Adding ports to Mac Mini

[RoadRunnerAlgarve]

I have M4 Mac Mini on Satechi hub, but would like extra ports to serve HDD's for Time Machine, SuperDuper, Photos etc. and thus releasing Satechi USB 3.2 on front and one Thunderbolt port on back. I would also like to tidy up desk wiring.
I tried a Ugreen Revodock Max 213 but I couldn't get it to connect.
I dont need two monitors and only moderate transfer speeds would suffice
Any suggestions, preferably rather cheaper than the Revodock?

 

[PaulD-UK]

@RoadRunnerAlgarve Did you plug the Thunderbolt 4 Ugreen Revodock Max 213 into one of your TB4 ports on the back of the M4 mini?
It won’t work with the front USB-C ports.

 

[RoadRunnerAlgarve]

Y

@RoadRunnerAlgarve Did you plug the Thunderbolt 4 Ugreen Revodock Max 213 into one of your TB4 ports on the back of the M4 mini?
It won’t work with the front USB-C ports.

Yes. I removed the Thunderbolt connection to my Asus ProArt PA27 monitor and plugged the Revodock in this port. (I have an HDD with Photos and Music in the remaining port).
The Revodock was a reduced price return from Amazon.de so maybe it was faulty, but I came to the conclusion that it was not the ideal answer to my requirements
The ProArt monitor extra ports would probably provide what I want but I can't bear the thought of all those cables hanging down from it!
At the moment I am thinking that either the OWC Thunderbolt 5 port or similar Satechi Thunderbolt 4 Slim Pro but really need to be sure that these will work with the M4 Mac Mini rather than a Mac laptop

 

[PaulD-UK]

The Asus ProArt PA27‘s USB output ports won’t support enough data bandwidth to support SSDs or anything else that needs high USB bandwidth unless you are using the DisplayPort or HDMI inputs for the video input and are using a USB 3 input cable as well.

If you are using USB-C input for video then they are really for a keyboard and mouse.

The Ugreen dock was probably faulty as it should be plug’n’play.

OWC or Satechi devices should work fine with any Mac.

 

[RoadRunnerAlgarve]

The Asus ProArt PA27‘s USB output ports won’t support enough data bandwidth to support SSDs or anything else that needs high USB bandwidth unless you are using the DisplayPort or HDMI inputs for the video input and are using a USB 3 input cable as well.

If you are using USB-C input for video then they are really for a keyboard and mouse.

The Ugreen dock was probably faulty as it should be plug’n’play.

OWC or Satechi devices should work fine with any Mac.

I am using the Asus supplied HDMI cable from the Mac Mini HDMI port to the ProArt HDMI port. I did consider using the ProArt Display port with an HDMI to Display cable, but I couldn't see any advantage.
The Thunderbolt cable from Mac Mini only supplies the other ports on the ProArt and I only have a monitor light using this apart from the occasional thumb drive. As I indicated earlier, the 2 HDD's for Time Machine and SuperDuper are plugged into the front of the Satechi

 

[Ray2]

I stopped using docks when I moved to a Studio + ASD + daisy chained enclosures. But before that I went through 3 generations of OWC Thunderbolt docks. Flawless. If of interest, poke around their clearance items, usually some sizable savings.