Just one note - the eGPU was tested on an Intel MacBook Pro , not the MacBook Air we were using at the beginning of the video. The M1 Macs don’t support eGPUs at the moment.
Great review of the OWC hub. For those interested in more ports take a look at their Thunderbolt 4 Dock, it’s more expensive of course but you get what you pay for...
Thanks for a brilliant review. I’ve been looking for something like this since I got my M1 mini and found so many of the larger, more expensive TB hubs / docks to be overkill. This seems perfect.
o far this looks like the hub to get when I go M1. Thanks for your review - I now understand the hub much better, and am now confident it is a solution to the M1 computers reduced connectivity. Good solid content.
I have recently purchase that owc hub , and to my surprise it does work with thunderbolt 3 (Alienware m15 R4) , connect a thundebolt drive and it recognised in intel thunderbolt control center with speeds over 1.3GB/s. Granted it has been over a year, it seems that there is a diffrent revisions of this product
I absolutely love & appreciate how thorough your reviews always are! I got all the answers I needed. Thank you so much! As a side note, I think we need GaN technology to become mainstream ASAP. Having such a large power adapter for a compact hub can be a deal breaker if you need to use it on the go. I compare this 60W adapter to the 90W RAVPower or even the 100W Hyppr Sonic USB-C Wall Chargers, and I'm just amazed by how much smaller these two are compared to the one you showed! I wonder whether getting a USB-C to (whatever the power port on the OWC Hub is called) cable and connecting it to one of these two compact chargers instead of the stock adapter would do the trick! Thoughts?
Some caveats to consider for this hub when using older hardware. I pre-ordered this when Lon published this video. I finally got around to updating my daily driver 2018 Mini to Big Sur and connected the OWC Hub. I have a TB3TB2 converter and a TB2->FW that is connected to a Drobo. It was working ok connected to the Mini, but the Hub only shows the TB2->FW and not the Drobo. I also use an external USB2 HDD for Time Machine. It is not recognized when connected to the USBA 3.2 port on the OWC Hub. I also tried connecting via TB3 port on the Hub using USBAUSBC adapter but not recognized either. Hub works ok when connecting USBC->DP adapter.
You kept saying gigabits (Gbps, lower case b) per second - but disk transfers by convention are gigabytes per second (GBps, capital B). Networking usually uses bit per second. They did denote GBps correctly in your BlackMagic app display, but whoever wrote the PDF seems to have gotten it wrong where transfer rates are denote Gbps instead of GBps. Just for future reference Lon. Thanks for the video - clear and informative,
thanks for mentioning Intel's thunderbolt PDF, that helps learning more about TB3. I gave 👍. if possible, more clearly show url or put the link on some where in the video or description
OWC put out something like this four years ago and had to recall them because of a fire hazard. I hope this one works okay because I can use this thing if I can be sure it won't catch on fire.
I have this device. Can't emphasize this enough... this is only a USB 4 / Thunderbolt 4 Device. For Apple, as of January 2021, this will only work with the M1 Macs.
is there a protective plastic over the logo on top if the hub? if yes, would be nice to remove it. it would look better ;) I also noticed it in you next video. thanks for the good work and have a good new year!
Fantastic review of what my be exactly what I am looking for. I have a mid-2012 MBPro 2.6 gHz with a 15" display. I have removed the superdrive and replaced it with a TB of storage and upgraded the system drive to a Samsung 860 Pro 256 gig SSD and upped the memory to a16gig. It runs well and does everything that I need plus. I am wondering if I could use a dongle to make this Thunderbolt Hub work with my Thunderbolt 2 system? I realize that I would be getting slower speeds, but they would still be faster than USB 2.0. Additionally, I have a 27" LED Cinema Display, any thoughts on how I might be able to hook it up to the OWC Thunderbolt Hub to get it to work? Really enjoyed the video. Great Job!!
I have an OWC thunderbolt 3 docking station. I want one of these because although I’m able to use two displays from it, one of them is a DP port and the other one is via the thunderbolt port. Sometimes the DP one doesn’t turn on and other times it turns on way slower. What I want to do is plug this thunderbolt hub you’re reviewing, into my dock and then plug both of my monitors into the hub. Is this daisy chaining, and does this work???
I purchased this OWC 4 Hub. My experience was not as good. With ext thunderbolt 4 SSD connected had 1400 W 1700 R. Connected directly to back of M1 Mac mini had 2000 W 2400 R. With a Crucial 500GB USB-C SSD mid 500's r/w with dock. 800 r/w connected directly. Sent it to OWC and they said its fine. When I get it back I will document the speed differences and make my first UA-cam video. I personally wont buy from them again. Check their BBB score 1 out of 5 stars along with the 1 star reviews on their previous TB3 dock on Amazon.
I bought this and had some issues.i am running the hub into a 2018,3 iMac. Connected to it are 2 SanDisk 2tb sse and 1 Samsung Evo 1tb. Routinely the evo shuts down without notice. It seems quite unstable. This ssd was originally sent to me by spitfire BBC pro. I offloaded the BBC to one of the SanDisk and trashed the BBC off of it. I uploaded my projects ssd on to it. It's only taking half of the SSD space. Before uploading i tried to reformat the Evo but it wouldn't let me. It said some sort of Kernal issue. Yesterday all the disks disengaged. So long story not so short I am thinking if this continues i may have to send it back. Any thoughts?
I have a stupid question. Since I’ve been researching this. I have an older Mac Pro, it doesn’t have Thunderbolt, can I use this to run Universal Audio products?
I have Macbook air 2020, with CPU M1, which has 2 thunderbolt 4 on the side of it. I also have 2 WD external hard drives (Thunderbolt 3) that work fine with Macbook Pro 2016, but they not work when I plug them into my new Macbook Air. Is this hub will work OK if I buy it? Where can I buy one? Thank you so much.
I wonder with the 60w of power on the port which connects the laptop would this be safe to plug into a iMac? I would like to expand the ports on my iMac but don't want to fry the computer if power is coming down that input.
All Thunderbolt now needs is more bandwidth. They need to at least move to PCIe 4.0x4 but even that would be coming late to the party with PCIe 5.0 said to be coming to Intel Alder Lake Hybrid CPUs and 1st Gen PCIe 4.0 SSDs and GPUs already available.
Nice video but I don't see how you can use 2 Monitors with this (bc it doesn't support DisplayLink). But if really possible would love to know how you did this
Does those usb c outs can be used to transfer video out of a video switcher to this hub and then those usb c outs to computer for recording and streaming on separator computer from each usb c out?
Quick question. If I wish to extend the main computer screen to two others via thunderbolt, do I need this dongle to ALSO have external power ie it needs the power adapter attached or will it work without it receiving external power ie directly off of the computer thunderbolt connection only ?
I was interested till I read it was 60W. Only found one that looks like it supports the full 96W the 2019 MBP 16" I have for work has. I bought a Samsung 34" monitor that gives out 85W which is holding me over for now. This would work for the M1 MBA I just bought haha.
@@chicagobob It's the Samsung C34J791 which does have TB, but only puts out 85W. So far that's enough and haven't noticed any slow charging and leave that MBP plugged in there all the time since it's my work one. The Plugable TBT3-UDZ is the only dock I know of that outputs at the full 96W the 16" MBP charger gives.
Hey, does the thunderbolt 4 ports on it all support USB 3.2 Gen2x2? Because all of my external SDDs are in USB3.2, don't know if I can buy this for all the external SSDs because I'm running out of ports on new MBP 2021 ^ ^
I believe it might depend on the host system. To the best of my knowledge the Macs do not support 2x2 even on their internal ports as support for that standard is optional per Thunderbolt specs.
@@LonSeidman Well I guess maybe it's because the M1 MAX's bandwidth is running out. Alright, but can it runs on normal USB 3.2 or 3.1 standard(10Gbps) along with M1 MAX? I reckon I dont really need that fast with SSDs
Intel have opened up Thunderbolt Tech to anyone that wishes to do so. DisplayPort 2.0 and USB4 are both based on Thunderbolt 3 spec. What the reviewer failed to mention is that this is not just a Thunderbolt 4 Hub but also a USB4 Hub. It will have the same functionality whether plugged into a USB4 Host or a Thunderbolt 4 Host.
@J Fz VESA used Thunderbolt 3 to implement DsiplayPort 2.0. USB-IF used Thunderbolt 3 to implement USB4. They have Intel to thank for that. Thunderbolt 4 takes the confusion away completely.
Thanks for the video. Funny but one thing I like besides the good info is the lack of common jargon. I hate hearing lets get started or without further ado, etc.we have become a sheep society where everyone looks and sounds the same
Just one note - the eGPU was tested on an Intel MacBook Pro , not the MacBook Air we were using at the beginning of the video. The M1 Macs don’t support eGPUs at the moment.
Hey is there any development in this issue? Can you try again for us. please
Great review of the OWC hub. For those interested in more ports take a look at their Thunderbolt 4 Dock, it’s more expensive of course but you get what you pay for...
Ordered that yesterday! Life will be a little better
Do you have a link, trying to find a good one
@@mbdesign218 Do you have a link, trying to find a good one
I can tell you right on the money, this is a ground-breaking device..1 TB i/p & 3 TB o/p, wow..now we need some competition in the mrkt !
Thanks for a brilliant review. I’ve been looking for something like this since I got my M1 mini and found so many of the larger, more expensive TB hubs / docks to be overkill. This seems perfect.
o far this looks like the hub to get when I go M1. Thanks for your review - I now understand the hub much better, and am now confident it is a solution to the M1 computers reduced connectivity. Good solid content.
I have recently purchase that owc hub , and to my surprise it does work with thunderbolt 3 (Alienware m15 R4) , connect a thundebolt drive and it recognised in intel thunderbolt control center with speeds over 1.3GB/s. Granted it has been over a year, it seems that there is a diffrent revisions of this product
I absolutely love & appreciate how thorough your reviews always are! I got all the answers I needed. Thank you so much!
As a side note, I think we need GaN technology to become mainstream ASAP. Having such a large power adapter for a compact hub can be a deal breaker if you need to use it on the go. I compare this 60W adapter to the 90W RAVPower or even the 100W Hyppr Sonic USB-C Wall Chargers, and I'm just amazed by how much smaller these two are compared to the one you showed! I wonder whether getting a USB-C to (whatever the power port on the OWC Hub is called) cable and connecting it to one of these two compact chargers instead of the stock adapter would do the trick! Thoughts?
Some caveats to consider for this hub when using older hardware.
I pre-ordered this when Lon published this video. I finally got around to updating my daily driver 2018 Mini to Big Sur and connected the OWC Hub. I have a TB3TB2 converter and a TB2->FW that is connected to a Drobo. It was working ok connected to the Mini, but the Hub only shows the TB2->FW and not the Drobo. I also use an external USB2 HDD for Time Machine. It is not recognized when connected to the USBA 3.2 port on the OWC Hub. I also tried connecting via TB3 port on the Hub using USBAUSBC adapter but not recognized either. Hub works ok when connecting USBC->DP adapter.
bro how do you turn it off? or you just have tu unpluged to the elecricity every time?
You kept saying gigabits (Gbps, lower case b) per second - but disk transfers by convention are gigabytes per second (GBps, capital B). Networking usually uses bit per second. They did denote GBps correctly in your BlackMagic app display, but whoever wrote the PDF seems to have gotten it wrong where transfer rates are denote Gbps instead of GBps. Just for future reference Lon. Thanks for the video - clear and informative,
LonTV: "In full disclosure, this came in free of charge a while back", and shows everything one by one ! :-)
thanks for mentioning Intel's thunderbolt PDF, that helps learning more about TB3. I gave 👍. if possible, more clearly show url or put the link on some where in the video or description
Getting mine Tuesday. Looking forward to it.
I don't have a Mac or any use for thunderbolt but still enjoyed this review, thank you :P
OWC put out something like this four years ago and had to recall them because of a fire hazard. I hope this one works okay because I can use this thing if I can be sure it won't catch on fire.
This type of hub is only possible with thunderbolt 4 / usb4. Couldn't happen four years ago, since tb3 doesn't support hubs, only daisy chain.
@@hailstorm7868 Read the comment "...something like this four years ago ..." I still have the fucking thing. I never bothered to return it.
I’ll definitely get this is I get a M1 Mac Mini.
I have this device. Can't emphasize this enough... this is only a USB 4 / Thunderbolt 4 Device. For Apple, as of January 2021, this will only work with the M1 Macs.
is there a protective plastic over the logo on top if the hub? if yes, would be nice to remove it. it would look better ;) I also noticed it in you next video. thanks for the good work and have a good new year!
Amazing review. I wish there was extra usb ports on this hub and hdmi out. Keep it simple.
Fantastic review of what my be exactly what I am looking for. I have a mid-2012 MBPro 2.6 gHz with a 15" display. I have removed the superdrive and replaced it with a TB of storage and upgraded the system drive to a Samsung 860 Pro 256 gig SSD and upped the memory to a16gig. It runs well and does everything that I need plus. I am wondering if I could use a dongle to make this Thunderbolt Hub work with my Thunderbolt 2 system? I realize that I would be getting slower speeds, but they would still be faster than USB 2.0. Additionally, I have a 27" LED Cinema Display, any thoughts on how I might be able to hook it up to the OWC Thunderbolt Hub to get it to work?
Really enjoyed the video. Great Job!!
HOPING that my 3 Thunderbolt 3 drives work with this and my Macbook
Great review! One question - do any similar hubs exists for PCs with Thunderbolt 3?
Is there likely to be an update at some point that allows compatibility TB3 enabled PCs, or is it a hardware implementation limitation?
can you make a video for OWC Thunderbolt 4 doc using 3 TB ssd at a time
Wish it had an Ethernet (atleast a GBPS) port as well.
There’s a bigger one that has that. Supertech USA reviewed it
Nice little hub!
I have an OWC thunderbolt 3 docking station. I want one of these because although I’m able to use two displays from it, one of them is a DP port and the other one is via the thunderbolt port. Sometimes the DP one doesn’t turn on and other times it turns on way slower. What I want to do is plug this thunderbolt hub you’re reviewing, into my dock and then plug both of my monitors into the hub. Is this daisy chaining, and does this work???
I ordered mine for my 2020 iMac.
Thanks for the thorough review!
Great review, thank you. May I ask what other device is connected to the MacBook Air’s second thunderbolt port at 4:48?
Hdmi out
These things are being reviewed then impossible to buy them. This OWC isn't the sharpest knife in the marketing drawer.
I purchased this OWC 4 Hub. My experience was not as good. With ext thunderbolt 4 SSD connected had 1400 W 1700 R. Connected directly to back of M1 Mac mini had 2000 W 2400 R. With a Crucial 500GB USB-C SSD mid 500's r/w with dock. 800 r/w connected directly. Sent it to OWC and they said its fine. When I get it back I will document the speed differences and make my first UA-cam video. I personally wont buy from them again. Check their BBB score 1 out of 5 stars along with the 1 star reviews on their previous TB3 dock on Amazon.
I bought this and had some issues.i am running the hub into a 2018,3 iMac. Connected to it are 2 SanDisk 2tb sse and 1 Samsung Evo 1tb. Routinely the evo shuts down without notice. It seems quite unstable. This ssd was originally sent to me by spitfire BBC pro. I offloaded the BBC to one of the SanDisk and trashed the BBC off of it. I uploaded my projects ssd on to it. It's only taking half of the SSD space. Before uploading i tried to reformat the Evo but it wouldn't let me. It said some sort of Kernal issue. Yesterday all the disks disengaged. So long story not so short I am thinking if this continues i may have to send it back. Any thoughts?
I have a stupid question. Since I’ve been researching this.
I have an older Mac Pro, it doesn’t have Thunderbolt, can I use this to run Universal Audio products?
Would this work with an iMac with a Thunderbolt 2 port (with an Apple Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter)?
Obviously I'm only expecting Thunderbolt 2 speeds!
I have Macbook air 2020, with CPU M1, which has 2 thunderbolt 4 on the side of it. I also have 2 WD external hard drives (Thunderbolt 3) that work fine with Macbook Pro 2016, but they not work when I plug them into my new Macbook Air. Is this hub will work OK if I buy it? Where can I buy one? Thank you so much.
Will it only work on thunderbolt equipt devices or will it also work for devices with lower Gbps at those lower rates?
I wonder with the 60w of power on the port which connects the laptop would this be safe to plug into a iMac? I would like to expand the ports on my iMac but don't want to fry the computer if power is coming down that input.
It would have been perfect for me only if the PD is 87w+
All Thunderbolt now needs is more bandwidth. They need to at least move to PCIe 4.0x4 but even that would be coming late to the party with PCIe 5.0 said to be coming to Intel Alder Lake Hybrid CPUs and 1st Gen PCIe 4.0 SSDs and GPUs already available.
Are you compensated by the OWC Thunderbolt Hub link?
ThnkYu, for the informative, thoughtful content throughout 2020-(TGIt's-over!) Have Healthy&Prosperous 2021
Nice video but I don't see how you can use 2 Monitors with this (bc it doesn't support DisplayLink). But if really possible would love to know how you did this
Just plug in two USB-C to display adapters. Note that the Macbook Air and Macbook Pro 13 only allow for one. The new Pro's can do two.
What about thunderbolt bridge between multiple computers? If you had on of these for each computer could you the just connect the hubs together.
Does those usb c outs can be used to transfer video out of a video switcher to this hub and then those usb c outs to computer for recording and streaming on separator computer from each usb c out?
Wouldn’t thunderbolt 4 chords be better than thunderbolt 3 ?
Quick question. If I wish to extend the main computer screen to two others via thunderbolt, do I need this dongle to ALSO have external power ie it needs the power adapter attached or will it work without it receiving external power ie directly off of the computer thunderbolt connection only ?
I have the OWC thunderbolt dock, can I daisy chain this hub with it so that I can have more usb-c
So HDMI monitor can’t work with it?
I was interested till I read it was 60W. Only found one that looks like it supports the full 96W the 2019 MBP 16" I have for work has. I bought a Samsung 34" monitor that gives out 85W which is holding me over for now. This would work for the M1 MBA I just bought haha.
SO with the Samsung doesnt that have a TB in the monitor? Wonder if you can connect this to the monitor?
@@chicagobob It's the Samsung C34J791 which does have TB, but only puts out 85W. So far that's enough and haven't noticed any slow charging and leave that MBP plugged in there all the time since it's my work one. The Plugable TBT3-UDZ is the only dock I know of that outputs at the full 96W the 16" MBP charger gives.
Can you drive a monitors power? And can you drive both power and data or on one cable. Sorry for the basic question. I know you probably shouldn’t.
It should power one of those portable displays I think each of these ports can deliver 15 watts per spec.
Hey, does the thunderbolt 4 ports on it all support USB 3.2 Gen2x2?
Because all of my external SDDs are in USB3.2, don't know if I can buy this for all the external SSDs because I'm running out of ports on new MBP 2021 ^ ^
I believe it might depend on the host system. To the best of my knowledge the Macs do not support 2x2 even on their internal ports as support for that standard is optional per Thunderbolt specs.
@@LonSeidman Well I guess maybe it's because the M1 MAX's bandwidth is running out. Alright, but can it runs on normal USB 3.2 or 3.1 standard(10Gbps) along with M1 MAX? I reckon I dont really need that fast with SSDs
Will this work on MacBook Pro 13 , 2017 i5 with High Sierra ?
Can it be used without the power adapter? Say like on an iMac?
will it work with HP Elitebook 830 G6 to 2 monitors with type C?
I don't understand why OWC couldn't come up with GaN tech for the power supply.
Waiting the review of that awesome Samsung X5 drive !
Wait no longer ! ua-cam.com/video/IXySu4bK0JQ/v-deo.html
Can I connect three 4K Portable Monitors to this hub?
all those hubs are in preorder for months.
can I plugged 3 ssd at a time?
Yes you can but note they're sharing the bandwidth back to the PC so they won't be any faster than one would be individually.
Nice! But not working with a tb 2 to usb-c adapter on a MacBook Pro 2013 (TB2) OWC say yes - I say NO!
USB-C is a connector, not a protocol, and is not the same as USB 3.xxx, or ThunderBolt, But can be used for both....
Yeah!!! IEEE Standards!!!
Thanks for the review, I thought eGPUs didn't work on M1 Macbooks?
He failed to mention that He was using an Intel based Mac, on the video you can see the Intel HD Graphics from the iGPU and the Radeon RX580 dGPU.
We used an Intel Macbook Pro for the eGPU test - I pinned a comment to clarify.
Does this dock hub is able to work with 3 external displays? thanks
It depends on what the host computer supports. At 4k only two but lower resolutions it's possible.
@@LonSeidman thanks for such a quick answer. I just bought the dock hub. I will try with the 3 monitors.
And about on Chromebooks?
0:49
I wish Intel just donated this technology to the USB folks so that USB4.1 could cover every Type-C device.
Intel have opened up Thunderbolt Tech to anyone that wishes to do so. DisplayPort 2.0 and USB4 are both based on Thunderbolt 3 spec. What the reviewer failed to mention is that this is not just a Thunderbolt 4 Hub but also a USB4 Hub. It will have the same functionality whether plugged into a USB4 Host or a Thunderbolt 4 Host.
@J Fz VESA used Thunderbolt 3 to implement DsiplayPort 2.0. USB-IF used Thunderbolt 3 to implement USB4. They have Intel to thank for that. Thunderbolt 4 takes the confusion away completely.
No one dislike good!
The battery is not charging its just connected
Thanks for the video. Funny but one thing I like besides the good info is the lack of common jargon. I hate hearing lets get started or without further ado, etc.we have become a sheep society where everyone looks and sounds the same
Thank God I found out it doesn’t work with 2017 MacBook Air.
CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME SOURCE LOWEST PRICE ON “2TB SSD DRIVES”. I DESPERATELY NEED BUT CANNOT AFFORD THEIR NORMAL OVER PRICED COST.
Not enough ports.
This one has a few more :) - ua-cam.com/video/neqTCh3Y7Nw/v-deo.html
bro, how the fuck do you turn this device off?
Where the fuck can I buy at ? Shit is ridiculous