Mac Mini Stand with SSD

This works exactly as advertised. If you have a Mac Mini, this is an essential accessory. It provides all the ports Apple should have included and places them at the front, where they belong.

This was a lot better than I thought. It works well, very quick response time.

I have been using mine for a year now with my Mac Studio. And I love it. Let me count the ways I love it: 1) internal hard disc is a must. And I love that I get to choose how large the disc is. 2) ports. And more ports. And more ports. 3) ports on both the front and the back is awesome. I can plug my keyboard into the back and leave the front open for usb devices and yubi keys, etc. 4) did I mention all the ports! 5) the design is awesome as it allows it to cool well. My only complaint is the attachment dongle is a little short. I wish it was a bit longer because sometimes I need to rotate my box because Apple put the WiFi antenna in a funny place and it sometimes blocks the signal. It is awesome!

Couple things to point out right off: >> set up your Mini first, then connect the dock. I put in the NvME and the 2 USB cables for the Magic mouse and keyboard and connected it to the mini before turning the Mini on the first time. Big mistake. Didn't immediately recognise the mouse and keyboard, had to plug in non-Apple ones to get through set-up. After that the Magic devices paired auccessfully but the NvME was recognized, had to use Finder (after much googling) to find it. I ended up doing a clean re-install the next day and, then, everything "just worked", perfectly. >> about that NvME, while they include a cheap and nasty little screwdriver THEY DID NOT INCLUDE A RETENTION SCREW!!!! I had to hunt through motherboard boxes (I built 4 PCs last year) to find a screw but it turned the standard M.2 screw didn't fit, it was way too small. So I had to dig through PC case cartons to find more screws, turns out it the same size screw used to mount a m/b to the stand-offs in the case. I took off 1 star just for that. I was sorely tempted to take 2 off but the dock is otherwise very nice. As far as form and function go, it seems to work fine and looks good doing it. I matches the Mini perfectly and provides easy front access to the ports. One slightly off thing is the power LED is green, while the Mini's is yellow, also it's a couple mm off set from the Mini's - would;ve been nicer if they were aligned but that's just my OCD. I haven't tried any spped tests on the NvME but I know from various youtube reviews that it's not going to be anywhere the rated spped but that just down to it being an external drive connected over USB rather than on-board, so not really on Satechi. Except for the screw issue, I'm very pleased with the dock. Unit seems quite well-made and the price is very reasonable. Can heartily recommend.

Fit and finish is excellent! Does exactly what it says it will do. I have a whole bunch of “stuff” attached via USB and really wanted additional ports and having them up front was a bonus! The SSD mounts easily and was immediately recognized as expected. I did reformat to the APFS format once I confirmed the hub was working correctly.

I recently bought a USB-C hub for my Mac Studio M2, and I really like how many ports it offers—it's great for connecting different peripherals. However, there’s a big drawback: it drains a lot of power. The hub relies heavily on the USB-C bus for power, which, from what I’ve heard, isn’t that robust in the Mac Studio M2. When I connected my NVMe external drive, it often disconnected mid-transfer—so even though it was powered on, no data actually transferred. When it did connect, the data transfer was really slow—it was straining to copy files. In contrast, when I copied between other drives, the speed was fast. I’m certain this slowdown was due to insufficient power. Without that power, it just can’t sustain the bandwidth I need. If the manufacturer improves power delivery or adds an external power option, this could be a real winner—but right now, it’s just not reliable for heavier tasks

It is very easy to install in minutes and it gives more USB A and USB C outlets. Well worth the price and convenience.

Return window ended yesterday. Today, none of the USB Hubs will charge my iPad. Google assisted troubleshoooting accomplished nothing. Looks" 10/10. Reliability" 0/12. Lasted two months.

I had the original Satechi Mac mini hub in space grey for my 2018 Mac mini. So when I updated to the 2023 Mac mini, it was a no brainer to also update to the latest version of this hub, this time in silver to match to the new mini, and with the addition of the M.2 SATA SSD slot. As expected, it is a perfect fit with the Mac mini sitting in the cavity at the top of the hub. While the speed of the USB ports are only 5Gb/s, that more then enough for my uses, especially with the convenience of having easily accessible ports on the front. Also, it just plain looks good with the Mac mini. I installed a Western Digital 3D NAND 2TB M.2 SATA SSD in the available slot at bottom of the hub, and it works flawlessly. Be sure you install an M.2 SATA SSD. M.2 NVMe SSD’s, despite looking almost the same, will not work. Look for 2 notches on the end for the SATA SSD where the contacts are, instead of 1 on NVMe’s.

[Esta reseña está traducida del inglés] Estoy muy satisfecho con esto. Funciona bien y le da una expansión útil a mi Mac mini. También se ve bien. Dejó de funcionar brevemente, pero creo que fue porque lo limpié (usando líquido limpiador) y tal vez se humedeció un poco de alguna manera. Después de tres días comenzó a funcionar bien. Bien. Pero... este modelo específico (al menos al momento de escribir esto) no está disponible. Satechi ahora ofrece una versión ligeramente diferente (la nueva versión usa un SSD M.2 NVMe; la versión que tengo usa un SSD M.2 SATA). Compré la nueva versión para la Mac mini de mi hermano y redujo su velocidad de wifi, tanto 2g como 5g, en un 70%. Tuve que devolverlo. Así que, comprador, tenga cuidado.

I installed a 2TB NVME SATA SSD in the hub’s slot in about 2 minutes; works flawlessly As well as the NVME slot, the unit has a 10 GB/s usb-c port, a (claimed) 10GB/s usb-a port and 2 5GB/s usb-a ports I guess I would have traded one of the 5GB/s usb-a ports for a second usb-c port, but a minor issue. It has a headphone port which I didn’t get to work, but didn’t troubleshoot since I use airpods anyway Finally, it has 2 SD card slots, one for full size cards and one for micro cards. These work flawlessly For less than $125 CAD, this a great enhancement for a Mac mini. Since it works as a stand for the Mac, it doesn’t take up any additional desk space. As well all the ports are accessible from the front; only the USB-C connection to the Mac is on the back For the price and features this is an excellent addition for a M2 Mac Mini

connected to my mac mini. perfect addition to increase number of ports and added a 2TB ssd. Everything seems to be of a high quality and working exceptionally well. Hope it continues. Initial impression is "outstanding"!

This is a perfect addition to my Mac Mini M1. Two USB-A ports on the stock M1 is not enough for me. So having three more as well as USB-C, a place for an NVMe disk, and a card reader is very nice to have. I don't use the 3.5mm audio Jack. Keep in mind though: the hub itself cannot saturate the maximum bandwidth of the Thunderbolt port it occupies because of the 10Gbps (total) speed limit. Meaning: that 10Gbps will be SHARED across ALL things connected to the hub at any given time. For regular and typical use, that is plenty because file transfer speeds are often bottlenecked by how many there are and how small each file is. Lots of tiny files will be slow no matter how fast the potential write speed is of the target. Overall, this is a much needed upgrade to my M1 and it looks good in combination with it.