Mac Work Book Pro*
An Apple M5 Pro MacBook Pro with 48 GB of memory on one Thunderbolt 5 cable: the dock powers it and carries its drives, wired network, camera and two monitors. Read October 19, 2026, updated that evening with the dock, drive tests and monitor switches.
* I wish I owned this. Alas, it's on loan from work.
The machine
| Model | MacBook Pro (Mac17,9) |
| Chip | Apple M5 Pro: 18-core CPU (6 Super, 12 Performance, no hyperthreading), 20-core GPU |
| Memory and storage | 48 GB LPDDR5, 1 TB internal SSD (317 GB used, 584 GB free) |
| Software | macOS 27.0.1 |
| Power | Powered through the dock (96 W seen); battery at 80% after 10 cycles, condition Normal |
| Displays | Dell S2425HS (1080p, 100 Hz, main) and HP 23er (1080p, 60 Hz), each through an HDMI switch it shares with the Mac mini |
Connection map
Free on the dock: one USB-A port, the SD and microSD slots and the audio jack. Each monitor sits on its own HDMI switch: one side goes to this dock, the other to the Mac mini. There is no KVM, and which monitor is on TB 2 or TB 3 isn't recorded.
The dock
| Item | Spec | Seen on the Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Wavlink WL-UTD59, made by Winstars | Firmware 64.64, port firmware 1.11.0. Runs on its own DC adapter. |
| Upstream | 1 Thunderbolt 5 port, 80 or 120 Gb/s, 140 W power delivery | 80 Gb/s in USB4 v2 mode. The dock powers the Mac: macOS shows a 96 W source, with no charging because the battery is holding at 80%. |
| Thunderbolt downstream | 3 Thunderbolt 5 ports (one 30 W, two 15 W) | One holds the ACASIS at 40 Gb/s. The other two feed the monitor switches; macOS still lists them as having no device, because displays appear under the GPU, not as Thunderbolt devices. |
| USB-A | 4 ports, USB 3.2, 10 Gb/s | An Intel 10 Gb/s hub; the SanDisk links at 10 Gb/s, the Seagate and the network adapter at 5 Gb/s. One port is free. |
| Ethernet | 2.5 Gb/s RJ45 | A Realtek USB adapter, 2500Base-T full duplex |
| Card readers and audio | SD and microSD (UHS-II, up to 312 MB/s), 3.5 mm jack | All unused; sound goes through the Dell and Bluetooth |
| Inside | Not published | Intel and Parade USB 3 hubs, a Fresco Logic USB 2 hub and an Infineon dock controller. They're how four USB-A ports and the network adapter share the dock's links. |
One Thunderbolt 5 cable carries power and everything else. Everything behind the dock shares its 80 Gb/s upstream, and the USB-A devices also share the Intel hub's 10 Gb/s. That is why the SanDisk and Seagate slow each other during a backup. macOS does not say which physical USB-A socket a device uses.
Drives and speeds
| Drive | Link | Write | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung 990 PRO 1 TB in the ACASIS enclosure | Thunderbolt, 40 Gb/s, PCIe | ~2930 MB/s | ~2440 MB/s |
| SanDisk SSD 1 TB (Time Machine) | USB, 10 Gb/s | ~779 MB/s | ~702 MB/s |
| Seagate Expansion 2 TB HDD (Time Machine) | USB, 5 Gb/s | not tested | |
| Crucial P310 2 TB, Mokin enclosure, 17 Oct (now on the Mac mini) | Mac's own Thunderbolt port | ~2988 MB/s | ~3835 MB/s |
The 990 PRO figure is an 8 GB test with caching bypassed. The SanDisk was tested with dd and a cache purge, no backup running. Two methods, so compare numbers only within one method. They also differ from the fio numbers on the Mac mini page. On 17 October the 990 PRO wrote about 2705-2843 MB/s and read about 3170 MB/s with dd.
The SanDisk, port by port
8 GB write, cache purged, read back. 17 October, with a 19 October retest.
| Connection | Write | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Mac's direct Thunderbolt port, new cable | ~783 MB/s | ~769 MB/s |
| Dock USB-A, 19 Oct retest, no backup copying | ~779 MB/s | ~702 MB/s |
| Dock rear USB-A, non-SanDisk cable and adapter (in use) | ~712-725 MB/s | ~661-668 MB/s |
| Dock front USB-A, same cable | ~730 MB/s | ~584 MB/s |
| Dock USB-A, SanDisk's own cable and adapter | ~446 MB/s | ~682 MB/s |
| Ivanky dock on the Mac mini | ~398 MB/s | ~379 MB/s |
The cable made the difference: on the dock's USB-A ports the non-SanDisk cable raised write speed from about 450-580 to about 710-730 MB/s. Plugged straight into the Mac it is only slightly faster.
Backups and network
- Time Machine has two destinations on the dock: the SanDisk SSD, chosen for portability and toughness, and the Seagate hard drive. The latest Seagate backup ran 19:42 to 20:49 and the drive holds 560 GB.
- The wired link measured 1.74 Gb/s down and 2.11 Gb/s up with networkQuality, with 12 ms idle latency. A test to the Mac mini over the LAN gave 2.35 Gb/s one way (56 retransmits) and 1.86 Gb/s the other (none). Earlier that day it measured 1.60 down and 2.00 up.
- The two Macs are on the LAN only. The direct Thunderbolt link between them that worked on 17 October is not connected now.
A drive that moves around
- The ACASIS enclosure with the 990 PRO lived on the Mac mini for a while. It has a Thunderbolt 3 chip plus a USB fallback, so it dropped to USB speed when the mini couldn't power two enclosures at once.
- On this self-powered dock it holds 40 Gb/s. The full story is in the Mac mini troubleshooting notes.
- A Thunderbolt 5 port doesn't make it faster. The enclosure's chip and its link both top out at 40 Gb/s.
On the Mac itself
- A Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, on the Mac's own USB bus rather than through the dock. Keys go over Bluetooth or USB.
- The iPhone's microphone is available through Continuity, next to the MacBook's own mic and speakers.
- Memory at the time of reading: about 20.9 GiB active, 20.9 GiB inactive, 3.6 GiB wired, no swap.
Next to the Mac mini
| Mac Work Book Pro | Home Mac mini | |
|---|---|---|
| Chip | Apple M5 Pro | Apple M6 |
| CPU | 18 cores: 6 Super (16 MB L2), 12 Performance (8 MB L2) | 12 cores: 2 Super, 4 Performance, 6 Efficiency |
| GPU | 20 cores | 12 cores |
| Memory | 48 GB Micron | 16 GB Samsung |
| Internal SSD | 1 TB | 512 GB |
| Thunderbolt | Thunderbolt 5, 80 of 120 Gb/s in use | Thunderbolt 4, 40 Gb/s |
"Performance" is the lower of two tiers on the M5 Pro but the middle of three on the M6. Neither scan reports clock speeds.