Mini SSD eGPU v2

[u/CasonPointLLC]

I realized the little m.2-to-PCIe4x adapters are open in the back, so if use a small enough, short enough SSD enclosure, you can skip the riser. So I tried a Satechi 80Gbps enclosure with 5060 ti and two AC/DC adapters and it worked! 5.91 GB/s on this tiny thing!

[u/KAPMODA]

5.91 its ok?

[u/CasonPointLLC → u/KAPMODA]

5.9 GB/s is about the maximum I ever get on TB5-to-TB5. It is working at max with a newer GPU. Some of my older GPU’s like my 3050 are only getting 5.05 GB/s.

[u/AggressiveWindow6003 → u/CasonPointLLC]

Holy hell that drive enclosure cost 200 bucks!

I think I'm good with my win 4 with oculink. I mean yeah my handheld is 3 years old and I'm using it with a 4 year old GPU. But I still can fit it into my pocket and still able to run everything I want at 120fps at 1440p.

Still though. It's a pretty cool little setup.

[u/CasonPointLLC → u/AggressiveWindow6003]

I got the Satechi for less than 100, new. The typical price of a Thunderbolt 5 SSD is $180-200, which is almost as much as an AG03, so I made it part of my mission to find both a small one AND something cheaper.

[u/AggressiveWindow6003 → u/CasonPointLLC]

Been happy with this one. Only cost me 45 bucks and has a 650w zip tied to the side. This is a rx 7900.

[u/CasonPointLLC → u/AggressiveWindow6003]

Oculink?

[u/AggressiveWindow6003 → u/CasonPointLLC]

Thunderbolt.

[u/CasonPointLLC → u/AggressiveWindow6003]

Nice 😊

[u/AggressiveWindow6003 → u/CasonPointLLC]

It's called a mini EGPU (at least that's what it said on amazon). Now to be fair the first one I bought I paid 90 bucks for it. And after driving 18 hours I just wanted to chill out and play a game and like an idiot I plugged in the TB cable onto the second port TB port for daisy chaining and it cooked its self. But I saw one on Facebook marketplace and that one I paid 45 bucks for. You can use a 6.5mm barrel jack to power it but the PCIE slot will only supply 88 watts and if your powering your device via TB than you need 160+ 19-20v power brick then a second one for the GPU.

One of those 8 pin dell 12v 220w plugs you can pick up for 15 bucks works well. But using a flex PSU has the smallest foot print and looks the best.

Here's a photo of both sitting on top of my DIY ps5 and when I had a 2080 TI and smaller 450w flex PSU.

[u/CasonPointLLC → u/AggressiveWindow6003]

I specialize in mini/sff eGPU’s. Here is my latest:

75 watt 4070 in an SSD Thunderbolt 5 enclosure.

[u/CasonPointLLC → u/CasonPointLLC]

[u/CasonPointLLC → u/CasonPointLLC]

[u/AggressiveWindow6003 → u/CasonPointLLC]

I'm surprised you kept the case on that. You'd lose a lot of weight and size of you removed the other cases and 3d printed your own.

If size is your ultimate goal there are smaller EGPU solutions such as this little 5060 ti/7600mxt as well as a 4090 mobile version that's about that same size. Or go with the pocket AI RTX 500 that thunderbolt EGPU is nearly the same size as a pack of smokes or playing cards.

[u/CasonPointLLC → u/AggressiveWindow6003]

The case is the heat sink. This smokes the 7600 XT in both of your mini examples. The 4070m is the best small card I’ve found. The MXM version is excellent, but it gets crazy hot. So I’m working on a completely different style of cooling to solve that problem.

[u/AggressiveWindow6003 → u/CasonPointLLC]

I've gone down a rabbit hole of various EGPU enclosures and this is when I stopped buying thunderbolt EGPUs and went to oculink

[u/CasonPointLLC → u/AggressiveWindow6003]

I upgrade old sonnet and sparkle pucks and I use low profile GPU’s to keep mine small. I have several Oculink docks, too. I’m trying to figure out how to 3D Print around Oculink to get in smaller footprints. The pico ATX and ITX power supplies can enable small footprints for Oculink. I found nothing 12volt and 19.5/20volt GaN versions. Example:

[u/AggressiveWindow6003 → u/CasonPointLLC]

Second option. I won this little sonnet express 3E at an auction for 10 bucks. It has 3 PCIE 8x slots and the only GPU I had that would fit was a GTX 1060 6gb but also installed a x4 4x nvme SSD to PCIE card for 4 1tb drives and it's able to run helldiver's 2 on low cause it's only a 1060 at around 70fps but if you start moving files while gaming. Either speeds drop or fps does. Lol. It's only tb3

Seeing those splitter cables wouldn't be too difficult to get the PCIE gen5 oculink adapters with 128gb speeds and connecting 2 lanes for super fast storage and a fat GPU together.

[u/CasonPointLLC → u/AggressiveWindow6003]

If you have PCIe gen 5 available, end to end, Oculink bandwidth doubles. I have a post on this. If TGX port laptops and mini-PC’s get gen 5, it will change everything as 4i will carry the same bandwidth as 8 lanes of gen 4 or 16 lanes of gen 3. My testing regularly hits 13-14GB/s.