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Do mini eGPU enclosures work with any PCIe device or just GPUs? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I wouldn't want to find out the hard way. I have a BMD decklink 4k mini monitor PCIe card. I used to use it in a PC, but I upgraded to a laptop. To replace with an external input device is too expensive unless I downgrade capability significantly.

PCIe chassis are more expensive than expected but I've noticed ones that specifically call themselves 'eGPU enclosures'. For some reason when they're marketed to that specific purpose, they cost a lot less, probably because they often don't come with power supplies (which I actually have spare).

I'm looking at 2 such eGPU enclosures and they are a decent price and I think they should work, but I'm a little scared by them specifically saying "eGPU". Would I likely have any problems buying one of those for my PCIe device rather than for a graphics card? Or is PCIe, PCIe regardless?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

PCIe is PCIe regardless. It should work, just be careful with unplugging things that aren't hotpluggable, both from the card itself and the cable.

I'd take the chance personally. I'm sure there are edge cases though, but I'd bet on it working.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Nice. I like what I hear. What's the best way to deal with this hotplugging situation? Power on the enclosure with the device plugged in first and then attach to the lappy via thunderbolt? Or something else? What happens if you mess that up, does anything physically break? Or just a crash that I can reboot from?

One last thing. One of the 2 products I'm looking at, the better of the 2 because it also comes with an m.2 slot and some extra ports, has instructions in a youtube video about connecting power supply cables to the GPU itself as well as the enclosure. My card only consumes 10w of power and doesn't take external power. If I connect a power supply to the enclosure and plug in the card, it should just draw power from the PCIe slot right?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

With thunderbolt you can connect it whenever you please. Your OS doesn't initiate the thunderbolt connection until it's in the operating system anyways. Plug it in, turn it on it makes no difference. Disconnecting you need to make sure you safely eject the device or you will get a blue screen.

M.2 adapters are almost never hot plugable, those need to be done with your laptop off. That is literally the same as having a desktop and slotting in the card there. Just make sure your enclosure is off when you're connecting or disconnecting anything and you won't hurt anything.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I think the trouble is this decklink device is not ejectable. It's not storage. I can always be sure to power down the laptop before disconnect the enclosure perhaps.