Dock with NVME for Mac Studio M4

[Pure Photo N.I]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a dock that an NVMW can be added to for an M4 Mac Studio? I can see quite a few for the Mac Mini but none that specifically mention the Mac Studio M4.

If this doesn't exist, does anyone have recommendations for NVME and 2.5" hard drive enclosures?

 

[maflynn]

I don't believe there's anything that will sit under the studio like the mac mini's hubs. You may be better off looking at a TB4 docking station and a separate TB4 external drive

 

[Pure Photo N.I]

I don't believe there's anything that will sit under the studio like the mac mini's hubs. You may be better off looking at a TB4 docking station and a separate TB4 external drive

You can get them okay for the older version of the mac studio but yeah not been able to find one for the m4 version.

Would I not be better off with TB5 rather than TB4?

 

[maflynn]

Would I not be better off with TB5 rather than TB4?

TB4 is 40Gbps, where as TB5 is 80Gbps. Depending on your usages, that increased bandwidth may or may not be needed. I also believe you can daisy chain more monitors

I'm looking for storage, as my studio only has 512GB, and I figure if I move my home to the external drive, I'll want the fastest speeds. for me, a TB5 drive is what I'm looking for.

 

[b17777]

OWC said they were coming out with the Mini Stack STX at NAMM 22

Many people asked about it with no explanation.

 

[xraydoc]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a dock that an NVMW can be added to for an M4 Mac Studio? I can see quite a few for the Mac Mini but none that specifically mention the Mac Studio M4.

If this doesn't exist, does anyone have recommendations for NVME and 2.5" hard drive enclosures?

If they work on the mini, they'll work on the Studio. And the older-style mini is the same dimensionally (except for height) as the Studio.

While I don't think you'll find Thunderbolt 5 docks made for the mini, it's probably not necessary unless you've got an extremely sophisticated setup (in which case, the style of the dock probably is less important than speed anyway).

 

[SpecFoto]

TB4 is 40Gbps, where as TB5 is 80Gbps. Depending on your usages, that increased bandwidth may or may not be needed. I also believe you can daisy chain more monitors

I'm looking for storage, as my studio only has 512GB, and I figure if I move my home to the external drive, I'll want the fastest speeds. for me, a TB5 drive is what I'm looking for.

You can get them okay for the older version of the mac studio but yeah not been able to find one for the m4 version.

Would I not be better off with TB5 rather than TB4?

Been using Acasis TB4 (USB4) enclosures as startup drives since 2022 for 3 Macs, my wife's 2019 iMac, and my M1 14" MBP and M2 MS Max. All has been great, the drives are super fast at 2,700-3,000MB/s R/W speeds, certainly fast enough for LR/PS. My 8TB startup drive for the Studio is the 405 ProM1 single enclosure with fan, my storage enclosure is the 405 Pro Max dual drive with a fan and 2 @ 8 TB drives in it set up as a 16TB RAID 0. It's a mini hub with a 2nd TB4, USB-A and HDMI display ports and comes with a 100 watt USB-C wall charger, not some huge power brick. Both drives are very quiet, they sit on the top of the Studio and under my Studio display and I never hear them.

The NVMe's I use are WD SN850X Black because they have larger cache capacity, High MTF numbers and a 5 year warranty. They are rated for 6-7,000 MB/s R/W speeds and as there are not many TB5 enclosures out there yet and the ones that are cost double the price, I am staying with mine for now. Down the line I can keep my NVMe's and simply swap out my enclosures for TB5 ones as I plan to get a M5 Mac Studio in late 2026.