Best BRAND of bare 1-2 TB SSD for $99 OWC Drive Dock hooked up to Mac Studio computer?

Keep in mind that a 2.5” SATA SSDs in that Dock will only do somewhere around 500 MB/s which in way slower than the Mac Studio’s internal storage.

What I would do is run from the Mac Studio’s internal storage. Then get two SSDs for the Dock. One SSD to store my larger libraries on and a second to backup the first.

That way you can use most any Crucial, OWC, WD or PNY SSD(s) in the Dock.

I use Samsung and WD SSD drives and they work fine. There are plenty of other SSD's that also work without issue but I would stay away from Sandisk for speed reasons.

Oh, THAT kind of drive dock:

That is sometimes referred to as a "toaster", because the drives sit upright like 2 slices of toast.

That drive has two SATA connectors inside, so you need 2.5-in or 3.5-in SATA drives, typically Rotating magnetic drives. Few vendors offer SSD drives in those formats, but OWC is probably the most notable.

Other than Seagate drives having a reputation for being noisy, choose whatever you wish.

If you are going to boot from the external I would use an SSD in a USB-3 enclosure or use a NVME drive in a TB enclosure for max speeds.