TheLostSwedeThere are optical cables that can handle power too, they just run copper for the power next to the fibre.
That said, it doesn't look like anyone made one for Thunderbolt.

HOkayOh cool, I've never seen those before. Though I'm not sure on the sensible max length for a small bit of copper delivering 240W, is that still low power enough to be ok for runs of 10s of meters?

TheLostSwedeYou can just use a bit better wire guage and you should see less of a power drop over a long distance, but as it's high Voltage and still only 5 A, it should be possible to do quite long runs if data isn't taken into account.

TheLostSwedeYou can just use a bit better wire guage and you should see less of a power drop over a long distance, but as it's high Voltage and still only 5 A, it should be possible to do quite long runs if data isn't taken into account.
This company does up to at least 10 meter long cables like that, although that one is limited to 60 W.
www.act-connectivity.com/en-us/usb-c-active-optical-cable-for-connection-over-long-distance

eldon_magionly 214 EUR on german Amazon, and max 10 meters. With a quick scroll, seems even with optical, it's 10 Gbit max after 10 meters.
Much cheaper to buy a boosted copper cable, it gets the same 10Gbit over 15 meters, for about 1/10 of the price.

Point is the manufacturers of optical DP, HDMI and USB cabled have to come up with their own implementations, there is no standard. We need a standard and mass production.

The 10 meter or 15 meter optical USB-c cales on Amazon do 10 Gbit or 4k@60 Hz max, range from about 140 EUR to 400 EUR and means i can't use Monitor chainlinking.

The optical DP cables have come down abit in price now about 50-60 EUR for 15 meters. My DP to USB-c monitor in adapter arrives today, and will determine if i can have 2 DP inputs on my screen that way.

Still waiting for the budget to buy 4x 15 meter optical DP cables, plus 1x boosted 15 meter USB cable, plus additional DP to USB-c adapters to be able to move my desk to where i need it. It will cost me about 300 EUR, and i will only have 4k@60Hz max.

And i will have a massive bundle of cables to route over the floor. It's ridiculous.

HOkayNot for power delivery though, which is one of the big things for Thunderbolt/USB 4 for me.

trsttteWhy do you care about power delivery at all if you're running fiber thunderbolt/USB4 to a pc in a seperate space?

The PC can be powered where it is, and so can the peripherals on your desk, what gap is 240W PD filling?

eldon_magiMy point remains, we need longer 40Gbps USB4/TB cables, that don't cost hundreds of euros each. @TheLostSwede those are great cables but they go from 140 EUR to 400 EUR EACH. C'mon.

As for power delivery, at 10 or 15 meters, it's not necessary to run it through the same cable along the optical fibers, a simple powersupply on the endpoint that connects to the end of the cable can do that, just like the powered copper USB extension cables.

But we needs standards for these, so they can be mass produced and cheap. 200 EUR for a single cable is not cheap, especially when you need multiples of them

TheLostSwedeSupply and demand, there's simply not enough demand to bring down the cost and these cables are usually assembled by hand. Yes, I've been to a company that makes them and it's quite labour intesive to produce these types of cables, which is also in part why they're so expensive. The fibre only ones are cheaper.

If you just want a simple optical one, try this one for HDMI 2.1, $68 for 15 meters.
www.vivify.cc/product/xenos-w35

eldon_magiYes, when i started looking at 15 meter optical DP and HDMI cables, they were about 100 EUR for 15 meters, they have come down to 50-70 EUR the past 6 months or so. That helps me a lot since i need 4 of them combined.

But that isn't the point of this thread though, the point is the new, over 10 Gbit/s USB/TB standards, that combine data, video, audio. So now the latest USB4 standard is like 0.8-1 max cable length. That's not feasible even for users with their computers next to the table, not to mention my situation where my server has multiple GPU's to run Desktop systems in VM, that feed my screens. That server outputs 360W plus 24/7 when transcoding video for example, heating the room it's in to 35-40 degrees. So i can't run that in the same room i work in.

Same goes for my desktop, i need ATX sized mid-case, i'm not gonna start buying some mini PC that can't be upgraded. i refuse to have all these boxes in the living room where the screens are. These cable lengths are just not feasible.