The sleek, aluminum-encased Thunderbolt Express Dock from Belkin lets you use a single cable and a βsingle connection to create high-speed, reliable transfers between your laptop and up to eight other devices, including FireWire, Ethernet, USB, and daisy chaining multiple Thunderbolt devices.β Β With two Thunderbolt connectors (one upstream, one downstream), youβll be able to daisy-chain up to five more Thunderbolt devices to your computer. Β You can connect a total of eight devices to your computer using the USB 3.0 and Firewire 800 connectors in combination with the Thunderbolt port. Β Youβll also find a Gigabit Ethernet connector and audio jacks for headphones and a microphone.
The Thunderbolt Express Dock is $299.99, and itβs a easy way to add desktop features to your MacBook Pro or Air or even to add a lot of extra ports to your iMac or Mac mini.
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At last it’s for sale. Nice. I like the way they have put a groove through the case instead of a front port. Sadly my understanding is I can’t use it to drive a mini display port 27″ apple display from my macbook air. Can someone post if they find this does work ?
I’m typing on a machine who’s Thunderbolt chain looks like this:
MacMini (2011) –> LaCie eSATA Hub –> LaCie 2big Thunderbolt –> Seagate Backup Plus Desk with Thunderbolt –> Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock –> HP ZR2740w (via Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter cable) at 2560×1440.
So yes, it works fine to “drive” a 27″ display via Mini DisplayPort. (To be exact, the Mac is driving the display. The signal is just passing through the Thunderbolt devices.)
See here:
http://www.belkin.com/us/support-article?rnId=8432
Also, many of the reviews have tested this with various displays — including the 27″ Apple Cinema and Thunderbolt displays — and it works just fine. It’s a standard daisy-chainable Thunderbolt device.
Thanks Josh. I also found this which gives the same positive answer.
http://www.macworld.com/article/2037026/review-belkins-thunderbolt-express-dock-lets-you-get-plugged-in-easily.html
Excellent news.