The modern portable computer is, to me at least, a bit of a paradox. On one hand, we get more processing power, more memory and more storage, and yet, the other hand where we get less connectivity and flexibility. The OWC Thunderbolt 3 mini Dock aims to solve the latter problem. This small bus-powered unit gets us back to what you might call the bare minimum of connectivity needed for a modern DAW recording system and as we will find out we get a little bit more besides.

The OWC Thunderbolt 3 mini Dock

The OWC TB3 mini Dock is a 5 in 1 connectivity solution for both the PC or Mac platforms. Simply connect the encapsulated Thunderbolt 3 plug to your PC or Mac to give it a Gigabit Ethernet connection via a standard RJ-45 connector, a USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.0 port and two HDMI ports. And get all those extra connections for $119 USD.

Connectivity

The OWC TB-3 mini Dock is simple to set up and use. Just plug the TB-3 cable into a free port on your PC or Mac and off you go. There are no drivers to install and the mini Dock is fully bus-powered. Remember that while TB-3 and USB-C might look like the same thing there is a vast difference in the specification of these formats, and it’s mainly with regard to power delivery. While the mini Dock “might” work over USB-C is will not officially be supported and will not deliver enough power to the USB ports to charge external devices (more on this later).

The two HDMI 2.0 ports are rated up to 4K 60 Hz resolution so I had no issues running my two LG 2560 x 1080 screens from the mini Dock. There were no visible glitches with the displays even during a fairly heavy Pro Tools recording session.

Both the USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports support bus-powered devices which require up to 900mA, which includes smartwatches and most phones. Devices like tablets often require 2.1A and these will not charge from the mini Dock, however, if you are just using them for data transfer, go right ahead.

Also, remember that power to the dock will be cut when the Mac or PC is off or goes into sleep or hibernation modes, so don’t expect your phone to be fully charged if the Mac it’s connected to is off or asleep.

And if your Mac or PC is running on the battery having these extra devices attached is going to drain your power reserves even faster than normal. You have been warned.

We all know that a wired internet connection is better than wifi so why not take advantage of the with the built-in Gigabit Ethernet port.

Build Quality

The OWC Thunderbolt 3 mini Dock is constructed from lightweight Aluminum and is small enough yet rugged to live in your gig bag or laptop bag. It might have been nice to have somewhere to secure the cable to stop it waving about in the bag waiting to get caught on something but I’ve been travelling with the mini Dock and didn’t find this a major issue.

In Use

As you can see from the image above I maxed out the I/O of the mini Dock on a recording session. I had an OWC Envoy Pro NVMe 2TB storage solution attached to the USB-3 port. My iLok in the USB 2.0 port. A pair of LG super-wide screens attached to the HDMI ports and I was recording over Dante from the Ethernet connection and all worked fine as I would expect. There are no moving parts or fans in the mini Dock so the body of the unit does act as a heat sync and gets a bit hot but again, nothing that I was worried about. I’d much rather have fewer fans in the studio any day.

Final Thoughts

Over the past couple of years, we have looked at many of the ever-expanding range of OWC docks and storage solutions and while you power users out there who demand a ton of USB ports, FireWire 800 connectivity, or an SD card slot will be disappointed with the Thunderbolt 3 mini Dock it does have everything you need to run a fairly complex recording situation. We all need a USB port for our iLoks. USB connected storage solutions are quite fast enough for pro audio, these are both big ticks in the box for the mini Dock. The Ethernet connection makes it possible to record using a Dante or other AoIP solution and then there are the 2 display ports which make it possible to attach nice big screens. What’s not to love?

The OWC Thunderbolt 3 mini Dock has found a permanent home in my Laptop gig bag. I’m sure it will be making an appearance on a session again very soon and I’m sure it will soon become my number one get out of jail free card. Thanks, OWC you saved my…….. skin, yet again.

You can find out more about the Thunderbolt 3 mini Dock and the full range of OWC docking and storage solutions at the Other World Computing website.