Hidup Sehat

At $235 with a 1-meter Thunderbolt cable ($200 without), the CalDigitThunderbolt Station 2 () is a pretty good deal. CalDigit didn’t go with a long, brushed aluminum box design the other docks sport. Instead, the Thunderbolt Station 2 uses a handsome vertical standing “Titanium Grey” aluminum box (CalDigit provides rubber feet to let you rest the dock on its side).

The CalDigit dock is one of four docks that I looked at that has eSATA; there is a pair of eSATA ports on the rear, along with two Thunderbolt 2 ports, two USB 3 ports, gigabit ethernet, and HDMI. The front has a USB 3 port, a microphone jack, and a headphone jack.

On the CalDigit website, you can download the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station Utility. This adds a menu bar item that allows you to eject any items that are connected to the dock and are on your Mac’s desktop.

Compared to the other docks in this roundup, OWC offers a whole lot of dock for $229. With the Thunderbolt 2 Dock (), you get five USB 3 ports, two on the side and three on the rear. It’s one of three docks in this roundup with a FireWire 800 port, which is great if you have an older hard drive that’s still a vital part of your setup. The dock also has the standard issue of ports: two Thunderbolt 2 ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, and an HDMI port.

Like the Elgato dock, OWC’s dock has separate microphone and audio out ports. But unlike the Elgato dock, these two ports are on the rear, not the front.

The one knock against the OWC Thunderbolt 2 Dock is that it doesn’t include a Thunderbolt cable. OWC does sell Thunderbolt cables in different colors (black, red, green, blue, white) and in different lengths (0.5 meter to 30 meters).

The $230 Thunderbolt 2 Dock () has a brushed aluminum case that matches your Apple laptop. The front has a USB 3 port, a mic jack, and an amplified headphone jack. The back has a gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3 ports, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, and an HDMI connector. Elgato includes a 0.5-meter Thunderbolt cable. All of the USB ports provide enough power to charge any iOS devices.

Elgato’s dock includes a software utility. Like the CalDigit utility, the Elgato Thunderbolt Dock Utility resides in your Mac’s menu bar for one-click ejecting of any connected dock devices from the Desktop.

The Echo 15+ Thunderbolt 2 Dock () is very different from the docks in this roundup. The Echo 15+ houses a hard drive and your choice of a DVD burner, Blu-ray burner, or Blu-ray drive, in addition to ports for Thunderbolt 2, USB 3, eSATA, FireWire 800, gigabit Ethernet, and audio in/out.

Prices range from $469 with an empty storage bay (you provide your own drive) to $999 for an Echo 15+ with a pair of SSDs (1TB storage) and a Blu-ray burner. The Echo 15+ is also the only dock with a method of securing a Thunderbolt cable to the device—it's surprising that no other device does this.

For production environments, the Echo 15+ is a heavy-duty handy dock. Having an all-in-one box helps cut down on the desk clutter though the Echo 15+ itself is a big box. The device is sturdy enough for a display up to 34 inches, or even a Mac Pro or 27-inch iMac. Read the in-depth review.

At $318, the Thunderbolt 2 4K docking station () is pricey. It's also the longest dock, measuring 9.2 inches, and its design hearkens back to the old aluminum Mac Pro tower.

The Thunderbolt 2 4K docking station is the only dock I looked at that has an S/PDIF connector on the rear. The rear also has three USB 3 ports, a microphone jack, one eSATA port, gigabit ethernet, HDMI, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, and a security lock slot. The front has a USB 3 port and headphone jack.

StarTech includes not one, not two, but three different power cords, one each for the U.S., U.K., and E.U. The company also includes a Thunderbolt cable.