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    Destroying OWC Mercury Helios thunderbolt PCIe 2.0 x4

    Discussion in 'e-GPU (External Graphics) Discussion' started by tunico5, Oct 11, 2012.

  1. tunico5

    tunico5 Notebook Guru

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    Hi there,

    I was checking that the OWC Mercury Helios has a thunderbolt > PCIe 2.0 x4 inside it. The problem is that its case is too little to put a decent graphics card.
    Is it possible to take only the hardware inside it and use it like a TH05?
    If yes, it'll behave like a TH05 or it'll need more drivers or different ways to work?
    This is a link of the OWC that you can see its interior:
    OWC Mercury Helios PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis Review - Imagine 800MB/s and 150,000 IOPS - The SSD Review

    It would bring a lot of interesting things like
    Plug and Play...no drivers needed.* (Just like TH05)
    Automatically powers on/off with your computer.

    The problem is that it would need to cut the PCIe to support a 16x card, but would it work?

    The other possible way could be to wait for a mLink to come up in november and do the same thing, but it'll already have a x16 PCIe

    Or even an Echo express. The problem is that it's too expensive to tear down

    What's everybodys thoughts about it?

    Thank you
     
    tunico5, Oct 11, 2012
    #1
  2. __-_-_-__

    __-_-_-__ God

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    cut it for sure. it will work without problems.
     
    __-_-_-__, Oct 15, 2012
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  3. baii

    baii Sone

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    Pretty sure there are pci cable/adapter kind of thing that will link a x16 to x4/e watever.

    However, keep in mind that OWC is in the same boat as sonnet when come in marketing. aka MAC and high price tag.

    Edit: 379.99 w/o GPU , ok but still...
     
    baii, Oct 15, 2012
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  4. tunico5

    tunico5 Notebook Guru

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    Yeah I know about the prices, just discussing about the idea if eventually a newer model of TH05 with 2.0 x4 doesn't appear on the market.
     
    tunico5, Oct 15, 2012
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  5. __-_-_-__

    __-_-_-__ God

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    __-_-_-__, Oct 15, 2012
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  6. tunico5

    tunico5 Notebook Guru

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    That won't have effect on bandwitdh?
     
    tunico5, Oct 15, 2012
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  7. baii

    baii Sone

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    baii, Oct 15, 2012
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  8. tunico5

    tunico5 Notebook Guru

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    Yeah, but the adaptor itself could have some kind of bandwitdh
     
    tunico5, Oct 15, 2012
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  9. baii

    baii Sone

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    there no "adapter" It is just a cable.
     
    baii, Oct 15, 2012
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  10. tunico5

    tunico5 Notebook Guru

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    Alright, thx
     
    tunico5, Oct 15, 2012
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  11. tunico5

    tunico5 Notebook Guru

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    tunico5, Oct 15, 2012
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  12. Gordon1hd1

    Gordon1hd1 Notebook Geek

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    Gordon1hd1, Oct 16, 2012
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  13. tunico5

    tunico5 Notebook Guru

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    Yeah I know, and I can't find anything about it... doesn't have a distinct commercial name
     
    tunico5, Oct 16, 2012
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  14. EpicBlob

    EpicBlob Notebook Evangelist

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    Their pci-e to expresscard expansion box is $470, so my guess is that the thunderbolt version will be at least $600
     
    EpicBlob, Oct 16, 2012
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  15. __-_-_-__

    __-_-_-__ God

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    it won't have any effect on bandwith.
     
    __-_-_-__, Oct 17, 2012
    #15