Cheapskate Splurges (OT)

I'm generally a cheapskate, but this time I decided to splurge. I solved the M4 Mac Mini's dearth of USB-A ports by buying a Caldigit TS4. It's got 18 connections, including two card slots and three audio jacks. Eight effingteen.

Total overkill, but you know what? I've been suffering from Apple's apparently innate tendency to skimp on ports, bays, slots and jacks my whole life. My whole life. The transition away from floppies was a pain (and I lost a lot of data, eventually—who knew that later on they'd come up with drives and software to get data off old 3.5 floppies, after a stretch when you couldn't?); I missed CD drives when they went away; I missed the SD card slot when it went away; and, almost every Apple computer I've ever owned or worked on—18 is my latest best count—lacks adequate ports. Even the very first Macintosh, the original 1984 128k, should have had two floppy drives when it only had one, so you wouldn't have had to sit there exchanging floppies back and forth, back and forth, while it copied the application to a new disk. I just decided, the hell with economy. I'm a man, and I'm gonna get me enough ports. For once.

Even so, for the M4 Mac Mini, I think I'm going to recommend—or pass along a recommendation for—this:

It's the Xcellon Pro 10 hub, USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, recommended privately by a reader who knows this stuff. At issue is that it's capable of passing along 10 Gbps, like the front ports on the M4 Minis. If you use a 5 Gbps hub, you're choking off half the happy flow of data to whatever you have plugged into it. A little on the expensive side, but that just gives it a better chance of not being super-cheap in build.

The Caldigit was a breeze to install but a giant pain to site. I have a sit-stand desk, so the entire welter of wires needs to be free enough to allow the desk to travel up and down. I ended up having to site a separate small table next to the desk to support the power supplies; the one in front is for the TS4. (The other is for the JBOD enclosure on the left.) Neither the cord from the plug to the power supply nor the one from the power supply to the unit were long enough on their own to allow enough travel. Hence the need to site the power supply halfway up.

I hated to do it. Give it a month and the power supplies will be buried.

The Caldigit did neaten up my desk considerably. The white wire from the hard drive housing doesn't look good, true, but it's the best I could do. It's Thunderbolt 2, which, as you probably don't remember, used cables with the same termination as Mini-DisplayPort. But they had to be Thunderbolt certified. So, as I understand it, and I could be wrong, not all Mini-DisplayPort male-to-male cables will do. A 1-meter Thunderbolt 2 cable would allow me to pass this wire under the desk—emphasis on 1-meter—but those apparently don't exist to be bought any more. Or at least not ones that I can know for sure are suitable for 20-Gbps data transmission. The best I could do four years ago was this 0.5-meter Apple Thunderbolt 2 cable with Mini DisplayPort male-to-male terminations along with the Apple Thunderbolt-to-Type-C-Thunderbolt 3 adapter. Which is not quite long enough, but oh well. Are you bored yet? I'm certainly getting there.

Little orphan

Unfortunately, there is one casualty of all this. The Caldigit leaves my beautiful new Wise Advanced Co. Taiwanese-made card reader orphaned. (Somehow I knew I wasn't going to get to keep this, because I like it. Whoops, no self-pity.) Anyway, I tested, and the SD card reader in the Caldigit is as fast as the Wise Advanced. Anyway, if you need a really nice CFexpress Type B card reader in a nice aluminum housing that's only been used about ten times, that also reads UHS-II SDXC cards (here's a link), let me know. It's for sale. You can have it for a nice price.

Buuaaaaaaaah-hahaha!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2024 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

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Comments

[Kye Wood]

There's a reasonable chance Made In USA will be making a comeback. Combined with and as a result of no more 'cheap' China products - the whole Trump Tarrif thing.

But be careful what you wish for. As an example, Made in USA guitars are notorious for their... less than Germanic quality (the kindest way I could put it).

[Yonatan Katznelson]

I like how you verbed site... (not)

["Site can also function as a verb: if a building is to be 'sited in' a particular location, it will be built there." (Merriam Webster). --Mike]

[Hansen]

USB-C to USB-A (type B) cables are readily available. Unless you have devices with hardwired USB-A cables there's really no need for USB-A ports.

Somehow losing data because Apple started to produce computers without the horrid floppy drives seems like a user error. At that point floppies were already severely outdated,I remember many times having to split large files over several floppies.

The same iMac that dropped floppies were the first one to include USB-A, and the aging port still exists a quarter of a decade later. I don't blame Apple for dropping it at this point.

[Stephen Cowdery]

My three-year-old Cal Digit hub (very similar to yours) has been flawless; I keep it beneath and slightly behind my iMac, out of the way with the cords behind it but always there when I need it.

[Ed Hawco]

I’ve seen sit/stand desks where a basket or net is attached under the desk, for holding various power bricks. That way the cables going into your devices don’t move when the desk goes up or down; only the cables from the bricks to your outlets move. Seems very useful, secure, and discreet and I wonder if you could hook up something like that.

[Lynn]

Sorry but that nice shiny Caldigit TS4 is a fail. No Firewire 800 port for the 5 daisychained FW800 drives connected to my old Mac Mini. Digital obsolescence is the price of progress *sigh*

[robert e]

You deserve all the ports you need and this is a proven, highly regarded device. I'm curious how the DAC compares to the onboard one, though I seem to recall that you use a third-party hifi DAC anyway.

One of the more annoying Apple practices over the years is the way they extract disproportionate profits from things like the number of ports and the amount of RAM and storage. (Moving RAM to the processor package might have change the calculus a little, but I wonder by how much, or even in which direction.)

I consider myself lucky that the budget Monoprice T3 hub was still around when I was shopping for add-on ports (a mere 10 ports though).

[Frank Gorga]

With regard to your power supplies (and maybe even the hub)... I would consider attaching them to the underside of your desk with heavy-duty 'velcro', e.g. https://www.amazon.com/Self-Adhesive-Hook-Loop-Tape-Fastener/dp/B0792KM8GS or something similar from your local hardware store... shop local!!!

This type mount is pretty secure but easily removable if you need to move something.

I have also attached a power strip to my desk with the same stuff. Every thing on the desk plugs into the power strip, leaving a single cord (the supply to the power strip) going from the desk to the wall. Makes moving the desk, when required, a trivial operation.

[Jeff]

A standing desk may not provide much benefit. Better to just move about as much as possible.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/11/08/healthy-standing-desk-disadvantages/

[Bob Johnston]

I know this comment will instigate a groan from you all, but I can fit as many ports as I like into my six year old self built micro atx PC. It's old so it has mostly USBA at the moment. I recently upgraded it with more ram and a faster graphics card and it soldiers on. Personally I am glad that I didn't join the Apple universe.

However, I must admit that to pack all that power into such a tiny package is impressive. Of course, if you make it that small there is less room for ports and switches.

[David]

“ I solved the M4 Mac Mini's dearth of USB-A ports by buying a Caldigit TS4”
I think you should have bought two, just to make sure…

[Hugh]

Could you get a big silver box to put it all in, including the power supplies? Cables coming out the back.

Maybe a craftsman designed mechanical linkage to allow you to push the power button to switch it on?

Kinda like a PC, but classier?

[Ben]

I came to say what's been said: velcro your power bricks to the underside of your desk.

I actually mounted a power strip with a nice long cord to the underside of my desk, so there's just one power cord to move when the desk goes up and down:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082TZRJTQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

[robert e]

Years ago, I drafted an old drafting table to serve as a standing desk. But after a while I found myself needing to take long breaks to sit and rest my feet and legs, so I got a simple stool, intending to use it part-time. Well, that part-time gradually got longer until I once again had a sitting desk, just taller than the previous one.

Even if they're not the health benefit we thought they were, adjustable-height desks are very handy for being able to adapt to the work at hand, such as handwriting, drawing or working on small objects vs using a computer and keyboard, or different ways of using a computer, or just to change one's posture for a time.

[John Shriver]

Over 1 meter, Thunderbolt cables have to be "active" to run at full speed. There are chips in the connectors, and probably more wires in the cable. There were even fiber optic ones.