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New 2024 Mac mini Hub via Satechi...NVMe!

MBAir2010

MBAir2010

macrumors 604
Original poster
May 30, 2018
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Hello Mac Mini users!

A while ago we discussed that Satechi should upgrade that port to a faster NVMe slot on their hubs design for this Mac.
Yesterday they launched a new model with the same front port specs but now supports NVMe drives.
Sure enough, I placed an order along with a new MNVe blade from western digital
and will let everyone know how the experience is here upon delivery, hopefully next week.

The new version has the same configurations, the sd card drive both mini and full
along with the standard 3 usb A ports and 1 usb C situated in the front of the port.
personally I prefer all usbC ports, but I can use several adapters to compensate for this.
Satechi claims that the port is the exact size, color and contour as the Min and studio.

One of my goals is to see if I can run Monterey on that port along with Sonoma as a dual boot.


Well i hope this message is not regarded as promotion
but a solution for inconvenient back ports and lack of the ports we still use on our Mac minis
therefore this thread might be deleted....


as always, I hope this helped!
 
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MBAir2010 said:
A while ago we discussed that Satechi should upgrade that port to a faster NVMe slot on their hubs design for this Mac.
Click to expand...
It's worth pointing out that this is still only a USB 3.2 hub (and likely only USB 3.2 1x or they'd be claiming 'twice the bandwidth of other hubs') so every device connected to this, including the NVMe will be sharing a single 5/10Gbps USB stream from the Mac (and that doesn't mean that two 5 Gbps devices can share 10 Gbps).

Not saying its a bad product - the SSD should be a bit faster (10 Gbps vs. 6 Gbps for SATA - although that assumes your SSD stick can actually run that fast) and you rarely hit those top speeds after you've got bored with running benchmarks. For a backup drive or storing documents that would be fine, and there's probably now a better choice of NVMe sticks than gradually-becoming-obsolete SATA ones. Not sure I'd rush to upgrade if I already had the SATA version and a suitable stick, though.

However, the best use of these hubs is to consolidate your less performance-critical USB devices to free up the TB4 port(s) on your Mac for high-performance devices that could use a whole USB 3.2 or TB stream to themselves. If you're thinking of using this as a boot device you probably won't be wanting to connect anything too demanding (like other SSDs) to the other USB and SD ports on the hub.

Its also worth pointing out that even more expensive TB4 hubs often don't offer more than 5/10 Gbps total for USB devices, and may not be worth it unless you're going to connect at least one USB-C display or true Thunderbolt device to the hub.
 
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Thanks for the added information.

I figured most users can draw their own conclusion if this is good for them.
Furthermore, I was weary of typing too much about specs,
usbA 3.2 usbA 3.0 due to the chance this tread might get axed.

I just dropped a thumb drive on the floor while trying to plug a usbA into the back port of my Mac mini M1.
'forgot the desk is away from the wall.......
hopefully that won't happen again in the future.

As far as that Monterey plan, i'm skeptical as that OS will be toast in a year or two.
an perfect analogy is dating a visiting beautiful person from.....say Almaty who will leave in November for good.

right now i'm moving files from 2 drives and have 17 minutes of 32GB which is turbo from what im used to.
I remember the day when we would Time Machine our MacBooks overnight in 2009.
now that is in 35 minutes!

thanks again
 
The Connection to the Mac is usb, a similar Thunderbolt device would cost at least twice as much.
 
Looking forward to hearing your impressions, picked one up on Friday as well and expect to have it delivered this Wednesday. Was hoping to do some 4K editing off of the NVMe internal slot but not sure if that's a viable option. If not, then some extra storage for files wouldn't be a bad compromise.
 
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NonPlayableCharacter said:
Looking forward to hearing your impressions, picked one up on Friday as well and expect to have it delivered this Wednesday. Was hoping to do some 4K editing off of the NVMe internal slot but not sure if that's a viable option. If not, then some extra storage for files wouldn't be a bad compromise.
Click to expand...
I could have used that device now, I accidentally unplugged an active ssd external drive
running Monterey on the Mac mini and everything went blank.
now im back to Sonoma, an hopefully I can run Monterey on that hub.
 
Just ordered mine. Been on the hunt for something like this for my M1 mini. Was considering getting a studio for more ports but not anymore.
 
I'm sure I'm just confused, but can anyone explain to me what the point of this hub is? Personally, for me, the point of a hub is to get extra ports, perhaps for others there are different more important purposes.

This is where I'm confused. In order to connect this hub to the mini, you are using up one of the mini's USB-C ports, and meanwhile the hub doesn't have any additional USB-C ports, so you are not really gaining any USB-C ports by using this hub. What the hub provides is type A, OK, you get an extra 3 type A ports... but aren't there a gajillion hubs, docks and the like which provide a ton of type A (and even USB-C) ports out there? What's so special about this one? I get that there's the headphone jack, but the mini already has one, so how often are you going to be using two at once? I guess it also has card readers (I prefer a dedicated card reader - it has more options for more kinds of cards). So it has a memory slot, but yeah, so do many external drives.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this hub - and it fits neatly right below the mini! - but I'd be a lot more interested if it had some real ports, like two or three thunderbolt 3/4 ports. Otherwise, I personally am not that excited. I'm sure I'm missing something, and people are using it differently, but I always want to learn so I'd like to know why this hub is so useful as opposed to a million other hubs out there, other than it fits under the mini.
 
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There are lots of pherephys like Scanners, Printers, Mice and keyboards in use, all with USBa Ports. Some people may use Bluetooth keyboards, but in the old days when i had to Switch to different systems on startup i could not do it with the Bluetooth Keyboard Holding the Shift key at startup, the Keyboard was reckognized to Late.
 
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OldCorpse said:
I'm sure I'm just confused, but can anyone explain to me what the point of this hub is? Personally, for me, the point of a hub is to get extra ports, perhaps for others there are different more important purposes.
Click to expand...
For me, the ssd port bay for an extra ssd blade sold me over
and the fact that Satechi made this NVMe this year is great.
the front slot ports is a must for me since I am swiping drives constantly from 3 thumbs to 4 ssd.
all my files, favorite movies and tv shows are now on drives instead of streaming them.
aslo i have a scanner form 1999 I now can use on my M1 machine
as well as a drawing tablet I can keep plugged in all the time.

I was reluctant to purchase this until I realized I need this just last week.
Sunday I decided to run Monterey off a external drive, then by accident yesterday I unplugged that disrupting the Mac mini and monitor even today I need to reset start up disk again.

hopefully I can run Monterey on the port and still use the base drive fr files etc until Sonoma gets fixed,
but that is an there topic.

AND
the package is in my city were I will receive this today,
and I will report and show photos of th set up and unboxing.

stay tuned.....
 
OldCorpse said:
but I'd be a lot more interested if it had some real ports, like two or three thunderbolt 3/4 ports.
Click to expand...
...which would be superior, but would cost 2-3x as much (because Thunderbolt) and require a power brick (Thunderbolt has to provide at least 15W per port). If that's what you want, see:

www.owc.com

OWC miniStack STX: Mac mini Thunderbolt 4 Storage

Max out your Mac mini / Studio with up to 28TB of Thunderbolt 4 storage and three Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports, offering expanded storage and connectivity.
www.owc.com www.owc.com

...and then you have to remember that your USB 3.1 peripherals won't necessarily perform better just because they're plugged into a TB hub - they're still usually sharing a single USB 3.1 stream. You really need to have at least one downstream display or true thunderbolt peripheral to justify a TB hub - the internal drives in the OWC above may count (if they've been properly implemented) but they're still only x1 NVMe.

As has been pointed out, a lot of people have perfectly good USB 3.1 and USB 2 peripherals that gain no advantage whatsoever from USB-C - let alone Thunderbolt - and you have to shop very carefully to find a multi-controller Thunderbolt-to-USB solution that's actually better than a plain old USB3 hub.

OldCorpse said:
other than it fits under the mini.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah, that's the main selling point of this product - convenience & neatness rather than performance. Of course, the downside of not having a power brick is that its only got 15W of power - so you're going to have to be careful with bus-powered peripherals you use.

Personally, if neatness was not an issue, you probably would be better hanging a regular USB 3 hub off one of the Mini/Studio's USB A ports to 'consolidate' all of your less performance-critical devices.
 
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Any recommendations for an SSD to put in the new Satechi hub, mainly for purposes of storage? (Not looking to do video editing, etc. from the SSD – just additional storage and perhaps for Time Machine backups).

I would like either 2TB or 4TB: my main criteria are (i) reliability, (ii) sufficient speed for my purposes and (iii) finally, price.

Thanks in advance!
 
Quote: @theluggage "You really need to have at least one downstream display or true thunderbolt peripheral to justify a TB hub - the internal drives in the OWC above may count (if they've been properly implemented) but they're still only x1 NVMe."

The USB4/TB4 spec IS being properly implemented. That is all the data (one lane) a PCIe/NVMe storage device is allocated under the USB4/TB4 hub spec...
That is why you have to use TB3 to get PCIe 3x4 lane bandwidth. Or stick to a USB4 port-less 40Gbps NVMe device.

 
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PaulD-UK said:
The USB4/TB4 spec IS being properly implemented. That is all the data (one lane) a PCIe/NVMe storage device is allocated under the USB4/TB4 hub spec...
That is why you have to use TB3 to get PCIe 3x4 lane bandwidth. Or stick to a USB4 port-less 40Gbps NVMe device.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the informative video - it's kinda obvious that you can't have 4xPCIe for NVME and 3 downstream Thunderbolt ports, so if you want 4xNVMe you need a dedicated NVMe or PCIe enclosure rather than a hub - so there's different chipsets for different purposes.

...but the way Intel have tied it up with Thunderbolt 4 vs Thunderbolt 3... oh, boy, as if TB/USB-C/3.1/3.2/4 wasn't confusing enough already! What's it going to be like when Thunderbolt 5 (inevitably) appears?

Do Intel and USB-IF have a running contest to see who can make the worst naming decisions?
 
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WOW!
fast, sleek and perfect
im amazed!
the install was under minute and im running a slower ssd NVMe blade.
all ports work an the hub fits perfectly!
thank you satechi!

IMG_1965.jpegIMG_1966.jpegIMG_1967.jpegIMG_1968.jpegIMG_1969.jpeg
 
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dartae said:
Any recommendations for an SSD to put in the new Satechi hub, mainly for purposes of storage? (Not looking to do video editing, etc. from the SSD – just additional storage and perhaps for Time Machine backups).

I would like either 2TB or 4TB: my main criteria are (i) reliability, (ii) sufficient speed for my purposes and (iii) finally, price.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
My western digital blue 1TB blade works fast
they make faster ones like the black version
also OWC would be my first choice and might get a Aura Ultra VI suer-duper drive.

then any reputable NMVe vendor would fulfill your Mac mini needs.
 
Chuckeee said:
Let’s not forget the recent emergence of USB 4 v2. Just in case you weren’t confused already
Click to expand...
I think you'll find that's "USB4 v2" (with no space)... :)

Hopefully that's just going to be the "open" version of Thunderbolt 5, with lower minimum feature requirements... right? If they start diverging then things are gonna get really silly...
 
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theluggage said:
I think you'll find that's "USB4 v2" (with no space)... :)

Hopefully that's just going to be the "open" version of Thunderbolt 5, with lower minimum feature requirements... right? If they start diverging then things are gonna get really silly...
Click to expand...
I certainly hope you are correct. But I would not want to wager money on it. There is a general epidemic of silly decisions.
 
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bearcatrp said:
Looks good. Thanks for posting. Mine is on the way. BTW, is there a fan in the hub? If so, any vents to the ssd to keep it cool?
Click to expand...
There is not a fan on the hub, but plenty of vents.
I use that macfans control software which never activates on the macMini
Yesterday, I was touching the port-base several times and felt no heat,

so far no complaints!
 
djducat said:
I'm curious. What kind of black magic speeds are you getting on that NVME?
Click to expand...
fast enough, i was streaming a movie of the western digital without a hitch.
before i used that NMVe drive on the Satechi hub, i already stored files and some movies.
i hope this helped!
 
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