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.
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.
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.
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 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. 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 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 60 watts of power through its Thunderbolt or USB-C connection.
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.
- Based on 2018 Mac mini with factory equipped 128GB SSD vs miniStack STX with 18TB HDD and 8TB NVMe SSD.
- Thunderbolt 4 devices like miniStack STX are not supported for use with legacy Thunderbolt 1 and 2 machines via Apple’s Thunderbolt adapter. Use with a Mac, PC, or device equipped with USB-A only requires a USB-C to USB-A adapter cable (available separately). Up to two external displays supported by Intel Mac machines over Thunderbolt connection. Apple silicon M1 and M2 Macs support one external display over Thunderbolt.
- Use of miniStack STX with a USB-C or USB-A host allows use of the miniStack STX’s SATA drive only and use of its ports for USB accessories 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.
- Some internal drives may not support LED status function.
Includes
- (1) OWC miniStack STX
- (1) 0.7M Thunderbolt (USB-C) Cable
- (1) Quick Start Guide
- 3 Year OWC Limited Warranty
Specs
- Crucial P5 M.2 SSDs are not compatible with miniStack STX.
- Dual display support, including available resolution and refresh rates, is dependent on host hardware and drivers. Apple silicon M1 and M2 Macs can only support one external display up to 4K @ 60Hz. Apple M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra Macs fully support dual displays up to 4K @ 60Hz.
OWC Ministack STX External HDD Specs
| Host Connection | Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C) |
| Inputs/Outputs | 4 x Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C) |
| Storage Capacity | Total: 2 TB SATA 3.5″ HDD (7200 rpm) |
| Pre-Format | None |
External Enclosure
| Security Features | Kensington Security Slot |
| Material | Aluminum |
| Cooling System | Fan/Passive Combo |
| Environmental Resistance | None |
| Drives Supported | 1 x 2.5″/3.5″ 1 x M.2 |
Electrical
| Power Source | Included AC Adapter |
| AC Input Power | 100 to 240 VAC, 50 / 60 Hz |
Environmental
| Operating Temperature | 32 to 86°F / 0 to 30°C |
| Storage Temperature | -4 to 140°F / -20 to 60°C |
General
| Dimensions | 7.8 x 7.8 x 1.5″ / 19.8 x 19.8 x 3.8 cm |
