System specs
Huawei Matebook Pro
- 13.9" screen
- 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8550U processor
- Nvidia GeForce MX150 with 2GB GDDR5
- Windows 10
- 16 GB LPDDR3 2133 MHz
eGPU hardware
- Zotac AMP BOX
- GTX 1080 from Aorus Gaming Box
- 0,5m passive TB3 cable
Hardware pictures
Installation steps
Plug and play
Benchmarks
Unigine Superposition (4k external, 1080 internal, 1080 external):
Unigine Valley: (1080 Ultra/No AA: internal, external)
3DMark Time Spy: (external)
Comments
I was looking replacement for Aorus Gaming Box, which PSU did blow up (but GPU was still working), and ended up buying this one. It is slightly smaller than Razer Core X which I initially thought of buying, it's also shorter and cheaper than Razer Core V2 which was also one of my candidates.
It's able to keep Matebook Pro battery level at 100%, so I guess it can delivery at least 60 watts over the TB3 cable. PSU has fan, but it does not make any noise, so box is nice and quiet unlike the Aorus Gaming Box.
The box can house max card length of 228mm and I'm considering trying out 2070 RTX series, e.g ZOTAC GeForce GAMING RTX 2070 Mini or MSI GeForce RTX 2070 8GB Ventus should fit well in box.
Performance vice beats the build-in MX150 x 5-20 times depending on GPU use case (CUDA calculation/ rendering)
HP Spectre x360 15" (Windows 10) /
Intel NUC8i3BEH (Xubuntu 18.04) with AORUS RTX 2070 Gaming box
2018 14" Huawei MateBook X Pro (MX150) [8th,4C,U] + GTX 1080 @ 16Gbps-TB3 (Zotac AMP Box Mini) + Win10 [build link]
Nice! I haven't even seen any of these enclosures on sale.... where did you find it?
2017 13" MacBook Pro Touch Bar
GTX1060 + AKiTiO Thunder3 + Win10
GTX1070 + Sonnet Breakaway Box + Win10
GTX1070 + Razer Core V1 + Win10
Vega 56 + Razer Core V1 + macOS + Win10
Vega 56 + Mantiz Venus + macOS + W10
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LG 5K Ultrafine flickering issue fix
2017 13" MacBook Pro [7th,2C,U] + RX 5700 XT @ 32Gbps-TB3 (Mantiz Venus) + macOS 10.15.4 & Win10 2004 [build link]
Yeah, this is a rare one - I couldn't also find that much information about the box, except couple of Youtube videos 🙂 I bought it from Amazon.de https://www.amazon.de/Zotac-AMP-Box-Thunderbolt-External-schwarz-grau/dp/B079QLVWRD/. 400eur with shipping.
HP Spectre x360 15" (Windows 10) /
Intel NUC8i3BEH (Xubuntu 18.04) with AORUS RTX 2070 Gaming box
2018 14" Huawei MateBook X Pro (MX150) [8th,4C,U] + GTX 1080 @ 16Gbps-TB3 (Zotac AMP Box Mini) + Win10 [build link]
Very nice build! I did not realize how compact the AMP Box is. Would you be able to provide additional details on the power supply?
• external graphics card builds
• best laptops for external GPU
• eGPU enclosure buyer's guide
2013 Mac Pro (FP D500 x2) [3rd,12C,E] + RX 5700 XT @ 16Gbps-TB2>TB3 (Mantiz Saturn Pro) + macOS 11 [build link]
Wunderschön!! 😀 How about cpu thermal? Is there any improvement with or without AMP box? It’ll be great if you can run 3Dmark like firestrike or timespy if you have it, sorry I’m a gamer 
Razer Blade 15 2018, i7 8750H 16gb ddr4 2666mhz 1tb 970Evo
Razer Blade Stealth 12,5 2016 i7 7500U 8gb ddr3 1866mhz 500gb 970Evo
MacBook Pro 13 mid 2012 i5 3210M 12gb ddr3 1600mhz 500GB HDD
Razer Core V2 rtx 2070 Black 2040mhz Boost clock
Previous setting: rtx 2080ti Asus Turbo, rtx 2080 xc gaming, rtx 2080 Fe, Zotac Mini 1080ti, Evga 1080 FTW2 gaming.
Dual Monitor Predator XB241YU 165Hz 1440p, LG l24UD58 60Hz 4K
Portable Monitor Magedok 1440p HDR 60Hz usbA/C monitor
2016 12" Razer Blade Stealth [7th,2C,U] + RTX 2080 Ti @ 32Gbps-TB3 (Razer Core V2) + Win10 1803 [build link]
Very nice build! I did not realize how compact the AMP Box is. Would you be able to provide additional details on the power supply?
Box has internal power supply, basis on product id (251-09100-7800F) it's build by Zotac. There is no mention of PD in specs, but I guess it's at least 60 watts. PSU has one ~90mm fan, interestingly facing downwards under the box.
- 450W power supply
- Up to 250W (2 x 8-pin PCI-E power cable)
http://hkftp.zotac.com/External/ExternalBox/AMP-BOX/Brochure/AMP_BOX_Brochure.pdf
https://imgur.com/a/KHCvGtS
HP Spectre x360 15" (Windows 10) /
Intel NUC8i3BEH (Xubuntu 18.04) with AORUS RTX 2070 Gaming box
2018 14" Huawei MateBook X Pro (MX150) [8th,4C,U] + GTX 1080 @ 16Gbps-TB3 (Zotac AMP Box Mini) + Win10 [build link]
That 2-lane TB3 port is seriously gimping those internal display benchmarks. It's really a shame they couldn't have used 2-lane for the MX150 and gave 4-lane to the TB3 port. (Samsung did this with their Notebook 9 15" with the MX150).
LG Gram 17 | Sonnet Breakaway Box 550 | Asus Strix RTX 2070 OC Edition | Win 10 Pro 20H2 + Fedora 32 Dual Boot
Build Link
2018 17" LG Gram 17 [8th,4C,U] + RTX 2070 @ 32Gbps-TB3 (Sonnet Breakaway 550) + Win10 [build link]
That 2-lane TB3 port is seriously gimping those internal display benchmarks. It's really a shame they couldn't have used 2-lane for the MX150 and gave 4-lane to the TB3 port. (Samsung did this with their Notebook 9 15" with the MX150).
Yeah, but it's not big issue for me, since I usually do gaming using external displays; projector and VR headset... so far this setup has been more than sufficient for my use.
Samsung Notebook 9 looks nice, but I really like Huawei's choice of 3:2 aspect ratio and spacious MS precision touch pad.. I have had several (MSI) gaming laptops, but they all come with crappy ELAN touch pad, and then the wider 16:9 screen is not super good for productivity tasks. Huawei finally got almost everything right.. as all purpose ultrabook 😉
HP Spectre x360 15" (Windows 10) /
Intel NUC8i3BEH (Xubuntu 18.04) with AORUS RTX 2070 Gaming box
2018 14" Huawei MateBook X Pro (MX150) [8th,4C,U] + GTX 1080 @ 16Gbps-TB3 (Zotac AMP Box Mini) + Win10 [build link]
Hey hi!
I have a similar build with razer core X + zotac rtx 2080 amp extreme and I am wondering if you experience sudden freezes in idling mode?
I had some freezes recently like laptop completely freezes and only can be forced shutdown.
Matebook X Pro i7-8550U + Zotac RTX 2080 AMP EXTREME + Razer Core X
Hey hi!
I have a similar build with razer core X + zotac rtx 2080 amp extreme and I am wondering if you experience sudden freezes in idling mode?
I had some freezes recently like laptop completely freezes and only can be forced shutdown.
I can't recall issues with idling.. I have such a short cable to eGPU so I usually right away unplug after the usage, so I have it idling rarely.. 🙂 Does it occur by the time that computer goes to power saving state and starts shutting down the display or when?
I remember having lots of trouble with Aorus Gaming Box when it was plugged in.. I ended up having black screen and unresponsive computer and had to force power down the computer. But with this box, even the plugging in the box works surprisingly smoothly. It could be the box itself, or maybe I had the NVidia drivers updated at some point.
Have you tried disabling MX150 from device manager, I remember reading about it and trying that with Aorus Gaming Box issues?
Would be nice get some benchmarks of your setup, I've been daydreaming of RTX cards a bit 🙂
HP Spectre x360 15" (Windows 10) /
Intel NUC8i3BEH (Xubuntu 18.04) with AORUS RTX 2070 Gaming box
2018 14" Huawei MateBook X Pro (MX150) [8th,4C,U] + GTX 1080 @ 16Gbps-TB3 (Zotac AMP Box Mini) + Win10 [build link]