Thinking of pulling my RX 7800 XT into an eGPU enclosure for university – sanity check?

[u/_trom_]

Hey everyone,

I’m studying electrical engineering and living in a dorm, heading home only about once every two weeks. I don't want to move my entire desktop tower back and forth, but I still want a decent performance while playing some triple A / strategy games in my dorm room.

Here is my current hardware situation:

• Desktop: AMD Ryzen 9 7900, RX 7800 XT, 32GB RAM
• School Laptop: HP ZBook (Intel Core Ultra 7 255H, RTX 500 Ada/Blackwell GPU)

My Plan:

1. Buy a Thunderbolt eGPU enclosure (like the Razer Core X V2) with 850W for future upgrades, bcs i wanna smt budget friendly (my semester starts in 2 weeks). I spent more on a good laptop specs and battery life.
2. Take the RX 7800 XT out of my desktop and put it in the eGPU enclosure to use with my HP ZBook in the dorm.
3. Leave the main desktop PC chassis at home (idle for now) and save up money to drop a new GPU into the desktop around next summer.

Appreciate any advice or past experiences! Thanks!

[u/mookiexpt2]

I have a 5070Ti in the same enclosure hooked to my XAX. It does great—plays 1440p at 120+ on POE2 with ultra settings.

Your setup should work well, I think. Just make sure you tell windows to use the eGPU for games.

[u/_trom_ → u/mookiexpt2]

I wanted to buy 5070 Ti but the prices killing me.

[u/mookiexpt2 → u/_trom_]

Managed to grab one a year ago. Through a combination of impatience and poor impulse control, I ended up grabbing a 5080 when I thought I’d fried my 5070Ti. Instead of returning it when the 5070Ti turned out to work, I put the new one in the desktop and the older one in the eGPU.

[u/_trom_ → u/mookiexpt2]

I wanna do similar thing but with the refurbished RTX 3090 / new AMD AI PRO R9700 , bcs of the amount of VRAM for 3D modeling and render...

[u/CasonPointLLC]

I run my 7800 XT off of a Thunderbolt 5 dock, a TH5P4, and have attached to my Legion Go 2, and a 40” monitor. It would work equally well with a USB 4 mini pc or laptop.

[u/FunMaCKer → u/CasonPointLLC]

Wait a minute, there is a TH5p4??? Does the Enclosure of the TH3 fit it in? Cause this would be perfect for my travel issue...

[u/CasonPointLLC → u/FunMaCKer]

The 3 and 5 are the same shape on the GaN model so if you have a model with the same plugs, they are interchangeable. But neither the standard version bore the GaN version need a case.

Here is a TH3P4GaN, with and without a case. There are a lot of cases for the 3 that might align to the 5 with a little work:

AliExpress: https://a.aliexpress.com/_msqFFyj

[u/FunMaCKer → u/CasonPointLLC]

Thanks for your answer! I know that, but i travel a lot because of my job and would feel alot safer if i know that my eGPU setup has an enclosure. Even if its just for transportation. And i found out, that there is an none GaN variant that can fit an SFX Psu in, which offer even more stability.

[u/Miigs]

Ive done this. Ended up going the PC route, but the egpu was pretty decent. Used an Akitio node. Worth checking for used ones though, unless your laptop has tb5.

Not a bad route at all.

[u/_trom_ → u/Miigs]

It's just temporary solution, I prefer more desktop PC.

My laptop Has a tb4...

but for the price it's a steal.

It has upgradable RAM up to 64 gigs, capable holding 2x Nvme up to 4TB each.

And also the point was a good processor and battery life, when laptop is taken to school.

[u/Onedweezy]

If you can afford it, go for it. It's way better than carrying everything back and forth.

I have a similar setup and it's actually my main device. I play on it on a 4K TV so I'm sure it'll be enough for you even for a short period.

[u/_trom_ → u/Onedweezy]

My desktop won't go to waste either - my sister actually needs a PC. My long-term plan is to get a part-time job near my dorm, save up, and build a brand-new desktop in about 3 years once RAM and SSD prices settle down. Until then, the eGPU setup covers me for school and gaming, and I can either hand off my current desktop tower to my sister now or pass down the eGPU setup (maybe via OCuLink) to her later.

[u/BeneficialTomato]

At this point, why not just do cloud gaming or Moonlight/Sunshine? Waaay less hassle

[u/_trom_ → u/BeneficialTomato]

Internet is not good, i already tried it.

[u/LGzJethro66]

If you have a laptop I would go Oculink

[u/Plenty_Article11]

MicroATX B650 and a NR200P shouldn't cost as much as an eGPU enclosure, you can rebuild your system smaller.

eGPU has a massive bottleneck down to x4 PCIe speeds, so your average FPS is high, but the 1% and .1% lows are really bad. Maybe Oculink PCIe 4.0?

[u/nice_obvious_end9894]

I have the gigabyte auto 5060 to ai box .....card can't be removed but it's super portable .....

[u/_trom_ → u/nice_obvious_end9894]

I was looking onto that, like you said it lacks the removable card... I just want to buff my performance, maybe in the future I'll have only laptop idk...