samuelkneppel

Thanks again for the info enjoy.

I am not sure how to modify the power supply in order for it to connect to the expansion box. I am planning on using either a Dell DA-2 220W or xBox 360 power supply. Do you know of any good, simple, step-by-step tutorials on this forum? I have little to no electrical experience so some of the tutorials here are too complicated for me.

From what I understand, once the power supply is set up correct, it is just plug and play from there. Well that and then installing the drivers.

4 hours ago, enjoy said:

 

I have the same Macbook and you will play with 60FPS on very high/ultra settings all games even with TB1 :)! 

 

I wait for the new macbook but after i see the price and the funny Radeon 460 4GB performance i chose to build EGPU with Akitio and EVGA 1060 6GB Gaming SC mini - its fit in the Akitio case!

 

I start now to order the parts i want to build with Dell DA-2 220W because i want to move the setup easy from home to work in the weekends (i have own business):

 

Akitio Thunder2 - 3kg

Dell DA-2 220W - 1kg

EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING, ACX 2.0 (Single Fan), 6GB GDDR5 - 1kg

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

weight 5kg

 

1. all setup ~ 600$

 

2. our rMBP mid 2012 = now is 800$

 

3. The new Macbook Pro 15 with 256GB and Radeon 460 - 2600$ 

 

you save 2000$ for no ports mac and touch bar and you will have better game performance! 

Nice setup enjoy!  I am glad you are happy with it and it works.

My only concern is the fact that  I do not have a Retina MacBook, only a regular 2012 MacBook Pro. However, that should not make a difference in this case since they both use TB1, right?

Thanks for the information kxplus.

Another question for anyone else reading this thread that has experience building an eGPU: is it worth it with my current MacBook? I currently have a mid 2012 MacBook Pro. I believe that year MacBook only has TB1. So, I believe that there will definitely be a bottleneck of some sort that will limit its performance, I am just not sure how much it will be limited.

Thanks for the info kxplus.

I will point out that I have a mid 2012 MacBook Pro, so my computer is only equipped with TB1 so I believe bottlenecking would happen with both enclosures.

B&H has the Akitio enclosure for $219, about $80 more expensive than the ThunderTek enclosure minus shipping.

How much did your Akitio enclosure cost?

Thank you benjaminlsr.

I noticed someone else posted about a box that is more than $50 cheaper than the Akitio Thunder2: 

Does anyone have any experience with this? Will a GTX 1060 fix within this enclosure? If so, how much modification would be needed in order to make it work? Would you recommend this box over the Akitio one?

Thanks again for your help guys, just trying to figure out exactly what I want to do.

Thank you both for your quick response.

14 hours ago, benjaminlsr said:

Yes. Both ZOTAC 1060 Mini or EVGA 1060 Mini fits in the Akitio Thunder2/3 chassis.

You'll need a power brick from either a XBOX 360 PSU or DELL-DA2 PSU (plenty of tutorials here).

benjaminlsr, I am not sure where to find tutorials on how to use the power brick from an Xbox 360 on this forum. Could you point me in the right direction?

Hello all,

I am new to this forum so I apologize in advance if this question is in the wrong place or has already answered elsewhere.

I am thinking about setting up my 13 inch mid 2012 non-retina MacBook Pro with an eGPU.

I considering an EVGA GeForce GTX 1060, similar to this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487267

I am also considering an AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe box since it is not too expensive: http://a.co/7TsdwNH

I know I will need an power supply of some sort as well but am not sure what I want to get yet since I am new to all of this (any suggestions are welcome).

So, my main question is, with the GTX 1060 fit in the Thunder2 box without modification? 

I also request that if anyone knows of a cheaper thunderbolt 2 box out there please let me know. I would like to set up this GPU as cost effectively as possible.

Thank you in advance for your help!