Steam Deck dock alternative

[CrisR82]

Been traveling a bunch lately and I kind'a want a dock for the Steam Deck that is safer to transport without damaging the attached cable.

So my mind immediately went to a USB-dongle/dock with a detachable cable...and I could not locate anything that is confirmed working or looks trustworthy enough to buy (literal no-brand AliExpress listings mostly).

 

Today I came across the Ugreen Revodok Pro 209 which looks pretty good, but I can't find any legit info if it'll work for the Steam Deck.

 

Anyone had a similar thought or did any research on USB hubs/docks with detachable cables that can share experience?

[Agall]

17 minutes ago, CrisR82 said:

Been traveling a bunch lately and I kind'a want a dock for the Steam Deck that is safer to transport without damaging the attached cable.

So my mind immediately went to a USB-dongle/dock with a detachable cable...and I could not locate anything that is confirmed working or looks trustworthy enough to buy (literal no-brand AliExpress listings mostly).

 

Today I came across the Ugreen Revodok Pro 209 which looks pretty good, but I can't find any legit info if it'll work for the Steam Deck.

 

Anyone had a similar thought or did any research on USB hubs/docks with detachable cables that can share experience?

Almost any USB-C dock will work (that isn't exclusively Thunderbolt), what usually comes into question is extra ports like Displayport for Thunderbolt docks. The Steam Deck Dock is the only USB-C dock I've seen that has an integral DP passthrough port, something that even works on smartphones with DP passthrough. Its honestly the best USB-C dock I've seen/used for the Steam Deck and even go as far to say for Samsung Dex or to dock your smartphone. The other docks I've tried worked, but they were basic USB-C docks with only HDMI.

 

The last 17 days, I've exclusively used my Steam Deck and Z Flip 5 for media/entertainment (PC is in storage while I wait for my new house's closing date). I've spent a ton of time using both devices with the Steam Deck Dock. I didn't buy the dock until a few months of having the Steam Deck to use for this transition period, but I honestly should've just bought it off the rip.

 

I would honestly just engineer a way to safely transport the dock. I haven't had any issues, but I'm not transporting it daily. A little hard case might be cheap and easy to find for it if you're worried about the cable.

 

If you only need HDMI and a USB port, the ROG Ally's compact dock is a viable option. I've almost bought it several times, especially on its sale.

[Brando212]

The Steam Deck uses a USB4 port, so any non-thunderbolt dock should technically work.

[Agall]

6 minutes ago, Brando212 said:

The Steam Deck uses a USB4 port, so any non-thunderbolt dock should technically work.

Its a USB3 gen 2 port, not USB4. USB4 'assumes' thunderbolt 3 40Gb/sec, but that's not always the case. An example where it is would be the Lenovo Legion Go that is USB4 and supports thunderbolt. 

 

Steam Deck :: Tech Specs

[Brando212]

24 minutes ago, Agall said:

Its a USB3 gen 2 port, not USB4. USB4 'assumes' thunderbolt 3 40Gb/sec, but that's not always the case. An example where it is would be the Lenovo Legion Go that is USB4 and supports thunderbolt. 

 

Steam Deck :: Tech Specs

ah my mistake. thought they upgraded that with the OLED refresh but maybe I was thinking of another device.

 

main point still stands though; any non-thunderbolt USB-C dock should function as expected

[Agall]

5 minutes ago, Brando212 said:

ah my mistake. thought they upgraded that with the OLED refresh but maybe I was thinking of another device.

 

main point still stands though; any non-thunderbolt USB-C dock should function as expected

I wish it was USB4, my 2016 era Razer Core and RX 6600 8GB would've worked great during this time as an alternative dock. Unfortunately, it was the first thing I tested which didn't work. SteamOS even has a 'Thunderbolt' section in the system settings, but it appears that its not applicable to the Steam Deck. Hopefully we get that with a Z1E refresh of the Steam Deck. I'll buy the heck out of that if they do.

[Brando212]

14 minutes ago, Agall said:

SteamOS even has a 'Thunderbolt' section in the system settings, but it appears that its not applicable to the Steam Deck.

That's a generic section in KDE, it shows even if not applicable. Not SteamOS specific on that one, so can understand the confusion on that piece.

[Agall]

19 minutes ago, Brando212 said:

That's a generic section in KDE, it shows even if not applicable. Not SteamOS specific on that one, so can understand the confusion on that piece.

I only tested my Razer Core on it because I got a release day Steam Deck OLED and I already had a TB3 eGPU enclosure that I've had for nearly 8 years and an RX 6600 laying around that fit.

 

With the other improvements they made to the OLED refresh, I wouldn't have been surprised if they added USB4 and/or thunderbolt support. Most people using eGPUs on the Steam Deck install Windows to get them to work via oculink adapters, but I wasn't going to try that because SteamOS clearly had thunderbolt support with that section. RX 6600 likely able to use the same drivers as the APU, given their RDNA2 similarity in architecture.

[Brando212]

10 minutes ago, Agall said:

I only tested my Razer Core on it because I got a release day Steam Deck OLED and I already had a TB3 eGPU enclosure that I've had for nearly 8 years and an RX 6600 laying around that fit.

 

With the other improvements they made to the OLED refresh, I wouldn't have been surprised if they added USB4 and/or thunderbolt support. Most people using eGPUs on the Steam Deck install Windows to get them to work via oculink adapters, but I wasn't going to try that because SteamOS clearly had thunderbolt support with that section. RX 6600 likely able to use the same drivers as the APU, given their RDNA2 similarity in architecture.

Valve can't add true thunderbolt support since that's still proprietary to Intel unfortunately. But cross compatibility has gotten better with USB4 compared to 3.x

[Agall]

2 minutes ago, Brando212 said:

Valve can't add true thunderbolt support since that's still proprietary to Intel unfortunately. But cross compatibility has gotten better with USB4 compared to 3.x

I don't think that's true, thunderbolt works perfectly fine on Apple's silicon and MacOS, so its not proprietary but licensed. I also remember part of USB4's standardization with thunderbolt was a loosening of restrictions on the standard. Tons of Linux distros support thunderbolt without problem too. I see discussions of people using thunderbolt eGPUs on Linux that are at least 2 years old.

[Brando212]

19 minutes ago, Agall said:

I don't think that's true, thunderbolt works perfectly fine on Apple's silicon and MacOS, so its not proprietary but licensed. I also remember part of USB4's standardization with thunderbolt was a loosening of restrictions on the standard. Tons of Linux distros support thunderbolt without problem too. I see discussions of people using thunderbolt eGPUs on Linux that are at least 2 years old.

it's a bit of a complicated situation. Thunderbolt 3 is a somewhat open standard and USB4 is basing things off of it; but it's not a full implementation. It's why docks are hit and miss. The history portion of the wiki is worth a read if you're interested https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)

 

edit: biggest point is this one

 

USB is as big of a mess as ever since so many parts of the spec are "optional". USB 3 and 4 were supposed to make this better but have instead made it worse.

[Agall]

4 minutes ago, Brando212 said:

it's a bit of a complicated situation. Thunderbolt 3 is a somewhat open standard and USB4 is basing things off of it; but it's not a full implementation. It's why docks are hit and miss. The history portion of the wiki is worth a read if you're interested https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)

 

edit: biggest point is this one

I agree, its not always applied, this is why I specified with the Lenovo Legion Go and always caveat it when discussing USB4. Even then, USB4 can also be 20Gb/sec.

 

1 hour ago, Agall said:

Lenovo Legion Go that is USB4 and supports thunderbolt. 

^

From my previous post.

 

1 hour ago, Agall said:

Its a USB3 gen 2 port, not USB4. USB4 'assumes' thunderbolt 3 40Gb/sec

This is why I put 'assumes' in quotes, because its not always done. When it is done though, its 40Gb/sec which wasn't the case with Thunderbolt 3. Thunderbolt 3 was either 20Gb/sec or 40Gb/sec, something I had to pay attention to when looking at alternative devices to run my Thunderbolt 3 eGPU. Something I've done with at least three different devices over the years, daily driving a laptop+eGPU for over a year collectively. Last time I did so was with a Lenovo ultrabook and an i7 1065G7, first was an Intel 7th gen Razer Blade ultrabook. 

 

@CrisR82

Still, this is getting dramatically farther from OP's discussion, being around the Steam Deck Dock. I still suggest they get the first party one since its the best type-C dock I've seen. At $90 that includes an additional Steam Deck charger (literally the same one), its well worth it considering DP passthrough isn't common. The fact that it works flawlessly with the couple of smartphones I've tested it with being an added benefit. Otherwise if all they need is HDMI and a type-A USB, the ROG Ally's compact dock is a solid offering. Limited, but if it meets the necessities, then its great. I have a coworker who has an ROG Ally and bought this so he can use his Ally with his gaming monitor that is primarily for his Xbox Series X.

 

ASUS ROG 65W Charger Dock Supports HDMI 2.0 with USB Type-A and USB Type-C for ROG Ally Black ROG 65W Gaming Charger Dock - Best Buy

[Brando212]

I've also heard good things about that ROG charger dock. Very travel friendly being housed right in the plug.

[CrisR82]

30 minutes ago, Agall said:

I agree, its not always applied, this is why I specified with the Lenovo Legion Go and always caveat it when discussing USB4. Even then, USB4 can also be 20Gb/sec.

 

^

From my previous post.

 

This is why I put 'assumes' in quotes, because its not always done. When it is done though, its 40Gb/sec which wasn't the case with Thunderbolt 3. Thunderbolt 3 was either 20Gb/sec or 40Gb/sec, something I had to pay attention to when looking at alternative devices to run my Thunderbolt 3 eGPU. Something I've done with at least three different devices over the years, daily driving a laptop+eGPU for over a year collectively. Last time I did so was with a Lenovo ultrabook and an i7 1065G7, first was an Intel 7th gen Razer Blade ultrabook. 

 

@CrisR82

Still, this is getting dramatically farther from OP's discussion, being around the Steam Deck Dock. I still suggest they get the first party one since its the best type-C dock I've seen. At $90 that includes an additional Steam Deck charger (literally the same one), its well worth it considering DP passthrough isn't common. The fact that it works flawlessly with the couple of smartphones I've tested it with being an added benefit. Otherwise if all they need is HDMI and a type-A USB, the ROG Ally's compact dock is a solid offering. Limited, but if it meets the necessities, then its great. I have a coworker who has an ROG Ally and bought this so he can use his Ally with his gaming monitor that is primarily for his Xbox Series X.

 

ASUS ROG 65W Charger Dock Supports HDMI 2.0 with USB Type-A and USB Type-C for ROG Ally Black ROG 65W Gaming Charger Dock - Best Buy

Well, I already have the actual Steam Deck dock, the issue is that I know that I'll endup damaging the cable, that's why I'm looking for something with a detachable one.

The ROG Ally one seems nice, but lacks the ports I'll need (need to connect a mouse, keyboard, webcam and a monitor, along with ethernet).

[Agall]

25 minutes ago, CrisR82 said:

Well, I already have the actual Steam Deck dock, the issue is that I know that I'll endup damaging the cable, that's why I'm looking for something with a detachable one.

The ROG Ally one seems nice, but lacks the ports I'll need (need to connect a mouse, keyboard, webcam and a monitor, along with ethernet).

I'd look for a hardcase then. It's going to be neigh impossible to find something with enough ports natively that isn't thunderbolt. You could make one out of kydex that would properly support the cable that comes out of the rear, maybe 3D print a new base for it that the dock sockets into that'll support the cable while in storage.

 

Amazon.com: Spigen Rugged Armor Pro Designed for Steam Deck LCD (2022) / Steam Deck OLED (2023) Hard Shell Travel Carrying Case with Pockets for Accessories and Original Charger Storage Bag Carry Case - Black : Video Games

[Brando212]

1 hour ago, CrisR82 said:

Well, I already have the actual Steam Deck dock, the issue is that I know that I'll endup damaging the cable, that's why I'm looking for something with a detachable one.

The ROG Ally one seems nice, but lacks the ports I'll need (need to connect a mouse, keyboard, webcam and a monitor, along with ethernet).

check this dock out to see if it meets your needs https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09T9PXW35/

 

I have this dock for a different use case but have used it on my Steam Deck before so I know it functions for everything including the Ethernet.

[CrisR82]

1 hour ago, Agall said:

I'd look for a hardcase then. It's going to be neigh impossible to find something with enough ports natively that isn't thunderbolt. You could make one out of kydex that would properly support the cable that comes out of the rear, maybe 3D print a new base for it that the dock sockets into that'll support the cable while in storage.

 

Amazon.com: Spigen Rugged Armor Pro Designed for Steam Deck LCD (2022) / Steam Deck OLED (2023) Hard Shell Travel Carrying Case with Pockets for Accessories and Original Charger Storage Bag Carry Case - Black : Video Games

You know, if that case ships to Europe, that might be a much better option!

10 minutes ago, Brando212 said:

check this dock out to see if it meets your needs https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09T9PXW35/

 

I have this dock for a different use case but have used it on my Steam Deck before so I know it functions for everything including the Ethernet.

Well, it does port-wise, but the cable is not detachable, that's the one thing that made me start searching online in general since we have this type in local stores.

[Brando212]

14 minutes ago, CrisR82 said:

Well, it does port-wise, but the cable is not detachable, that's the one thing that made me start searching online in general since we have this type in local stores.

yeah it's not detachable, but I can attest to it being thick and sturdy. It's built for travel and abuse.