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Intro The Alienware Graphics Amplifier- Probably the best implementation of an eGPU enclosure that has ever existed, and at about $130 "like new" on eBay, it's a bargain compared to other PCIe enclosures like the Akitio Thunder 2 and Sonnet Echo Express, especially when you consider it comes with a 460-watt PSU (and two 6-pin PCIe connectors that can separate to two 4-pin connectors). Fantastic. Obviously, though, it uses a proprietary Alienware PCIe port, making is just about useless to people like us who, if we had Alienware computers, probably wouldn't need an eGPU in the first place. I was curious how the Alienware GA did its magic, I figured it couldn't be all that different from how the Akitio Thunder 2 and others like it do their Thunderbolt-to-PCIe thing. So I scoured the Internet for some high-res pics of the inside of the GA, and finally found some. Similar, indeed, it has inside it a simple PCB with two PCIe slots: 1 PCIe x8 (which is backwards!) for the proprietary port and 4 USB 3.0 ports, and 1 PCIe x16 slot for a full-length, full-height, double-width GPU. I finally got the GA in the mail today, so I could look at the circuits up-close and see just how proprietary that x8 card with the proprietary port is. From what I can tell, not very. The circuits (sorry if this isn't the official term, but the lines you can see on the board running from component to component) from the proprietary port run mostly to the PCIe x8 slot, where they then go over to the PCIe x16 slot. Both slots, by the way, receive power directly from the ATX connector from the PSU, so in the case of the x16 slot, you have some circuits running to the ATX connector and the rest going straight to the x8 slot. My thinking is that the purposes of the x8 card are to, aside from doing a pass-through of the PCIe connection to an Alienware laptop, control the power state of the GA (turn it on and off) and of course control the USB 3.0 hub (that's what most of the ICs on the board appear to be for). I'm assuming that if the detection method for the proprietary connector is anything, anything of substance, it is something we will have to work around when we take that proprietary x8 card out. Fortunately, it may be possible to simply tape down the power supply's reset button which, if one holds it down, causes the GA to essentially power on- the fan in the PSU spins, as does the fan in the front of the GA. The Alienware logo on the front, however, does not turn on, so I'm thinking that's controlled by the x8 card as well. The Plan So I mentioned earlier that I will be replacing that proprietary x8 card, and you may guess with a Thunderbolt to PCIe x4 card. There's another thread here on "https://jatsby.com/echo/eGPU/Thunderbolt%202%20AIC.pdf"]ASRock Thunder II Manual