically need to be Apple Thunderbolt displays to work, which, while quite nice displays, are rather expensive and out-dated (not Thunderbolt 2).
posted by mrg at 5:02 PM on August 24, 2015
I would buy this, then i'd go to goodwill and buy two DVI monitors.
I'm completely serious. The desk at my office has two nice 1080p monitors on it, and a spare one on the floor next to it... that all cost like $25 at goodwill/value village. Hell, if you're using VGA monitors right now i bet basically any decent DVI-equipped display, including 1680x1050 stuff would be an upgrade. And i see those CONSTANTLY, for even less!
A $4 powered usb 2.0 hub should also be there. There's been several in every thrift store i've been to in the past month. I've also seen a lot more nice monitors that i just... didn't need, and threw those fish back in the pond.
You might have to make several trips over a week or two, but hey, if your budget is this tight that's how it goes. I've fished for stuff like this for a month or more when i just couldn't afford to pay more than X, which was low, but i was still trying to do something like this.
My original suggestion before i saw the price limit was going to be a displayport hub, because you could get dual VGA that way, but that's just silly since those cost ~$100 and displayport to VGA adapters cost $20 or so each.
As for an elegant dock solution, that would cut you down to two cables. USB to the hub, and miniDP(which goes in your thunderbolt socket) to the DVI splitter. It's not as slick as something like a henge dock, but hey, that's outside your budget.
posted by emptythought at 1:23 AM on August 25, 2015
I'm completely serious. The desk at my office has two nice 1080p monitors on it, and a spare one on the floor next to it... that all cost like $25 at goodwill/value village. Hell, if you're using VGA monitors right now i bet basically any decent DVI-equipped display, including 1680x1050 stuff would be an upgrade. And i see those CONSTANTLY, for even less!
A $4 powered usb 2.0 hub should also be there. There's been several in every thrift store i've been to in the past month. I've also seen a lot more nice monitors that i just... didn't need, and threw those fish back in the pond.
You might have to make several trips over a week or two, but hey, if your budget is this tight that's how it goes. I've fished for stuff like this for a month or more when i just couldn't afford to pay more than X, which was low, but i was still trying to do something like this.
My original suggestion before i saw the price limit was going to be a displayport hub, because you could get dual VGA that way, but that's just silly since those cost ~$100 and displayport to VGA adapters cost $20 or so each.
As for an elegant dock solution, that would cut you down to two cables. USB to the hub, and miniDP(which goes in your thunderbolt socket) to the DVI splitter. It's not as slick as something like a henge dock, but hey, that's outside your budget.
posted by emptythought at 1:23 AM on August 25, 2015
I would buy this, then i'd go to goodwill and buy two DVI monitors.
Be sure to read the fine print: "Note that, while this converter can be configured as a second monitor in an extended desktop configuration, the two outputs of this monitor will always be the same."
posted by neckro23 at 6:49 AM on August 25, 2015
Be sure to read the fine print: "Note that, while this converter can be configured as a second monitor in an extended desktop configuration, the two outputs of this monitor will always be the same."
posted by neckro23 at 6:49 AM on August 25, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
USB hubs are cheap enough. I'm sure you could find one for $20ish.
posted by adamrice at 2:27 PM on August 24, 2015 [1 favorite]