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Comment by wmf | Hacker News Reader

The only drawback is that Thunderbolt is fairly expensive and the cables are very expensive.

> and the cables are very expensive.

Define expensive to you? It’s cheap enough to me that I buy Thunderbolt cables exclusively as they have the most universal support for all the USB-C alt modes and PD variations.

Even if you can get them cheaply the length limits on non-“active” thunderbolt 4 cables make them a poor choice as a universal replacement for a usb c cable in many cases. Unless you have active cabling (hundreds of dollars or more typically for thunderbolt 4 and extremely rare) the Thunderbolt 4 spec maxes out at 2m for passive cables. You can have other flavours of USB C cable in longer lengths and still conform to spec.

I’m in no rush to replace my laptop charging cable with a 2m one. Similarly, I use a ~5m usb c cable for a VR headset.

> I’m in no rush to replace my laptop charging cable with a 2m one

That’s the beauty of having choice. I have zero need or desire for a longer than 2m cable for my laptop.

Thunderbolt cables are just USB-C cables. Some cheap cables may not have all the connections needed but ff you are getting a cable rated for USB4, it will work for Thunderbolt.

> Some cheap cables may not have all the connections needed

Well yeah, that's pretty important. A 2m cable that supports 40gbps from a reputable vendor is $59 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084Z65YJQ/), and that's one of the better prices I've seen. There's a bunch of no-name ones for around $50, but I'm not sure I'd trust them.

Not really. USB-C 3.0 cables are $10-20 while Thunderbolt/USB4 cables are $30.

A SATA cable is $2-3 so replacing SATA with Thunderbolt would increase cable costs by literally 10x.

I just wonder what the actual production price is. Perhaps Thunderbolt cables only cost this much because of being a luxury segment - nobody but rich people buying expensive peripherals for their expensive computers really need them today so why not charge them another $30. Maybe the price will drop substantially once most of the consumers will need them.

>getting a cable rated for USB4, it will work for Thunderbolt.

While USB4 does mandate the use USB-C connector, support of Thunderbolt is not mandatory and is entirely optional.

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