A year ago: free with Alienware laptop, yesterday: $199, today: $762.30. Reminds me 1978 T-shirts “Don't Buy Books by Crooks” after a book “RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon” was published:
Dell Australia till yesterday: $199, free delivery
Dell Australia current, from 22 July 2017: $762.30. Confirmed on chat on 22 July: no pricing error, no discount available
Dell Aus, from 1st July – 31th July 2016: FREE: “we’re giving away a FREE Alienware Graphics Amplifier, valued at $199, with any Alienware laptop purchase”
It's crap anyway, because the proprietary connection means limited support.
Although it gets more sustainable framerates than standard TB3 connections.
And I don't like Alienware's laptops either, they're too Gamer-y, large, thick, heavy compared to Razer and other laptops.
But if you want something outside of the Alienware/Razer camp you could see: https://egpu.io
A winning combination seems to be the R9 290 (<$200), AKiTiO Node (<$320), and a Used Quadcore-TB3 laptop like 14" HP ZBook Studio (>$1,500). Total $2,000 - $2,700.