OWC has unveiled two new Thunderbolt 5 solutions aimed at boosting the performance and expandability of Apple’s compact desktop systems through the StudioStack and Mercury Helios 5S.
First, the StudioStack is a small box that can sit on top of a Mac Studio/Mini, offering up to 6302MBps of real-world transfer speed alongside up to 8TB of NVMe SSD storage and 24TB of HDD capacity, all housed in a precision-machined aircraft-grade aluminum enclosure for effective heat dissipation.
The device offers expanded connectivity with three Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) 80Gb/s ports and three USB-A 10Gb/s ports, allowing users to connect additional drives, displays, and peripherals with ease. Designed for reliability and quiet operation, it features adaptive cooling that only activates when needed, maintaining near-silent performance. The future-ready flexibility aspect is also nice for users to easily upgrade storage components over time.
Meanwhile, the Mercury Helios 5S is slightly simpler than the StudioStack, offering 000MB/s bandwidth for simultaneous read/write performance and features a PCIe 4.0 x4 (x16 mechanical) slot for half-length, full-height, single or double-width cards (usually for video capture cards, NVMe RAID, audio equipment, etc.).
Like the StudioStack, it provides three Thunderbolt 5 ports with 15W power delivery each and offers tool-free installation with captive thumb screws.
Price and Availability
Preorders are now open for the StudioStack, with shipping expected in mid-December, while the Mercury Helios 5S is available right now. Both products are at US$329.99.
