5 Thunderbolt Products to Transform Your Work From Home Setup

Macs are some of the most popular and sought after computers on the market, and for good reason. For one, Apple’s design language is second to none, and everything from the MacBook to the Mac Pro is carefully crafted to provide sleek visuals and robust build quality. On top of that, you get access to macOS and countless apps that have been developed with creatives and power users in mind. 

However, Macs all carry the notorious “Apple Tax”. On paper, you can buy computers that deliver similar processing power at a fraction of the price. So if you’re serious about investing in this ecosystem, you may as well invest in Mac gear that will prolong its life and help you get the most out of your workflow. That’s where Other World Computing can help. 

Other World Computing (OWC) provides Mac users hardware solutions that are more affordable than what Apple offers. This includes replacement parts like laptop batteries to increase your Mac’s longevity, as well as upgrades like storage drives and memory. OWC is also the largest provider of Thunderbolt devices on the market. In fact, we’ve rounded up five Thunderbolt devices and accessories that we think will transform your WFH experience on Mac.

OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock

If you’re a first time MacBook owner, or if you’ve just recently upgraded, you might’ve noticed that the only I/O left are Thunderbolt 3 ports and a headphone jack. That means you’ll need a Thunderbolt dock in order to connect more devices like external displays. This is a must if you want to maximize your remote work productivity.

Luckily, this OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock offers plenty of additional I/O ports to suit any work style. On this dock, you’ll find:

• Analog Audio In/Out

• Dual Thunderbolt 3 Ports

• Gigabit Ethernet

• microSD Card Reader

• Mini DisplayPort

• Optical Audio Out

• SD Card Reader

• USB 3.1 Gen 1 x 5

• USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C

With Thunderbolt 3, you can connect up to two 4K displays for productivity and creative work. Speaking of creative work, you can also plug in SD cards to access raw photos and videos for editing. Plus, the dock delivers 85W of power to power your Mac.

OWC Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock

If you simply use your Mac for browsing, emails, and multimedia use, you only need a few ports to get by. In that case, we recommend the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Mini Dock, which features the following ports:

• HDMI 2.0 x 2

• USB 3.0

• USB 2.0 

• Gigabit Ethernet

This is more than enough to triple your screen real estate and connect USB devices for general usage. 

OWC Thunderbolt 3 Cables

OWC products such as the Thunderbolt 3 Dock come with their own Thunderbolt 3 cables, but OWC also offers additional Thunderbolt 3 cables in varying lengths to suit your home office. This includes 40Gb/s cables in 0.7, 1.0, and 2.0 meter lengths, as well as 20Gb/s cables in 1.0 and 2.0 meter lengths. 

OWC Thunderbay 4 Mini

Whether you’re a creative or a power user, you should invest in an external hard drive enclosure to back up your project files in case you need to access them in the future, and OWC has a wide variety to choose from. 

The OWC Thunderbay 4 mini is a great option if you’re looking for your first external enclosure. It delivers speeds of up to 1,556MB/s, and you can pre-configure your Thunderbay 4 mini with up to 16TB of storage. Alternatively, you can buy the enclosure on its own and add your own storage as your needs change. 

OWC Thunderbay Flex 8

As you can tell by now, Thunderbolt offers countless expansion possibilities, but what if you’re on the lookout for an all-in-one solution for storage, docking, and even additional computing power? 

In that case, look no further than the Thunderbay Flex 8, the world’s first storage, docking, and PCIe expansion solution. This powerful solution offers eight interchangeable drive bays that can be configured with your choice of SSDs and HDDs in the RAID configuration of your choice. Additionally, it features eight I/O ports, including:

• USB-A 10Gb/s x 2

• USB-C 10Gb/s

• CFexpress Card Reader

• SD Card Reader

• Thunderbolt 3 x 2

• DisplayPort 1.4

Finally, the Thunderbay Flex allows you to install a single-slot PCIe expansion card of your choice. For example, you can install a powerful GPU to boost your Mac’s rendering times. Alternatively, you can add a blazing-fast NVMe SSD for large format video editing, VR/AR/MR workloads, or high transactional and complex calculation applications.

Whether you’re a power user or an enterprise-level creative, Other World Computing has dozens of solutions to help you turn your Mac into a WFH powerhouse. Click here to explore OWC’s catalog of Thunderbolt devices and find the right solution for you.

Prices subject to change.

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