Splitframe

Review with XPS 15:

http://www.ultrabookreview.com/10761-razer-core-review/

7 hours ago, Dschijn said:

The Razer Core starts to ship to the first people today. Can't wait to see the first reviews.

Yeah read that too on the forums.

I sure hope they think about testing other TB3 enabled notebooks as well.

If this comes at a reasonable price and with Charge over Thunderbolt it would be a good competitor.

AKiTiO confirms that the second USB-C port can be used for USB connections ( and not only Displays or Thunderbolt Daisy-Chain ):

So it would be possible to add a USB3 Dock for extra peripherals. 

If the standalone is 300$ or more, which I really think it will be, the Razer Core could still be a viable deal.

You'd still need a 30$ Dock for more USB ports and LAN, a PSU like the Dell one or a XB360 one and you
would still not be able to charge your notebook with it ( XPS 13/15, Razer Stealth'16 ).

I really hope they bring their own eGPU version of this, maybe the DisplayPort is a sign.
The eGPU Version could have a USB hub and LAN + Audio where the DisplayPort now is.

For 300$ it would be a real alternative to the RazerCore.

Still I'm disappointed at the price tag.

I hope we get a cheaper AkiTiO solution or at least something like the Thunder2 Box
that we can hack ourselves into submission.

Damn that's a bit much. I hoped for 299 max :/

Maybe there will be bundles with GPUs at a bit cheaper price point.

Acer announced a small Dock for Thunderbolt 3 devices, it has a build-in GTX960M.

http://www.notebookcheck.com/Acer-Graphics-Dock-eGPU-Dock-bringt-Notebooks-mehr-Grafikleistung-via-Thunderbolt-3.161313.0.html

I could only find the german article.

For a PSU I can also recommend the 197W Xbox 360 PSUs. They also have 5V1A Vsb for your USB enhancing needs.

The A4 from Dan Cases would really be perfect.
You could use the Motherboard space for 3,5" Archive HDDs.

yeah, I've been eyeballing the 592G for a while now.

But the Battery life really puts me off, plus all models are about 200$ more expensive
here in Europe.

The 592G runs with a 3 cell 48Wh Battery at 10.8V I wonder if I can
use the 9 Cell of a XPS 15 with 84Wh. I could only use a M2 SSD and
use the SATA space for the additional Cells. Maybe 3D print myself a new
casing for the cells hmmm...

With all the news about the Razer Core and the AKiTiO products I wondered which
notebook I'd buy. I already saw the candidate list in the sticky post ( thanks for that )
but most of them didn't quite fit my criteria.

I'd love a notebook that:

• is equal or less than 22mm thick 
• very sturdy 
• has a working time of 6 or more hours
• only has an iGPU
• only one M.2-M NVMe slot.
• 14" or 15.6"
• i7-6700HQ
• QHD or UHD
• 2.2kg or less
• TB3
• "switchable graphics" or just eGPU certified
• optional: power over TB3

I know "working time" is different for a lot of people, but I guess if a review
would measure 6 hours in their WiFi tests that would be okay.

So I wondered if I'd find notebooks from the Haswell and Broadwell generation that
had not yet received a Skylake and/or Thunderbolt 3 treatment, but came up short there too.

The only candidates were some really expensive buisness notebooks.

Do you think a notebook like above will be released?

It doesn't need to fit all criterias to a T.
What would you like your eGPU Notebook to have?
Do you have a specific model in mind that you would love to see

with TB3?
Let me know in the comments bel... wait wrong place.

5 hours ago, Dschijn said:

This seems to be the successor of the Thunder2, right?

[...]

Nice find!

I can't wait :3

2 hours ago, Morv said:

 

I don't see how a Nvidia dGPU is supposed to be necessary for switchable eGPU graphics. They've got nothing to do with each other. The activated Intel iGPU is important. Therefore if one is solely interested in having a eGPU-at-home-able light but still powerful notebook he'd search for a notebook with Intel i7 CPU and no discrete graphics at all.

 

 

Besides that, Nvidia has implemented beta support for upcoming Thunderbolt 3 eGPUs

 

" Gaming Technology
Beta support on GeForce GTX GPUs for external graphics over Thunderbolt 3 "

 

in their latest driver version 361.75 WHQL.

I just assumed that "switchable graphics" was a bios feature that allowed to switch between graphics cards

and that Notebooks that already feature a dGPU and iGPU need that feature anyway.

I, too, hope that notebooks with no dGPU and switchable graphics support come out that are lightweight, but still pack a punch with a 6700hq.

But the specs of the Acer, for example, still look very promising even with the 960m, but then again... it's Acer and I don't know 
if the Nitro Black Edition  is more on the side of the other Aspires or Travelmates in term of build quality.

Time will tell I guess, can't wait for the Thunder 3 Box from Akitio.

On 1/12/2016 at 9:21 AM, EpicBlob said:

 

This seems to mean that even if a laptop has thunderbolt 3, it may not have the proper support for an external TB3 chassis. Wondering if the Acer V15 Nitro Black Edition which is I believe the cheapest thunderbolt 3 laptop (6700hq processor, 1080p screen, 8gb ram, 960m for $850 on amazon and newegg) wouldnt work with a chassis unless they updated the BIOS.

Like you said the V15 Nitro BE has a GTX 960m. So it already has switchable graphics doesn't it?
So it should be possible to use the razer core.

Or am I wrong there?

I did a litle PCI-E (16x ,8x 4x 1x, 1.Gen 2.Gen 3.Gen) comparison.

And the conclusion is, that Thunderbolt 3 would work for a long Time, actually HighEnd graphic cards like GTX980 don't use the full bandwith.

Lets have fun with eGPUs.

Thanks for the graphs!

I hope I'll be able to get a XPS 15 or comparable slim Notebook with a 6700HQ and TB3

without dGPU and 6+ hours battery life.

Come home, plug 1 TB3 cable in and voila, power, eGPU, monitors, keyboard, mouse, sound, ethernet.

Totally hyped.

Hey,

I was very thrilled to read that the EXP GDC V7 supports M.2 ( NGFF ),but the product info and picture suggest that

it uses the A-Notch interface. Sadly nearly every notebook comes with a B-Notch socket.

Does anybody know if a B-Notch release is planned?

I tried the PCI-EMM060B with Ferrit cores on both ends, but I still don't get to Gen2 Speeds.

@Splitframe

Hi dude!

By this time I'm sure you are aware of that the new cable (PCIEMM-060B) is not GEN2, with that I just want to say that your work is still very important so please don't give up.

I have issued a complaint against their advertisement regarding this cable and asked them to make me a sample of this proposed setup.

Is that something you (that seems to have greater soldering skills than me) would like to approach?

I could send you a PCIEMM-060B cable if you would like to? (ordered 2x of those and that's pretty wasted money anyway).

Hi,

thank you

I have some things in mind to "boost" the signal quality a bit.

I noticed that the femare hdmi ports are poorly soldered and I want to buy a ferrit core.

If this all fails I'll come back to your offer, since I also thought about soldering one end of

the new cable directly to the adapter.

Although I would solder one end to the PM3N or EC2C rather than to the PE4L.

Hi Xxxxxx,
Good afternoon.
Actually, base on our test, the PE4H+PCIE-MM060B can work with PCIe GEN 2.0(we also test with GPU-Z).
So I don’t know why it can’t work with your system.
Maybe it’s signals quality.
As you know PE4L signal quality is better than PE4H V2.4a.
PE4H V2.4a+PCIE-MM060A only can support to Gen1
PE4H V2.4a+PCIE-MM060B only can support to Gen2 (some system)
(*Because PCIE-MM060B signal quality is better than PCIE-MM060A)

PE4L V2.1 can support to Gen3 (some system)
(*Because PE4L have no more connecter for PCIe signals)

If you have any question ,please feel free contact me.
Thank you very much.
Best Regards,
Xxxxx

[/code]

OK, well if you get more time, please run some more tests to see if it's something that can be fixed with a bit of tweaking, or not at all.

So well, I tried a few things.

PCI Compaction and what not.

It still refuses to run at Gen2.

The effect is exactly the same as I had before.

My PE4L can (was able) to run at Gen2 so I do not think that the issue is on the Notebook's side.

Two little things that bug me:

1. In both modes, working Gen1 and not working Gen2, the GPU is allocated normally.

In working Gen2 mode it is allocated in the Big Memory section.

2. In Setup 1.X the eGPU shows up like this: "p2 x1.2: NVidia [email protected]"

What steps did you use to test this? Did you conifugre Setup 1.x or your BIOS to use Gen2? Also, did you do any benchmarks, or did you only check GPU-Z while the GPU was idle?

It's not that I don't believe you, it's that you've provided no proof whatsoever that the cable fails Gen2 compatibility.

I don't have much time, for short I have the same issues like when I soldered my own HDMI Hot Plug cable.

The Device Manager recognizes the GTX 560, but the NV Control Panel and CudaZ do not.

All Graphics run from the iGPU ( HD4K ).

When I set it to Gen1 Speed everything works.

I just tested the new PCIE-MM-060B cable with a PE4H 2.4a ( PM3N 1.1 ) and it's NOT Gen2 compatible.

Since they advertised so on their site, can I claim a refund?

I love the effort you're putting into to this man!

I'm a bit confused by your new approach, wouldn't that be back to square one?

PE4L<[sOLDER POINT]>--------------[HDMI-CABLE]---------------<[sOLDER POINT]>PM3N

Please keep up the good work!

EDIT: By the way, I ordered 2x PHAT->SLIM adapters, took two wires (incl. connection) from one and pushed them straight into to the second ones two empty wire sockets (like a glove).

That might be interesting for you as well =)

Thanks

It would look like this:

Extension cable: [Male HDMI]>-------------------------<[Female HDMI]

Cut the extension cable in two.

PE4L<[solder Point]>----------<[Male HDMI]> <[Female HDMI]>-----------<[PM3N]::[Notebook]

I don't quite get what you mean with Phat to slim adapters, PCI-E or mPCI-e?

can please upload a photo to explain that

Sorry, I didn't notice that you asked me a question, see my answer below.

Nice job, please upload some pictures. I guess you're limited to Gen1 speed?

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

Also I found this PCIe-gen2-extender, that could do it with some modification?

Hi, for pictures see the "Discontinued attemps" section of the blog:

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/3579-lenovo-s430-pe4l-2-1b-xbox-360-psu-case%3B-egpu-blog.html

I don't know if Gen1 would have worked since I have not Setup 1.x to set the Link speed.

I will now use another approach, I'll cut a extension cable ( M -> F ) and solder the ends

to the PE4L and PM3N. I hope that a single Socket to Plug connection won't be too much

impedance variation. If it doesn't work I'll settle with Gen1 speed :/