Review: iVANKY's FusionDock Max 1 Delivers Extreme Versatility With Dual Thunderbolt Connectivity

[gagaliya]

Newbie question what exactly is the point of this type of docks, it takes up two thunderbolt ports on your MacBook and gives you two thunderbolts back…why not just plug everything into the mac directly instead of having this as a middle man and end up with another thing on the desk. Thanks

 

[BeatCrazy]

Newbie question what exactly is the point of this type of docks, it takes up two thunderbolt ports on your MacBook and gives you two thunderbolts back…why not just plug everything into the mac directly instead of having this as a middle man and end up with another thing on the desk. Thanks

My MacBook doesn't have anywhere to plug in Ethernet, USB-A, S/PDIF, TF card...

 

[CharlesS]

I would like to know the technical reasons why no 10Gbps Ethernet and lack of 4K120Hz via HDMI. Other docks/dongles provide this (albeit few), but for the price, I’d expect both of these features.

What docks would these be? The only one I've ever seen with 10G was that old Akitio/OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock from 2018.

The new Thunderbolt 5 dock from Hyper that's supposed to be coming out later this year has 5G Ethernet, which looks nifty.

 

[BeatCrazy]

What docks would these be? The only one I've ever seen with 10G was that old Akitio/OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock from 2018.

Just those two. I realize they're basically the same
4K120 available via a few things: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...possible.2381664/?post=31985866#post-31985866

The new Thunderbolt 5 dock from Hyper that's supposed to be coming out later this year has 5G Ethernet, which looks nifty.

Nice, I'll keep an eye out for it.

 

[OWC_TAL]

What docks would these be?

https://www.owc.com/solutions/thunderbolt-pro-dock has 10GbE and supports a 4k display at 120Hz.

 

[svish]

Price on the higher side. But looks like a very functional and good dock.

 

[MacRS4]

That cable looks very badly designed. It looks like it will fit the spacing of the USB-C ports of currently available Macs, but what if Apple slightly changes the spacing of those ports on future Macs?

You can just use two Thunderbolt cables OR use the cable the other way around. I.e., put the dual-end in the dock, and the two 'free' ends in the laptop. It's not insurmountable in any way.

 

[Ifti]

I don't get why anyone in this day and age would try to save a few cents by not having a 10Gb ethernet.

Guess it comes down to the heat generated with 10GBe in these docks. The few docks that Ive tried with 10GBe have had active cooling fans built in, and the TB to 10GBe adapters are rather large, with large heatsinks to aid heat dissipation.......

 

[Ifti]

https://www.owc.com/solutions/thunderbolt-pro-dock has 10GbE and supports a 4k display at 120Hz.

This has 10GBe, but also has a cooling fan. While you can switch the cooling fan off, the dock comes with a recommendation to always leave the cooling fan ON when using the 10GBe connection.......

 

[Squuiid]

Looks nice but those edges are gonna be dust magnets.

 

[anchovie]

does anyone have long term (since release) experience with it ?
considering it along with the cladigit ts4 but I read the ivanky gets very hot and it not officially thunderbold certied ?
any screen/device drop outs under load or heat issues to report ?

 

[ThomasJL]

You can just use two Thunderbolt cables OR use the cable the other way around. I.e., put the dual-end in the dock, and the two 'free' ends in the laptop. It's not insurmountable in any way.

Thank you for taking the time to reply, but I think there are no 'free' ends in that cable. I think both ends are fixed in one solid block of plastic and cannot be separated.

 

[joecomo]

Got the dock a few months ago and it is awesome. With M1 Max, I can run 3XDR displays and a studio display flawlessly.

This was an upgrade compared to my previous setup:

1. Doubled my ethernet connection speed (ports on the XDR displays capped me at 500 mb/s). I could get this if I hooked it directly into MacBook, but my ports were fully utilized to power the XDRs already.
2. Enabled the ability to hook an Apple Studio display. Somehow the iVanky dock can enable the studio display at 5k, even though Apple advertises that M1Max can only support a fourth 4k monitor.
3. Freed up a USB-C port on the right.
4. Revived a malfunctioning XDR display.

Reviving the malfunctioning display was huge. After 4 years of ownership, one of my XDRs failed to boot up. The issue seems to have to do with the fact that MacBooks draw power from the display, and that interfered with the connection? (The faulty XDR works fine with my Mac Studio).

It is working fine with the iVanky dock, presumably because the dock doesn't draw power from the display.


I will say that the dock runs pretty hot. Hope that doesn't harm the lifespan of the dock. Overall very pleased

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You could use an optical thunderbolt cable - these do not draw any power.

 

[MacRS4]

Thank you for taking the time to reply, but I think there are no 'free' ends in that cable. I think both ends are fixed in one solid block of plastic and cannot be separated.

On mine, only one end is a single piece, the other is two free.

 

[MacRS4]

does anyone have long term (since release) experience with it ?
considering it along with the cladigit ts4 but I read the ivanky gets very hot and it not officially thunderbold certied ?
any screen/device drop outs under load or heat issues to report ?

Late Feb for mine. It's warm, but I wouldn't say hot. It's cooler than my 10Gbe Thunderbolt adapter by quite a lot. It's solved all my screen and performance issues.

 

[chfilm]

Really cool, but the lack of 10 Gbit ethernet just sucks!!

 

[Dj64Mk7]

I’m weary of using docks with a MacBook, since every time I’ve tried to use my Elgato Thunderbolt 3 Dock (from 2017, I think) every so often it will cause my MacBook to have a Stop Error (kernel panic) and I never knew why.

 

[McNoise]

I'm happy with my i-tec thunderbolt 4 dock: comparable performance, a few connections less, but you also pay 60% less.

 

[CIA]

If you are going to suck up both Thunderbolt ports on the Mac, at least OFFER a version with 10Gbe Ethernet support..... You could still sell a cheaper one with 2.5Gbe. (or even legacy gigabit)

 

[rsands1]

Sorry, but two TB ports for that? Never mind the dollars.
Why not include NVME (or 2)?
I have a CF Xpress reader, micro SD reader, NVME, SATA SSD, and a handful of USBC and A connections for less money and a lot more functionality - and it only takes 1 TB connection.

Because in order to drive that many TB4 drives they need two connections to the device. I have this same unit and it's outstanding. A near perfect compliment to any Mac running apple silicon. I have 4 NVME drives all running at max speeds plus an ungodly amount of peripherals all plugged into this dock all functioning perfectly. Nothing stops this dock as far as I can tell. Yes, it's expensive but you get what you pay for. No other dock currently comes close to this one.

 

[rsands1]

I'm happy with my i-tec thunderbolt 4 dock: comparable performance, a few connections less, but you also pay 60% less.

You could just buy two new TB4 cables. Sure it would cost you a few bucks, but the dock will still work.

I have this dock and I use it with two separate TB4 cables that I purchased and it works perfectly. I'm currently running this with my Mac Studio M2 Ultra. Their dual cable is only meant to work with apple laptops.

 

[rsands1]

I have one of these, and it's solved several problems I was having with my docked 16 M3 Max Pro and 14 M3 Max Pro. I have a Studio Display, an LG 5K, and a Dell 4K screen plugged in. Before this dock I had two thunderbolt docks, but I'd have to have the LG plugged directly into the Mac, otherwise randomly one of the screens wouldn't wake up. Also, I was not getting great performance when a 10Gbe adapter was plugged into my old docks.

With this however, I've the two connections from the MBP and everything else plugged in to the Ivanky. So three screens and the 10Gbe. Everything works just fine, and all those waking/irritating problems have gone away.

I know screens take a lot of bandwidth, so I assume that's the issue I was running into before. With this setup however...it just works.

Apart from the cost - which was a little uncomfortable - it's solved my issues. Very happy with it so far.

I had very similar issues to yours. I too am using an LG 5k and unless that was plugged directly into the Mac, sometimes it wouldn't wake up. The iVanky hub fixed this issue. It also fixed an issue where randomly one of my three CF card readers wouldn't mount...previously I was using two different OWC docks daisy chained together and it was a nightmare. If you would breath on one of those devices items would disconnect randomly. OWC will never get another dime of my money.

 

[rsands1]

That cable looks very badly designed. It looks like it will fit the spacing of the USB-C ports of currently available Macs, but what if Apple slightly changes the spacing of those ports on future Macs?

You can simply use two separate TB4 cables to connect to any apple silicon mac.

 

[OWC_TAL]

This has 10GBe, but also has a cooling fan. While you can switch the cooling fan off, the dock comes with a recommendation to always leave the cooling fan ON when using the 10GBe connection.......

This dock does not have a fan. It is the "v2" of the dock. Notice that it has CFexpress Type B instead of CFast. Take a closer look.

Guess it comes down to the heat generated with 10GBe in these docks

No, that is not all. It comes down to PCIe lane allocation as well. For example, with Thunderbolt 4, there is only 1 lane of PCIe 3.0 allocated to the device itself (eg the dock). A 10GbE IC requires 2 lanes of PCIe 3.0. So it is not possible to have 10GbE on a Thunderbolt 4 dock. Whereas a Thunderbolt 3 dock has 4x lanes allocated to the device itself. Read more here: https://www.owc.com/blog/whats-the-...nderbolt 3 can be used,used in docks and hubs

 

[tommiy]

Can you use this to drive a Apple studio display and a 4k HDMI display. I see nothing about ASD being plugged in to it. Does some one know?