Overview
OWC miniStack STX
With a universal SATA HDD/SSD bay AND an NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD slot, you can expand your mini’s storage capacity to gigantic proportions. Three Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports enable you to connect to millions of Thunderbolt, USB, and future USB4 drives, displays, A/V mixers, cameras, tablets, and desktop accessories like a keyboard, card reader, or mouse. The possibilities of how you can use your Mac mini is now only limited to your imagination.
Easily Monitor and Protect Your Data
For even more power and security, add OWC’s SoftRAID software to your miniStackSTX and create a RAID 1 to automatically maintain identical copies of all your data on each drive. For over 25 years, SoftRAID has been the most fully featured and powerful software RAID solution available for Mac and Windows. It starts protecting your data even before you start saving by validating the STX drives are safe for data storage. In the improbable event that you experience a disk issue, your data is still complete and accessible on the miniStack STX’s other drive! SoftRAID then constantly monitors your disks with a combination of S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) attributes along with its own I/O statistics. This deep dive disk health analysis identifies potential problems so you can take preventive action. SoftRAID is available for both Mac and PC making it possible to share the miniStack STX between computers.
Move Between Mac and Windows
Transferring data between Macs and Windows PCs has become easier, but can be extremely time consuming using cloud or email transfers. Now you can do it directly with external drives and take advantage of crazy fast speeds to transfer huge amounts of data in no time at all thanks to OWC’s MacDrive. This seamless Windows software runs in the background, so there’s nothing to launch or learn. Simply unplug your HFS+ formatted drive from your Mac or PC and move it to your other computer. Not only do you have instant read access, but full write access! MacDrive also includes powerful features that enable you to create and partition and repair basic drive issues.
Xpand Your Sonic Journey
Building your music setup can be daunting. With two configurable drives in the OWC miniStack STX, it’s easy to create a storage powerhouse for recording and playback of essential tracks in real-time. You can even store your entire loop and sample libraries on the NVMe SSD for in-a-flash use with near zero latency.
Xpand Your Connections
You’ll gain a newfound freedom by being able to connect to nearly any past, present, or future device and accessory via three Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports. Just like the miniStack STX’s innovative storage capability, these three ports have a second super ability. They reinvent the daisy chain by allowing you to create three independent chains with up to five bus-powered Thunderbolt devices with a USB device on the end of each chain for 8 devices total. You can now also remove devices from one chain without affecting the other chain(s).
Xtend Your Investment
If you own a 2018 Intel Mac mini or the latest Apple silicon version, the fact that the internal factory drive can’t be upgraded is no longer a reason to sell your beloved little powerhouse. The miniStack STX maximises your mini’s investment with a mighty capacity punch for a fraction of the time and money you would spend in buying and setting up a new machine. You’re not left behind if you own a Mac, PC, or device equipped with USB-A only. With a USB-C to USB-A adapter cable (sold separately), you can utilise the miniStack STX’s SATA drive bay to transfer data to/from your machine plus infuse your trusty setup with additional device connectivity.
Store From Minutes to Millions
All the features and “technospeak” of an external drive don’t mean a thing if you don’t know how much of a particular file type it can hold. For every 1TB of your OWC drive capacity, you can store up to any of the following...
- 250,000 photos
- 250,000 standard quality songs
- 38,000 high quality songs
- 200 high-definition movies
- 41.6 hours of GoPro 4K footage
- 4.3 million MS Office documents
- 24+ PS4/Xbox games
- Massive capacity: add over 200x greater data storage on top of your Mac mini's built-in storage
- Mega Thunderbolt: use more accessories and devices with three Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports
- Maximum compatibility: use with Thunderbolt or USB equipped Macs, PCs, iPads, Chromebooks, Android tablets…virtually anything that supports external storage
- More connectivity: add a mix of up to five Thunderbolt devices, three USB devices, and two displays
- Power while working: 60W of notebook charging power via Thunderbolt or USB-C
- Pro-grade performance: save/access/backup data and edit 4K video with up to 770MB/s real-world tested performance
- Easy backups: Apple Time Machine and Windows File History ready
- Plug and play: includes Thunderbolt cable
- Whisper-quiet: an aluminium housing with internal heat sink and high-efficiency cooling fan provides cool, nearly silent operation
Video
With a universal SATA HDD/SSD bay AND an NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD slot, you can expand your mini’s storage capacity to gigantic proportions.
Compatibility
Compatible with the devices listed below.
MacBook
MacBook Air
MacBook Pro
iMac
Mac mini
Mac Studio
iMac Pro
iPad
Specifications
- Drive Bays
-
- 1 bay supporting: 3.5-inch SATA drives, 2.5-inch SATA drives
- 1 bay supporting: M.2 drives
- SATA drives connect via USB protocol
- Supports NVMe M.2 SSDs with 2280 form factor and "M Key" connector type. Single- and double-sided SSDs are supported/li>
- The maximum performance of an internal M.2 NVMe SSD is 770MB/s due to the bandwidth of the PCIe 3.0 x1 bus inside the miniStack STX
- Display Support by Port
-
- Thunderbolt 4: up to 8K @ 60Hz or 4K @ 120Hz via a native Thunderbolt 4 display or other display that supports USB-C connections and DisplayPort 1.4
- Hot Plug Support
-
- Yes
- Mac OS Compatibility
-
- macOS 10.14 Mojave
- macOS 10.15 Catalina
- macOS 11.x Big Sur
- macOS 12.x Monterey
- macOS 13.x Ventura
- macOS 14.x Sonoma
- PC OS Compatibility
-
- Windows 10 32-bit edition
- Windows 10 64-bit Edition
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2022
- Windows 11
- Linux OS Compatibility
-
- Yes
- Mobile OS Compatibility
-
- iPadOS 13
- iPadOS 14
- iPadOS 15
- iPadOS 16
- iPadOS 17
- Android 11.x
- Android 12.x
- Android 13.x
- Other OS Compatibility
-
- Chrome OS
- Linux
- Other Requirements
-
- macOS 11.1 or later for Thunderbolt hosts
- macOS 10.14.6 or later for USB hosts
- Driver Required
-
- No
- Power Supply
-
- External UL-listed universal auto-switching power supply
- DC Output
-
- +20, 7.5A
- External Power Adapter
-
- Yes
- Power Delivery
-
- Thunderbolt 4 host port provides up to 96W of power to the host computer
- Thunderbolt 4 device ports (for external drives and other devices) provide 15W of power
- Drive Bays
-
- 1 bay supporting: 3.5-inch SATA drives, 2.5-inch SATA drives
- 1 bay supporting: M.2 drives
- Device Ports
-
- 1 x host port - Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) up to 40 Gb/s (5000 MB/s)
- 3 x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports
- Host Port Requirements
-
- Thunderbolt (USB-C) or USB (USB-C or USB-A) port
- Cooling
-
- 1 x cooling fan
- Security Slot
-
- Yes
- Power / Activity LED
-
- Yes
- Dimensions
-
- H: 37 x L: 197 x W: 197 mm
- Weight
-
- 920 g
What's in the box?
- 1 x OWC miniStack STX
- 1 x External Power Supply
- 1 x 0.3 m Thunderbolt 4 Cable
- 1 x Quick Start Guide
Warranty
- 1 Year Limited Warranty
Part Number
- OWCT4MSS000