Hello all. I just received my TBT3-UD1-85W docking station yesterday. I really love this device, as it seems to have RESOLVED my issue with my LG 27UL600-W 4K UHD IPS LED Monitor. It’s connected via the DisplayPort+++ port on the Plugable. The monitor loves this connection. Finally, able to use LG’s original DisplayPort connection. Picture looks the best ever! Amazing… I’ve extremely happy about that.
The negatives… I’ve got it connected to my 2020 Mac M1 Mini 8g RAM 256g SSD. I am running my OS off of a Sabrent Rocket XTRM 2TB NVMe SSD. Connected directly to the Mac I get 2.2TB/sec write and 3.0TB/sec read. Plugged directly into the docking station I get 1.5 TB/sec write and 2.5TB/sec read. Thunderbolt is clearly running at slower speed. My Samsung EVO 1TB drive experiences similar cut in speed. Both USB3 ports are not recognized and elicits an error "USB accessory needs power connect Apple USB to USB port on this Mac”. The compromise (sort of) is to plug my Sabrent NVMe SSD directly into the MAC (by the way great solution to paying so much to Apple for storage).
I love that my monitor looks better than ever in its native 4K picture now. I no longer seem to have the resolution issues coming out of sleep or reboot. Just for those reasons, I will keep this device. But it would be nice to be able to have that other Thunderbolt3 connection free for more flexibility.
And I occasionally plug in the Mac USB Superdrive to copy DVD’s, so a fix for the USB ports would be great. There must be a solution since I’m not seeing anything on the boards. I will continue to of course evaluate the product and report back any discoveries.