<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>newhouseb</author><text>I spent a while trying to convince myself I could get away with a Mac Pro (Trashcan) hooked up to an external GPU to do VR &amp;amp; Deep Learning using a TB2 enclosure. After fighting for hours (days?) with how the PCI lanes were allocated on Windows, I finally got output to an external display, but it still ran below VR spec according to the various benchmarks. If you wanted to switch back and forth between Windows and Mac, it always required a few power cycles because Windows was constantly thinking it was reconfigured.&lt;p&gt;I returned the whole thing and bought a beefy gaming PC, which now has an absurd amount of power in it (a 1080 + 2x970... I had forgotten how much fun it is to continually upgrade a machine). For power on the go, I have a Razer Blade with a 1060 in it. It&amp;#x27;s a shame, because I prefer to develop on a Mac, but I need modern hardware ¯\_(ツ)_&amp;#x2F;¯.</text><parent_chain><item><author>hendersoon</author><text>This is interesting academically, but I wouldn&amp;#x27;t buy a hacked-together TB2 enclosure.&lt;p&gt;Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosures are available now, and are fully supported by Intel and windows. They started at $500 with the Razer Core, but new models like the AkiTiO Node and Powercolor Devil Box are coming in at $299, shipping Q1 2017. More will likely be announced at CES this week.&lt;p&gt;These TB3 enclosures have 400w+ power supplies, better cooling, and are large enough to fit large enthusiast GPUs like the Nvidia GTX 1080. You can plug a TB3 device into a TB2 laptop with a simple adapter. Apple sells theirs for $29; Chinese versions will be cheaper.&lt;p&gt;Depending on what features the manufacturer decides to add to their device, TB3 eGPU enclosures can also charge your laptop, offer USB3 ports, gigabit ethernet, audio jacks, etc. The $299 models tend to be very bare-bones but there&amp;#x27;s no doubt that competition will lead to cheaper prices and more features over time. Again, watch for more at CES this week.&lt;p&gt;Current list of TB3 eGPU enclosures:&lt;p&gt;AKiTiO Node ($300)
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.akitio.com&amp;#x2F;expansion&amp;#x2F;node&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.akitio.com&amp;#x2F;expansion&amp;#x2F;node&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Asus ROG XG Station 2 (price unknown)
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.asus.com&amp;#x2F;Graphics-Cards-Accessory&amp;#x2F;ROG-XG-STATION-2&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.asus.com&amp;#x2F;Graphics-Cards-Accessory&amp;#x2F;ROG-XG-STATION...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;BizonBOX 3 ($650, probably because it says it works with Macs)
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;bizon-tech.com&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;bizonbox3-egpu.html&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;bizon-tech.com&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;bizonbox3-egpu.html&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Powercolor Devil Box ($300. Ugly, though.)
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.powercolor.com&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;products_DevilBox_features.asp?id=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.powercolor.com&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;products_DevilBox_features.asp?...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Razer Core ($500)
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.razerzone.com&amp;#x2F;gaming-systems&amp;#x2F;razer-blade-stealth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.razerzone.com&amp;#x2F;gaming-systems&amp;#x2F;razer-blade-stealth&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Cheap and Painless eGPU Thrills on a 2013 MacBook Pro</title><url>http://beta-blog.archagon.net/2016/12/31/cheap-and-painless-egpu-thrills-on-a-2013-macbook-pro/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>archagon</author><text>I would have certainly preferred to do this, but it would have involved a $2000 upgrade first! (Well, barring the TB3-to-TB2 adaptor approach, but I&amp;#x27;ve seen almost no builds doing this.) Also, from what I&amp;#x27;ve seen, there&amp;#x27;s a lot of uncertainty regarding eGPU support with TB3; many people have reported problems on TechInferno etc., and even AKiTiO is unclear about Mac support. (If you check the specs for the Node, you&amp;#x27;ll see that Macs are listed as unsupported. Does this mean OSX-only or BootCamp as well? Who knows?) Might be worth waiting a year for things to shake out.&lt;p&gt;Also, I was optimizing in part for cheapness. Truly great gaming cards cost $300 and up, and $400 total was about as much as I was willing to pay for an upgrade.</text><parent_chain><item><author>hendersoon</author><text>This is interesting academically, but I wouldn&amp;#x27;t buy a hacked-together TB2 enclosure.&lt;p&gt;Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosures are available now, and are fully supported by Intel and windows. They started at $500 with the Razer Core, but new models like the AkiTiO Node and Powercolor Devil Box are coming in at $299, shipping Q1 2017. More will likely be announced at CES this week.&lt;p&gt;These TB3 enclosures have 400w+ power supplies, better cooling, and are large enough to fit large enthusiast GPUs like the Nvidia GTX 1080. You can plug a TB3 device into a TB2 laptop with a simple adapter. Apple sells theirs for $29; Chinese versions will be cheaper.&lt;p&gt;Depending on what features the manufacturer decides to add to their device, TB3 eGPU enclosures can also charge your laptop, offer USB3 ports, gigabit ethernet, audio jacks, etc. The $299 models tend to be very bare-bones but there&amp;#x27;s no doubt that competition will lead to cheaper prices and more features over time. Again, watch for more at CES this week.&lt;p&gt;Current list of TB3 eGPU enclosures:&lt;p&gt;AKiTiO Node ($300)
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.akitio.com&amp;#x2F;expansion&amp;#x2F;node&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.akitio.com&amp;#x2F;expansion&amp;#x2F;node&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Asus ROG XG Station 2 (price unknown)
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.asus.com&amp;#x2F;Graphics-Cards-Accessory&amp;#x2F;ROG-XG-STATION-2&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.asus.com&amp;#x2F;Graphics-Cards-Accessory&amp;#x2F;ROG-XG-STATION...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;BizonBOX 3 ($650, probably because it says it works with Macs)
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;bizon-tech.com&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;bizonbox3-egpu.html&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;bizon-tech.com&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;bizonbox3-egpu.html&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Powercolor Devil Box ($300. Ugly, though.)
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.powercolor.com&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;products_DevilBox_features.asp?id=1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.powercolor.com&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;products_DevilBox_features.asp?...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Razer Core ($500)
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.razerzone.com&amp;#x2F;gaming-systems&amp;#x2F;razer-blade-stealth&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.razerzone.com&amp;#x2F;gaming-systems&amp;#x2F;razer-blade-stealth&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Cheap and Painless eGPU Thrills on a 2013 MacBook Pro</title><url>http://beta-blog.archagon.net/2016/12/31/cheap-and-painless-egpu-thrills-on-a-2013-macbook-pro/</url></story>