Another - which TB4 powdered dock?

[xibinim]

Aloha - long time viewer but strangely never joined the LTT forums until now. 

 

I'm trying to build a new office desk and work space and have trawled through numerous forum posts and Reddit threads trying to find the right powered dock. However I feel more confused than when I started looking. 

 

The requirements are for one to go on the underside of my desk, have all my gadgets plugged in (keyboard with 2 x USB headers, mouse, card reader if the dock doesn't sit front side edge of desk and a USB-C cable that will plug into a laptop for power and display) and feed back to my main rig below with a 1440p @ 120Hz monitor. Plenty of good powered docks exist but options seemed limited at over 60Hz. And I presume I need one with a KVM. Where things got complicated in my research were requirements like DSC, HBR3 etc.

 

My motherboard is getting old (long live multi generation AM4 X370s) and has one USB-C so I would need to add a T4B add-in card. And that needs to be with display pass through? On a side note - a future home network upgrade means I can probably add 10Gb for not a huge amount but I presume there are few to none docks with 10Gb (2.5Gb would be nice). 

 

The laptop in question is just an aging work one (Windows/60Hz) but would be nice to just plug with the one cable and flick a switch or automatically switch over so I can use the keyboard, mouse and monitor with no fuss. My wife does have an M1 Mac work laptop and she may like to plug hers in on days I'm in the office.

 

I'm running Windows 11 with a 3090 FE. Think that covers everything, any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers :). 

[atxcyclist]

Does your X370 board support Thunderbolt? Because of the security and interface of Thunderbolt, it is something that has to be highly integrated with the board. If it does, the add-in card should have a displayport in on it. CalDigit makes great docks and their TB4 dock does have 2.5g lan.

[xibinim]

Forgot to add, if I need to upgrade my mobo - that's fine. Coming up to 6 years so served me well. 

 

Just thought though, ideally I don't want to get too a high end one as I'm on an AM4 and my 5800X3D should have a good couple of years left in it. 

[xibinim]

I've found a mobo - ProArt B550 but wondering if I have over complicated this set up. Perhaps I could get a cheaper powered dock or hub, under the desk and just add a separate KVM for plugging in a laptop? 

[xibinim]

Problem solved. I went down the KVM route instead. It requires more cables going from the KVM back to my rig but comes with a cabled remote button to switch which I can stick under the desk on the edge closest to where I'll sit. And it's working at high refresh rates, a much cheaper option than a TB4 dock :).