Port conundrum

[kd360]

So I have a Mac mini (M1, 2020 model). I've been using an older 27 inch Thumbbolt display with an adaptor and the display gives me (2560 × 1440). I wanted to extend my ports so I bought a Saetechi hub and connected it. The hub does not add an extra Thunderbolt port but simply moves it to the front. I have an external drive that uses that port. It all works fine but I do not want that cable summing from the front of the Saetechi. I tried a powered HDMI adapter to connect the Thunderbolt 2 output of the monitor to the HDMI port but that does not seem to work. My next thought was to buy a new Studio monitor and use an adaptor to hook it up to the HDMI port thereby freeing the Thunderbolt port on the back for my backup external hard drive.

I have a few questions:
1. If I buy a new studio display and use and adaptor to connect it through the HDMI port am I losing anything in terms of resolution or performance?
2. Can I connect my external drive into the new studio monitor and then connect the monitor to the HDMI port?

Thanks

 

[meson]

The thunderbolt and studio displays are meant to connect via thunderbolt and I doubt that they will take hdmi as an input. Even if you get it to work, the port hubs on the displays will not work because hdmi is not designed for that.

If you just need another usbc port, you can get a usb a male to usb c female adapter and plug it into an available port. I leave a couple attached to a pair of lightning cables that I use to charge my keyboard and trackpad or to connect my iPad to my mini.

There are a couple Mac mini hubs out there from OWC and Trebleet that are true thunderbolt hubs with extra thunderbolt ports, but they are also 2 or 3 times the price of your hub. If you don’t need full thunderbolt bandwidth, the adapters I mentioned are a great compromise.

 

[chrfr]

So I have a Mac mini (M1, 2020 model). I've been using an older 27 inch Thumbbolt display with an adaptor and the display gives me (2560 × 1440). I wanted to extend my ports so I bought a Saetechi hub and connected it. The hub does not add an extra Thunderbolt port but simply moves it to the front. I have an external drive that uses that port. It all works fine but I do not want that cable summing from the front of the Saetechi. I tried a powered HDMI adapter to connect the Thunderbolt 2 output of the monitor to the HDMI port but that does not seem to work. My next thought was to buy a new Studio monitor and use an adaptor to hook it up to the HDMI port thereby freeing the Thunderbolt port on the back for my backup external hard drive.

I have a few questions:
1. If I buy a new studio display and use and adaptor to connect it through the HDMI port am I losing anything in terms of resolution or performance?
2. Can I connect my external drive into the new studio monitor and then connect the monitor to the HDMI port?

Thanks

The Satechi hubs that fit under the Mac mini are USB-C, not Thunderbolt, so if you're using the actual Apple Thunderbolt Display (the one with ethernet on it), you won't be able to connect the display to this dock even if you want to. It must connect to an actual Thunderbolt port, and it also cannot use HDMI. Likewise, the Apple Studio Display cannot use HDMI and needs an actual Thunderbolt port for full functionality.