M1 Mac mini dock?

[Imola Ghost]

Just picked up a Mac mini and want t a dock that I can install a SSD.

What are your recommendations? I've seen some that sit in an almost identical size and shape as the M1 Mac mini and that is something I'm looking for.

 

[Seanmitc]

Stand & Hub for Mac Mini with SSD Enclosure

satechi.net

 

[OldMike]

I've been running the OWC miniStack STX with one 2TB NVMe and one 2TB SATA SSD for months now with my Mac Studio, and it has been flawless and running 24/7 without a hiccup. The NVMe drive speed gets about 700MB/s read and write. The SATA SSD is actually connected as a USB device and gets in the 500MB/s range. I also have every port in use, including running an OWC Envoy Express 2TB NVMe, off of one of its ports (which gets about 1500 MB/s read and write).

As long as you aren't looking for maximum sequential speed, then this is a pretty good choice. IOPS are really good, and more important to me than max sequential speed. Running Thunderbolt is much better than USB for external SSD storage, in my experience. Trim is supported out of the box and all of my disk utilities can read the SMART status and temps off of the drives natively.

OWC miniStack STX | Mac mini Thunderbolt Storage Solution

Expand your Mac mini’s potential with the OWC miniStack STX. These solutions offer Thunderbolt storage and additional connectivity for seamless performance.

eshop.macsales.com

OWC miniStackSTX Internal NVMe:

OWC Envoy Express External TB3 Enclosure:

 

[Imola Ghost]

Now what’s up with these drives these docking stations take they look like memory sticks. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Are these type better/cheaper, more reliable than the hard drive size I’m used to seeing?

 

[EugW]

Beware. YMMV but a lot of those docks' drives are disconnected on sleep.

Now what’s up with these drives these docking stations take they look like memory sticks. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Are these type better/cheaper, more reliable than the hard drive size I’m used to seeing?

"Blade" SSDs had been the standard in Macs starting almost a decade ago.

NVMe SSDs (which are one class of "blade" SSDs) used in most PCs and used in those docks are much, much better than SATA SSDs.

 

[Imola Ghost]

Is there any docks that don’t disconnect at sleep?

Also are these blade drives called NVMe PCIe drives?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Is there any docks that don’t disconnect at sleep?

Also are these blade drives called NVMe PCIe drives?

No, it depends on the dock.
For example, the Satechi dock in post#2 (and many other USB-C dock) only supports SATA protocol.

"Internal SSD enclosure only fits M.2 SATA SSD drives, does not work with NVMe."

 

[wjw]

I've been running the OWC miniStack STX with one 2TB NVMe and one 2TB SATA SSD for months now with my Mac Studio, and it has been flawless and running 24/7 without a hiccup. The NVMe drive speed gets about 700MB/s read and write. The SATA SSD is actually connected as a USB device and gets in the 500MB/s range. I also have every port in use, including running an OWC Envoy Express 2TB NVMe, off of one of its ports (which gets about 1500 MB/s read and write).

As long as you aren't looking for maximum sequential speed, then this is a pretty good choice. IOPS are really good, and more important to me than max sequential speed. Running Thunderbolt is much better than USB for external SSD storage, in my experience. Trim is supported out of the box and all of my disk utilities can read the SMART status and temps off of the drives natively.

OWC miniStack STX | Mac mini Thunderbolt Storage Solution

Expand your Mac mini’s potential with the OWC miniStack STX. These solutions offer Thunderbolt storage and additional connectivity for seamless performance.

eshop.macsales.com

OWC miniStackSTX Internal NVMe:

OWC Envoy Express External TB3 Enclosure:

Hi Mike, what are the other drives and arrays you have there in that photo? I have a studio and am currently looking at updating my very old storage set up… thanks!

 

[OldMike]

Hi Mike, what are the other drives and arrays you have there in that photo? I have a studio and am currently looking at updating my very old storage set up… thanks!

Sorry for not seeing this post.

Those are Akitio external Thunderbolt enclosures. The smaller one is the Quad Mini, which holds four 2.5" drives, and the larger one is the Akitio Quad X which holds four 3.5" drives (or 2.5" drives). They have been fantastic and completely reliable.

I have two of the Quad Xs and I am thinking of selling one since I just bought two workstations that can each hold 6 drives internally.

I think OWC bought Akitio, and they have different, newer versions of these drives now.

 

[wjw]

thanks mike! Ok, good to know, and yes, after a quick search, the Akitio company was taken over by OWC in 2019... I've been looking at OWC's offerings. In particular the Thunderbay 8 ( for archive ) and the Ministack STX for video cache (ssd) and storage (HDD) But have heard mixed results. Thanks for posting your thoughts. I may take the plunge... I might too, have to get an small NVME external enclosure, like the Envoy or something from Orico I want those higher speeds you mentioned. Thanks for the reply...

 

[Broric]

I wasn't clear from the above, does the OWC ministack disconnect on sleep?

I'm thinking about this to extend the number of ports on an M2 to connect external drives to.