2013 13" MBP + GTX980@16Gbps-TB2 (Netstor NA211TB) + Win8.1/OSX10.10 [goalque]

[euqlaog]

Discussing with Netstor Technology, I convinced that their Thunderbolt 2 to PCIe expansion enclosure was capable of running high-end GPUs, and ordered one to introduce. The product name is Netstor NA211TB. They recently updated the PSU to provide 300W output, shared by three free PCIe slots, where one PCIe 2.0 x8 slot is open ended, supporting double wide PCIe x16 cards. 4th slot is reserved for a Thunderbolt card. What makes this device unique is the auxiliary power cable configuration: two PCIe 6+2pin and one 4pin cable. As far as I know, none of the competitors provide that as of yet. You are not restricted to low-power Maxwell architecture cards, and moreover, there is one slot free beside double wide GPU, making it possible to mount for example PCIe SSD. No extra power supply, case or cable modding, or warranty-voiding methods. Just simply setting up and keeping desk tidy.

My testing setup consists of the following components:

• Netstor NA211TB (Thunderbolt 2, 300W), also marketed by HighPoint Technologies
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980
• Apple MacBook Pro 13” Retina, 2.4Ghz Intel Core i5 (Late 2013) on Windows 8.1 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite (14A389)
• Apple 2m Thunderbolt cable
• Samsung 28” UHD LED Monitor (U28D590D)
• Display Port cable

Optional: Silverstone Strider ST45SF-G 450W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply (v. 2.0)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13040[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13041[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13048[/ATTACH]

At first sight the outer shells are made of sturdy and well finished aluminium, resembling surface of the Mac computers. Cards are easy to install by removing the upper shell. Keeping a GTX 980 reference card in my hands feels like a real brick compared to other GPUs I have had. It’s a perfect companion with this case, because of the blower style fan. If you chose a card having sink plates vertically that would most likely result in heat problems because there are no upper air vents. Therefore, a reference card or a GPU cooler that blows hot air horizontally is recommended. The reference GTX 980 is noticeably more silent than the EVGA GTX 780 w/ ACX cooler, and the minor buzzing sounds from the electronic parts won’t disturb at higher frame rates. There is a hot-swappable 80mm fan in front of the box, which speed can be adjusted. The only drawback is the 300W PSU, which is very loud during heavy gaming and for my ears, it’s quite loud on idle as well. Tiny 4cm fan spinning fast cannot be very silent. Netstor has got my feedback, and they will discuss with engineers to find balance between temperature and fan speeds. Except the noise, I didn’t found much more disadvantages to say.

So how to solve this noise issue? Well, I have very good news for those who are DIY enthusiasts. The PCIe board has a standard 24pin power connector and I was able run this box with the Silverstone’s SFX 450W PSU and modified power cable. I surprised that it was more silent with the GTX 980 than with the GTX 780. The reason must be lower power consumption.

You can run the GPU in any of the free three slots: SLOT3 (open-ended x8), SLOT2 (x8 with a riser) and SLOT1 (x4, open-ended). If the PCIe card you like to install in SLOT1 has x8 or x16 golden fingers, SW1-2 must be switched to ON position. SW-1 switched to OFF means that SLOT1 will run as PCIe Gen2 signal. Slot numbers are marked on PCIe board. I didn’t notice performance drop when running GPU on SLOT1, but it was just a quick test and of course in this case the PCIe board has to be removed out of the enclosure. Does the SFX size PSU fit inside the enclosure? It does fit in front of the case if you first remove some parts as shown below:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13042[/ATTACH]

Unfortunately upper metal bars and side cables cannot fit inside and another problem is the location of AC power plug. Both problems might be solved by using a shorter GPU and turning the PSU to position where power cables point out front and AC plug back. However, cooling the case becomes concern, because the PSU blocks airflow. This is a temporary solution to keep my system quiet. The original PSU can be removed out to make more room for the cables underneath.

How about performance? Let’s the numbers tell their story:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13043[/ATTACH]

3DMark Vantage: 32677 (graphics) 3DMark11: 13585 (graphics) 3DMark Fire Strike: 10918 (graphics)

Unigine Valley Benchmark 1.0 (GTX 780 OC 6GB / GTX 980 comparison on Yosemite)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13044[/ATTACH]	[ATTACH=CONFIG]13045[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]13046[/ATTACH]	[ATTACH=CONFIG]13047[/ATTACH]

Setup procedure for Win8.1

• Install Win8.1 on Boot Camp partition.
• After installing Windows, download and install all the Windows updates.
• Check if you already have latest Boot Camp drivers and if not, download and install them (Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5640)
• Install a device driver for Samsung UHD 28” Monitor: Support - UHD Monitors U28D590D | Samsung Monitors
• Install Optimus support: [URL]http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/8106-%5Bwip%5D-2013-13-macbook-pro-gtx760%4016gbps-tb2-akitio-thunder2-win8-1-osx10-10-a.html#post110489
[/URL]
• After successfully logged in Windows and seeing the GPU as basic display adapter under device manager, install the latest Nvidia drivers (344.48).

Big thanks to @Evo* for discovering 100% Optimus detection method. You just need to boot alt/option key down and select Win8.1 partition.

The step 5 is almost compulsory in order to log in Windows. If you are seeing basic display adapter in device manager instead of Iris, reinstall Boot Camp Support software and Nvidia drivers, both Iris and GTX 980 will be listed there then.

If you happen to have preinstalled Nvidia drivers and haven't done step 5, both internal and external screen will stay black when GTX 980 is attached to SLOT3, but in SLOT1 external screen should show up. So you can reinstall Nvidia drivers in SLOT1, then again in SLOT3, and GTX 980 should be detected via DVI, but I encountered problems via Display Port. GTX 780 was detected in SLOT3 straight away. If you like to try this, I recommend to using a riser instead of removing the PCIe board out of the enclosure. If you have done step 5, all the problems with Display port will vanish and internal screen will be accelerated on Win8.1. When external monitor is set as default display on OS X, internal screen will be accelerated too when running Unigine Valley Benchmark test.

Setup procedure for OS X 10.10 (14A389)

1) Download Nvidia web driver 343.01.01f03 from here. 2) Open up terminal and modify the downloaded file to pass system checks. The quickest way is by using Terminal:

[FONT=Menlo]

pkgutil --expand WebDriver-343.01.01f03.pkg expanded.pkg

[/FONT]

3) Right mouse click expanded.pkg and choose “Show Package Contents”, right click “Distribution” file and choose Open With TextEdit. Then modify the InstallationCheck() method to return always true:

        function InstallationCheck()

        {

            //if (!validateHardware()) return false;
            //if (!validateSoftware()) return false;


            return true;
        }

4) Save the “Distribution” file. 5) [FONT=Menlo]pkgutil --flatten expanded.pkg flattened.pkg[/FONT] 6) Double mouse click flattened.pkg and install Nvidia web driver. 7) Modify three kexts (NVDAStartup.kext, IONDRVSupport.kext, AppleHDAController.kext), a good walkthrough is here. 8) Final steps are:

[FONT=Menlo]

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1 nvda_drv=1"

[FONT=Open Sans], [/FONT][/FONT]restart MBP and if not working yet, see the system log and try

[FONT=Menlo]sudo touch /Extensions [/FONT][FONT=Menlo]sudo kextcache -system-caches[/FONT]

13” MBPr is a good choice for most of the games, because for example BF4 was playable 3840x2160@40-60FPS with medium settings. At lower resolutions it didn’t give much more frames, and when using high settings there was a big drop. If you have Windows gaming in mind and don’t care about eGPU on OS X side, and want high and ultra settings, go for a 15” MBPr Iris Pro, because its quad core processor will give great performance boost and 4K gaming.

References I would like to give acknowledge:

maxserve blog: How to recognize GPGPU via Thunderbolt external PCIe Box at MacOSX

[URL]http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides/2728-%5Bguide%5D-2012-13-macbook-pro-retina-gtx570%408gbps-tb1-th05-win7-64-a-3.html#post37481[/URL]

EDIT: Netstor sent me a new PSU with lower fan speed. It's still the 4cm fan and the physical factor means the sound it is not as quiet as Silverstone's SFX size PSU with the 8cm fan - there is that typical, minor buzzing sound at idle. However, they succeeded to reduce the noise level significantly when I ran benchmark tests at 80C degrees. Actually, I did not notice much PSU noise increase when the GPU was stressed, the GPU itself ran at higher fan speeds to exhaust hot air from the back. To reduce the noise more, you may try some sound dampening material inside the enclosure.

[Dschijn]

Great news and great guide. thx!

But the fan noise is a no go imho…

[Tech Inferno Fan]

Discussing with Netstor Technology, I convinced that their Thunderbolt 2 to PCIe expansion enclosure was capable of running high-end GPUs, and ordered one to introduce. The product name is Netstor NA211TB. They recently updated the PSU to provide 300W output, shared by three free PCIe slots, where one PCIe 2.0 x8 slot is open ended, supporting double wide PCIe x16 cards. 4th slot is reserved for a Thunderbolt card. What makes this device unique is the auxiliary power cable configuration: two PCIe 6+2pin and one 4pin cable. As far as I know, none of the competitors provide that as of yet. You are not restricted to low-power Maxwell architecture cards, and moreover, there is one slot free beside double wide GPU, making it possible to mount for example PCIe SSD. No extra power supply, case or cable modding, or warranty-voiding methods. Just simply setting up and keeping desk tidy.

..

At first sight the outer shells are made of sturdy and well finished aluminium, resembling surface of the Mac computers. Cards are easy to install by removing the upper shell. Keeping a GTX 980 reference card in my hands feels like a real brick compared to other GPUs I have had. It’s a perfect companion with this case, because of the blower style fan. If you chose a card having sink plates vertically that would most likely result in heat problems because there are no upper air vents. Therefore, a reference card or a GPU cooler that blows hot air horizontally is recommended. The reference GTX 980 is noticeably more silent than the EVGA GTX 780 w/ ACX cooler, and the minor buzzing sounds from the electronic parts won’t disturb at higher frame rates. There is a hot-swappable 80mm fan in front of the box, which speed can be adjusted. The only drawback is the 300W PSU, which is very loud during heavy gaming and for my ears, it’s quite loud on idle as well. Tiny 4cm fan spinning fast cannot be very silent. Netstor has got my feedback, and they will discuss with engineers to find balance between temperature and fan speeds. Except the noise, I didn’t found much more disadvantages to say.

@goalque, thank you for posting this info.

The first question I asked is how much for the Netstor NA211TB? As you know Thunderbolt2 has for the most part been obscenely priced until the AKiTiO Thunder2 was released. Unfortunately the Netstor product doesn't help there. Google tells me a Netstor NA211TB costs ~US$899 for the older 250W model, making it a peer to http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7872-us%24979-sonnet-echo-express-iii-d-enclosure-16gbps-tb2.html#post107170 and with a similar feature set.

So when I compare it against the Sonnet III-D I ask why would an eGPU user go for the Netstor product? The Sonnet enclosure has to me more appeal due to it's smaller footprint, quieter fan and more ready availability. The only sticking point against the III-D being how to draw 225W or 300W from the III-D's PSU given it comes only with a 6P PCIe connector allowing 150W power draw. We show at http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7872-us%24979-sonnet-echo-express-iii-d-enclosure-16gbps-tb2.html#post107170 how to do that easily with just PCIe cable splitters (up to 225W) and/or use of the EVGA Powerboost product to draw 75W from a few slot (up to 300W total).

@goalque, can you provide any good reason why an eGPU user would get the Netstor over the Sonnet III-D?

[mnrc]

Great implementation, but yeah, we've known about Netstor for some time and their prices still aren't worth it. Still waiting for a <$300 compact solution...

[euqlaog]

@goalque, thank you for posting this info.

The first question I asked is how much for the Netstor NA211TB? As you know Thunderbolt2 has for the most part been obscenely priced until the AKiTiO Thunder2 was released. Unfortunately the Netstor product doesn't help there. Google tells me a Netstor NA211TB costs ~US$899 for the older 250W model, making it a peer to http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7872-us%24979-sonnet-echo-express-iii-d-enclosure-16gbps-tb2.html#post107170 and with a similar feature set.

So when I compare it against the Sonnet III-D I ask why would an eGPU user go for the Netstor product? The Sonnet enclosure has to me more appeal due to it's smaller footprint, quieter fan and more ready availability. The only sticking point against the III-D being how to draw 225W or 300W from the III-D's PSU given it comes only with a 6P PCIe connector allowing 150W power draw. We show at http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7872-us%24979-sonnet-echo-express-iii-d-enclosure-16gbps-tb2.html#post107170 how to do that easily with just PCIe cable splitters (up to 225W) and/or use of the EVGA Powerboost product to draw 75W from a few slot (up to 300W total).

@goalque, can you provide any good reason why an eGPU user would get the Netstor over the Sonnet III-D?

Yes, AKiTiO is at the moment most inexpensive choice for eGPU purposes and recommended, but I would remind that Sonnet Echo Express III-D is not the only option in the category of enclosures to fit full length card and noticed that people have had problems running GTX 780Ti with the simple splitter method as told here and here.

GTX 780 OC (250W TDP) passed performance tests with the 6pin & 6+2pin power cables of the NA211TB's 300W PSU. Some people have been asking on this forum where is the plug-and-play solution if the price doesn't matter, and NA211TB comes to very near answering this question. The price of this updated unit is the same as the 250W version, but generally it is slightly cheaper than Sonnet III-D, for example:

£674.40 vs £744

$849 vs $979

Most of us the price is too expensive, I know. Netstor is very responsive to my emails and seems that they are interested in developing their product towards eGPU use as discussed here earlier. Maybe Apple and Intel are keeping the prices high. I am also waiting for the day when there will be a product with only single x16 slot, and no 25W power limitations as AKiTiO has, and with the price near $200-$300. That would sell like hotcakes. I hope that my report of NA211TB will make some competition and eventually prices will become lower. III-D seem to be quite equal to NA211TB but I cannot much compare them, because I have no experience of III-D. If there wasn't the noise issue, I would absolutely choose NA211TB because of these reasons (mostly for DIY people):

1) A standard 24pin power connector making it very easy to use any ATX PSU. Sonnet has not this connector. My implementation was not the first one, another is here with the Silverstone's enclosure: maxserve blog: Thunderbolt (no english version available).

To make NA211TB very quiet, you just have to unplug the 3pin wire connected to the TB card (it just gives a signal to the PSU to power on), use a modular ATX/SFX PSU with its original 24pin power cable, where the other end to the PSU is connected as it is and the other end is modified like this:

Nothing else.

2) Two open-ended PCIe slots supporting x16 cards, which can be mounted directly on PCIe board (without the enclosure). When using the x4 slot, there remains 2 free slots to use for anything you like. With the III-D, this is not possible because there is only one x16 slot and the two other x8 slots are not open-ended as I googled some pictures (correct me if not true).

It's a pity that the NA211TB's 300W PSU has that small fan making the noise. Maybe it's not a problem for someone using headphones, but for me it is unfortunately. One of the main reasons I like eGPUs is keeping the system quiet because with a normal PC there is always a CPU generating heat inside the enclosure and more fans. MBPr 13" is totally silent and it won't throttle during heavy gaming. I also wanted to point out how eGPU performs with a 4K display. I will update the FPS result table of my AKiTiO implementation.

[euqlaog]

I figured out that this box is really the modder’s dream in addition to the 24pin power connector: a standard Flex ATX PSU (150mm x 81.5mm x 40.5mm), which is easily replaceable.

The PSU length can be much more than 150mm because no obstacles at the bottom space. Streacom has just released a fanless 240W PSU: ZF240 – Fanless 240W ZeroFlex PSU | Streacom

With this PSU, the only audible component would be the GTX 980 reference blower, which has pleasant soft “whoosh” sound. I already sent an enquiry and waiting for the answer if it’s possible to use splitters to feed up to 75W for two 6pin plugs via MOLEX and SATA. I am a bit worried as the specs says 12V@14A.

The highest peak I saw was 205W under 3DMark11 and Fire Strike with the NA211TB + GTX 980 when metered from the power strip. The reference GTX 980 draws only 177W/185W under gaming/torture test according to this review:

Nvidia GeForce GTX Watchdogs Results

If the fanless PSU won’t work, there are still other Flex ATX PSUs to choose from, for example this:

FSP Europe - Fortron Source - Professional

Does anyone have experience of some Flex PSU to recommend? Preferably with two 6pin plugs. By the way, GTX 750Ti keeps the original PSU fan noise more acceptable level.

[euqlaog]

Great news and great guide. thx!

But the fan noise is a no go imho…

I updated my post regarding the noise issue. Netstor sent me a new PSU with lower fan speed for free. That's awesome service! It's not as quiet as SFX PSU, there is that little "buzzing" at idle, but notable improvement when the GPU was stressed. I ran Valley benchmark for an hour on OS X and half an hour on Windows, and the system was stable, no sign of crash or kernel panic at 80C degrees, 2560x1140 ultra quality mode with a 4K display, enclosure's top cover placed. On windows, reference GTX 980 fan speed was 53% (~2215 RPM) after half an hour of benchmarking.

[alex20hz]

I did email Netstor support and got this:

The original Fan speed will be running up and down by loading. Since the GTX 970 is requested only 145W, the fan noise will keep around 25dB. The new design is keeping fan speed on 23~24 dB for max. so it’s only different when the GPU card request over 200W.The original Fan speed will be running up and down by loading. Since the GTX 970 is requested only 145W, the fan noise will keep around 25dB. The new design is keeping fan speed on 23~24 dB for max. so it’s only different when the GPU card request over 200W.

[EHAM]

Hello Goalque I really like this setup with the GTX980. I’m new to this forum and did a lot of reading about different setups, modifying drivers and editing the kext files. My question to you and of course other members is how do you know if a setup will work?

With the setup I mean gpu versus MacBook(Pro) or Air.

At this moment I have a 2014 MacBook Air, would your setup work?

[euqlaog]

Hello Goalque I really like this setup with the GTX980. I’m new to this forum and did a lot of reading about different setups, modifying drivers and editing the kext files. My question to you and of course other members is how do you know if a setup will work?

With the setup I mean gpu versus MacBook(Pro) or Air.

At this moment I have a 2014 MacBook Air, would your setup work?

Pros and cons:

+ The only plug-and-play solution

+ I haven’t seen a GPU yet that wouldn’t work, also AMD cards work

+ If you want the best rendering performance, you can disassemble the box and use up to 3 AMD cards with risers and more powerful ATX PSU

- The PSU has a minor “buzzing” sound

- Price

This product is not meant for a gamer, I would recommend it for a professional video editor or for GPGPU computing. If you are a gamer, AKiTiO is much cheaper choice and the setup procedure is the same for all the Macs.

One user has reported that a 2014 MacBook Air can detect the external monitor via Nvidia GPU:

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/8619-tb2-macbooks-allow-monitors-used-nvidia-egpus-osx.html#post120215

[svcti]

I updated my post regarding the noise issue. Netstor sent me a new PSU with lower fan speed for free. That's awesome service! It's not as quiet as SFX PSU, there is that little "buzzing" at idle, but notable improvement when the GPU was stressed. I ran Valley benchmark for an hour on OS X and half an hour on Windows, and the system was stable, no sign of crash or kernel panic at 80C degrees, 2560x1140 ultra quality mode with a 4K display, enclosure's top cover placed. On windows, reference GTX 980 fan speed was 53% (~2215 RPM) after half an hour of benchmarking.

Thanks for the great write up goalque. Are you able to put the top case shell back on with the gtx 980 installed, hopefully with that it doesn't run too hot? I'm interested in this model because everything i need is already included with room for another card, and if the top fits back on, it seems rugged enough to travel with me if i need.

[euqlaog]

Thanks for the great write up goalque. Are you able to put the top case shell back on with the gtx 980 installed, hopefully with that it doesn't run too hot? I'm interested in this model because everything i need is already included with room for another card, and if the top fits back on, it seems rugged enough to travel with me if i need.

Yes, as long as you use a card which doesn’t have upper heat pipes, such as reference GTX 980, the top shell fits well. I ran those tests with the cover on. The normal gaming temperature for this card is 80C:

Power, Temperature, & Noise - The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Review: Maxwell Mark 2

Blower style cooler does the job well even if the GPU runs very hot. Surrounding aluminium shells become also warm.

Two double wide GPUs side by side is only possible if the PCIe board is completely removed, but you can use one single wide PCIe card with the double wide GPU.

It weighs only a couple of kg, the package contains a shoulder bag for travelling.

[svcti]

Yes, as long as you use a card which doesn’t have upper heat pipes, such as reference GTX 980, the top shell fits well. I ran those tests with the cover on. The normal gaming temperature for this card is 80C:

Power, Temperature, & Noise - The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Review: Maxwell Mark 2

Blower style cooler does the job well even if the GPU runs very hot. Surrounding aluminium shells become also warm.

Two double wide GPUs side by side is only possible if the PCIe board is completely removed, but you can use one single wide PCIe card with the double wide GPU.

It weighs only a couple of kg, the package contains a shoulder bag for travelling.

very helpful thank you! Besides the GPU, I had a smaller full height audio card in mind, so that should work great. To go with this, I'm about to pull the trigger on the the recently refreshed 2015 rMBP, with iGPU only. I'm a bit nervous because I haven't read anyone that's done exactly this yet, since it's so new. I'll try to share anything worthwhile, but i'm not the hardware/driver expert as some others are on this board. The big goal for me is to get internal screen working consistently with optimus, i don't plan to run any external display at this point. And if i can find a way to get optimus working for OSX as well, even better.

[euqlaog]

very helpful thank you! Besides the GPU, I had a smaller full height audio card in mind, so that should work great. To go with this, I'm about to pull the trigger on the the recently refreshed 2015 rMBP, with iGPU only. I'm a bit nervous because I haven't read anyone that's done exactly this yet, since it's so new. I'll try to share anything worthwhile, but i'm not the hardware/driver expert as some others are on this board. The big goal for me is to get internal screen working consistently with optimus, i don't plan to run any external display at this point. And if i can find a way to get optimus working for OSX as well, even better.

Thanks! I would stick to older 2013 or 2014 rMBP Iris models because at least three users have reported problems with the 2015 13” rMBP, here is one:

http://forum.techinferno.com/provisional-guides/9949-2015-13-macbook-pro-gtx970@16gbps-tb2-akitio-thunder2-win8-1-%5Bfranknickzhang%5D.html

And I remember someone saying the same on the OS X side too (by the way, there is no Optimus). We have to wait to be sure.

If you prefer the internal screen, I would suggest to consider the Mid 2014 15" rMBP Iris Pro only if somewhere available. Its quad core i7 helps a lot with internal screen acceleration.

[svcti]

Thanks! I would stick to older 2013 or 2014 rMBP Iris models because at least three users have reported problems with the 2015 13” rMBP, here is one:

http://forum.techinferno.com/provisional-guides/9949-2015-13-macbook-pro-gtx970@16gbps-tb2-akitio-thunder2-win8-1-%5Bfranknickzhang%5D.html

And I remember someone saying the same on the OS X side too (by the way, there is no Optimus). We have to wait to be sure.

If you prefer the internal screen, I would suggest to consider the Mid 2014 15" rMBP Iris Pro only if somewhere available. Its quad core i7 helps a lot with internal screen acceleration.

I'll shop around a bit and see what i can find, though I may have to sacrifice my eGPU dreams for a new macbook if it comes down to it.

I saw that posting and it was a little confusing but it sounded like he's actually working ok, just not as consistent. His hardware setup also didn't seem very typical either, not sure how that played into the issues.

[ultrahumanite]

@goalque I was wondering if you'd be willing to answer a question about the dimensions of the Netstor NA211TB enclosure? From reading your post I gather that the enclosure comes with a standard Flex ATX PSU size 150mm x 81.5mm x 40.5mm. It looks like a longer (over 150mm) PSU would fit the case without any issues. It also seems like there is some room above the stock PSU so a PSU taller than 40.5mm should fit inside the case in place of the stock unit, would you mind measuring how much space is left above the 40.5mm? Thanks in advance.

[euqlaog]

@goalque I was wondering if you'd be willing to answer a question about the dimensions of the Netstor NA211TB enclosure? From reading your post I gather that the enclosure comes with a standard Flex ATX PSU size 150mm x 81.5mm x 40.5mm. It looks like a longer (over 150mm) PSU would fit the case without any issues. It also seems like there is some room above the stock PSU so a PSU taller than 40.5mm should fit inside the case in place of the stock unit, would you mind measuring how much space is left above the 40.5mm? Thanks in advance.

There is approximately 7mm space above the 40.5mm and if you remove the small angle iron at 150mm, you can place longer (even 300mm Flex ATX PSU). The PSU needs some space for ventilation. However, I am not aware of any fanless Flex ATX PSU which would be powerful enough. If there was a hole at the bottom and 8cm slim PSU intake air/exhaust fan, that would be ideal.

[ultrahumanite]

There is approximately 7mm space above the 40.5mm and if you remove the small angle iron at 150mm, you can place longer (even 300mm Flex ATX PSU). The PSU needs some space for ventilation. However, I am not aware of any fanless Flex ATX PSU which would be powerful enough. If there was a hole at the bottom and 8cm slim PSU intake air/exhaust fan, that would be ideal.

Okay, thanks for the info. I was hoping to use a 500w PSU, 200x82x53mm dimensions, I guess it won't fit.

[deanorth]

THis is what I am aiming for, this sure is a costly solution, but... for me it sound the safest way, especially since there are now a lot of flex atx PSU, I still have my shuttle Z77R5, wonder if the PSU (500w) could work in there!

I've found the enclosure for 859€ from France, it's not cheap, but well.

[Dschijn]

Biggest advantage is the size (especially the length). The upcoming case Dan-A4 will have the same dimensions, but is shorter and can host a beefy GPU+SFX-L PSU: https://www.dan-cases.com/

[deanorth]

Biggest advantage is the size (especially the length). The upcoming case Dan-A4 will have the same dimensions, but is shorter and can host a beefy GPU+SFX-L PSU: https://www.dan-cases.com/

Interisting little beast indeed! in silver this could match a mbp nicely.

I'm really unsure what to do, the netstor is appealing because of it's size, flexibility (dropping another psu sound nice enough), and quite plug and play.

The D4 as you've mentionned would require the hardware base to fix the GPU, right?

[Dschijn]

The Dan-A4 is not available yet and has get through a crowdfunding before it will be available. Since it is a ITX PC case, with an included high quality riser, you just need the GPU, SFX-L PSU and the AKiTiO.

The Netstore is charming, but the Flex-ATX PSU market is extremly limited with (imho) unattraktiv PSUs.

[toni999]

I saw the ati r9 nano would be lower in power consumption....how to get that thing working on mac? I know nvidia releases os x drivers for their cards, I did not see any ati drivers.

[euqlaog]

AMD drivers are built-in. Fiji architecture support in OS X is not yet ready.

More powerful PSU is not necessary. The included 300W PSU with two 8-pins is enough for even a 30cm triple-fan R9 390. The power consumption stays below 250W in OS X Valley benchmark. One drawback is that R9 390 doesn’t fully support display hot swapping on OS X (a bit flickering screen), but ok if connected at startup.