Unable to upgrade to Mavericks+, are there any other hardware options ?

[tonyj]

Hi - I'm intrigued - if you're only attaching one monitor to the TB hub, why not attach it directly to the Mac? Or have I missed something? I'd really love a solution!

[cantera]

Originally Posted by tonyj

if you're only attaching one monitor to the TB hub, why not attach it directly to the Mac? Or have I missed something?

In my setup, I have four total displays:

1 - the built-in display (MacBook Pro)
2 - one 1920 x 1200 display connected via Thunderbolt (through a DVI adapter)
3 - one DVI display connected via DisplayLink USB
4 - one USB DisplayLink monitor

Like you, the problem that's preventing me from upgrading OSX (currently running Lion) is that I'll likely lose one of the DisplayLink devices or run into issues trying to use both.

So my strategy is to "convert" #3 -- connecting it to a Thunderbolt hub, giving me two total Thunderbolt displays. Doing that would bring me down to one total DisplayLink device, which seems to work fine on all versions of OSX.

It's likely someone has already thought of this, so if anybody sees a flaw in my strategy, I'd appreciate the advice before making the investment.

[tonyj]

I hate to say this, but I might have found a flaw - and that's such a shame, because I want to do what you've done (which is to connect three external monitors to a Macbook).

Like you, I'm using a DVI adaptor to connect to my monitor to the Macbook (none of my monitors are native thunderbolt). The problem is that, technically, (and *please* correct me if I'm wrong), the adaptor is displayport to dvi, not thunderbolt to dvi (a thunderbolt port falls back to displayport if a displayport device is attached).

So, if we buy this device:
http://ca.startech.com/Cards-Adapter...on~TBDOCKHDPBC

It's worth reading the small print at the end:

"When using a single display, the dock lets you connect one HDMI, DisplayPort or Thunderbolt monitor. The Thunderbolt™ interface on the dock is backward compatible with Mini DisplayPort and when connected to a DisplayPort monitor, only a single display can be added as HDMI will be disabled. For dual display configurations, you can connect one HDMI monitor and one Thunderbolt monitor simultaneously."

So, as I read this, you could use the hub to connect a *thunderbolt* monitor and a second monitor (perhaps via HDMI->DVI), plus continue using your third USB Displaylink monitor. But I certainly couldn't afford an additional Thunderbolt monitor.

Now, perhaps there are hubs without this restriction? But I would be very wary if you're planning to attach monitors to the hub via DVI adaptors to the Thunderbolt ports.

Pah!

[lordsiris]

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find another solution for 3 external monitors without using displaylink. I'm still stuck in 10.8 as the use of 3 monitors is currently more important than the latest OS, but its really frustrating to be behind two complete OS versions.