Our test system is built around Intel's X79 Express chipset, with 8 GT/s transfer rates to each 16-lane PCI Express graphics slot. We're going to measure the performance of native connectivity and the TurboBox using one, two, and three GPUs in each solution. This should tell us whether there's any penalty for externalizing graphics, or for interfacing with the enclosure over a single third-gen PCI Express x16 slot. Part of our testing also involves comparisons between PCIe 2.0 and 3.0, quantifying the benefits of modern technology versus what came before.
As mentioned, we're using three Radeon HD 7970s cards for testing, all of which are set to AMD's reference core and memory clock rates.
A number of games should help us flesh out 3D performance, while LuxMark and GUIMiner stand in as OpenCL-accelerated benchmarks. Although we know that the TurboBox isn't a gaming-oriented product, a few tests at 1920x1080 and 5760x1080 should shed some light on its performance potential.
| Test System | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i7-3960X (Sandy Bridge-E), 3.3 GHz @ 4.25 GHz , Six Cores, LGA 2011, 15 MB Shared L3 Cache, Hyper-Threading enabled. | |||||||
| Motherboard | ASRock X79 Extreme9 (LGA 2011) Chipset: Intel X79 Express | |||||||
| Networking | On-Board Gigabit LAN controller | |||||||
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LP PC3-16000, 4 x 4 GB, 1600 MT/s, CL 8-8-8-24-2T | |||||||
| Graphics | 3 x Radeon HD 7970 | |||||||
| Hard Drive | Samsung 470-series 256 GB (SSD) | |||||||
| Power | ePower EP-1200E10-T2 1200 W ATX12V, EPS12V | |||||||
| Software and Drivers | ||||||||
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8 | |||||||
| DirectX | DirectX 11.1 | |||||||
| Graphics Drivers | Nvidia 310.70 beta | |||||||
- Netstor TurboBox NA255A: Space For Up To Four GPUs, Externally
- Setup And Overcoming Issues
- Test System And Benchmarks
- Results: General-Purpose GPU
- Results: Medal Of Honor Warfighter
- Results: Crysis 2
- Results: DiRT Showdown
- Results: Metro 2033
- Power And Heat
- Our Benchmarks Prove Its Efficacy, But At What Cost?
Or you could use the $2000 to ditch your mac pro that is years out of date and use the money to buy a pc that is better in pretty much every way.
There are some external GPU cases.
The only issue is that the cheapest is somewhere slightly less than $400.
Please explain to me how an aluminum box, a micro-PSU, and a Thunderbolt-to-PCIE adapter adds up to even $200...
$400-$500 for a slightly longer box with a slightly more capable PSU.
Or you could use the $2000 to ditch your mac pro that is years out of date and use the money to buy a pc that is better in pretty much every way.
Mac/Apple users either don't care about or don't under price/performance . My guess, they won't care about the price, just that it doesn't come in pretty colors.
What additional conclusions could be drawn concerning internal vs external throughput?
Apple users are a select group of users, alot of high school kids and girls use them. Not trying to be funny just an observation. If you buy into the Apple thing you have to do things their way and on their terms. Apple has always been cost prohibitive and too restrictive for me personally.
My sister's thoughts when buying a 13" Macbook:
"If it's light, not battery draining, durable, and works, then it's good enough."
ViDock 4 Plus Overdrive (Two 6-Pin/320W/329mm) $279US Plus $30US Worldwide Shipping
http://www.villageinstruments.com/tiki-index.php?page=ViDock
Unboxing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymYbE3JawLk
7990 x 2?
Still have one PCI slot open for my phone modem card
$13,800? Check your math- I think you forgot a few titans.
4x NA255A @ $2200 = $8800
16x Titan @ $1000 = $16000
4x Seasonic 1000 @ $230 = $920
Total of $25,720 before adding the custom water loops.
the PLX chips are being used in motherboards long ago , and the whole motherboard with PLX chip is 300$ only .. as a matter of fact the PLX chip is 50$ only
add 50$ for case and power and 50$ for board and cables and 50$ profit
what 2200$ ?
I hope Asrock or Asus make such boxs soon for 200$ and with SLI option as well. ...
who needs a stupid useless Thunderbolt when u can have native external PCIe 16 ?
next stop add that port to a notebook .. one to one PCI 16 x no PLX chip... and notebooks will be desktops