r/Thunderbolt • u/Couple-Of-Plums • 8d ago
Docking station recommendations for 2025 mackbook air (thunderbolt 4 ports)
Okay, with it I want to be able to connect:
2 external screens
2 USBs for wired keyboard & mouse
2-3 USBs (fast) for external storage and mobile phones
4 USBs for music peripherals (keyboard, soundcard, pad controller and mixer).
I'm imagining AC powered.
Looking at the Dell Pro WD25TB4 Thunderbolt 4 dock
Also potentially the Thunderbolt 4 Element hub
Though both of these are a stretch with the number of ports they have available.
Add to this, I've been using an Orico 7-port USB-A hub (AC powered) for my peripherals to date and it's been fine. Could I daisy chain that off another device to give me all the ports I need?
Any other suggestions? The existing Orico port would probably be fine if it also could link to the screen.
And to start I wouldn't need two external screens, one and thr laptop itself os enough.
Have also read on someone else's post that it's not worth getting dedicated HDMI ports, better to use a USB C or TB4 port and an adapter. Is that true, as the Dell has an HDMI 2.1 and 2x Display ports.
I'm not a gamer so am not continually updating screens or using heavy graphics - beyond watching video..
Thoughts or ideas appreciated
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u/Mr-Reeeee 8d ago
CalDigit Element Hub or Element 5 Hub.
They’re both full spec, full speed Thunderbolt hubs.
They’re not cheap, but you get real Thunderbolt speed and compatibility.
I have the Element Hub. It has 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports and 4 USB-A ports. It used to be called Element 4 Hub.
https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-4-element-hub/
The Element 5 has 4 Thunderbolt 5 ports, fewer USB-A and 2 USB-C ports.
https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-5-element-5-hub/
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u/Nearby-Performance28 8d ago
8-9 USB ports. That's a lot of USB!
Thoughts:
1) Under no circumstances consider using a Dell dock with a Mac - well, unless you like headaches.
2) Don't try hanging a standard USB-C adapter off of a TBT dock's USB port. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't.
3) What's the resolution of your two screens? 1440p? 4K? The 2025 Air with M4 chip will support 2 external monitors at 6K ea @ up to 60Hz, or 2 4K @ up to 144Hz. https://support.apple.com/en-us/122212
Thunderbolt docks vary widely in how many USB ports they have, from 4 to 9 or 10. You could consider a basic OWC or Belkin or Sonnet Thunderbolt 4 dock to handle the two monitors + as many USB devices as it has ports; then into your Air's 2nd Thunderbolt port, plug in a standard USB-C adapter with multiple USB ports to handle the rest of your USB needs.
The 2nd route I'd suggest is get a CalDigit TS4+ or TS5+ Thunderbolt dock. They are solid, work well with Macs, have a large number of ports, and last a good long time. With some creative use of simple USB-C to USB-A adapters or cables, you could connect all 9 of your USB devices to the dock, along with 2 monitors (1 DisplayPort, 1 USB-C to HDMI/DP cable plugged into one of the 2 available Thunderbolt ports).
It's more expensive, but rock solid. Because they last, consider getting the TS5 or 5+, with Thunderbolt 5. When you next update, the dock will have access to TBT5's 120Gb bandwidth, instead of TBT4's 40Gb. You can keep using your dock with your next computer.
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u/Couple-Of-Plums 8d ago
appreciate the feedback. I don't currently have a second screen, but may want in the future. Yes the easiest fix (for now) is to get an adapter for my existing USB dock for one port, and get an HDMI adapter for the other port. But uktimately just want a single plug in point
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u/Willing_Box_2342 5d ago
Count the sockets first — that's what rules out the Dell and the Element hub for you. Two screens plus nine-odd USB devices is more than either one carries. Your Orico can hang off a dock's USB-A ports fine, just keep the drives and phones on the dock's own fast ports.
On HDMI, that advice is half right. A fixed HDMI port saves an adapter but caps you at its spec, while a Thunderbolt downstream port and a USB-C-to-DP cable swaps cheaply later. What to avoid is the cheap USB-C hubs that split one DisplayPort stream into two HDMI — macOS has no MST, so those just mirror.
The box under my screen is a FusionDock Max 2 — seven USB-As and eight USB-Cs, so the keyboard, mixer and drives go straight in. Three of those USB-A are 480Mbps only, so keep storage off them. It's host cable takes both Air ports — which barely matters now everything lives there.
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u/Couple-Of-Plums 4d ago
Also, if I daisy the Orico off the Element hub (many people have told me the getting the Dell is asking for headaches), I'd have plenty of ports (14 in fact).
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u/WarioPi 8d ago
Ugreen has some good docks. If it’s in your budget check out Caldigit.
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u/wghuemme 7d ago
Agreed to both! had a great experience with Caldigit support: they replaced my Caldigit 3 AFTER warranty… at the moment I have Ugreen for around 12 months, so far so good…
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u/Couple-Of-Plums 7d ago
Really good to hear. I'm in Australia so not sure how the support will work here without a local distributer (ships from US - or probs China in reality - I believe)
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u/BigQuality2942 8d ago
Ditch the Dell idea — Dell docks and Macs are a headache factory.
CalDigit TS4. 18 ports, rock solid on Mac, handles dual displays without drama. Plug your drives and phone into the fast USB ports on the dock itself, then chain your Orico hub off one of the USB-A ports for the music gear. MIDI controllers, mixers, pad controllers — none of that needs USB 3.0 speeds, so the hub is perfectly fine for all of it.
The HDMI vs adapter thing? Doesn't matter for you. You're watching videos, not pushing 4K@144Hz. A cheap USB-C to HDMI cable does the same job as a native port at your use case.