Matrox Docking Station for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air (DS1/HDMI)

I purchased the Matrox Dock (HDMI version) to cut down on the number of cables feeding up through the wire collar in my desk. I configured it from a Macbook Pro Retina 13 via Thunderbolt to the following: LG display via HDMI; ethernet to a Time Capsule; USB to an external Iomega drive; and as an occasional USB interface to an iPhone. Upon initial setup, one power cycle of the Matrox got everything working. Unfortunately, over a couple of days of use, random problems came up with the USB connections (which were supposedly fixed with an update). Twice, when hooking up the iPhone, it locked up iTunes to the point of having to force quit. This was remedied by power cycling the Matrox, but the failure occurred again at random times. Also, the Iomega drive would not always mount when powered up. Again, powering down/up the Matrox fixed the problem -- until the next time. Apparently other users are not experiencing these issues, so maybe I got a dud. I ended up returning the Matrox and purchasing the Belkin Thunderbolt Dock from Apple. So far, it is working fine.For those of you interested in comparing the two units, here's my two cents. The Matrox felt more substantial and looked a bit nicer than the Belkin except I didn't like the way the Thunderbolt cable comes out of the front of the unit. With the Matrox, you will have cables coming out of both the front and the rear, whereas the Belkin gives you a choice -- all cables can hook up to the rear, but there's a channel cut out of the bottom that allows you to route a cable or two out the front. Also, the Belkin has two Thunderbolt ports, but the Matrox has one. Other than a slight aesthetic advantage to the Matrox chassis, I'd give the overall edge to the Belkin since it has worked flawlessly for me. The only negatives I see with the Belkin are the $50 price premium and the fact that it does not have an HDMI port, so I have to use a Thunderbolt-to-HDMI dongle (which adds even more cost).

Goods:- This eases a lot when moving your Macbook around, without having to connect and disconnect a bunch of connectors each time you land or move away from your desktop setup.- The USB 3.0 port brings ultra fast connection speeds.- The USB ports are powered and works together with the Mac when resuming from sleep so you don't get a "disk not ejected properly" message each time your laptop resumes from sleep, unlike USB hubs (even powered).- Cheaper than the Belkin Thunderbolt Dock.Bads:- Only one USB 3.0 port.- The Thunderbolt port and USB 3.0 port are on the "front", and the remaining ports are at the "back". To me, this adds a lot of inconvenience when positioning and laying out the docking station on your desk. You either lose ease of access to ALL your connectivity in the "back", or the USB 3.0 port. The front and back ports also mean a messy cabling setup. It would have looked a lot nicer with all the connecting cables only from one end.- No daisy chain Thunderbolt port. That means no additional Thunderbolt devices once this is in use.- No further expandability on display ports - there is only one HDMI port. And since there're no additional Thunderbolt ports, it means no more display port output.

With the newest OSX 10.8.3 update, the USB-related bugs seem to be fixed. I have no trouble running USB speakers, a USB 3.0 external drive, or Ethernet networking. In the few weeks I've had the dock, I only had to powercycle it once.However, this dock would much better if it had a 2nd Thunderbolt port so you could connect a DisplayPort adapter to it. The reason is that the HDMI port built into this dock is limited to 1080i output. 1080p works with some displays but it has visible artifacts. I tried this on 2 different displays with similar results. If your monitor's native resolution is 2560x1440 or something similar, this dock will not work with it unless you set the resolution to 1920x1080. The DVI version of this dock supports 1920x1200 but this resolution does not work reliably over HDMI, causing the display to turn on and off randomly.

I got this DS since Belkin is NEVER going to ship its Thunderbolt DS. I was a little hesitant at first since i read some issues with this DS.Finally today I managed to hook this with a 0.5 Thunderbolt cable and a MBP 15" retina display running 10.8.3 OS.The DS works flawlessly, no hiccups all OK. I read about the USB issues in the Matrox site but I did not experience anything at all.If you are in the need for a Thunderbolt DS, this is your choice.UPDATE:My unit is starting to show what others users complian about: drives not mounting / unmounting at random, etehrnet issues, etc.This happened at random, not after any system update or anything...Seems that I am stuck with this....

The docking station does everything it says it will do and does make moving the Air in and out of my office space much simpler. Considering the available competitors I would say it is the best currently available for the price range. The only significant drawback is the lack of any thunderbolt ports. I use a Buffalo Thunderbold/USB 3 drive for my local time machine drive and it does not have a pass through port, so have to use it with USB 3 vice Thunderbold. I have not experienced the USB 3 disconnect problems that some people have reported with the Matrox, so it is acceptable. All in all I can recommend this for someone looking for docking station for the Air.