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Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock gets USB 3.0, eSATA

updated 04:39 pm EDT, Tue June 5, 2012

 

Price jumps to $399


Belkin has announced an update to its still-unreleased Thunderbolt Express Dock. The peripheral is mainly meant for notebooks, introducing many more connections than a portable system would normally support. The upgrade mainly brings in three USB 3.0 ports, in place of the USB 2.0 ports Belkin originally announced. The company has also added an eSATA connection, but raised the price of the dock a full $100 to $399.

The add-on should ship in September. Beyond the USB and eSATA connections, it will sport two Thunderbolt ports -- one upstream and one downstream -- as well as FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, MiniDP-to-HDMI, and separate 3.5mm in/out options. In July Belkin will ship a $45, three-foot Thunderbolt cable, capable of daisy chaining up to six devices.



By Electronista Staff

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computers, peripherals, Belkin, Thunderbolt

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Previous Comments

  1. Salty

    Professional Poster

    Joined: Jul 2005

    +1
    06/05, 05:09pm | report spam | (1 reply) | reply

    DOA

    What the h***, why isn't their monitor out on this thing?! So glad I just bought a Thunderbolt monitor, this thing is useless aside from the Esata port.


  1. chas_m

    Moderator

    Joined: Aug 2001

    +8
    06/05, 05:31pm | report spam | reply

    Not DOA, just overpriced

    The gouge-a-riffic prices on these items is the biggest drawback. Take the TB out of the equation and I think that hub, nice as it is, would sell for $100 tops. I appreciate that this is a niche product at present, and really shows off TB's versatility -- and the pass-through makes it far more valuable to me -- but call me when it's on half-off sale.


  1. Flying Meat

    Junior Member

    Joined: Jan 2007

    +8
    06/05, 05:40pm | report spam | reply

    Agreed. With Thunderbolt

    it shouldn't be more than $250.00.

    Way over priced.


  1. facebook_James

    Via Facebook

    Joined: Jun 2012

    +8
    06/05, 06:10pm | report spam | reply

    Far Overpriced

    I'd pick one up at $199 - but at $399 I won't even consider it. Belkin - save yourself from building a slow selling product and just scrap it. Let someone else come in with a reasonable price and own the TB market.

    This is a great concept and something I'm looking for to add to my 17" MBP - but not at that price point.


  1. ggirton

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 1999

    -5
    06/05, 06:14pm | report spam | (2 replies) | reply

    if only it had firewire400 :-(

    I'd be all over this puppy.


  1. facebook_Jason

    Via Facebook

    Joined: Jun 2012

    +1
    06/05, 06:41pm | report spam | reply

    Overpriced, but better than others

    It does seem rather overpriced by itself, but the addition of fw800 and esata over what the Matrox product offers is easily worth a $100 premium over the Matrox TB dock.


  1. hayesk

    Professional Poster

    Joined: Sep 1999

    -1
    06/06, 09:47am | report spam | reply

    It's not a hub, people!

    For all you people thinking it's just an overpriced hub, you are mistaken. Thunderbolt does not connect to the Mac's controllers. So it needs a USB host controller (not a hub), an Ethernet card, an audio cards, and an SATA disk controller.

    It's a bit more complicated than a bunch of hubs in one box. That said, I think $400 is too high. $2-300 is probably a fair price. But it's not surprising given the low sales volume they'll have in the first year or so. I don't think they're out to rip people off, but rather I think people don't understand the cost of producing low-volume custom electronics.


  1. Hibernian56

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2011

    0
    06/06, 12:44pm | report spam | reply

    Not bad actually

    A rackmount case with an eSata cage, a mac mini and one of these makes sense as a storage server.


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