Sonnet's Latest Thunderbolt 4 Dock Features Internal SSD Enclosure

Sonnet this week announced its latest Thunderbolt 4 dock, the Echo 20, and one of its key features is an internal enclosure for an M.2 NVMe SSD. This allows the dock to double as an external storage drive for a Mac.

Sonnet Echo 20 Thunderbolt 4 Dock
Accessible from the bottom of the dock, the enclosure can hold up to an 8TB SSD and supports data transfer speeds up to 800 MB/s, according to Sonnet.

The dock is also equipped with an upstream Thunderbolt 4 port that provides up to 100W of pass-through charging to a connected Mac, two downstream Thunderbolt 4 ports, four USB-C ports with up to 10 Gbps speeds, four USB-A ports with up to 10 Gbps speeds, one HDMI 2.1 port, one 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port, one 3.5mm combo audio jack, one 3.5mm microphone jack, left and right RCA line out jacks, and one SD card slot.


The dock is designed for use with devices equipped with Thunderbolt ports, including all of Apple's latest Mac and iPad Pro models, providing expanded connectivity for external displays, USB accessories, and other peripherals.

The Echo 20 is available to order on Sonnet's website for $299.99 in the United States and will be available at additional retailers soon. The dock has an external power supply and ships with a 0.7-meter Thunderbolt 4 cable in the box. Sonnet has a similar Thunderbolt dock that supports dual SSDs for up to 16TB of storage, but it has fewer ports.

Top Rated Comments

tan.shu Avatar
14 weeks ago
why only 800 MB/s?
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rychiar Avatar
14 weeks ago
ya lost me at 800mbps:confused: who would pay for that? my current external NVME gets 3000+ mb/s. like why even be thunderbolt 4 and cap it there...
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
scheinderrob Avatar
14 weeks ago
would this gracefully be able to eject or require manual ejection every time you want to unplug from the dock?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bradman83 Avatar
14 weeks ago

why only 800 MB/s?
I would venture a guess it’s because it has to share bandwidth with other functions of the dock (display bandwidth especially), whereas a dedicated Thunderbolt enclosure has that 40 Gbps all to itself.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
wesley96 Avatar
14 weeks ago
It is likely that this product’s controller chip is dedicating one of the four PCIe lanes available for Thunderbolt 3 / 4 connectivity to the SSD slot. TB3/4 is effectively an externalized PCIe 3.0 x 4, with each lane providing 10Gbps bandwidth. Since there are several protocol overheads including 8b/10b encoding for data, it’s easy to see the 10Gbps dwindle to 800MB/s max throughout.

BTW, the tech specs say that it uses the M.2 NVME SSDs, not the MSATA variety. so the limit is not due to SATA3’s 6Gbps max bandwidth. The SSDs using that standard maxes out at ~550MB/a anyway.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pmasters Avatar
14 weeks ago
$300 is way overpriced, especially for the weak ass speeds.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Multi Display CarPlay 1

All-New Apple CarPlay Launching Later This Year With These 5 New Features

Friday September 29, 2023 11:29 am PDT by
At WWDC 2022 last year, Apple previewed the next generation of CarPlay, promising deeper integration with vehicle functions like A/C and FM radio, support for multiple displays across the dashboard, personalization options, and more. Apple said the first vehicles with support for the next-generation CarPlay experience would be announced in late 2023, but it has still not shared any additional...
BMW Logo iPhone 15 Pro

Warning: BMW Wireless Charging May Break iPhone 15's Apple Pay Chip

Sunday October 1, 2023 6:14 am PDT by
If you have an iPhone 15 and drive a BMW, it might be best to avoid charging the device with the vehicle's wireless charging pad for now. Over the past week, some BMW owners have complained that their iPhone 15's NFC chip no longer works after charging the device with their vehicle's wireless charging pad, according to comments shared on the MacRumors Forums and X, formerly known as Twitter. ...
iPhone 15 Pro lineup

Apple to Address iPhone 15 Pro Overheating Issue With iOS 17 Update

Saturday September 30, 2023 9:28 am PDT by
Apple plans to release an iOS 17 update to address a bug that may contribute to the reported iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max overheating issue, according to a statement the company shared today with MacRumors and Forbes reporter David Phelan. Apple also says some recent updates to third-party apps have overloaded the system and contributed to the overheating issue. The report notes that...
iphone se 4 modified flag edges

iPhone SE 4 Details: Action Button, USB-C Port, Face ID, and More

Wednesday September 27, 2023 1:34 pm PDT by
Significant changes are expected to arrive with Apple's fourth-generation iPhone SE, in terms of both design and hardware, MacRumors has learned. The iPhone SE 4, known internally under the codename Ghost, is expected to receive a new design derived almost entirely from the base model iPhone 14. According to our sources, the iPhone SE 4 will use a modified version of the iPhone 14 chassis...
iPhone 16 Side Feature

iPhone 16 and 16 Pro: Preliminary Weights and Dimensions

Friday September 29, 2023 12:34 pm PDT by
MacRumors has obtained preliminary information on the weights and dimensions planned for the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max. The information corroborates previous reports suggesting that the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max will feature larger displays. iPhone 16 and 16 Plus Current information suggests that the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus will maintain the same...
CarPlay SharePlay

CarPlay Not Working for Some iPhone 15 Users, Possibly Because of USB-C Cables

Friday September 29, 2023 2:27 pm PDT by
CarPlay is not working as expected for some iPhone 15 users, an issue that is likely linked to the transition to USB-C. There are multiple complaints from MacRumors readers and Reddit users who are unable to get CarPlay to work with their new devices. Cable type and available port options are a common theme in the CarPlay reports, with many of the functionality problems linked to USB-A to...
iOS 17

Everything New in iOS 17.1 Beta 1

Wednesday September 27, 2023 1:57 pm PDT by
Just a week after releasing iOS 17, Apple has seeded the first beta of iOS 17.1 to developers. iOS 17.1 adds some features that Apple promised were coming to iOS 17 in the future, plus it refines and improves some existing features. This guide covers everything new in the first iOS 17.1 beta. Apple Music Favorites You can favorite songs, albums, playlists, and artists in the iOS 17.1...