Aoostar AG02 eGPU dock with OCuLink support and 500W PSU announced for $219

Aoostar AG02 render
(Image credit: Aoostar)

Back in August, Aoostar introduced the AG01 OCuLink eGPU docking station with integrated 400W PSU— and today, the company has officially launched its successor, the 500W Aoostar AG02 eGPU docking station, keeping promotional / delayed "Black Friday" pricing of $219.99 until the pre-sale window closes on December 30th. The company says its new Aoostar AG02 eGPU docks will start being shipped "around January 15th" and, like the AG01, they are cross-compatible with the Lenovo TGX eGPU interface by swapping the OCuLink connector.

Technically, you can still replace the built-in PSU as well, though if you're already planning on doing that it's recommended that you start with a cheaper eGPU dock that also supports user-replaceable PSUs, like the Aoostar AG01.

As an out-of-the-box package, this eGPU dock. including its 500W PSU for just $219, looks to be a compelling choice for lots of mini PC and handheld PC users. OCuLink support allows for the fastest possible bandwidth between the eGPU and the host PC, utilizing 4 lanes of PCIe 4.0 bandwidth at an effective 64 Gigabits per second.

Top-end GPUs will still be bottlenecked by this bandwidth, but these are generally minor losses, so long as your CPU can keep pace. The also-supported USB4 interface is another, slower, story, but should be seen as more of a fallback for compatibility's sake than anything else. It's hard to over-emphasize just how important it is to be using proper PCIe, OCuLink, or an equivalent with eGPUs versus standard USB or Thunderbolt connections— you will lose a lot of performance with the more standard connectors, especially old generations.

Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

  • awake283
    What is the point!? If you're going to do all this why wouldn't you buy an actual tower PC? Who in the world are these things targeted at?
    Reply
  • Notton
    awake283 said:
    What is the point!? If you're going to do all this why wouldn't you buy an actual tower PC? Who in the world are these things targeted at?
    oculink isn't limited to mini-PCs.
    They exist on handhelds and laptops too.
    Reply
  • TheTechGuy1337
    I bought a mini pc with a AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H barebone kit for $299 right before thanksgiving. It came with two usb 4.0 ports, a few display options, and an occulink port. The price to build is not as high as you might think. Just a matter of finding the right sale. Personally, I really like the egpu dock. I hope we see more of these in the future. I wonder if laptops will start adopting the occulink port or if future usb and thunderbolt standards will kill it off? Either way, it's cool to have so many options.
    Reply