OWC brought a host of creator storage solutions to Computex 2024. The company’s claim to fame over the past decades has been that their gear is compatible with Macs and iOS devices, although, the current generation is pretty standardized for Macs and Windows PCs. We begin our tour with docking stations—the stuff OWC is good at. The OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock supports the new Thunderbolt Share standard announced by Intel barely a month ago. It plugs into two PCs (or Macs) that support Thunderbolt Share, and enables a fast 40 Gbps network connection between the two, letting you quickly move files and other resources. The dock also allows you to share its various ports, I/O, and card readers among the two connected machines. These connections include two downstream Thunderbolt 40 Gbps, an HDMI display output, a gigabit Ethernet, two 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-A, a 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-C, a USB 2.0, HD audio with 4-pole headset jack, and an SD card reader. The dock has its own internal power supply that drives all its functions.
Next up, is the Express 1M2, a very slick designed USB4-based portable SSD. Internally, the enclosure has an M.2-2280 slot with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 connection, and tested bandwidth as high as 3151 MB/s. A bridge chip connects the M.2 slot to the 40 Gbps USB4 host interface. The actual compartment of the aluminium enclosure with the drive is very slim, much of the body doubles up as a heatsink for the M.2 SSD, there’s even some thermal pad and contact points located strategically to make contact with the SSD controller and NAND flash chips. The enclosure supports drives of up to 8 TB in capacity. The range starts from $249 for the 1 TB model.