Wasted way too much money on generic hubs that ended up being complete junk. Unfortunately, most of those cheap dongles just cant handle the data throughput for editing and they tend to overheat. Issues with my old hub disconnecting drives happened at the worst possible time, which isnt as good as expected when you pay for a premium laptop. High-end stations are the only way to avoid a disaster.

• Get a high-end dock. Using the CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 Dock is the only way to keep everything stable. Cheap hubs rely on the laptops bus power which usually isnt enough for multiple drives and a monitor.
• Reliable external drives with their own cooling are essential. Small portable drives fail during long renders too often, so something like the SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE 12TB Enterprise-Class Desktop Hard Drive is safer. It has a dedicated power supply so it wont drain your laptop or drop connection. Cheap accessories are usually a trap and just lead to more frustration later.

You might want to consider a monitor with a built-in hub to finally clear that desk disaster. I would suggest the Dell UltraSharp U2723QE 27-inch 4K Hub Monitor since it handles power and data through one USB-C cord. Be careful with cheap dongles because they often bottleneck transfer speeds during big edits. Make sure to also get a Logitech MX Master 3S Wireless Mouse so youre not dealing with more wires.

+1

Been thinking about your desk disaster... honestly it reminds me of my first editing rig. I spent way too much on those slim adapters that looked cool but would literally burn my hand during a 4K export. I actually had one melt a bit of my desk once, no joke. You really want to be careful because some brands are basically just toys for office work, not for actual heavy lifting like video editing. Before you go out and buy more stuff tho, I have a couple questions to help narrow it down:

• Are you looking for a permanent workstation vibe or something you can actually travel with?
• Whats your realistic budget for this? Theres a massive gap between the lifestyle brands you see in ads and the actual pro-grade gear from companies that specialize in high-speed data. Make sure to look at the sustained transfer speeds, not just the peak numbers they put on the box.

Building on the earlier suggestion, the monitor hub route is solid but you gotta be careful with the wattage. Most people dont realize that running a high-end editing laptop through a weak hub can actually damage the battery over time because of constant micro-charging cycles. If youre doing heavy video work, you need something that handles the thermal load without dropping the connection to your drives. I usually stick to these rules for my setup:

• Check the PD (Power Delivery) specs to ensure it covers your laptops max draw
• Only use hubs with metal housings because plastic traps heat and causes those random disconnects
• Avoid daisy-chaining multiple cheap adapters together since it messes with the voltage Honestly, its worth the extra money for a powered dock like the CalDigit or a high-end Dell. Cheap stuff is fine for a mouse, but for external drives and power, its just too risky. You dont want a 20 dollar part frying a 1500 dollar machine.