Hi - I'm a bit of a novice and I'd be grateful of any suggestions.

Setup: MBA M1 and StarTech Thunderbolt dock (1 TB USB-c and 1 USB-A 3.0)

I currently have a HDD for TimeMachine, connected via USB-A to my dock. I'd like to add more external storage (desktop, not portable).

I've decided the new storage will be SSD or NVMe in an enclosure. Is there a clear winner between these two for Mac? (I can do the price comparison, so I'm thinking more about any technical expertise.)

I'm presuming the best way to connect will be via my thunderbolt port on the StarTech hub. Is there any benefit from splitting the Thunderbolt port with some sort of hub to connect other devices with Thunderbolt? I'm not sure this is possible and I don't really have much of a need for it today, but maybe in the future.

Thanks for any help you can provide, even if it's just pointing me to other threads or articles on this topic.