What you need to know about Thunderbolt 4 docks and 11th Gen / 12th Gen Core laptops before you buy!

Hello everyone, welcome to Thunderbolt Tech Tips, your source for all things Thunderbolt. I'm your host, Lyle Warnke, and today's topic will be Thunderbolt 4

docks

and specifically researching docking solutions that will fit your

need

s. I've put together a small list of Thunderbolt 4 Docks and we'll look at them side by side,

what

they all have in common, and

what

makes each of them unique. Plus, we'll go behind the scenes with a Thunderbolt 4 dock and set. Create a clean workspace, ideal for working from home and doing schoolwork from home, so you won't want to miss that, especially if you've never installed a dock before. and lastly, you don't want to miss our Thunderbolt Tech Tips Contest at the end of this video, before we dive into the Thunderbolt 4 baseline, let's do a quick Thunderbolt to go over, like how do you get Thunderbolt 4?

Intel launched Thunderbolt 4 starting with Intel's

11th

generation mainframe

laptops

and desktops. just over a year ago, so you can get Thunderbolt 4 on a variety of PCs, from two-in-one gamers, thin and light, even business-oriented PCs, and from all your favorite PC brands Dell HP Lenovo Microsoft Acer ASUS MSI and the list goes on and on and the best way to check if there is Thunderbolt 4 on your PC is to check the connection specifications for the particular model you are looking at, just make sure it says Thunderbolt 4. And here's a tip on Any

11th

Gen EVO or 11th Gen vPro branded

laptops

will have Thunderbolt 4, as it is a requirement on both platforms.

Well, back to our line of Thunderbolt 4

docks

. By the way, there are many more Thunderbolt 4 docks on the market today, so the ones we've selected are simply to give you an idea of ​​the different docking solutions out there. So let's start with each of these Thunderbolt 4 docks and what they have in common: They all have a fast 40 gigabits per second connection to the PC. of bandwidth, they all support charging laptops so I don't have to take out my laptop charger while connected to the dock, they all support waking up the PC from sleep via keyboard and the USB mouse, sorry, who doesn't want to wake up their PC? really fast and they all support adding at least two 4k displays, so each of them and you also get backward compatibility with Thunderbolt 3 so you can connect Thunderbolt 3 storage Thunderbolt 3 monitor or any other Thunderbolt 3 device that have and be complete.

USB compatibility, so USB 2, USB 3.2 gen 1 gen 2, and full USB 4 each are Thunderbolt certified, meaning they go through more rigorous testing than other standards require. Let's first look at what makes each of these documents unique. Let's start with the Caldigit Element Hub. It's about the same size as a deck of cards and is perfect for that minimalist look. It has three Thunderbolt 4 downstream ports for video or data, all offering up to 15 watts per port, as it does not have a traditional one. HDMI Port: You can use a USBC to HDMI or USBC to DisplayPort adapter or you can directly connect a Thunderbolt 3 or USBC style monitor.

Remember that you can also control up to two 4k displays with this little dock. It's also perfect for connecting other Thunderbolt data. devices as external Thunderbolt storage and has four USB A ports. These are USB 3.2 gen2 at 7.5 watts, which is great for adding those other devices and charging different devices. Overall, this is a powerful foundation in a small package. Next up is the Anker. 12 on a Thunderbolt 4 dock, that's more traditional standard ports than you might expect a Thunderbolt 4 downstream port for video data dual HDMI ports Ethernet and 4 USB A ports and on the front an SD card reader an auxiliary audio port and a USBC 3.2 gen 2 port and what makes this dock unique is that it supports not two but three 4k displays, possible with a 40 gigabit second bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4.

So it's a good example of a dock full size with traditional ports and here we have the Kensington SD 5700t Thunderbolt 4 dock is a combination of full size dock with that modern hub design. It has three downstream Thunderbolt 4 ports for data or video, so it supports dual 4k monitors from two of these ports. gigabit ethernet four USB A ports three on the back and one on the front, an SD card reader and an auxiliary audio port. It also has the Kensington lock port on the side so it doesn't escape, so next up is the Lenovo Thinkpad, a nice full-size dock with that modern hub design.

The Thunderbolt 4 dock is a little more business-oriented for the workplace or home office. It gives you all the typical ports you would want as a corporate user, so two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one upstream and one downstream for video or data, two display ports, and one HDMI port. for video, four USB A ports, three on the back and one on the front, and a USB 3.2 gen2 USBC port. What makes this stock unique is that it is an AMT capable base that is perfect for corporate use with PC vPro to enhance management options. a really good line that represents different styles of Thunderbolt 4 docks available on the market today and the good news is that there are many Thunderbolt 4 docks to choose from;

You just

need

to see which foundations suit your needs while doing your research below. Above, let's go behind the scenes with a Thunderbolt 4 dock and see how easy it is to set up at home. Back here, this looks like Thunderbolt. I want to show how easy it is to turn any computer desk into a more ergonomic and productive workspace. using Thunderbolt 4 dock so let's add some gadgets to my 11th gen

core

laptop like keyboard, mouse and 4K display and by the way this is perfect for anyone who wants a little more convenience for everyday use of the computer, more productivity, perhaps working from home. and it's also great for remote learning and school work so I'm going to start by adding this OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock because I really like the size of it, it has a lot of ports for what I'm looking to do so my power is already plugged into the wall, so Next, I'm going to add power to the base.

I'm going to grab the included Thunderbolt 4 cables. Plug it into the input of my Thunderbolt 4 dock. Plug it into my Thunderbolt 4 port on my laptop. The first thing you will notice is my laptop is charging so I don't have to take out the charger that comes with the laptop. Next, let's go ahead and add the mouse and keyboard. This one now uses the wireless Bluetooth dongle, so I'm going to plug it into my USB A port and I should immediately get my mouse and my keyboard, and I'm going to add this 4K monitor and you'll notice that this dock doesn't have an HDMI port, but it does have three ports Thunderbolt 4 downstream that I can use for data or video, so I'll just use an HDMI to USBC adapter, plug it into one of my ports and voila, in less than a minute we create a more comfortable productive workspace with my keyboard mouse and my 4k display, but we can add even more devices to our workspace because of the 40 gigabits per second of bandwidth that Thunderbolt 4 offers, for example, I'm going to add an external webcam that I've mounted on top of my monitor and it uses a USBC cable so I can just plug this into the next Thunderbolt 4 downstream port and I'm ready for video conferencing and the nice thing about this workspace is that I'm using a single Thunderbolt for the connection to create this environment similar to a workstation, so when I unplug it and walk away, I

know

. my laptop was charging so I'm ready and when I come back and plug it in I

know

I'll have all the same devices so it's a very simple but powerful way to expand my 11th gen

core

laptop with a Thunderbolt dock 4. .

Hey, I hope you enjoyed today's Thunderbolt topic and if so, a thumbs up is always appreciated and make sure to subscribe to our channel for more Thunderbolt tech tips videos. Hey, we didn't forget and I hope you haven't forgotten about the Thunderbolt Tech Tip contest, so check out the link below in the video description to enter to win a modern full-size Thunderbolt 4 dock, courtesy of Thunderbolt Tech Tips and one further. If you have a Thunderbolt tech tip you'd like to share or a Thunderbolt-related topic you'd like to request, please use the Thunderbolt Tech Tips hashtag in the comments section below as we want to hear from you and it can be used in a video segment future.