[samatman]

I remain flabbergasted that there's no model of Mac Mini or Studio which has M.2 slots. I believe the Doctrine is that Thunderbolt is fast enough that YAGNI but that's absurd given the amount of open space inside those things. If you look at a picture of the motherboard[0] it's dead obvious that there's room for one M.2, maybe two if they cared about it.

[0]: https://www.ifixit.com/News/57898/mac-studio-teardown

[jsheard]

Thunderbolt is decently fast but the enclosures don't come cheap, it's an extra $100 or so per drive you want to hook up. The enclosure could easily cost as much as the drive you put in it nowadays.