As I mentioned above, the miniStack STX can house a 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch hard drive (up to 18TB in size) as well as an M.2 SSD that can handle up to 8TB. All of this is seated snugly against the cooling fan and exhaust ports. The inside of the device is almost as minimalistic as the exterior and features a small motherboard with the SSD, SATA, and port connections.

For example with my M1 Mac Mini, I had a XP-Pen Display tablet connected to the HDMI port, a monitor connected to the USB-C on the Mac Mini, a Loupedeck CT and Memory Card reader connected to the USB-A ports, and then through the miniStack STX I had my iPhone, Apple Watch, and Raid storage connected.Įffectively, the miniStack STX replaced my previous “solution” which was a rat’s nest of a USB-hub that sat behind everything on my desk. The company claims that users can add a mix of up to five Thunderbolt devices, three USB devices, and two monitors with the miniStack STX depending on the host device. In between the Thunderbolt ports and the exhaust, users will find the 20V DC power connection.

At a glance, you may also think the device has some USB-A connections as well but alas, that slot is simply for the exhaust. While the front and sides of the device are rather minimal, the rear of the enclosure is where you will will find the four USB-C (Thunderbolt) ports for connectivity expansion of the Mac. The device itself is available for $299 for the empty enclosure or it can be customized at the time of purchase with up to 8TB of SSD storage and 18TB of HDD storage. The miniStack STX features a universal SATA HDD/SSD bay and an NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD slot that is easy to access for upgrades and maintenance, three Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports (four if you count the one needed to connect to the Mac mini) for device connections such as keyboards, hard drives, card readers, displays, A/V mixers, cameras, and tablets. But it doesn’t have everything a photographer might need, and that’s where the miniStack STX comes in.Ĭontrary to most new products released by Apple, the OWC miniStack STX is designed to be customized and upgraded as users’ needs change over time. It’s the best Mac for photographers, especially considering how affordable it is. Even though Apple just released the new Mac Studio, we at PetaPixel believe that most photographers are going to be best served by the M1-powered Mac mini that was released last year.

Thunderbolt hub for mac mini