AlphaWorld
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I have an M1 Mac Studio Max, and it has four Thunderbolt 4 ports (the Ultra has 6, but costs a lot more).
I use two of those for monitors, and the other two for external SSDs.
When I want to download CFexpress type A V4 cards I need to plug the V4 reader into a Thunderbolt 4 port, forcing me to unplug one of the SSDs (clearly the one NOT holding my photo processing space
). That's annoying.
I've been looking for a solution, and when Prograde announced a Thunderbolt 4 hub for US$169, I decided to try it. To get my purchase up high enough to get free international shipping, I bought a second CFexpress type A V4 reader.
In short, it works!
In a bit more detail: the hub is designed to have two ProGrade card readers sit on top of it, held tight with magnets. You can buy a pack of two short cables that fit the setup nicely. One of the four ThunderBolt ports has to go to the computer, so there is one left, and I plugged in the external SSD. The external SSD is USB. but the Thunderbolt 4 ports are also USB 4 ports, so that just works - I'm still looking for the right Thunderbolt 4 storage (Prograde make one I'd like, but it's over US$1000).
The hub comes with a chunky power supply (20V x 5A), and apparently it can supply up to 85W to a laptop plugged into the upstream port. it is able to supply up to 15W to the other three ports, which is more than enough to power a reader or external SSD (clearly it cannot power everything at full power at once, but my Mac Studio won't be drawing any power) - I have yet to test if my setup works without the power supply.
If you have an M4 Mac Mini, or an M4 MacBook, you could use one of these to increase the number of available Thunderbolt ports (admittedly, the M4 supports Thunderbolt 5, but it will happily support Thunderbolt 4 devices like this one - I think another brand makes a Thunderbolt 5 hub).
Copying from both readers at once just works, and at high speed - I started copying 1000 A9III images from one card, and barely had time to start the copy of another 2000 A1II images from the other card before the copy of the A9III images finished.
The hub comes with one other port - a USB 3.2 Gen 2 type A port. I might use that if I am writing images to a USB stick for a model.
All up, I'm happy with this setup. It was nice to be able to plug in cards from two cameras and start the downloads, then wander off to make coffee.
I use two of those for monitors, and the other two for external SSDs.
When I want to download CFexpress type A V4 cards I need to plug the V4 reader into a Thunderbolt 4 port, forcing me to unplug one of the SSDs (clearly the one NOT holding my photo processing space
). That's annoying.I've been looking for a solution, and when Prograde announced a Thunderbolt 4 hub for US$169, I decided to try it. To get my purchase up high enough to get free international shipping, I bought a second CFexpress type A V4 reader.
In short, it works!
In a bit more detail: the hub is designed to have two ProGrade card readers sit on top of it, held tight with magnets. You can buy a pack of two short cables that fit the setup nicely. One of the four ThunderBolt ports has to go to the computer, so there is one left, and I plugged in the external SSD. The external SSD is USB. but the Thunderbolt 4 ports are also USB 4 ports, so that just works - I'm still looking for the right Thunderbolt 4 storage (Prograde make one I'd like, but it's over US$1000).
The hub comes with a chunky power supply (20V x 5A), and apparently it can supply up to 85W to a laptop plugged into the upstream port. it is able to supply up to 15W to the other three ports, which is more than enough to power a reader or external SSD (clearly it cannot power everything at full power at once, but my Mac Studio won't be drawing any power) - I have yet to test if my setup works without the power supply.
If you have an M4 Mac Mini, or an M4 MacBook, you could use one of these to increase the number of available Thunderbolt ports (admittedly, the M4 supports Thunderbolt 5, but it will happily support Thunderbolt 4 devices like this one - I think another brand makes a Thunderbolt 5 hub).
Copying from both readers at once just works, and at high speed - I started copying 1000 A9III images from one card, and barely had time to start the copy of another 2000 A1II images from the other card before the copy of the A9III images finished.
The hub comes with one other port - a USB 3.2 Gen 2 type A port. I might use that if I am writing images to a USB stick for a model.
All up, I'm happy with this setup. It was nice to be able to plug in cards from two cameras and start the downloads, then wander off to make coffee.
