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OWC

Name: 4.0TB OWC miniStack 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB 3.1 Gen 1
Brand: OWC
SKU: OWCMSTK3H7T4.0
Price: 199 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.67 (9 reviews)

miniStack
4.0TB Compact USB 3.1 Gen 1 Solution

Mac / PC / USB 3.1 Gen 1

Stackable Storage

The OWC miniStack is the compact, stackable, external hard drive solution designed to complement the look and feel of the latest Mac lineup. With a footprint identical to the 2010 and later Mac mini , the two stack together for seamless desktop integration.

With a low-profile design, miniStack is a versatile storage solution. It's perfect for adding external storage to your Mac mini. And whether on your desktop, as a media library for your home entertainment system, or doing duty in the server room, miniStack delivers reliable, high-speed performance. It's a compact project or backup drive for any computer, but stacks perfectly with your Mac mini.

Quick and Quiet

The miniStack features a high-speed USB 3.1 Gen 1 interface combined with a stylish anodized aluminum chassis and MagLev fan for whisper-quiet, high-speed performance that makes the miniStack the perfect companion for your desktop.

Reliability and Support You Can Count On

Like all OWC drives, miniStack is built to the highest standards of reliability and performance. Because our goal is always 100% reliability, it's rigorously quality tested, and backed by our 3 year warranty and award-winning U.S. based Technical Support.

Highlights

Fast transfer speeds up to 208MB/s
USB 3.1 Gen 1 connectivity
Compact, aluminum design with MagLev cooling fan
Stacks perfectly with Mac mini

SPECS
GALLERY
REVIEWS
BENCHMARKS
INCLUDES
VIDEOS
RATINGS

Product Specifications:

Software Requirements

OS
- OS X 10.6.8 or later
- Windows 7 or later
Driver
- Driver not required for OS X
- Driver not required for Windows

Hardware Requirements

Minimum
- Mac or PC featuring USB 2.0interface
Recommended (Best Performance)
- Mac or PC featuring USB 3.1 Gen 1 interface

Bootability

Any Mac that supports booting via USB

Interface (Chipset)

(1) USB 3.1 Gen 1 (ASMedia ASM1153E)

Standard Mechanism

4.0TB Toshiba MG03ACAxxx Specifications:

Specifications

Form Factor

3.5″ HDD

Interface

SATA 6.0Gb/s

Capacity¹

4.0TB

Formatted Capacity²

3720GiB

Rotational Speed

7,200 RPM

Cache / Data Buffer

64MB

Manufacturer Model Number

MG03ACA400

Format

Unformatted (Instructions on formatting here)

Physical

Height (max)

26.1mm (1.027″)

Width (max)

101.6mm (4.0″)

Length (max)

147mm (5.787″)

Weight (typical)

720g (1.587 lbs.)

Bytes per Sector

512

Reliability³

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)

1,200,000 hours

Warranty

5 Year Warranty

Performance

Transfer Rate (Max)

6.0Gb/s

Power

Maximum Start Current, DC

2.0 Amps

Idle Mode

3.7 Watts

Environmental (Operating)

Shock

70 G max at 2ms

Ambient Temperature (°F)

32°F to 140°F

Ambient Temperature (°C)

0°C to 60°C

Vibration

0.75 G (5 to 500 Hz)

Relative Humidity (non-condensing)

8% to 90%

Altitude

-304.8 m to 3,048 m (-1,000 ft to 10,000+ ft)

Environmental (Non-Operating)

Shock

300 G max at 1ms

Ambient Temperature (°F)

-40°F to 158°F

Ambient Temperature (°C)

-40°C to 70°C

Vibration

1.04 G (5 to 500 Hz)

Relative Humidity (non-condensing)

5% to 95%

Altitude

-304.8 m to 12,192 m (-1000 ft to 40,000+ ft)

Acoustics

Idle (Typical)

3.1 bels

1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending upon operating environment (typically 5-10% less). The actual total capacity will depend on your own defined file settings/preferences.

In terms of standard gigabytes, 1GiB ≈ 1.074GB and refers to the actual formatted capacity of shown under Mac OS 10.5 or earlier and Microsoft Windows OS.

Specific application environments such as temperature and duty cycle will affect the overall reliability rates.
4.0TB* Toshiba MG03ACA Series Hard Disk Drive**
- *1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending upon operating environment (typically 5-10% less). The actual total capacity will depend on your own defined file settings/preferences.
  
  **OWC reserves the right to replace or upgrade to equivalent or better components.

Power Supply

External, UL-listed, universal auto-switching
AC input: 100 ~ 240V, 50/60Hz
DC output: 12V 2.5A

Environment

Environmental (Operating)
- Temperature (°F) 41° — 107°
- Temperature (°C) 5° — 42°
Environmental (Non-Operating)
- Temperature (°F) &min;40° — 149°
- Temperature (°C) &min;40° — 65°

Height

36 mm (1.4 in)

Width

197 mm (7.7 in)

Length

197 mm (7.7 in)

Weight (without drives)

.85 kg (1.9 lbs)

Manufacturer provided specifications for Other World Computing p/n MSTK3H7T4.0 UPC#: 812437023664

Gallery

"The design is perfect for Mac mini owners who are looking for more storage or a way to back up their units, and the miniStack runs quietly and efficiently." — Steven Sande, AppleWorld.Today

Benchmarks

Click any of the benchmarks below to view the results.

macOS Test Results

Windows Test Results

Includes

OWC miniStack solution
1m (36 in) USB 3.1 Gen 1 Standard-A to Standard B cable
Power supply and power cable
Quick Start Guide
Assembly Manual & User Guide (Download only)

Videos

Customer Ratings

Write a Review 4.6 / 5 8 out of 9 (89%) reviewers would recommend this product

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Gomerel Location: Fort Collins, CO Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 3-4 months

Rating: 5/5 A great backup solution September 1, 2020 I have two of these, one for Time Machine and the other for archiving projects etc. So far, they have both performed like champs. Since they sit atop my desk I really appreciate how quiet they are.

I would recommend this item to a friend! Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: wifiguy Owned Product: 5-6 months

Rating: 4/5 wifi interference August 10, 2020 this box is not well shielded and will throw off a decent bit of noise across the microwave bands. potentially a connection killer — if you dont believe me test signal strength with the mini stacked on top with drive powered up and powered down and its about -10dbm difference.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC miniStack USB 3.1 Gen 1 Storage Enclosure. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: DJ208 Location: Boise, ID Age: 35-44 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 5/5 Quiet backup July 4, 2020 Whisper quiet backup solution for my 2018 Mac mini. I wasn’t concerned about speed since this would be used as a Time Machine. Works great. No complaints. Plenty of space.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 2.0TB OWC miniStack 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB 3.1 Gen 1. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: jbbevan Location: Utah Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Works great... July 3, 2020 I initially formatted this to ExFat so that I could read it with both Mac and PC. However after transferring about 8Tb of media to it, it would no longer accept "write to" (drag and drop) and I was warned to empty it as it became read-only. Transferring that much data takes a LONG time, but I did it then reformatted the drive (using Disk Utility) to HFS+ then transferred all the data back to it a 2nd time. Since then it has functioned perfectly. The footprint is exactly the same as my MacMini and the two work together very well. I believe the ExFat problem was not about this drive but a "thing" between Apple and Microsoft...I was told as much when I talked to the Diskwarrior people (they do not support ExFat). I am more than satisfied with the 12Tb drive.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 12.0TB OWC miniStack 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB 3.1 Gen 1. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: THEOBG Location: New Jersey Age: Over 65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Great product, but could use a couple of enhancements February 27, 2020 This is a great product. I bought it to go with my new Mac Mini 2018. I actually bought two and installed a 3TB hard drive (backup) and one for a 2TB SSD. Since I was using two , I had to buy the appropriate USB 3 Type A to USB C cables. Disk installation was quick and easy. The SSD required an adapter bracket which was east to install.. The units powered up and were immediately visible to the system. I configured the system to boot from the 2TB SSD. This product is great as it is, but I would recommend 3 specific enhancements: 1) use a pin-hole for the activity light instead of the really bright large hole currently in use.2) modify controller to allow installation of two SSDs instead of just one. 3) convert from USB 3 to Thunderbolt.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC miniStack USB 3.1 Gen 1 Storage Enclosure. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: InternationalTraveller Location: Hua Hin,Thailand Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Hobbiest Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 Very Easy to Setup December 14, 2019 Following the instructions available from OWC, video and written, it was a Very easy install even for a 71 Year old ,would very much recommend to use to boost the Mac Mini 2014. Remember I am just replacing the existing 249 GB SSD which is a standard Mac Mini unit.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC miniStack USB 3.1 Gen 1 Storage Enclosure. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Dawson69 Location: Delaware Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 A Perfect Match for Any Mac August 17, 2019 While I have never had a Mac mini, I have used miniStacks as far back as the v2 models sold under the NewerTech brand. The v2 and v3 miniStacks fit perfectly atop my old Power Mac G5. The changeover to aluminum cases to match the 2010 Mac minis, looked much better, were drive-for-drive, quieter than the pre-2010 miniStacks; aluminum is a natural heat sink. Every miniStack I have ever owned has failed to disappoint me. The only con for the aluminum NewerTech and OWC miniStacks is that unlike the pre-2010 versions or the discontinued miniStack Max, these models are not hubs.

With the release of the 2018 Mac mini, I am sure that OWC has an updated miniStack in the works. In addition to the current model, I would imagine that forthcoming miniStacks would be an SSD enclosure in silver or space gray. Internally, they would accommodate up to two SATA SSDs or up to four M.2 NVMe blades with the brackets for the SATA drives removed. The drives could be configured as JBOD or SPAN. Externally, there would be two USB-C ports for Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3.1 Gen 2 connectivity, and a single USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) Type-B port.

In any case, the miniStack is an excellent external drive.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC miniStack USB 3.1 Gen 1 Storage Enclosure. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Thinker Location: N. MI Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Performs perfectly. June 21, 2018 Sales person was very helpful, knowledgeable and efficient.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 3.0TB OWC miniStack 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB 3.1 Gen 1. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer Top 100 Contributor

Reviewer: TheRetiredViking Location: Tri-Cities area TN Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 3/5 A wall-wart power supply at this price? June 7, 2018 The case itself is a beauty. Well-done, OWC! Drive installation was a snap. But, I am bringing an otherwise 5-star product down to three stars. The main reason is: at this price point, the very least you could do is provide an in-line power supply "brick" rather than the space-hogging (and cheaper) "wall-wart" supply that comes with $25 housings. Come on, people!

A minor beef: the pilot light on the front is bright enough to read by. If it were on steady, fine, but it flickers to indicate drive activity. This is all well and good in a computer room or a place where the drive is not normally visible. Mine, however, is sitting right under a Mini that is in home media service, in line of sight to the 60" TV. I'll find a way to deal with it.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC miniStack USB 3.1 Gen 1 Storage Enclosure. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: PeteM Location: NJ Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Quiet and reliable May 17, 2018 I needed some extra storage and got a 4TB Ministack. It was easy to set up on my iMac and is now one of the 2 external drives that I use for Time Machine alternating backups.

And there's plenty of room to store other stuff, too!

I would recommend this item to a friend! Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: DAvid4440 Location: NC Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 The product arrived and performed as indicated February 1, 2018 I love these drives. This is my fourth one and they all perform as indicated in the ads.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC miniStack 7200RPM Storage Solution with USB 3.1 Gen 1. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: GranitGeezer Location: NH Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 A good upgrade for my system December 14, 2017 I use an external 2 TB HD to store information for an organization, partly as an off-site back-up and partly to provide access to data at my location.

It is a high quality Enterprise Class drive but in an older USB 2.0 enclosure (OWC of course). The Mini-Stack provides USB 3.1, so exchange of data is greatly speeded up. At the same time, the Mini-Stack is an attractive addition to my system sitting under my macMini.

Assembly and installation is almost too simple and quick!

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC miniStack USB 3.1 Gen 1 Storage Enclosure. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Craigster Location: Utah Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Outstanding HD December 5, 2017 I needed a backup to the backup for my Mac Mini and or MacBook and this is a beautiful, capable, inexpensive, Mac friendly HD. I’m very happy with my purchase.

Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: boatdog97439 Location: in the sicks on the Oregon Coast Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 5/5 Excellent External HD case. November 21, 2017 I bought this to pair up with an 4tb Enterprise HD. I rotate this drive and another between home and the bank's safety deposit box. Installation was quick and easy and instructions were wonderful. Photos that you could actually see what you were supposed to do as well as instructions that were clear. Matches the MacMini nicely.

This review is from OWC miniStack USB 3.1 Gen 1 Storage Enclosure. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: mylesvk Location: Florida Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Great EHDD November 20, 2017 Not the first HD I purchased from OWC. I have a couple of older miniStacks that just keep on going. Haven't had a failure yet. Ordering is easy, Customer service is great. I would highly recommend miniStacks and OWC.

I would recommend this item to a friend! Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: anhba Location: Wisconsin Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 4/5 Almost perfect, why oh why the headlight? June 29, 2017 Just what I was looking for. I could have gone a cheaper route and bought a standard external drive, but I wanted something that would compliment the mini look and this was it. I used my own wd black 4g drive to have the space I needed, formatted no problem, BUT..... why make this to compliment the mac mini and then put a power led on the front panel that looks light a giant headlight. I mean, look at the power led on the mini and it's the size of a pin head and then look at this led it is 5 or 6 times bigger. With all of the lights out in my basement I can find my car keys with this thing on. I know that this is a purely visual thing but thats what apple has always been about. Other than the headlight I am pleased so far with the other aspects of this drive and would purchase it again. Maybe in the future there could be something with a less obtrusive beam but overall I am happy with my purchase.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC miniStack USB 3.1 Gen 1 Storage Enclosure. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: WorldCivteacher Location: Camarillo, CA Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 5/5 Mini Stack USB 3.1 Enclosure June 2, 2017 I just received the enclosure and the set-up was easy(it took me less than five minutes). Realizing that there are many enclosures on the market I can appreciate the aesthetics of this design. Just as the ad pictures show, one can stack the enclosure either on top of or underneath the MacMini. I installed a 4TB HD, formatted it, and it works, period. For those that use PC laptops that mimic the MacBookPro in terms of looks, this will add to the appearance. Of particular note, the included fan looks very much like the fans that are used within the MacMini's and MacBookPro's. I would recommend this purchase. Regards.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC miniStack USB 3.1 Gen 1 Storage Enclosure. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: NJPhotog Location: Central New Jersey Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 5/5 Easy Setup, Looks Great, and Works Great March 18, 2017 I just received and setup one of these units to go with my Late-2012 Mac Mini. While I obviously cannot judge its long-term reliability, I though others might find it useful for me to offer a few brief observations. OVERVIEW— • Packaging and packing for shipment were both excellent, as usual for OWC. • The instruction sheet was in everyday English, and was well-organized, clear, and concise, with helpful photos. • Installation of my 3.5" SATA drive was quick and easy, and only involved plugging-in 2 connectors and screwing-in 4 screws. • Design, Fit, and Finish were all excellent, the enclosure exactly matches my Mini and looks great. QUIBBLES— • The edges of the aluminum were so sharp they could cut your finger. This is definitely a hazard, and should be addressed. A careful and light touch with a fine emery board (the kind used for fingernails) takes care of the problem. • Three different sets of tiny black screws (one for the bottom plate, one for a 3.5 SATA drive, and one for an SSD) were mixed together in a tiny plastic parts envelope. Sorry OWC, but the end-users should not have to put-on their Magni-Focusers and try to figure out a) which screws go together, and b) which screws go where. Silly. • The enclosure comes with a well-made 24" USB 3.1 A to B cable. This is great, except that for an enclosure that's expressly made to sit on top of or underneath a Mac Mini, why on Earth would anyone who bought this specific enclosure either want or need such a long cable? I eventually found a suitable 6" USB 3.0 cable on eBay for $4.

That's it. Very, very minor gripes indeed, and I'm a happy camper.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC miniStack USB 3.1 Gen 1 Storage Enclosure. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: gerry522 Location: Denver CO Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Easy to Switch January 20, 2017 This enclosure was so simple to accomplish. It took me a whole ten minutes at the most and worked like a gem from the very get go. Great buy and an easy way to get an old drive up and running again. Definitely a great buy from OWC. When I need something for my Mac I know if anyone has it OWC does.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC miniStack USB 3.1 Gen 1 Storage Enclosure. Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: FonzieScheme Location: Oakland, CA Age: 35-44 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 4/5 Functionally good, visually not a perfect match November 1, 2016 The MiniStack is a cool product in that it physically matches the size of the Mac Mini. I use a Mini for something of a home server, and when the external drive that was attached died, I figured I'd make my desk look a little nicer with a matching drive, rather than another of the typically oddly-sized / shaped external drives.

It's way too early comment on things like durability, and I'm generally happy with the purchase—it's the same size, works well, seems to move data reasonably quickly for my purposes.

But there are two "buts": 1. Visually, the MiniStack is not a perfect match for the Mac. Size is perfect, but the color and texture of the metal is not quite right. The texture is not as beautifully smooth, and its silver is more "metallic" than the Mini's body. 2. The product description uses the words "whisper-quiet." That's perhaps technically accurate—whispers are pretty quiet, after all, but the drive is noticeably louder than the previous external drive was—even before it died. ;)

I could go whole hog on the overly-detail-oriented thing like some Mac users do, and cry about how the LED isn't "elegant" enough or some such, but that'd be too much.

Overall, I'm happy. The drive is doing its job, and looks pretty good. This non-matching silver thing is common with lots of other peripherals, too. But in the photo on the product page, the MIniStack and Mini look a lot more similar, and if you're hyper-sensitive to "aesthetic Mac perfection" you may be disappointed.

I would recommend this item to a friend! Customer Videos:

OWC miniStack 4.0TB Compact USB 3.1 Gen 1 Solution Mfr P/N: MSTK3H7T4.0 OWC SKU: OWCMSTK3H7T4.0 Compact, stackable, external storage solution designed to compliment the footprint of the 2010 to current Mac mini 3 Year OWC Limited Warranty Ships: Same Day

Reviews (9)

only $199.00

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Additional Capacities: Enclosure Only

0GB
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- Cyber Saver $74.99

Hard Drive Models

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18.0TB
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- OWC Price $679.00

OWC Special Offers Available

OWC

miniStack 4.0TB Compact USB 3.1 Gen 1 Solution

Product Specifications:

Software Requirements

Hardware Requirements

Bootability

Interface (Chipset)

Standard Mechanism

4.0TB Toshiba MG03ACAxxx Specifications:

Specifications

Physical

Reliability3

Performance

Power

Environmental (Operating)

Environmental (Non-Operating)

Acoustics

Power Supply

Environment

Height

Width

Length

Weight (without drives)

Gallery

Benchmarks

Includes

Videos

Customer Ratings

miniStack
4.0TB Compact USB 3.1 Gen 1 Solution

Reliability³