Razer Core x - Thunderbolt 3 External Graphics Enclosure

Brought one to pair with a gtx 1070 , hooked it up to a 11th gen intel nuc. Turned the garage media pc into a 1080p gaming capable machine. Plug and play all I had to do was download the nvida drivers for gpu then restart computer and it was good to go . Goes excellent. Great purchase.

I used this with the PNY GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics card I had previously installed in my gaming PC, which died. This card is not on the list of compatible cards, but it works (as should any PCI-e 16 card up to triple width). Really easy to install the card myself. It's plug-and-play but I had trouble with the Surface restarting itself on install, which was easily fixed by disabling power management settings in the Thunderbolt and USB menus in device manager. With the Thunderbolt cable (very short btw), this has upgraded my Windows Surface Pro 8, so I can now play high-performance games which previously wouldn't run. It also provides power for the Surface (Smart Charge compatible) and HDMI to an external screen, saving me plugs and cables. The unit has its own PSU ... MoreI used this with the PNY GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics card I had previously installed in my gaming PC, which died. This card is not on the list of compatible cards, but it works (as should any PCI-e 16 card up to triple width). Really easy to install the card myself. It's plug-and-play but I had trouble with the Surface restarting itself on install, which was easily fixed by disabling power management settings in the Thunderbolt and USB menus in device manager. With the Thunderbolt cable (very short btw), this has upgraded my Windows Surface Pro 8, so I can now play high-performance games which previously wouldn't run. It also provides power for the Surface (Smart Charge compatible) and HDMI to an external screen, saving me plugs and cables. The unit has its own PSU and fan installed, so it's quite large on the desk but relatively quiet to run. Very happy with my purchase.

Recently bought together with an RTX 2070 EVGA Ultra FTW3. The graphics card is huge yet fits perfectly. I manually overclocked and adjusted fan curve using EVGA Precision PX1. Both 3D mark benchmark Time Spy and Fire Strike Extreme indicate a graphics score similar to an overclocked GTX 1660Ti(desktop) (8352 and 8215 respectively). I set a linear fan curve ranging from 20%/20°C to 100%/55°C due to the GPU temperature never rises high enough to utilise its cooling capacity (the card produces negligible noise using its default fan curve, it tends to decrease performance). The final overclocked set up (Memory clock + 1000MHz, Core clock + 100MHz) passed both TS and FSE stress tests and had never crashed during continuous hours of gameplay. Cons: After inserting the ... MoreRecently bought together with an RTX 2070 EVGA Ultra FTW3. The graphics card is huge yet fits perfectly. I manually overclocked and adjusted fan curve using EVGA Precision PX1. Both 3D mark benchmark Time Spy and Fire Strike Extreme indicate a graphics score similar to an overclocked GTX 1660Ti(desktop) (8352 and 8215 respectively). I set a linear fan curve ranging from 20%/20°C to 100%/55°C due to the GPU temperature never rises high enough to utilise its cooling capacity (the card produces negligible noise using its default fan curve, it tends to decrease performance). The final overclocked set up (Memory clock + 1000MHz, Core clock + 100MHz) passed both TS and FSE stress tests and had never crashed during continuous hours of gameplay. Cons: After inserting the graphics card the weight seems overwhelming. Never want to move it once settled. Overall: Satisfied. Encountered a ~23% performance drop using the internal LCD.

Works great, literal plug and play setup. Used with my 2020 MacBook pro 13" to speed up rendering times in Blender and make DaVinci Resolve snappier. Works a treat with my old Sapphire Radeon RX480 Nitro+. Now have it set up on my desk with a second monitor plugged in, to charge the MacBook when I'm working at home. I use a slightly longer 3rd party thunderbolt 3 cable than the tiny one supplied. VERY occasional glitches, probably more MacOS than this specific device from the looks.

Bought as part of a new Mac setup. I’ve had owned four Macs, three of which eventually died due to overheated / failed solder graphics cards. When the 2012 iMac failed at 7 years old I evaluated options for replacing it - a year or two old IMac, new 6-core iMac, 2018 6-core Mac mini. Settled on the latter, as the mini has great expansion options with thunderbolt effectively putting pcie externally. After lots of digging in the forums on egpu.io I settled on this enclosure. Looked like a quality build, high PSU capacity so that it has long term value in being able to take newer graphics cards when needed. I didn’t want additional USB onboard, and wanted a generous enclosure to take bigger cards. And it is big. It’s a monster. Next to the Mac mini on the desktop it ... MoreBought as part of a new Mac setup. I’ve had owned four Macs, three of which eventually died due to overheated / failed solder graphics cards. When the 2012 iMac failed at 7 years old I evaluated options for replacing it - a year or two old IMac, new 6-core iMac, 2018 6-core Mac mini. Settled on the latter, as the mini has great expansion options with thunderbolt effectively putting pcie externally. After lots of digging in the forums on egpu.io I settled on this enclosure. Looked like a quality build, high PSU capacity so that it has long term value in being able to take newer graphics cards when needed. I didn’t want additional USB onboard, and wanted a generous enclosure to take bigger cards. And it is big. It’s a monster. Next to the Mac mini on the desktop it does look, erm, chunky. That said it looks good with some design flair in it, and is *really* well put together. Very easy to open up and no problems at all in putting a double width Radeon RX580 in. Performance is very good, no hassle with a Mac just plug’n’play. Only complaint is that the supplied “passive” TB3 cable is short (necessary for 40Gbps speeds unless you buy an Active cable, much pricier), but I can live with that. Overall - very happy. No regrets, will give me a high performance, upgradeable Mac setup for game-playing / 3D modelling on both OSX and Windows.

Great Improvement in performance

Plugged this into my Mac mini and it worked seamlessly. Performance is great even when editing 6k raw footage in Resolve or Final Cut.

Great device

Its just what I needed for my Lenovo T480 so I can game. I paired my core x with a GTX 750Ti It was plug and play for the most part. I manually installed drivers for my video card I used in the core x because I already had a nvidia card in my computer.

Great eGPU box but...

If you need a Thunderbolt eGPU enclosure, this is a very strong contender. Good, clear instructions for setup, built like a tank (so, no, it's not lightweight), the Razer Core X does "what it says on the tin". It's not cheap (though, as of writing time of this review, you can save money by buying through Microsoft here in Australia) but it will hold a full size graphics card (I've fitted a Radeon 5700XT) and it will provide plenty of airflow. Razer also now do a Chroma version (slightly beefier power supply, USB hub, lighting, etc.) but at additional cost, of course. Note that the Razer Cores are one of the few eGPU units that Apple officially sanctions.

Over priced but worth it

All in all this is an excellent egpu case. Its a lot of money to spend considering you still need to buy a thousand dollar Graphics card and a hundred and fifty dollar thunderbolt 3 cable! The 500mm cable it comes with is a joke! Because lets face it, no matter how nice this case looks, it still takes up a huge amount of desk space. Would I buy this again? Yes I would! As it does speed up my editing render time.

Works great on Linux. Quiet fan. Weighs a lot.

Bought to provide a PCIe slot for a laptop, rather than for hosting a video card, so not the typical user. That said, it worked without trouble. Detected just fine by Linux. The fan is really nice and quiet. The only catch is that the removable back-plate and card fixings assume you are putting a double-width video cart in, so I had to make a little shim to allow the single-width PCIe card to be held in place when transporting the box with the laptop, which I do from time to time. Otherwise, the thing weighs a ton, which is fine if it sits on your desk, but might be an issue if, like me, you need to transport it fairly often. But for its purpose, it works exactly as advertised.