A bit old - this was meant to be posted 2 years ago but maybe it can still help.
System specs
- Dell XPS 9370
- i7-8850U
- 16Gb RAM
- 13" screen
- Asus RTX2060 Strix OC
- Windows 10
eGPU hardware
- Akitio Node Pro
- Changed exhaust fan to Noctua NF B9 redux
- Cable: Akitio 40Gbps Thunderbolt3 Cable 200cm/
Hardware pictures
Above
Installation steps (what did you do to get it all going?)
Installed Nvidia drivers - then reboot - pretty much plug and play
Benchmarks
Comments (eg: how has the eGPU improved your workflow or gaming)
Great experience - will not go back to pure laptop nor desktop in the future for my personal use.
Note that I used to be able to hotswap, but since 2 or so months I have to reboot everytime I want to connect to the eGPU (I can still hot unplug only if I turn down screen/egpu first - otherwise I get black screen) - I guess this is because of a recent Bios update from Dell.
I plugged all my USB devices (mouse, keyboard, others) to the USB hub embedded in the monitor, then daisy chained it through node. So I only have one cable.
I was dreaming of using this setup for my professional laptop as well - but my company's windows image doesn't allow to install Nvidia drivers. So for this one I have an extra HDMI cable to add to the laptop + need to swap the USB hub cable from Akitio and company laptop - a bit cumbersome.
In the future - planning to upgrade to a 3080 or 3070 GPU. Or maybe upgrade the whole thing to that new Asus Flow system in a year or so if it works well.