Dock alternatives for XPS 9570

Question

I'm soon to be the owner of a Dell XPS 15 with Core i7-8750H and Nvidia 1650 graphics. It will be a desktop replacement, half at the office desk and half on the road.

Looking for help choosing a dock that will handle the following peripherals:

- Samsung 49" CRG9 at 5120 x 1440; available inputs are (2) Displayports and (1) HDMI 2.0
- USB 3 external drive
- half a dozen low-bandwidth accessories like keyboard, mouse, webcam, etc

I choked at the price of the Dell WD19TB, 480.99 canadian dollars. Meanwhile I see thunderbolt 3 docks on Amazon for less than $200, for example the QGeeM DL6901. Is there any difference, besides that 3rd-party docks can't provide 130W?

I don't mind plugging in two things to the laptop (dell power brick + 3rd-party dock) if it'll save me $200.

jphughan · Accepted Answer

@bettyH420 The Qgeem DL6901 is not a Thunderbolt 3 dock. It is a USB-C dock, and worse than that, it uses "indirect display" technology called DisplayLink -- not to be confused with DisplayPort. DisplayLink comes with a ton of drawbacks that I've written about in detail in the post marked as the answer in this thread.

So I would rule those out. With your system, the display resolution you want to run (assuming you want the standard 60 Hz refresh rate rather than something lower), and your desire for USB 3.x, if you want a "native GPU" solution rather than a DisplayLink solution, you do need an actual Thunderbolt 3 dock. Even a native GPU USB-C dock wouldn't cover this. There are options that may be cheaper than the WD19TB, such as the CalDigit TS3+ or USB-C Pro Dock (which despite the name will use Thunderbolt 3 when supported by the attached system). In terms of differences, as you say the third party docks won't supply 130W. Additionally, third party docks won't give you a Power button that would allow you to control the system power state. Some people really like to be able to power on the system while the lid is closed. If you want that, you need a Dell dock. Other than that, the WD19TB supports some additional features that pretty much only enterprises care about, and it also supports DisplayPort 1.4/HBR3 over USB-C/TB3, while most USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 docks today only support DP 1.2/HBR2 today, but the XPS 15 9570 only supports DP 1.2/HBR2 anyway, so unless futureproofing is worth a lot to you, then you can ignore that.

DELL-Cares · Answer

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bettyH420 · Answer

Thanks for your reply.  I assume the old TB16 won't work?

jphughan · Answer

@bettyH420  The TB16 should work, although you'd need the version with a 240W power source in order for it to provide 130W to the system as the XPS 15 requires; the newer WD19TB can supply 130W even when it only has a 180W power source feeding it.  However, the TB16 generated more than its fair share of complaints about reliability, stability, etc., so if you don't already have a dock, putting up with it might not be worth the cash you'd save over getting the WD19TB, especially if you can't find the TB16 from somewhere that has a good and easy return policy.

bettyH420 · Answer

Thank you in the meantime while I’m finding a dock, would a plain USB-c to DisplayPort cable be able to run the monitor?

jphughan · Answer

@bettyH420  Yes it would. Happy to help, and good luck.

Error2020 · Answer

I'm tempted to give it another go.

It seems Dell doesn't sell the WD19TB anymore, just the WD19TBS which doesn't have audio.

There is a "WD19TB module" - what is that? Is it a complete dock, or just a part of it? It is hard to tell from the page

https://www.dell.com/en-au/shop/dell-thunderbolt-dock-wd19tb-module/apd/470-aebs/pc-accessories

jphughan · Answer

@Error2020  The User Guide for the dock makes this very clear, but the module is the portion of the dock to the left of the 'seam' that you can see along the top of the dock near the left. That portion is removable and determines whether the dock is a WD19, WD19TB, or WD19DC — although the power adapter wattage may need to be changed as well. The module is designed for IT departments that might need/want to replace just that piece if it fails, rather than disconnecting everything else, or upgrade an existing WD19 180W to a WD19TB, for example. I’m surprised Dell actually designed this dock to be modular since I don’t see a ton of use cases for doing that, but they did.

Error2020 · Answer

Oops my question was meant to go on a different thread. Sorry @bettyH420 Betty. Thanks @jphughan

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Dock alternatives for XPS 9570

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