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How many Thunderbolt ports are you using?

Cham2000

Cham2000

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 11, 2022
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Since the mini M2/M2 Pro are now out (finally!!!), I'm trying to decide what to buy: A base mini M2 (which has only 2 Thunderbolt ports on its back), a mini M2 Pro (which have 4 Thunderbolt ports on the back), or the Mac Studio M1 Max (which have 4 Thunderbolt ports on the back, and two more USB ports on the front). But I'm still wondering about the Thunderbolt ports available on these machines, and it's hard to me to know how many ports I'll be using in the future. So what are your usage of these ports? What are your experience on these things?

I intend to use the Magic Mouse with its Bluetooth, instead of a mouse with cable.

I would prefer to get my keyboard hooked to the computer by a cable, instead of using the BlueTooth and having to recharge it frequently. So what's your experience with this too?

Lastly, the Apple Studio display is using which port? The HDMI or a Thunderbolt port?
 
Cham2000 said:
I would prefer to get my keyboard hooked to the computer by a cable, instead of using the BlueTooth and having to recharge it frequently. So what's your experience with this too?

Lastly, the Apple Studio display is using which port? The HDMI or a Thunderbolt port?
Click to expand...
Dunno about “frequently”, I have to plug my keyboard in once every 3-4 months.

As far as the Studio Display, it uses a Thunderbolt, but gives you 3 USB-C ports.
 
True Thunderbolt -- 2. One for my OWC Thunderbay RAID and one for the Mac Studio Monitor.

I thought my LG monitor might be Thunderbolt but it's not, just USB-C (though I am using display port as I was short of USBC on my old iMac and I'm too lazy to mess with it)
 
Having the two extra TB ports on the M2 Pro Mini would be a nice upgrade. I'm currently using both of my M1 Mini's TB ports (1 with an SSD and the other connects my monitor). In order to backup my files to my backup SSD I had to disconnect my monitor and switch it over to HDMI which then required separate power supply so that I could connect a second SSD for the backup.
It's too bad they didn't also give the new Mini a couple of extra USB type A ports as I still have many devices that use that type of interface.
 
All of them, plus 3 more in my OWC TB hub. I use them mainly for my SSDs (I have 3 constanly plugged in to TB, for a total of 7 additional Terabytes of storage, in addition to my 1TB internal drive, at a franction of the cost of getting 8TB of storage from Apple).
 
I'm using five of them. Four in the back and one in the front. I'm running three monitors off the back, a USB-C SSD, and my iPhone on one of the front ports. I would run all four monitors off the USB-C ports in the back but I only have 3 USB-C monitor cables.
 
Just 1 for charging... Although ive noticed something a bit odd, the MagSafe cable showed up as 140w in the power section but using the apple and a anker charging cable which are both listed as 100w its saying only 94w in the power section.
 
At the moment all of them. One has a USB hub, then a couple used for displays.
 
It depends on your Peripheral needs.

I use 2 on the MBA M2 in Clamshell:

1. USB-C DP / PD / Usb 2 Hub on the Monitor
2. TB3 ETH and Hub with 3 USB-A 3.0 Ports ( Cheap and reliable ) for Backup Storage + Second ETH Adapter for the VM´s with extension Cable ( Cable stays connected and Hub is plugged to Cable / mostly off )
 
TB4 - 3 (ASDs)
USB-C - 1 (Logitech unifying receiver, in one of the ASDs so it's hidden)
USB-A - 2 (printer and speakers)
Ethernet
USB C - 2 in front of Studio as needed for charging keyboard and mouse

Basically I take nearly full advantage of the I/O in the Studio and the ability to drive more than two 5K displays. This is why I bought it. Not for the Max chip's processing capabilities.

The good news is that Apple, especially with the new Mini/Mini Pro, offers solutions for most situations. The display support differences b/w the Mini Pro and Studio are interesting and require careful consideration.
 
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Mostly one plugged into a Caldigit Element 4 hub. that provides power, connects an external SSD, connects a USB-A external TimeMachine drive, and an external 27" 4K display. I sometimes plug in a scanner.

I mostly only use a second port directly for temporary connecting a device and the hub is a little out of reach.
 
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