Digging up an old one, but thought I'd share this.
I've jumped to M1, and in setting up a home office I've "recycled" an old 27" Cinema display(2560x1440-not groundbreaking but nothing to sneeze at either) combined with a nice OWC TB3. The better TB3 docks are slick units, and one of the nice things about them is that a single cable both gives you connectivity to a bunch of other useful ports(like USB-A, display, and RJ-45) plus can charge the computer by the same cable.
With that said, it isn't 100% tied down to TB3, and is backwards combatible with TB2 and TB1.
My first Mac was a 2011 13" MBP that I bought new in 2012, and at the time I saw a lot of promise in TB. The port excited me and I could imagine a world of possibilities, but in 2011/2012 Apple was basically the only one using it and all TB peripherals were a fortune. For a while, Apple was the only source of capables, and a 6ft cable was $50(Belkin came out with them a bit later, but they weren't much less expensive since there's a lot of "smarts" in a TB1/2 cable).
I looked at and seriously considered buying an Apple Thunderbolt display, one of the few "Docks" on the market at the time, but combined with the same 2560x1440 27" panel as above. They were $1K. Those were a "2 cable" dock-they included the TB connector and a Magsafe adapter. I kept hoping for an updated one that at least added USB 3.0, something my 2011 didn't have(the 2012 I bought later did have it-Apple added USB 3.0 across the board with the 2012 revision Macs) but it never materialized.
Now, 9 years later, I'm sitting here and need to get some files off that old 13" MBP. It booted up, I plugged it in, and I had a wonderful world in front of me including that elusive USB 3.0 on this Mac.
The set-up is relatively simple. I have a TB2-TB3 adapter hanging out the back of the dock, and a TB2 cable plugged into it that I can then plug into the TB port on the laptop.
The Cinema display does have a Magsafe charger built in, but I opted to use a separate one in this photo for space/packaging reasons.
Also, with the old 27" TB displays now inexpensive, I may cycle the Cinema display out temporarily to replace it with one of those. The 2011 13" MBP can actually support 2 external displays through the TB port(with the built-in display off) although it requires the use of two TB hubs to do so. I'm hoping, though, that the next gen ARM Macs can support two external displays...although when that gets to be the case I'll likely buy a high end 2560x1440 display instead for photo work.
I've jumped to M1, and in setting up a home office I've "recycled" an old 27" Cinema display(2560x1440-not groundbreaking but nothing to sneeze at either) combined with a nice OWC TB3. The better TB3 docks are slick units, and one of the nice things about them is that a single cable both gives you connectivity to a bunch of other useful ports(like USB-A, display, and RJ-45) plus can charge the computer by the same cable.
With that said, it isn't 100% tied down to TB3, and is backwards combatible with TB2 and TB1.
My first Mac was a 2011 13" MBP that I bought new in 2012, and at the time I saw a lot of promise in TB. The port excited me and I could imagine a world of possibilities, but in 2011/2012 Apple was basically the only one using it and all TB peripherals were a fortune. For a while, Apple was the only source of capables, and a 6ft cable was $50(Belkin came out with them a bit later, but they weren't much less expensive since there's a lot of "smarts" in a TB1/2 cable).
I looked at and seriously considered buying an Apple Thunderbolt display, one of the few "Docks" on the market at the time, but combined with the same 2560x1440 27" panel as above. They were $1K. Those were a "2 cable" dock-they included the TB connector and a Magsafe adapter. I kept hoping for an updated one that at least added USB 3.0, something my 2011 didn't have(the 2012 I bought later did have it-Apple added USB 3.0 across the board with the 2012 revision Macs) but it never materialized.
Now, 9 years later, I'm sitting here and need to get some files off that old 13" MBP. It booted up, I plugged it in, and I had a wonderful world in front of me including that elusive USB 3.0 on this Mac.
The set-up is relatively simple. I have a TB2-TB3 adapter hanging out the back of the dock, and a TB2 cable plugged into it that I can then plug into the TB port on the laptop.
The Cinema display does have a Magsafe charger built in, but I opted to use a separate one in this photo for space/packaging reasons.
Also, with the old 27" TB displays now inexpensive, I may cycle the Cinema display out temporarily to replace it with one of those. The 2011 13" MBP can actually support 2 external displays through the TB port(with the built-in display off) although it requires the use of two TB hubs to do so. I'm hoping, though, that the next gen ARM Macs can support two external displays...although when that gets to be the case I'll likely buy a high end 2560x1440 display instead for photo work.
