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USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness - Dennis Schubert (overengineer.dev)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/technology

171 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I was looking for a new USB-c hub and came across this article. It's an interesting write-up of what is on the inside of some popular options

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The Dell D6000 actually works pretty well. I have it running two monitors, keyboard, mouse, Ethernet, USB-A microphone, and analog speakers via 3.5mm. Every once in a while I’ll need to reseat the cable if the HDMI-based monitor doesn’t wake up.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can confirm, Dell's docks work great because they just have to provide high-quality docks to their business customers (such as my company).

The only complaint I have is that some of their dock (dunno if it's the 6000 series or other ones) use DisplayLink when you connect multiple monitors, which is a closed protocol with shoddy support on Linux (according to some colleagues it has gotten better, but YMMV). Everything else works has been working perfectly for years though.

[–] oaklandnative 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for the tip. I have a random "Pluggable" brand docking station that works fine with Windows but not my Linux laptop, neither with Zorin or PopOS. I get nothing from either monitor and can't get DisplayLink to properly install on either OS.

I will look into Dell. Do you know of an easy way to tell if DisplayLink is required? I'm looking at this one and don't see it mentioned:

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-dual-charge-dock-hd22q/apd/210-bexl/pc-accessories

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It's a pain in the ass with Dell. The one I have on my desk right now is a K20A001, which works great, but I know the newer Dx000 series that our ICT department bought all use DisplayLink. However those seem to be explicitly mentioned on the spec sheet, so there's hope that if it just says "DisplayPort" then no DisplayLink is involved. Maybe double-check google just to make sure, if it's DisplayLink there should be people complaining about it.

[–] Gruntyfish 1 points 1 year ago

Same here. I've had one for close to 4 years and I haven't had many issues with it at all.

[–] The_Jit 1 points 1 year ago

That's been a good one for me too. I have been running the Dell D6000 for over 4 years now for work, no issues. Every port but the 3.5 and one of the USB-Cs being utilized daily.