Sabrent’s New Docking Station Holds Four Portable SSDs in One Array

Sabrent’s new 4-Bay USB-C Docking Station allows photographers to connect up to four external SSDs or card readers simultaneously, keeping them cool while also letting each drive be accessed individually.

This new version builds on a previous design that accepted spinning HDDs but has been upgraded to accept different USB Type-C M.2 PCIe enclosures or memory cards.

“The Sabrent 4-Bay USB Type-C Docking Station allows you to connect up to four external SSDs or card readers with minimal fuss,” Sabrent explains. “Plug in the station’s power supply and connect the included Type-C to Type-C cable from the station to your host computer, and off you go!”

Sabrent says the system work with Windows, macOS, and Linux systems and supports a range of Sabrent external drives including Rocket XTRM-Q lineup (at 10Gbps speed), the Rocket nano lineup, the Rocket Pro lineup, the EC-NVMe enclosure, and both the CR-CFER (a CFexpress Type B reader) and CR-SDX7 (SD Express 7.1) memory card readers.

Each drive can be slotted into the dock without any tools, and that ease of use is the main selling point.

“The Type-C to Type-C cable conveniently connects the device to your computer at up to 10Gbps over USB 3.2 Gen 2×1. Backward compatible with USB 3.0/2.0/1.1 at respective speeds. No drivers are required,” Sabrent says.

Each drive or port has its own power status LED and may be accessed individually by the system. The connection allows for up to 10Gbps in transfer bandwidth, and the power supply additionally makes sure users are not limited by host port power constraints — Sabrent assures that each connection will always be reliable and fast.

Because SSDs generate heat under intense or prolonged use, Sabrent uses a top-mounted fan that keeps them cool, which can be turned on or off via a dedicated button with an LED that indicates as such. While not as advanced as an auto-detection system, it should suffice if a photographer knows they are about to put the SSDs under particular stress and Sabrent goes so far as to say that the drives won’t overheat even after hours of sustained operation if the fans are active.

The Sabrent 4-Bay External SSDs Docking Station is available for $130 from Amazon.