The CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt dock has all the ports you need

The exceptional CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt Dock proved to be a lifesaver for my work this week.

I came back from lunch midweek to find my desktop frozen. Never happened before, but let's do a reboot. Well, it failed to start after a hard restart.

15 minutes later and I have a diagnosis. My 18-month-old Intel NUC has died. In contrast, my previous self-built desktop from 7 years back still worked fine.

Guess that's why Intel stopped doing new NUCs.

The CalDigit TS4

I didn't have the time to set up the older desktop properly. Fortunate, I did have a laptop. And there's where the CalDigit TS4 came into play.

The docking station has:

• 18 port in total.
• 98W laptop charging.
• Ethernet networking port.
• Works with my 5K monitor.

What I liked about it

I've been under-utilising the CalDigit TS4 as a glorified USB hub for the NUC, which was mounted under my desk.

But it was really designed for use with a Thunderbolt equipped Mac or PC laptop. The idea is that a single cable is used for data connectivity, charging, and monitor output.

And that's what I'm using it for now.

What I really liked about it:

• Built-in SD and MicroSD readers.
• Front-facing ports for convenience.
• All metal enclosure for heat dissipation.
• Faster-than-WiFi 6 with 2.5Gbps Ethernet port.

What made the biggest difference was the ability to connect my 40-inch monitor via DisplayPort. I'm still down to less than half my usual "desk space", but it'll do for now.

Do you dock?

My switch was seamless as I had all my data backed up by default. I'll write more about that in another post.

What about you? Do you use a desktop docking station with your laptop?