Description
Perfectly sized to seamlessly stack with the Mac mini and the ideal storage and connectivity expansion companion for Thunderbolt or USB equipped computers and devices. 96W power delivery.
Highlights
- Massive capacity: add over 200x greater data storage on top of your Mac mini's built-in storage*1
- 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*2
- More Connectivity: add a mix of up to five Thunderbolt devices, three USB devices, and two displays*2,3
- Power while working: 96W 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 aluminum housing with internal heat sink and high-efficiency cooling fan provides cool, nearly silent operation
- 1-Year OWC Limited Warranty
For HDD/SSD configured option, please Click here
Mini Sized. Mammoth Possibilities.
Just like great duos Kirk and Spock, Frodo and Sam, or Woody and Buzz, the miniStack and the Mac mini have been the perfect pair since 2005. Now featuring Storage and Thunderbolt Xpansion, the miniStack STX continues its award-winning legacy as the best sidekick a Mac mini can have.
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.*2
Xpands Notebooks, Tablets and More
While sized identical to the Mac mini, the miniStack STX is a sleek, complementary companion for MacBook and PC notebook and desktop machines, iPads, and Chromebooks as well. While highly powerful, these machines are often limited in the number and variety of ports they offer. The miniStack STX solves that expansion limitation with a new world of increased connectivity and storage capacity.
The Dual Drive Dynamo
Just like superheroes have an alter ego, so too does the miniStack STX. The universal SATA drive bay holds a hard disk drive or SSD for upstanding data storage performance with big capacity. When you need to support bandwidth-intensive operations, the NVMe M.2 SSD slot reveals miniStack STX’s ferocious power. NVMe was designed to deliver the speed potential of modern flash drive technology by using a direct path to a computer’s processor over PCIe. As a result, you can enjoy near instant access performance with the miniStack STX.*5
Edit. Save. Access. Like a Pro
With multiple drive configurations available, you can experience up to 770MB/s of real-world data transfer speed. Move 5GB of GoPro footage in about 6 seconds. Transfer 1000’s of photos of that priceless event in mere seconds. Use the SATA drive for Time Machine or File History backups while working off the NVMe drive. With heavyweight performance like this, the miniStack STX is great for multi-stream compressed 4K video editing, photography, audio, virtual machines, and everyday data tasks.
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.
- Compatible: Works with all types of media including hard drives, SSDs, CD/DVD, etc.
- Access: Read and write Mac disks direct from Windows Explorer
- Manage: Format, partition and delete Mac disks on your PC
- Repair: Built-in tools can safely fix basic drive issues
- Backups: Browse through Time Machine backups as well as copy those files and folders to your PC
Everything is better when you share. MacDrive makes it incredibly easy to move data between Mac and Windows PCs. If you live in a cross-platform environment MacDrive is a must. Learn more about MacDrive.
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.*5
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.*2,3,4 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 maximizes 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.
If you own a Mac, PC, or device equipped with USB-A only, you’re not left behind. With a USB-C to USB-A adapter cable (available separately), you can utilize 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
Keeps the Power Flowing
Whether you’re taking a short break or are done for the day, the miniStack STX keeps you powering ahead. No matter if your machine or STX goes into sleep mode, the STX’s Thunderbolt ports continue to power and/or charge connected devices. Your notebook will stay charged and ready too with 96 watts of power through its Thunderbolt or USB-C connection.*4
Secure Your Connections
Unexpected disconnects during file transfers or a work session can be devastating. The OWC ClingOn (sold separately) easily reduces – if not eliminates – cable strain on the miniStack STX Thunderbolt connection ports.
Certified for Demanding Use
We understand having confidence in gear reliability is paramount to creative professionals. That’s why the miniStack STX goes through a multi-step performance certification prior to shipping. This ensures it arrives operating properly and immediately ready for your demanding use
OWC, Trusted by Pros & Enthusiasts the World Over
We build our hardware to the highest standards of reliability and performance. Because 100% reliability is always the goal, we rigorously quality test and back the miniStack STX with award-winning 24/7 global customer support.
- 28TB miniStack STX provides over 218x greater data storage than a 2018 Mac mini with factory equipped 128GB SSD.
- Works with Thunderbolt (USB-C), Thunderbolt 2/Thunderbolt (mDP), and USB devices. Thunderbolt 2/Thunderbolt device support requires a certified Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 (mDP) Adapter and a Thunderbolt 2 cable (available separately) and provides data transfer at up to 20Gb/s.
- Actual display support varies by computer specifications. Apple silicon M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra Mac models, Apple Intel-based Mac models, and Thunderbolt 4 PCs can support up to two external displays via Thunderbolt. Apple silicon M1 and M2 Mac models can support one external display via Thunderbolt.
- Works with Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 3, USB4, and USB host computers and devices. Thunderbolt 2/Thunderbolt Mac models are not supported.
- With a USB host connection, bandwidth is reduced to USB speeds, and additional functionality will vary depending upon the host computer and USB port. Thunderbolt devices are not supported.
- With a USB-C host connection, displays and power delivery will depend upon the host computer’s support for those functions.
- With a USB-A host connection, a USB-C to USB-A adapter cable (available separately) is required, and displays and power delivery are not supported.
- A USB host connection is required for Mac systems running macOS 10.14 or 10.15. - NVMe SSD usage requires a Thunderbolt (USB-C) host connection with a compatible system running macOS 11.x or later. USB host connectivity provides SATA drive use only, and limits additional miniStack STX ports to USB connectivity only.
- Storage examples for illustrative purposes only. Individual results may be different based on variety of factors including specific file size and format, settings, features, software and other factors. Storage estimates based on: 12-megapixel camera with 4MB image sizes, 4-minute average 4MB MP3 songs, 4-minute average uncompressed Apple Lossless (ALAC) songs, 1080p HD videos with 5GB average file size, GoPro 4K footage at 60FPS 24GB/hr, 250KB average MS Office document file size, 40GB average game sizes.
Includes
(1) OWC miniStack STX Storage Enclosure (matte black)
(1) 0.7M Thunderbolt (USB-C) Cable
(1) Quick Start Guide for OWC miniStack STX
(1) User Guide for OWC miniStack STX
1-Year OWC Limited Warranty
| Specifications | |
| Display Support | Up to one 8K display @ 60Hz, or one 5K display @ 60Hz, or one 4K display @ 120Hz, or two 4K displays @ 60Hz, or one 4K display @ 60Hz, or one 4K display @ 30Hz |
| 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 |
| Boot Support | Yes |
| 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 |
| Driver Required | No |
| Host Port Requirements | Thunderbolt (USB-C) or USB (USB-C or USB-A*2) port |
| Other Requirements | macOS 11.1 or later for Thunderbolt hosts macOS 10.14.6 or later for USB hosts |
| Power Supply | External UL-listed universal auto-switching power supply Need an additional power supply? Secondary/replacement power supplies are also available. |
| DC Output | +20V, 9A |
| External Power Adapter | Yes |
| Power Delivery | 96W |
| Replacement Adapter Part Number | OWCPWR20V150W (sold separately) |
| Colour | Matte Black |
| Drive Bays |
1 bay supporting: 3.5-inch SATA drives, 2.5-inch SATA drives Supports NVMe M.2 SSDs with 2280 form factor and "M Key" connector type. Single- and double-sided SSDs are supported. |
| Device Ports | (1) Host Port - Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) up to 40 Gb/s (5000 MB/s) (3) Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) Ports |
| Cooling | (1) cooling fan |
| Security Slot | Yes |
| Power/Activity LED | Yes *Select drives may disable the LED function of this product |
| Dimensions | Height: 3.7 cm (1.5 in) Length: 19.7 cm (7.8 in) Width: 19.7 cm (7.8 in) |
| Weight | 920.0 g (2.03 lbs) |
| Ambient Temperature | Operating: 50°F to 95°F (10°C to 35°C) Non-Operating: -40°F to 149°F (-40°C to 65°C) |
| Humidity | Operating: 8% to 90% non-condensing Non-Operating: 5% to 95% non-condensing |
| Notes |
|
Videos
Compatibility
Compatible with:
Any machine with Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 ports.
Mac compatibility:
MacBook Pro Retina Mid 2012 to MacBook Pro Early 2023 - (Note from Mid 2012 to Mid 2015 Requires USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable or adapter)
MacBook Air Mid 2012 to MacBook Air Mid 2022 - (Note from Mid 2012 to Mid 2017 Requires USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable or adapter)
MacBook Early 2015 to MacBook Mid 2017
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012 to iMac Retina 4.5K, Mid 2021 - (Note iMac late 2012 to Late 2015 Requires USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable or adapter)
Mac Pro Late 2013 to Mac Pro Late 2019 - (Note Mac Pro late 2013 Requires USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable or adapter)
Mac Studio Early 2022
Mac mini Late 2012 to Mac mini Early 2023 - (Note Mac mini Late 2012 to Mac mini Late 2014 Requires USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable or adapter)
iPad Pro 1st Gen Late 2018 to Apple iPad Pro 6nd Gen Late 2022
Apple iPad Air Late 2020 and Apple iPad Air Early 2022
Android Smartphones & Tablets - Compatible with Android Smartphones & Tablets with USB Type-C ports that meet the specifications listed above.
iMac | 2017 iMac18,1 - A1418 - EMC3068iMac | 2017 iMac18,2 - A1418 - EMC3069
iMac | 2017 iMac18,3 - A1419 - EMC3070
iMac | 2019 iMac19,1 - A2115 - EMC3194
iMac | 2019 iMac19,2 - A2116 - EMC3195
iMac | 2020 iMac20,1 - A2115 - EMC3442
iMac | 2020 iMac20,2 - A2115 - EMC3442
iMac | 2021 iMac21,1 - A2438 - EMC3663 - M1
iMac | 2021 iMac21,2 - A2439 - EMC3664 - M1
iMacPro | 2017 iMacPro1,1 - A1862 - EMC3144
MacBookAir | 2018 MacBookAir8,1 - A1932 - EMC3184
MacBookAir | 2019 MacBookAir8,2 - A1932 - EMC3184
MacBookAir | 2020 MacBookAir9,1 - A2179 - EMC3302
MacBookAir | 2020 MacBookAir10,1 - A2337 - EMC3598 - M1
MacBookAir | 2022 Mac14,2 - A2681 - EMC4074 - M2
MacBookPro | 2016 MacBookPro13,1 - A1708 - EMC2978
MacBookPro | 2016 MacBookPro13,2 - A1706 - EMC3071
MacBookPro | 2017 MacBookPro13,3 - A1707 - EMC3072
MacBookPro | 2017 MacBookPro14,1 - A1708 - EMC3164
MacBookPro | 2017 MacBookPro14,2 - A1706 - EMC3163
MacBookPro | 2017 MacBookPro14,3 - A1707 - EMC3162
MacBookPro | 2018 MacBookPro15,1 - A1990 - EMC3215
MacBookPro | 2018 MacBookPro15,2 - A1989 - EMC3214
MacBookPro | 2018 MacBookPro15,3 - A1990 - EMC3215
MacBookPro | 2019 MacBookPro15,1 - A1990 - EMC3359
MacBookPro | 2019 MacBookPro15,2 - A1989 - EMC3358
MacBookPro | 2019 MacBookPro15,3 - A1990 - EMC3359
MacBookPro | 2019 MacBookPro15,4 - A2159 - EMC3301
MacBookPro | 2019 MacBookPro16,1 - A2141 - EMC3347
MacBookPro | 2019 MacBookPro16,4 - A2141 - EMC3347
MacBookPro | 2020 MacBookPro16,2 - A2251 - EMC3348
MacBookPro | 2020 MacBookPro16,3 - A2289 - EMC3456
MacBookPro | 2020 MacBookPro17,1 - A2338 - EMC3578 - M1
MacBookPro | 2021 MacBookPro18,1 - A2485 - EMC3651 - M1 Pro
MacBookPro | 2021 MacBookPro18,2 - A2485 - EMC3651 - M1 MAX
MacBookPro | 2021 MacBookPro18,3 - A2442 - EMC3650 - M1 Pro
MacBookPro | 2021 MacBookPro18,4 - A2442 - EMC3650 - M1 Max
MacBookPro | 2022 Mac14,7 - A2338 - EMC8162 - M2
MacBookPro | 2023 Mac14,10 - A2780 M2 Pro
MacBookPro | 2023 Mac14,5 - A2779 M2 Max
MacBookPro | 2023 Mac14,6 - A2780 M2 Max
MacBookPro | 2023 Mac14,9 - A2779 M2 Pro
Mac Pro | 2019 MacPro7,1 - A1991 - EMC3203
Mac Pro Rack | 2019 MacPro7,1 - A2304 - EMC3413
Mac Studio | 2022 Mac13,1 - A2615 - EMC3988 - M1 Max
Mac Studio | 2022 Mac13,2 - A2615 - EMC3988 - M1 Ultra
Macmini | 2018 Macmini8,1 - A1993 - EMC3213
Macmini | 2020 Macmini9,1 - A2348 - EMC3569 - M1
Macmini | 2023 Mac14,3 - A2686 - EMC8003 - M2
Macmini | 2023 Mac14,12 - A2816 - EMC8180 - M2 Pro
