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Question

USB-C spec

Mar 16, 2017 6:47AM PDT

Hello--

I've been googling quite a bit, but haven't been able to find a definitive answer to my question, so maybe y'all can help:

If I were to get a machine with a single USB-C port (like a 2016 Mac or Dell XPS), would I be able to find a dock that could give me at a minimum: power, ethernet, two 1920x1080 displays, 3.5mm audio, keyboard, mouse?

IOW, when I go from the couch in the living room into my office, I want to be able to dock up, lid closed, with just that SINGLE cable, and get my full desktop experience (that I get now by plugging all of those cables into my laptop). Is this possible?

I'm just trying to get a definitive answer on if the USB-C spec is capable of that in theory.

Obviously it would be nice if the dock had ports beyond those, such as extra USB-A ports, additional USB-C ports, SD reader, etc. From my research, it seems that USB-C is still nascent enough that dock makers haven't figured out all the video driver issues, etc, so I haven't seen a dock out there that guarantees that everything i listed would work through ONE cable - but is it at least possible? If so, then hopefully it's just a matter of time until we start seeing some good dock options out there once the market matures & driver issues, etc, are addressed..

Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
I'm going with no.
Mar 16, 2017 8:43AM PDT

I go to trade shows and if there was such I usually see it there.

While USB-C in theory has 5 to 10 gigabit transmission rate, it's still too early in the game for companies to develop what you are asking for. Not enough sales to pay for the engineering and first production.

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USB-C spec
Mar 16, 2017 10:06AM PDT

By "no", do you mean it's not possible to pass all of those items through 1 USB-C cable, or just that such a dock hasn't been developed yet? I'm hoping the latter, but I wasn't sure based on your post.

If you're saying it's not physically possible due to the 5-10 Gbps pipe constraint, then do you think maybe further down the road with Thunderbolt3 (which has a 40 Gbps pipe), it's possible?

Thanks

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By no, I mean no products for you.
Mar 16, 2017 10:23AM PDT

I'm sure you can try this today by piecing together some hub, USB video cards and testing but there was nothing demonstrating this at the trade shows in the past few years.

So possible? Yes. Has anyone delivered such a dock? I'm sure you looked too.

If you want to explore other solutions I'll share that for me the fix was a HTPC which is currently a 2009 Sony Vaio laptop connected with HDMI. Why would I go with a many thousand buck more solution?

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By no, I mean no products for you.
Mar 16, 2017 12:15PM PDT

Ah ok - well then I'll keep my fingers crossed for the future, and for TB3, then..

Also, I hadn't thought of daisy-chaining multiple USB-C docks together as a potential solution to get the 1-cable experience I'm looking for - I'll keep that in mind too.

Let me know if you happen to see any products come up - thanks!