CalDigit TS5 Plus - Thunderbolt 5 Dock - 20 Port,10GbE, 140W Dedicated Host Charging, Thunderbolt 5 x3, USB 10Gb/s x10, Dual USB Controllers, Up to Dual 8K 60Hz Displays, 1.0m Braided Cable, 330W PSU

Fantastic product. One cable gives me 10Gbps Ethernet, multiple displays, keyboard, mouse, audio. It's perfect. If I had a complaint it would be the difficulty in figuring out how to get the Windows drivers for the Ethernet interface. I was please it worked with my MacBook Pro just as well as it worked with a Razer Blade 16. Loved that the display port supports VRR from the M4 MacBook Pro.

The media could not be loaded. Unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend this product to anyone as it gives me an issue where it constantly restarts and initializes itself when i put my mac to sleep. It will also intermittently lose connection to my peripherals which causes my displays to go blank. Tried various troubleshooting methodsd and the issue persists. Reading online that this is a known overheating issue for a good amount of people with no current fix, so I had to return it.

Most powerful lightning Bolt 5. Gives you more room for expansion at top speed and takes the wear off of PC unit. Definitely worth the investment. Will put many more years of use to your computer system by taking the wear off of PC.

This is a solid upgrade from the TS4. The DisplayPort has changed from 1.4 to 2.1. Ethernet moving to 10Gb is very nice, although they went cheap on the 10Gb controller this time – it's an Aquantia AQC113 – connected through PCIe via Thunderbolt at least, not a USB-attached solution. (The TS4 used a PCIe-attached Intel I226V for 2.5Gb.)I'm able to get very close to the theoretical max speed over the 10GbE using iperf3 to another 10Gb device on my home network (through a Cisco Cat3850 switch). First picture is "iperf3 -c [server] -Z -P 4" from the Mac (client sends traffic); second pic is "iperf3 -c [server] -Z -P 4 -R" from the Mac ("reverse" mode, where server does the transmission). The laptop is just displaying some static webpages and running Slack/etc during the test, nothing should be chewing bandwidth. Note that I'm not quite hitting the expected 9.4Gbps when the Mac is sending, but I do when the server sends. I actually have two very similar "servers," both running Linux and with Intel C3758 CPUs (with Intel X540/X553 NICs onboard), and the results are nearly identical with both servers. I thought this might be due to the Atom CPU on the systems, but I would expect lower performance if the server was *sending*, but I see the inverse. When the Mac transmits is where it's topping off at 8.7Gbps, the only explanation I have is maybe macOS is performing QoS or "reserving" bandwidth for something, or the AQC driver is flaky, maybe a Thunderbolt bottleneck (my Mac is only TB4, not TB5), or possibly something with the ethernet cabling involved (it's only Cat5E, but it's relatively short and it links at 10Gb and there are no errors on the switch). 🤷‍♂️My monitors/displays have worked perfectly. I have a pair of Dell U3223QE (4K/60), and I connect one to the DisplayPort output, and use a USB-C connection (which is DP over USB-C) for the other. Both are detected correctly by macOS and are running at 60Hz. My Mac is an "M1 Pro" CPU which supports two external displays through the dock, plus the laptop's screen.Like the TS4, both front and rear output jacks are *variable* (software controlled); there is no fixed "line out." I have speakers with their own volume knob, and I dislike attaching a variable device to a variable source and having multiple ways to change volume. To work around this, I have my speakers connected to one of my displays (which have fixed audio-out jacks) - both the DP2.1 and the DP-over-USB-C monitors have functional audio outputs when connected to the TS5+ (they are displayed as output sinks in macOS).I was having some problems with the TS5 Plus's audio jacks today which spurred me to write this review - they simply weren't showing up in macOS when I attached headphones to them, both the front and rear output jacks. While troubleshooting I realized there was yet another firmware update for the dock - I've now installed two (shipped with 60.1 -> 61.1 -> 62.1) in the 3 weeks I've owned it! After updating the firmware, along with the separate "USB-PD firmware", the TS5+'s audio-out jacks started working. I have no clue if one of the two firmwares fixed the problem, or if it was simply power-cycling the dock alone (part of the update process).The main/Thunderbolt firmware update process is mildly annoying as it does not provide any status about what is going on, and it may shut off the USB-A ports on the dock while it's happening (my wired keyboard got shut off). Contrary to what the firmware instructions tell you, I had no problems updating firmware in macOS with both of my monitors attached, but neither of them are Thunderbolt devices (maybe that makes a difference).Helpful tip: to get status on the main firmware update, open the macOS "Console" app, click the "start" button to begin the log firehose, and then type "Thunderbolt" up in the search box (might have to hit enter afterwards). You'll see an endless stream of messages as the firmware is being written to the dock, and eventually they'll stop streaming in and the dock will reboot itself when the update is complete.This dock runs quite warm, although never hot enough to burn. I have mine "sideways;" standing vertically may help with cooling since more of the fins would be exposed but it would be tight under my displays if I went vertical. It is taller (or in my case, "wider") than the TS4. Annoyingly, the port layout is also "flipped" from the TS4, so the power & ethernet are on the opposite side from the TS4 and the Thunderbolt upstream / host port is also moved. If you have a very specific cable layout this could be problematic for you. The included TB5 cable *is* a little bit longer than the TB4 cable that comes with the TS4 though, so this helps.The "space black" color is nice if you have a matching Macbook, but mine is silver... and Space Black makes it *very* hard to read the labels printed on the dock, especially if you're not looking straight-on at the dock or if it is in any sort of shadow. Sitting under my monitors with my office's (residential) lighting, I can hardly even read the logo on the front of the dock. I wish they had used a white or light gray print.To corroborate what others have said - the power supply seems to suffer from coil whine. I only hear it if I get about 1-2 feet away from it though, and right now I have the PSU down on the floor so it's not bothering me. The whine is sort of a cyclical pitch shifting noise (almost like a siren) so it would be severely annoying if I could hear it regularly. The TS5+ dock itself is silent to my ears, only the PSU has whine. I'm in my mid-40s but was in music in high school and have tried to take care of my hearing; YMMV. [EDIT 2025-08-28] I contacted support about the coil whine, and they said this is a known issue in some of the power supply units. They are working on an improved version with the PSU manufacturer, and asked for my shipping address. They told me they would send out a new PSU once they are available. I asked if they would send a label to collect the "noisy" one, and they said that I would be welcome to keep it as a spare - this is a really nice gesture! "A+" support.Overall, it's a solid product. [EDIT] If I could rate it 4.5 stars, I would, especially after support said there's a fix coming for the coil whine. It loses "points" for the nearly-unreadable legends/glyphs due to "black on dark gray," and for not using a higher quality NIC - Intel or Broadcom would've been preferable at this price point. If you want to have 10Gb Ethernet on your dock and you don't want a separate, bulky, external adapter connected to it, the TS5 Plus makes sense. If you think you're going to want "portable" 10GbE, it might be more logical to just stick with the (lower-priced, especially if you can find one used or on sale) TS4, and add a separate Thunderbolt 10Gb interface, especially since then you have a bit more choice for Ethernet chipset (I believe Sonnet has at least one offering with Intel NICs, although it appears that several of theirs along with OWC are using Aquantia chips now as well).

This is a very impressive dock, with an incredible amount of connectivity. It is also fanless, so it is completely silent, a major upgrade in comparison to my previous HP G4 dock that sounded like a tone deaf jet engine about to take off.The dock does lack a proper hdmi port, and is very picky about any DisplayPort to HDMI adapters connected to it. I gave in and purchased a matching CalDigit active adapter… but it does seem like for the price and all the other features of the dock that an HDMI port or adapter should have been included.

UPDATE Aug 29:Unfortunately the dock is still rebooting a few times per week. Had to reduce the review to 3/5 again.--UPDATE Aug 26:The dock is working well with the latest firmware (version 62.1 as of August 26 2005). CalDigit has fixed the issue I mention below, which I will leave for anyone still struggling - update the firmware before giving up.--The dock is unusable. Constant resets, even with the latest firmware (version 61.1 as of August 9 2005). The latest firmware seems worse than the one it shipped with (60.1)Allegedly this is due to overheating, in particular when the dock is charging the computer or 10G Ethernet is in use, but I experienced constant resets even after connecting the computer to the factory power adapter, and disconnecting the LAN. Also, the dock does not feel hot to the touch.I hope they figure this out. Meanwhile I am reverting to my TS4.

Super solid premium build. Looks very nice. Easy to set up on 16” MacBook Pro M4 Pro. No OS problems, and has a useful configuration app. Easy update to firmware then smooth operation on both 4K external monitors, chargers, mechanical keyboard, ring lights, sound system and multiple external TB5 SSDs. SUPER FAST on Gb home network, with no hiccups thus far. Will buy another for my other laptop. Plug and play.