Thursday, October 20th 2016
PowerColor Starts Selling the DEVIL Box External Graphics Solution
TUL Corporation, a leading and innovative manufacturer of AMD graphic cards since 1997, has announced DEVIL BOX is ready to sell Now. PowerColor DEVIL BOX is based on AMD XConnect Technology which was introduced on March 16th, 2016 by AMD. AMD had developed this technology in collaboration with Intel's Thunderbolt group and Razer Inc.
The PowerColor DEVIL BOX is primarily for the users who would like to have an even more powerful graphics card on his/her notebook in pursuit of desktop-class graphics performance. With a qualified graphics card, not limited to either AMD or nVidia, installed in the PowerColor DEVIL BOX and connecting with Thunderbolt 3 specification, gamers and enthusiasts will be able to play any types of games on the market without sacrificing the portability of a thin'n'light notebook.Quantity is very limited so Devil Box can ONLY be bought on below websites. MSRP is US$379 or 419 €.
The PowerColor DEVIL BOX is primarily for the users who would like to have an even more powerful graphics card on his/her notebook in pursuit of desktop-class graphics performance. With a qualified graphics card, not limited to either AMD or nVidia, installed in the PowerColor DEVIL BOX and connecting with Thunderbolt 3 specification, gamers and enthusiasts will be able to play any types of games on the market without sacrificing the portability of a thin'n'light notebook.Quantity is very limited so Devil Box can ONLY be bought on below websites. MSRP is US$379 or 419 €.
22 Comments on PowerColor Starts Selling the DEVIL Box External Graphics Solution
Full specs:
www.powercolor.com/Global/news_content_HTML/160530_DEVIL_BOX/20160530-DevilBox.pdf
And this logo... Will sure look prefessional/classy along a XPS 15, right?
2) It also has a USB 3.0 HUB
3) I guess there are optional provisions for additional SATA-III expandability.
So, even though it looks funny - it is a little more than your typical external GPU enclosure.
Plus, it is not marketed for XPS or Alienware series, because both already feature a "proprietary" interface (basically an external PCI-e x4 connector) and have an equally overpriced shitty enclosure.
It is marketed as a perfect expansion for Intel Skull Canyon NUC.
Just imagine the conversation with your nerd friends:
What I don't get is that it says Ethernet and SATA III HDD upgrade. I think it goes far beyond just a graphics card. I get the distinct impression it's like a desktop companion for notebooks.
I used the XPS 15 as an example because it was heavily used to test compatibility of the Razer Core to other TB3 notebooks (with great sucess as I undestand), so it should work with this. Only the Alienware laptops have the proprietary conector.
I don think pairing these things with NUCs is a good idea, as you would and up with a bigger, less powerful, more complex, more noisy, less upgradeable and more expensive system instead of just building an ITX system.
I have a client, who runs a small engineering firm.
He opted in for a fleet of Lenovo X2xx and T4xx series laptops with PCI-e extension kits and external GPU enclosures from China.
The end result is not pretty, with all the cabling sticking out of the laptop, but a built-in 150W PSU makes it good enough to run a GTX660 or something similar for rendering tasks or GPU-assisted CAD workloads, when needed. Well, that really is a problem, but this is the price some people are willing to pay, when they want to have something capable of handling anything, including an overclocked GTX Titan XP, or a hypothetical RX490x2 (both in terms of power, size and cooling).
What worries me more than its size, is the price. Your point about ITX rig being cheaper and more beneficial at this size is exactly what I'm concerned about. $379 will buy you an entry-level Skylake rig in the same form factor.
If you take into account the fact that laptops and mini-PCs with Thunderbolt 3 ain't cheap either - you have even larger disadvantage over traditional Desktop+Laptop combination.
About your comment on high end GPUs, I dont think that the Titan would be a problem, since now days SFX PSUs ara available up to 600 W, or 700 W for SFX-L.
They use HDMI as an electric interface for PCIe x1 (older models used USB 3.0 connectors). Easy to install in almost any laptop, but requires drilling and lots of hot glue.
Never tried that myself, but I guess it works for some people. Price-wise there are models with a dock, but no enclosure or PSU, going as low as $40.
Kinda like a fancy riser card.
I think that's the one the guy was using, except his device had a female HDMI breakout board:
www.aliexpress.com/item/EXP-GDC-Laptop-External-Independent-Video-Card-Dock-with-PCI-E-Interface-Black/32456172794.html?spm=2114.01020208.3.44.Z7I7cR&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_5_10065_10068_10069_10084_10083_10017_10080_10082_10081_10060_10061_10062_10056_10055_10054_10059_10078_10079_10073_10070_421_420_10052_10053_10050_10051,searchweb201603_7&btsid=08688f56-f3a9-4c1f-8c9e-ac42c137df1e
You don't need Thunderbolt3, though. My main point was that Expresscard is a neat solution as well, but obviously much more bandwidth constrained than Thunderbolt. Still works for render work and so on.
That said, Thunderbolt 1 and 2 also work, and are significantly cheaper than TB3 laptops. The T430s comes to mind.
www.digitaltrends.com/computing/powercolor-devil-box-external-graphics-dock-now-available-newegg/
For what you're getting and the market they're trageting, not bad.
www.ultrabookreview.com/10579-laptops-thunderbolt-3/
at least a grand for the laptop and another grand for desktop graphics + the box. Still cheaper than many "gaming" laptops which are far less portable and won't match a single desktop 1080 by a long shot.
At $199 it is actually not too bad, plus a used device like that can be adapted to work with other laptops via few hacks (at least in PCIe x1 mode).