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    thunderbolt 3 and DIY eGPU type enclosure

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by jmp22684, Apr 1, 2016.

  1. jmp22684

    jmp22684 Notebook Geek

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    Hello, sorry if this is in the wrong section; feel free to move it if it is... Not entirely sure which topic this would fit.

    I have done a little looking around and am not quite finding what I need...

    I have searched "thunderbolt 3 external PCIe enclosure" etc... I get pre-built units at extremely high prices and few that actually use thunderbolt 3.

    Here is the issue, I need firewire. Knowing that some of the stuff I needed didn't quite exist yet I still bought a computer with thunderbolt 3 (Dell XPS 9550) knowing that it was backwards compatible and thunderbolt to firewire has long been used via the apple adapter for audio interfaces. Well thunderbolt 3 to firewire doesn't exist and am nervous about reliability with tossing two adapters in the mix (Thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt > Thunderbolt to Firewire).

    So I had a thought! eGPU concept.

    I would like to build an external enclosure that accepts PCIe cards much like an eGPU but instead of using a GPU I would use a 1394b PCIe card.

    1. Has anyone used an external enclosure such as this for cards other than GPU's and have you had success?

    2. What type of card would I get that connects via thunderbolt 3 and has PCIe slots?

    3. Anything else I should know or any suggestions?

    I know this is a little elaborate just to get firewire, but it is a requirement for most higher end audio interfaces (being it is a data stream, dedicated chip, less noise, more reliable, low latency... and lets face it, reliability wins if you find yourself using an interface live in front of an audience and suddenly it fails)
     
    jmp22684, Apr 1, 2016
    #1
  2. cfortney

    cfortney Notebook Enthusiast

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    Unfortunately as far as I can tell, you can't do this quite yet. There are a few PCIe docks with thunderbolt 3 coming out, but I haven't seen anything from a manufacturer for DIY purposes. Right now the only option is Razer Core @ $500 when it comes out this month, and I'm not sure if it would work for anything but graphics cards, but I also can't see why it wouldn't.
     
    cfortney, Apr 2, 2016
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  3. jmp22684

    jmp22684 Notebook Geek

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    the board that is used to build these enclosures. What would that be called?

    I want to keep looking around and keep up on developments, unfortunately I have never done anything like this so I don't know exactly what I am searching for, aside from PCIe board.

    And thank you for the response.
     
    jmp22684, Apr 7, 2016
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