These boxes are still way too expensive. They're just a PSU, case, and thunderbolt controller; even $300 is silly pricy when you can buy entire laptops for the same price. I was hoping and honestly expecting the Chinese to release el-cheapo TB3 eGPU enclosures but unfortunately that has not happened.
Gigabyte's are very reasonable by comparison, a GTX 1070 with the enclosure, PSU and USB hub for $579.00. Asking $499 for just the enclosure + PSU is just... yes, silly.
I have one (bought it when it was $599) and I love it paired with my ThinkPad T470. Since it includes a GTX 1070 the price seemed reasonable to me and at the $569 it is an even better deal IMHO compared to the other options out there.
It is crazy that after so many years we finally have legitimate eGPU options, woot!
It's a niche case....if you own a nice portable laptop and don't want to have a gaming desktop and portable laptop but still want to game this is your only option. Not defending the price or sense behind it (I just use portable laptop and have a gaming desktop!) but if money weren't a thing for me and I could have a razer laptop with 1-2TB of SSD storage I might spring for this and have a good keyboard/mouse plugged in.
The cool factor of taking a quadcore coffee lake thin/light ultrabook and plugging it into an external enclosure and-- with a single cable-- powering the laptop, getting a bunch of extra USB ports, audio out, ethernet, and an external GPU is substantial, and worth a price premium. But not a FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR price premium.
It's not a cool factor. It clearly meets the need of someone that wants to dock their laptop and have the graphics performance of a desktop. It's very functional.
Dell Optiplex 9020 with an i7-4770 and 16gb Ram can be found for around $200, $250 if you don't have the patience to look around. Can then grab yourself some sata to PCie adapters (unless the Dell PSU has a plug, not sure) and a GTX 1060 6gb card for $250 (cheaper if you buy used). Have yourself a pretty decent little gaming rig, can easily handle 1080p 60fps on some pretty decent graphics settings.
If you didn't want to dick around with sata to PCIe power cables and want a faster boot time, you can go with a 1050ti 4gb card for $150 and pick up a 120gb - 240gb SSD for $100.
Mmmm good try, but an Optiplex 9020 does not have the power for 1060 Stock and its going to have trouble stuffing the card in there room wise and does not have proper cooling for it.
The Razer Core and other E-GPU's price is an early adopter price that fits a niche set of users but it makes perfect sense.
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schizoide - Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - link
These boxes are still way too expensive. They're just a PSU, case, and thunderbolt controller; even $300 is silly pricy when you can buy entire laptops for the same price. I was hoping and honestly expecting the Chinese to release el-cheapo TB3 eGPU enclosures but unfortunately that has not happened.BreakArms - Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - link
Gigabyte's are very reasonable by comparison, a GTX 1070 with the enclosure, PSU and USB hub for $579.00. Asking $499 for just the enclosure + PSU is just... yes, silly.schizoide - Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - link
IMO, $300 is just barely reasonable. Anything more is crazy expensive.coolhardware - Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - link
FYI they actually dropped it to $569 on Amazon, link: http://amzn.to/2iPWgEsI have one (bought it when it was $599) and I love it paired with my ThinkPad T470. Since it includes a GTX 1070 the price seemed reasonable to me and at the $569 it is an even better deal IMHO compared to the other options out there.
It is crazy that after so many years we finally have legitimate eGPU options, woot!
damianrobertjones - Wednesday, November 1, 2017 - link
$599 is reasonable? It's not, sorry, as it's still just a box with a card.remosito - Wednesday, November 1, 2017 - link
depends on the price of the card, no? Maybe you should go and check how much a 1070 costs and then do some simple mathschizoide - Wednesday, November 1, 2017 - link
Yeah, $220 is totally reasonable and where I hoped the normal prices would be by now. I assume you got some sort of special deal.apleks - Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - link
Can someone comment on the fan noise compared to the Razer Core v1?sorten - Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - link
Unlikely given that the v2 isn't available. In the grid in the article, AT doesn't even know the specs for the fans.WorldWithoutMadness - Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - link
Lol, Intel has made the licensing free yet they make the stuff even more expensive than ever. A box can buy a good GPUIf AMD can make something standardized to tone the price down, coupled with new APU, they could make ton of money.
nerd1 - Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - link
With $499 one can get decent Case + PSU + MB + CPU... who in right mind will buy this?ATC9001 - Wednesday, November 1, 2017 - link
It's a niche case....if you own a nice portable laptop and don't want to have a gaming desktop and portable laptop but still want to game this is your only option. Not defending the price or sense behind it (I just use portable laptop and have a gaming desktop!) but if money weren't a thing for me and I could have a razer laptop with 1-2TB of SSD storage I might spring for this and have a good keyboard/mouse plugged in.schizoide - Wednesday, November 1, 2017 - link
Yeah, that's the problem in a nutshell.The cool factor of taking a quadcore coffee lake thin/light ultrabook and plugging it into an external enclosure and-- with a single cable-- powering the laptop, getting a bunch of extra USB ports, audio out, ethernet, and an external GPU is substantial, and worth a price premium. But not a FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR price premium.
Dynamiteboy - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 - link
It's not a cool factor. It clearly meets the need of someone that wants to dock their laptop and have the graphics performance of a desktop. It's very functional.remosito - Wednesday, November 1, 2017 - link
depends on the price of the card, no? Maybe you should go and check how much a 1070 costs and then do some simple mathzodiacfml - Saturday, November 4, 2017 - link
What gaming PC specs can you build from $500?wolfemane - Sunday, November 5, 2017 - link
Dell Optiplex 9020 with an i7-4770 and 16gb Ram can be found for around $200, $250 if you don't have the patience to look around. Can then grab yourself some sata to PCie adapters (unless the Dell PSU has a plug, not sure) and a GTX 1060 6gb card for $250 (cheaper if you buy used). Have yourself a pretty decent little gaming rig, can easily handle 1080p 60fps on some pretty decent graphics settings.If you didn't want to dick around with sata to PCIe power cables and want a faster boot time, you can go with a 1050ti 4gb card for $150 and pick up a 120gb - 240gb SSD for $100.
Dynamiteboy - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 - link
Mmmm good try, but an Optiplex 9020 does not have the power for 1060 Stock and its going to have trouble stuffing the card in there room wise and does not have proper cooling for it.The Razer Core and other E-GPU's price is an early adopter price that fits a niche set of users but it makes perfect sense.
MacScientist - Monday, November 13, 2017 - link
The Node eGFX has Max GPU Power of 375W.MarciaNeill - Sunday, December 8, 2019 - link
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