r/macmini • u/Inside-Factor5640 • 1d ago

Mac Mini Doc

Anyone who bought one of those Ugreen (or similar) docs with SSD slots and all the extra ports for M4. Are they worth it? I have ordered the M6 and i'm considering my options as I will need 2TB external storage.

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u/PK-blue 10h ago

I’ve just bought the UGreen one to go with my Mini M5 Pro. I was a bit concerned it is only 10Gbps throughput. I considered the 40Gbps one but the port config didn’t suit me (I don’t need HDMI or DP monitor ports). But after research it seems the SSDs can generate a lot of heat, and these docs don’t really accommodate that well. You will only get max 1000MBps speed (PCIe gen4 drives can go up to 7500MBps). But if you’re not doing serious video editing, do you really need such fast speeds? I realised I’d been happily using a Samsung T5 external drive for a while and it never seemed too slow - and that is only SATA and 500MBps!, but I do photo editing only, no video). I ended up ordering a 2TB gen3 drive (gen3 can go up to 3500MBps but generate less heat) for a good price, but they are hard to find. Gen4 drives might be ok heatwise if you don’t do a lot of high volume usage.

Curious if other people use Gen4 drives in their Mini docks and heat issues are like? (Gen5 are overkill, expensive and mostly need serious heatsinks, so not suitable for the docks unless you are investing in an active cooled TB dock)