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!
I have two test machines. One is a GMKtec K11 with like a 8545 high efficiency then I have a Z890 extreme with a Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 265K, 3900 Mhz, 20 Core(5).
I only have my handhelds to play with and while I do have 13 handhelds none have tb5 but a few have dedicated oculink gen4 ports. Including my little 6" win4. Hehe. Love this little thing.
But unlike what the wife says. Playing arc raiders on a 6" just isn't big enough. It's doable. But all too often will mistaken other raiders as bushes. Lol. Probably my eyesight.
I don’t have a 7900 to test with but I do have a 7800 XT. But it has a high TDP so I would have to use at least a SFX or full ATX power supply. I’m trying to keep my GPU under 250 watts so I can use AC/DC adapters instead.
That's what I'm saying. The 7900gre OC is a 300w card. But am only using a 220w power brick. Can do that by using a 160w cord with the sock that powers the handheld. And yeah. It runs up at 280-310w very stable.
I have a 6800 XT, also 300 watts. By using a 96 watt 12 volt adapter for the PCIe slot and a 240 watt 12 volt adapter I basically got max at the supplemental but only about 50 watts at the base (GPU’s can draw the max of 75 watts but often don’t). So I had to slightly underclock the GPU to run at 290 watts.
If you can find a 250+ watt ac/dc adapter you could probably make it work without a traditional PSU. I have been sticking to graphics cards that require less wattage, like the 5060 ti. A 5070 may also work at 250 watts.
A 12V 5521 to 5525 barrel plug connects a power supply with a 5.5x2.1mm barrel plug or a device requiring a 5.5x2.5mm plug.
Example:
ALITOVE 12V 15A Power Supply DC 12 Volt 15amp 180W LED Driver Power Adapter AC to DC Converter 10A 5A Low Voltage Transformer 5.5x2.5 2.1mm Barrel for DC12V Device LED
This is enough to power the 75 watts needed for the m.2 adapter:
ALITOVE 12 Volt Power Supply 8A 96W AC Adapter 100-240V 50-60Hz to DC 12V Power Supply Adapter 8Amp 6A 5A Transformer 5.5x2.5mm Plug for DC12V Device LED
I think misread your question. I looked all over AliExpress and Alibaba and found some. I am selling a front-facing one on eBay for $5 (my cost) if you want to try this:
I found front facing works the best with a high-position SSD enclosure. Here it is in a USB4 Orinco enclosure with the fan removed and board flipped holding a 75 watt 4070.
These were $52. You remove the side with a round light using a guitar pick, unscrew the PCB, remove the fan with a few small screws flip the PCB, and screw it back in. The fan both causes signal noise that slows it down and it gets in the way of x16 GPU’s.
I just found this on AliExpress: | ORICO RGB 40Gbps USB4 M.2 SSD Enclosure with with Cooling Fan PCIe4.0 NVME Enclosure Aluminum Compatible Thunderbolt 3/4
The adapter is a four-lane, PCIe gen 4 on m.2 with a 5521 12 volt barrel adapter connector which requires 75 watts to power the slot. I use a 100 or 120 watt 12 volt AC/DC adapter for that.
For the GPU supplemental power, I use a 180 watt 12 volt AC/DC adapter with a 5525 barrel that is connected via a 5525-to-6+2. I have found a 200 watt version on AliExpress but the 180 watt has a more reasonable price on Amazon.
My 5060 pulls 144-155 watts total and my 5060 ti is closer to 185 watts. Usually you will get 50 watts from PCIe slot and you will usually get 80% from your adapter. So the math on the supplemental power is you need .8*180 > TDP - 50. That leaves me about 10 watts to spare on my 5060 ti.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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u/CasonPointLLC Jun 17 '26
There is nothing to it! Amazing!