# Thunderbolt 3 Dock, Good SSD and Interface Speeds?



## coprhead6 (Nov 11, 2019)

Hello,

I have a Razer Blade 15 laptop from 2019. There is a really nice 4-lane Thunderbolt 3 port that I have been using exclusively to connect my Samsung T5 SSD for samples. However, I would like to upgrade to a Universal Audio Thunderbolt interface and add another external Samsung SSD.

Would a single thunderbolt 3 port have enough bandwidth to support the full speed of two Samsung T5 SSDs while powering the Apollo interface? I've had issues with normal USB hubs in the past.... I don't need power delivery because I have a high-wattage gaming laptop that needs it's own psu.

Thanks!
Alex


----------



## colony nofi (Nov 12, 2019)

The audio interface uses a surprisingly SMALL amount of bandwidth. Its why companies like RME are able to push so much audio thru a USB2 connection (with some tricks up their sleeve to improve latency....)
As for using a thunderbolt hub. I have a couple of Caldigit T3's here and they are amazing. I run my soundcards thru them no problems. This particular model seems to drop drives sometimes - particularly if I connect my blackmagic dock (4 X SSD's) thru it. Because of this, I've been directly connecting drives of late. I think there is a fix, but I haven't needed to follow it up. These docks are amazing though - and worth it if you have more things to connect than just drives / audio interface. 

However, T5's are NOT thunderbolt drives. They use USB, and there will be zero difference between hooking it up via a thunderbolt port or a USB port (so long as the USB port matches the drive's USB version... and the T5 is USB 3.1 Gen 2.)

Now - I don't know which model of Razer you have... some have Gen1 ports (5Gbps) and the advanced model have Gen2 ports (10Gbps.)

Your T5 drives push a max of 530Mb/s - less than Gen1 speeds. And Gen 2 ports have HEAPS of bandwidth to spare.

I would *guess* that you won't see any real world difference between plugging it into Gen 1 vs Gen 2 for sample libraries. Even if you loose 100MB/s. Why don't you give it a go though? Try it on your USB port and then on your thunderbolt port (which has a USB 3.1 Gen 2 transport layer - which is why you can connect it)!

Use blackmagic speed test or something similar. You might be surprised.

Now in terms of a thunderbolt 3 port having the bandwidth. Yes. No problems at all. Thunderbolt 3 has a maximum bandwidth of 40Gb/s. Your drives are approx 5Gb/s each. Your interface - while I'm not certain as I haven't tested it - will prob run much less than 5Gb/s (depending on how many channels of audio run to/from the dsp chips). Thunderbolt 2 would be fine 

Getting a good dock is the hard part. Do Razer make their own? That would be the place I'd start.


----------



## coprhead6 (Nov 12, 2019)

Thanks for the very detailed reply! VERY appreciated 

I've heard very good things about the Caldigit T3. In fact, I had one in my Amazon cart before I posted this! I'm so glad to have confirmation of their usefulness and will definitely pick one up. Razer makes an external GPU dock that would be amazing, but it only comes with x4 USB 3.1 ports, so I can't connect my Samsung T5 drives, which are USB-C... unless I can find an adapter? What do you think?

My Razer only has one USB-C / Thunderbolt port, so I would have to run my SSDs and Thunderbolt audio interface (Apollo Arrow) through this T3 hub. From what you're telling me, the Thunderbolt port should have plenty of bandwidth for my drives and interface.

Again, many thanks.

-Alex


----------



## ridgero (Nov 13, 2019)

This helped me alot:



Understanding Thunderbolt 3 Bandwidth


----------

