Satechi Previews Mac Mini Hub With SD Card Slot, Three USB-A Ports, and Up to 4TB Storage Slot

[CalfCanuck]

If you want a TB3/4 dock that supports NVMe SSDs up to 8TB, take a look at this Acasis option that includes a fan for $129:

ACASIS 8-in-1 Thunderbolt 3/4 SSD Enclosure & Dock​

​

1 x Thunderbolt 4 (40Gb/s,8K@60Hz)​

2 x HDMI 2.0(4K@60Hz)​

1 x USB-C (10Gb/s)​

2 x USB-A (10Gb/s)​

1 x PD (100W)​

1 x M.2 (NVMe SSD)​

Acasis 8-in-1 40Gbps SSD Enclosure & Dock Compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4

ACASIS 8-in-1 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure & Dock 1 x USB4 (40Gb/s,8K@60Hz)2 x HDMI 2.0 (4K@60Hz)1 x USB-C (10Gb/s)2 x USB-A (10Gb/s)1 x PD (100W)1 x M.2 (NVMe SSD) Need multitasking? This product's multi-screen output is perfect for you! The 8-in-1 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure & Dock enables...

www.acasis.com

I've had their air cooled case for 18 months now, tests at about 2600 MB/s, true TB4, bring your own NVMe, for $100. Works like a charm, never had any issues with disconnects, but no extra ports on my model:

Acasis 40Gbps Tool-free M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure Compatible with TB4/3

TBU405 VS TBU405ProTBU405 is base version (Tool-free Installation), while TBU405Pro (Tool-free Installation + Built-in Silent Fan) is an upgraded version of TBU405. The main difference is that TBU405Pro is additionally equipped with a built-in silent cooling fan. According to tests conducted by...

www.acasis.com

 

[sracer]

Air flow wouldn't be my concern, how hot does this thing get with a SSD installed? Does the air get pre-heated before being sucked into the Mini? I am guessing it won't be problem but I would like to see a test with an SSD installed to see how warm the top of the hub gets.

-kp

I have Satechi's hub for my M2 Mac Mini (which is even thinner and has far less of a gap than this one) and the NVMe drive installed doesn't get hot enough to radiate heat to the body of the hub.

This new Mac Mini hub has fewer front ports than the model for the older Mini... The one I have has a front-facing 3.55mm headphone jack, microSD, SD, 3x 3.0 USB-A, and a USB-C.

 

[Ru_C]

Orico has announced one

thunderbolt 4 and up to 8TB of SSD

Do you have a link to this announcement? thanks

 

[fuchsdh]

Wake me up when somebody makes a thunderbolt version of precisely this. (preferably tb5 but I’ll take tb4)

I imagine Satechi hasn't seen a market for the more expensive models that would cost, I guess? I've never seen them make TB versions of these mini hubs. I agree that outside of certain use cases these always feel slightly too limited for their cost.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

What about USB-B ports?

 

[Spidder]

Every single bit of this is nonsense, except possibly the comment on TB5 pricing.

ChatGPT says:

Summary of Allocation Limits:

1. Video: Maximum of 25.92 Gbit/s (net).
2. PCIe: Maximum of 32 Gbit/s (gross), 28 Gbit/s (net).
3. USB: Up to 40 Gbit/s, depending on the USB standard.
4. Networking: Up to 10 Gbit/s (for Ethernet adapters).

Those are fixed. Nothing you can do about it. The limit for SSD capacity is most likely because the manufacturer cheaped out on the nvme controller.

 

[Anglagard]

Ok honestly, who cares about the aesthetics and/or the number of ports when they are using inferior data channels for the whole thing ?

This is ridiculous, at an absolutely minimum the ports should be handle by a single Thunderbolt 4 connection, at the very least!

 

[drrich2]

Ok honestly, who cares about the aesthetics and/or the number of ports when they are using inferior data channels for the whole thing ?

This is ridiculous, at an absolutely minimum the ports should be handle by a single Thunderbolt 4 connection, at the very least!

If Thunderbolt costs substantially more, putting the product out of the 'willingness to spend' range of many potential customers, and the USB-C non-Thunderbolt hub serves the purposes of many potential customers well, then it stands to reason making the product this way for the target demographic makes sense.

It's interesting we don't see more Thunderbolt docks made for this niche, imitating the form factor of a Mac Mini (old or new style) and/or Mac Studio for stacking to minimize desktop footprint.

The product isn't right for everybody, but it may be right for many people at a price point viable for the market.

It'd be interesting to see them produce a Thunderbolt 4 (or 5) version alongside it, though. After a couple of years, I'd love to know relative sales figures between the two.

 

[Phonzoxd]

The reason for this is the limited bandwidth. All of the ports and slots and whatnot tb supports get a fixed portion of the overall bandwidth. Tb5 is going to solve most of these limitations by 80-120gbps brute bandwidth force, but prepare yourself to pay a substantial premium for this.

Holy crap, did you just make all this up?

could not be more wrong

 

[ikramerica]

What about USB-B ports?

Ah, shadduppa you face!

 

[Confused-User]

If you want a TB3/4 dock that supports NVMe SSDs up to 8TB, take a look at this Acasis option that includes a fan for $129:

ACASIS 8-in-1 Thunderbolt 3/4 SSD Enclosure & Dock​

​

1 x Thunderbolt 4 (40Gb/s,8K@60Hz)​

2 x HDMI 2.0(4K@60Hz)​

1 x USB-C (10Gb/s)​

2 x USB-A (10Gb/s)​

1 x PD (100W)​

1 x M.2 (NVMe SSD)​

Acasis 8-in-1 40Gbps SSD Enclosure & Dock Compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4

ACASIS 8-in-1 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure & Dock 1 x USB4 (40Gb/s,8K@60Hz)2 x HDMI 2.0 (4K@60Hz)1 x USB-C (10Gb/s)2 x USB-A (10Gb/s)1 x PD (100W)1 x M.2 (NVMe SSD) Need multitasking? This product's multi-screen output is perfect for you! The 8-in-1 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure & Dock enables...

www.acasis.com

I've had their air cooled case for 18 months now, tests at about 2600 MB/s, true TB4, bring your own NVMe, for $100. Works like a charm, never had any issues with disconnects, but no extra ports on my model:

Acasis 40Gbps Tool-free M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure Compatible with TB4/3

TBU405 VS TBU405ProTBU405 is base version (Tool-free Installation), while TBU405Pro (Tool-free Installation + Built-in Silent Fan) is an upgraded version of TBU405. The main difference is that TBU405Pro is additionally equipped with a built-in silent cooling fan. According to tests conducted by...

www.acasis.com

Fantastic, that sounds like a really excellent product... if it works reliably. I wish we had reviews from users of that product though. It's considerably more complex than a simple external SSD enclosure.

 

[Confused-User]

ChatGPT says:
[...]
Those are fixed. Nothing you can do about it. The limit for SSD capacity is most likely because the manufacturer cheaped out on the nvme controller.

Yeah, you're reading it wrong.

Those are *maximum speeds*. They're not fixed allocations. (Which should have been obvious to you, as they add up to well over 40gbps.)

You might also want to rethink just trusting ChatGPT, but in this case it was correct.

 

[svish]

Looks like it will be a very good hub. Wonder what the pricing will be.

 

[fromgophonetoiphone]

It's not backwards, it's a present in-active-use technology. It also works equally well with USB-C for some things, and USB-A ports can support pretty fast data transmission speeds. No one is forcing you to use it, but many people do and wish to continue to do so without bothering with adapters.

You're right no one's forcing me. I'm just looking for a USB C expansion. The point about USB A is that pretty much every tech can already move to USB C. Yes at worst if you want to stick to some older peripherals or specific peripherals you might need a dongle, but there's no reason people can't move to USB C.

I'm ok with this hub but I wish it just added USB C ports instead of A

 

[ctyrider]

looks like it adds half the size of the computer itself.

Yep, this thing is ridiculous. Way to ruin a beautiful tiny computer with a USB-A hub lol. Not to mention, they couldn't have even bother to make it Thunderbolt-based.

Much better to get a tiny Thunderbolt M2 enclosure from OWC, and hide it behind the Apple Display (which is what I did).

 

[The.316]

Hopefully they fix the wi-fi issue because I have the hub now for my Mini M2 Pro, and it's in its box because it screws my wi-fi up so badly.

 

[mimeArtist]

I wonder if there would be a market for a superdrive like drive to fit underneath too... with blu-ray support, you'd have about 3.5mm clearance on either side of a cd so would be tight

 

[Killa78]

Well-known Apple accessory maker Satechi today previewed a hub for the new Mac mini that will enhance the computer in a variety of ways.

First, the hub adds three USB-A ports to the Mac mini, after Apple went all-in on USB-C and Thunderbolt ports on the latest models.

Second, the hub gives the Mac mini an SD card slot, which is something it otherwise lacks. Just like on the Mac Studio, it is a front-facing slot.

Third, the hub includes an NVMe enclosure that allows you to add an SSD with up to 4TB of storage to the Mac mini. This can both expand the Mac mini's storage and allow you to avoid Apple's expensive storage upgrade prices.

The hub is made out of aluminum and looks similar to the Mac mini. Satechi ensures that the hub will not impact airflow or Wi-Fi connectivity.

Satechi has yet to announce pricing for the hub, and availability in the U.S. does not begin until spring 2025. In an email, a spokesperson said there will also be a version of the hub without an NVMe enclosure. According to the product page, those who sign up for email updates will receive 20% off the price of the hub when it is released.

Article Link: Satechi Previews Mac Mini Hub With SD Card Slot, Three USB-A Ports, and Up to 4TB Storage Slot

Slightly off topic...
I had the base model M4 Mac Mini. 1st day it was amazing. Almost as fast as my M2 Max Mac Studio.
2nd day: Temp stayed constantly above 70c (room temp 18c). Throttled to the point where it was ultra slow.
On the phone to Apple tech support. They couldn't work out was it was getting so hot.
Long story short.
I returned it.
Of course I may have been unlucky and received a defective one. (It's the only Apple product I've ever returned)
But I'm waiting to see if others have a similar issue.

 

[Adora]

I bought something like that for my M3 iMac. One didn't recognize the disk I put in it and the other one always ejected it. One was from Satechi. I never buy any external drive whatever without Thunderbolt connection again. There are always problems with USB.

 

[Adora]

I wonder if there would be a market for a superdrive like drive to fit underneath too... with blu-ray support, you'd have about 3.5mm clearance on either side of a cd so would be tight

I bought something like that 8 years ago. It almost has the size and you can even eject the BD-Drive from the enclosure by just pressing on the drawer and then there is a SATA-Port in it where you could connect any 2.5" drive. I still have it somewhere. I somehow needed it because you couldn't install Windows via Bootcamp without optical drive.

 

[theluggage]

This is ridiculous, at an absolutely minimum the ports should be handle by a single Thunderbolt 4 connection, at the very least!

Well we haven't seen the price of this - or a Thunderbolt equivalent yet. The old-mini-sized Satechi USB-C dock with M.2 dock is under $100, the "Trebleet" TB3 dock+M.2 is $300. If you just want a Time Machine backup disc and USB-A sockets for non-demanding peripherals, the extra cash is unjustified.

Yes at worst if you want to stick to some older peripherals or specific peripherals you might need a dongle, but there's no reason people can't move to USB C.

...but neither is there any reason for switching to USB-C and using adapters, when all of those "old" (and quite a lot of brand-new) peripherals gain nothing by using a USB-C connection. Many "USB-C" products still only use USB 3.1g1 and minimum power delivery - and unless they're Mac-specific products, they often come with an adapter in the box.

Until the last couple of years, non-Thunderbolt hubs with more than 1 or 2 USB-C downstream ports just weren't available. Probably because USB-C is more complex and expensive to implement than A, even if it's only USB 3.1 and whatever the minimum power delivery is, offering no advantage over USB-A. There are some now, but only with 4 ports:

Connect USB-C to 4-Port USB-C Hub | Belkin UK

Accelerate connectivity and productivity with this USB-C to USB-C Hub with 4 Ports from Belkin US. It's compatible with the MacBook, iPad, and Chromebook.

www.belkin.com

Since 2017, when I got an iMac, I have been using a cheap-and-cheerful 10 port USB-A hub (OK 3 were charge only, but they were still useful) to connect my USB-A devices. There's never been an all-USB-C equivalent of that. I have now replaced it with a Caldigit Element TB4 hub with 4xUSB A and 3xTB4 (which, along with the extra USB-C and USB-A ports on my Studio, plus 2 USB-C displays each with 2 downstream USB 2 ports, meets my USB needs) - but the only reason for spending the money for TB4 was that (for various reasons that ruled out HDMI) I wanted to connect a 4k display to it. So until/unless something with about 8 USB-C ports comes out I'm stuck with a mixed USB-C/USB-A ecosystem in which the majority of devices are still USB-A - so getting hubs with USB-A still makes sense.

 

[grghk]

I'm hoping for a mini-er mini stack from OWC.

 

[Spidder]

Yeah, you're reading it wrong.

Those are *maximum speeds*. They're not fixed allocations. (Which should have been obvious to you, as they add up to well over 40gbps.)

You might also want to rethink just trusting ChatGPT, but in this case it was correct.

No, Im not reading it wrong.

Duh.

Who says I do?

 

[Kingcoherent]

This does look almost ideal. Hopefully it will spur others.

And as several people have said: Thunderbolt and larger nvme/ssd options.

 

[BotchQue]

That's crazy talk. I just LOVE trying to insert a USB A cable upside down.

There's only a 15% chance of inserting a back-panel (ie blind) USB-A cable correctly on the first try, and only a 45% chance of it going in when you flip it; it does go in 95% of the time when you flip it again. Science has never been able to show why.