This was posted 5 years 1 month 28 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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  • out of stock

Razer Core X Thunderbolt 3 External Graphics Enclosure $375.20 Delivered @ Microsoft eBay

760
PMIC20

Hello, this is the first time I've posted a deal.

I have been looking at having a laptop + egpu set up for a while and came across this bargain. It seems Microsoft forgot to raise the price on this bad boy before starting the 10% off deal. This is by far the cheapest I have ever seen it, but if it's not a good deal, please tell me so I can cancel my order lol.

Original PMIC20 20% off Storewide at Microsoft on eBay Deal Post

EDIT: egpu.io has this enclosure as the best egpu enclosure available and this price is $50 less than the enclosure in the US

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closed Comments

  • certainly a much saner design than the hp omen trash that i have…

    • I was looking at the gigabyte aorus gaming box before I bought this but there's barely any cards that fit in that tiny box. Most small form factor are still way too long!

      • +1

        But that comes with a card already, this one doesnt.

        • +1

          That is very true but upgradeability is rough

          • @AlmightyBeing: Yeha, main reason I got that was due to it’s tiny size. Way smaller than anything else. Apparently can fit other itx cards though.

    • Yeah I've got the Omen, have you had many issues with it? I feel like I get screen drop out's, USB dropouts etc

      • Yes, bandwidth issue with additional USB devices are quite common with egpu.
        I found limiting my mouse polling rate to 500 helps on the Omen. But my keyboard still lags and has to be connected directly to the laptop.

        This Razor egpu box does not have additional usb ports though. It's good and bad..

  • +2

    Got a 2080ti triple slot in my core X. running like a dream. No issues what so ever.

    • What's the length on that fella? Did you have to modify it to fit the card?

      • +1

        Nope the Aorus extreme 11g. No modification whatsoever.

        • +1

          Damn that's bigger than what's in my pc! What laptop you got to pair with it?

          • @AlmightyBeing: I was just thinking what laptop doesn't bottle neck with that GPU?

            • +1

              @bobsmidie: lol true, they probably all do, the question is just how much they bottleneck it

              • +1

                @AlmightyBeing: I suppose as soon as you put them in these type of things the GPU is looses like 25% (from one article I read I think the 1080 ti was down at least that)… Does that mean your processor would not bottle neck as much? Would be interesting to know

                • @bobsmidie: I'd say 95% of that performance loss is from the way thunderbolt interfaces with pcie. Thunderbolt uses the motherboard chipset to get access to pcie which means it also has to share those lanes with NIC's, usb and storage = bottlneck. This is why something like Alienware's proprietary connection is superior (performance wise) as it interfaces directly with the pcie lanes on the cpu.

                  • +2

                    @JAKEBAB: New titan ridge works directly with cpu but you definitely don’t get the massive boost, only about 10-15%

  • +4

    Can't comment on the deal, but +1 for your first posted deal!

    • +2

      Thankyou. I thought it was strange such a good deal wasn't posted already

      • Been looking for a epgu for about a year, finally pulled the trigger - thanks!

        • Let me know how it goes please! Is sold out now - want to know how it works for the future. Also, what laptop are you plugging it into?

          Thanks :)

          • @Zazer: Got both a 2016 13 Macbook Pro and a 2011 TB1 iMac - going to stuff around and see what performance is like on both of them. Probably going to buy an amd rx 580 for it (due to mac support and they're still cheaper than 1060s).

            I'm not a huge gamer I just like to play AAA titles occasionally.

            • @chu-oh: Sounds good! I was planning to get a Macbook Air 2018, and possibly use an eGPU 2060 or similar card. Please let me know how it works :)

  • Any lag running this?

    • From what I have read, as long as your laptop is being cooled properly and you are using an external monitor, lag would be minimal on most, if not all egpu enclosures.

      • Mobile CPUs can be throttled in a wide variety of ways eg time at 100% cpu, battery drain rate, temp sensor on chassis. This can mean sustained performance such as games leads to throttling which makes games unplayabl.e

        It varies on a case by case basis and I would be very careful to know it works for games eg Razor's ultrabook the name of which escapes me right now, is presumably a good choice because it's sold as a gaming device.

        • Razer Blade Stealth is what it's called. It is also very $$ but you do get what a very good system for what you pay for.

    • +2

      No lag, but there is a performance hit, which is to be expected.

    • +1

      the expected performance hit is meant to be around 70 - 80% the desktop gpu performance. If your cpu is throttling the system, it could be even less. There's mods to certain laptops to get more performance but they are laptop by laptop basis.

      • +4

        Sorry, supposed to be hit by 70-80%, or be running at 70-80% capacity (taking a 20-30% hit)?

        • +5

          Detailed review here: https://egpu.io/razer-core-x-review-thick-juicy/

          Basically you should get 70-80% of what a native gpu can do - but there's a bunch of factors eg what kind of card, if you're using an external display etc.

          • @chu-oh: Thank you!

          • +1

            @chu-oh: Oh phew, it's the opposite of what OP claimed. A performance hit of 70-80% would make it not even worth looking at.

            • +4

              @Agret: It gets worse at higher res and refresh rates. Forget about 144hz @ 1440p unless you throw 2080 type money at it.

              Counting cost of enclosure and additional cost of higher-tier card for the same perf you're looking at paying 500-600 extra for the privilege of not having a separate desktop. That's enough $$$ for half a good build or most of a budget built (minus the GPU which you have to pay for anyway). You're basically paying 1070 prices for 1060 frames then the box itself costs 300-400. Meh

              • +1

                @bender000: Instead of a very nice desktop, I paid about $500 extra so I can have a very nice laptop for travelling and use it for some decent gaming at home. Not that meh.

                • +4

                  @omygodde: The idea of a card running 30% under its actual potential would piss me off something chronic lol. You can pry my desktop from my cold dead fingers.
                  Also CPU wise even the latest laptop CPUs would be dumped on by a 5 year old 4770k that can actually hold ~4Ghz indefinitely on all cores and not power / temp throttle. So that's another handbrake on performance. I have a XPS 9570 not the best example but illustrates the point where you can only hold ~3Ghz on all 6 cores and that's even with an undervolt. That definitely caps your FPS in addition to the eGPU bottleneck.

                  So really, its kinda meh until/unless you throw serious like 2080 tier money at it, and then if you have that kinda budget just go out and build a nice 1k (minus graphics) mini-ITX build. Or you can spend ~900 total on something that runs at the same frames as a 300 dollar 1060 would on any normal desktop + laptop CPU bottleneck hits your frames that little bit extra. Also misc niggly driver issues etc.

                  • +3

                    @bender000: Lol, it depends on what you need mate. There is no need to debate raw power/$ spent, desktop wins hands down. We are paying more for the flexibility.

                    • -6

                      @omygodde:

                      We are paying more for the flexibility.

                      That's exactly what Apple users say…
                      But wait…

                    • @omygodde: Good response, I see both sides here, I'm planning to build my own PC myself, but currently use a laptop for both gaming and work. Was considering E-GPU and getting a lighter laptop, but decided to instead get a PC and a lighter laptop, since I usually won't be gaming on the go.

                      I do see your use case though. If you're out and about, or move around frequently, then I see the merit in getting an E-GPU - it's much smaller and more compact than an entire PC. Just keep in mine you'll always be held back by the fact that it is an E-GPU connected to a laptop, so you'll never get full desktop performance.

                      Anyway, I hope you enjoy your experience regardless! Did you by chance pick up this one? If so, could you tell me how it pans out? Thanks :)

                      • @Zazer: My setup is hp omen accelerator with a hp spectre 13 laptop. EGPU support became quite mature by the end of 2018 so most of my issues were solved by newer firmware/driver updates released after July 2018.

                        One thing I did not expect was the length/price of thunderbolt 3 cable. The supplied ones are usually 0.5 m long which is annoying. I got a 1 m high bandwidth one for $75 but it died within a week.

                        Overall happy with the setup, it allows me to justify spending excessively on a laptop with intel 620 graphics lol.

                    • @omygodde:

                      We are paying more for the flexibility.

                      Where's the flexibility when you have to tether your laptop to an unwieldy enclosure to get decent gaming performance out of it?

                      It becomes a desktop replacement at that point.

                      The only real "flexible" option that approaches something of the best of both worlds (but still isn't because mobile GPUs and CPUs are inevitably gimped) is one of those +$4,000 dollar gaming laptops with a full-blown desktop GPU in it (not that Max-Q rubbish) or even an SLI configuration. Even then, those GPUs are still underclocked compared to the desktop variants but at least the core/shader count is identical, so you get fairly close to the performance of the desktop card.

                      Still, they never make fiscal sense because you can always build two very high-end desktops for the price of one of those ultra-high end gaming laptops that'd blow them out of the water and more to the point, gaming laptops have no battery endurance and are about as "portable" as carrying a 4-year old around.

                      If you're a serious traveler/business user, 13-14" Ultrabooks are the only way to go because they actually have usable battery lifespans and won't weigh you down, and by virtue of their extremely anemic CPUs, they'd be useless with eGPUs.

                      Travelling with a 15-17" XPS-type laptop with a decent quadcore in it and enough RAM, just on the off-chance that it'll be hooked up to an eGPU once or twice a month makes as much sense to me as carrying my tower from home into work each day just so I can max out that Excel and Chrome performance.

                      • @Gnostikos: The flexibility is about not having a dedicated machine for gaming.

                        What you are considering are all fine points.

                        Yes, EGPU solution is far from perfect.

                        Yes, my setup does become a desktop replacement at night. I have an external monitor attached and all my games are only installed on HDD in my EGPU enclosure.

                        Yes, you have stated the reason why I don't want a gaming laptop.

                        Yes, I use a 13" i7 ultrabook for work.

                        No, ultrabooks are not useless with EGPU. The performance is acceptable to me.

                        https://egpu.io/ultrabook-buyers-guide-external-gpu/

        • I have a desktop, ~2y old (9700K/980ti). Recently bought a laptop with the intention of getting away from the desk more often, and was thinking of something like this & swapping out my gpu / sell old parts. Too bad it's oos right now.

  • Anyone know of any gpu deals on the at the moment that I can pair with one of these bad boys?

  • +1

    Great deal. Now out of stock

  • I believe this is a great price for this model. But a box+psu for this price is expensive for me. The Ncase M1 and Dan Case A4 ITX cases are about this size but they are complete computer cases. They are only 199 USD. So for me it’s not worth it.

    • yeah TB3 is expensive to implement and it can only be licensed atm. The reason why I want it is because I want a smaller laptop for uni and don't game as much as I did in high school so I'll be selling my old desktop when I set this system up.

      • You can use the 2 cases I mentioned above. They are not larger than high end gaming laptops and you can go i9-9900K+RTX2080Ti if you wish to. It’s amazing. I am using Ncase now.

        • +1

          That's true but my main reason for the upgrade was wanting a nice ultrabook. It wasn't really a space saving measure at all and I dont really want to be carrying a mini pc to lectures lol.

          • @AlmightyBeing: Yeah I know. I just mean this box is as large as a full PC. You can buy a slim notebook to do your study, and a full itx pc for program running and gaming.

    • +1

      This is not a PC case. It’s an eGPU. Thunderbolt 3 cables with USB-C PD don’t come cheap. But beats buying both a desktop gaming PC and a laptop. Or buying a gaming laptop (which is the dumbest decision ever)

      • I konw this. I was watching external GPU boxes 5years ago. And I know the conversion from TB3 to PCIE is not cheap if licensed. But actually 40AUD is enough to get that done. Chinese complete solution for this showed up about 3.5 years ago. You can check Taobao for that if you wish to.

        • What's the Chinese solution called and best brand for it?

  • Out of stock at 6:35pm, just missed out!

  • How do people use eGPUs? Seems like it removes the portability advantage of a laptop. May as well buy a desktop?

    • +1

      Think of them as a glorified dock, you get the benefit of a decent gaming rig at home with a still portable laptop.

      • But could you not do that with a PC at home and a laptop..? For instance, I have a $1.5k PC at home and a base model MS Surface Laptop to take travelling/watch videos around the house etc.

        I think both of these would serve their purposes better than a laptop as a desktop and a chunky, 'high performance' laptop as a laptop. Plus, wouldn't be much price difference.

        • +2

          Yeah it's defiantly a niche product, but i've already got a thunderbolt laptop and I can't be bothered building a PC, so it works for me. 9/10 times you're better off with either a gaming PC or a gaming laptop.

          • +2

            @chu-oh: I think I get it now thanks. Basically gaming is a secondary thing. Good laptop is your primary need but don't wanna spend a crapload for inferior performance on a gaming laptop. So plug in eGPU when gaming.

  • +1

    This is a good price. Those who missed out on this one could still get the core x delivered for $398 from razer store directly if they have an .edu email which is entitled to a 15% off.
    https://www2.razer.com/au-en/education
    https://www2.razer.com/au-en/store/razer-core-x

    I bought one couple of months ago and running it with a Gigabyte Geforce RTX2080 Gaming OC connected to a Dell 9560 via TB3 and hooked up to a Dell 4k monitor. Works like a dream.

    • so the 9560 isn't bottlenecking the gpu too much?Do you have the 8gb ram version?

      • I have the 16GB ram and 4k 9560 version. I can play Battlefield V with high settings 4k @ more than 60fps. I know that 9560 uses 2 PCIe lanes instead of 4 lanes as in 9570 but my experience has been great so far.

        • Yeah a lot of people on forums talk about how much better 4 lanes are but supposedly it only matters if you are trying to pipe the graphics back to the laptop display

        • +1

          Mate you have a 1100+ AUD card, anything other than great is a travesty lol.

          • @bender000: haha yep I agree. I'm not a heavy gamer and wasn't keen on building a desktop. This combo and Samsung HMD Odyssey+ have definitely been more than great.

            • @csmacd: How do you find the laptop heating up? Assume the load of graphics is 'taken off its hands'.. but CPU etc - noticed high temps?

              • +2

                @passwordistaco: To be honest I really did not measure the temp but the fans in 9560 were kicking in after about 45 minutes into a game. Then I got this https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B01FQ7OGQU/ref=ppx_yo_d…

                • @csmacd: I have a simmilar setup except with a 4K TV, Dell XPS 9570, HP Omen Accelerator and a GTX 1080ti. Does that fan cooler really help the 9560? I bought an expensive CoolerMaster cooler but it only has two small fans which I've taken off as they are noisy and don't really reduce heat at all!
                  That cooler does look a lot better for airflow, is it loud?

                  Cheers!

  • Is the external graphics support determined by the USB c port or something on the motherboard?

    • Requires thunderbolt 3, same shape as USB c though but can’t use a regular USB port for this.

      • I thought USB c is thunderbolt, guess I’m wrong

        • USB-C is connector. (Wikipedia says "24-pin connector system")
          Thunderbolt 3 is what has to be connected to this connector in your PC for this device to work.

          • @SickDmith: Right. Thunderbolt 3 is a type of port on the system board.

  • +1

    It's back in stock

    • +1

      Showing out of stock for me, same link?

  • Do these things work on laptops that already have a discrete GPU?

    • +1

      If they have thunderbolt 3, yes they can.

    • If your laptop has TB3 port with eGPU support then should use eGPU instead of on board discrete chip

      • in other words the BIOS must have the option to select external GPU?

  • Is there a list of compatible GPUs that can be used with this enclosure? And how do I find out whether my laptop has 2 lane or 4 lane thunderbolt?

    • This is big enough that most can fit, just look at the dimensions of the card you are buying and make sure it fits inside this. That is probably the best way…

  • +1

    Worth mentioning that TB3 has been rolled into USB standards after Intel gifted it, for anyone who's worried about future flexibility with eGPUs.

  • Anyone seeing stock, would like to get one if I can

  • +1

    dammit what a deal

    • Yeah bit bummed I missed it

  • I have the core v2 which my MSI 1080 Ti fans are too tall and scratched the grill:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYbf7Z7oWxQ

    I don't know about Core X but since the USB hub on Core V2 are only USB 3.0 instead of 3.1 gen2, getting Core X is a better choice at this stage.

    Guess they are releasing a new eGPU soon.

  • +2

    WOW. Mine just arrived today, and the thing is HUGE. Almost as big as a MIDI tower. Now just gotta wait for a decent GPU sale :)

    • That was quick, yeah only negative against this is the size. I went for the Aorus gaming box because of it, otherwise was ready to buy this.

      • I bought this one because my Aorus gaming box for some incomprehensible reason isn't compatible with my Blade Stealth.

        • Really? I'm surprised it isn't compatible, did you buy one previously?

          • @Anubis: Just a weird issue the Blade Stealth and Aorus box. The Aorus will power up and down every 5 seconds or so.

    • Large size allows the bigger cards on the market to fit and also much better cooling

      • I was thinking of modifying mine to hold my ssd and maybe hdd too, since I'm replacing my pc with this set up. Would you say there's any space to do such a thing?

  • +3

    Back in stock!

  • Razer quality is no no I'll never buy this brand again

  • +1

    back in stock, bought one. Thanks.

  • +2

    I have a Sonnet Breakaway 350 eGPU box with an RX 580 8GB in it, and it’s awesome. Definitely recommend eGPU if you have a use case. In my case, want to game a bit but don’t want to buy/maintain 2 computers.

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