2020 15" Dell XPS 15 9500 (GTX1650Ti) [10th,6C,H] + RTX 3070 @ 32Gbps-M.2x4 (ADT-Link R43SG) + Win10  

Hi Art1384, i have question for you, can you explain to me what obstacles do you experience when using it, and does it run normally?
How long have you used it ...?
What is the maximum performance ... ?? I am afraid that performance is not optimal, and it damages my GPU ...

Hi Irvan, sorry for the late reply - didn't see your message.

I don't have any real issues and have been using it daily for the past 5-6 months for gaming and for working. I have sometimes issues with my CPU thermal throttling on some games, but that makes sense to me, since I am not bottlnecked by my GPU anymore. And from time to time, my external monitor goes black for a 1-2 seconds (maybe once a day). It has not bothered me enough to try to understand why/find a fix. 

For the performance, you can check the benchmark I posted in my previous post. Performance loss of the GPU seems to be around 7%. 

Hi Art, I'm glad that your system is working. Can you tell me why you went with the m.2 version and not the TB3 version of the R43SG? I am looking on Aliexpress and I can see that they say the TB3 version should not be used with a Dell and I am confused as to why.

When your laptop is in use is it always just with the bottom case off so the cable can attach to the M.2 slot?

I'm not familiar with the R43SG but I am really sceptical about using the included 2x8 pin break out cable in step 2 because that 12V has to come from the 24 pin connector which only has two 12V wires. An RTX3070 could draw a sustained 230W that works out to nearly 10A per wire which would be really hot with thin gauge wiring. I'm just reminded of miners back in the day burning/melting the 24 pin connector on their motherboards because their GPUs pulled excessive power from the PCIe slots to the point that boards eventually came with auxiliary 6/8 pin PCIe connectors to just power the slots.

Safer to just connect the RTX3070 directly to the PSU than worry about damaging hardware or at worst, a potential fire hazard.

@dxphegpuio, where were you two years ago? 😉 

I remember shortly thinking about directly connecting the PSU to the GPU back then, but I wanted to have the convenience of my GPU automatically turning on, when I powered my laptop on. Do you know if this would have worked with the R43SG even if I directly connected PSU to GPU? 

However you are most likely right, my 24 pin connector ended up melting after approx. 2 years of daily use and it might be for the reasons you describe (although it's still a bit strange to me that nothing happend for so long). 

I forgot about this forum, so I didn't make any updates and luckily the GPU was not damaged (as far as I can tell). I instead built a regular gaming pc around my gpu and performance is still stable at the level that I would expect. 

@johnnyidahoan, after my setup ended up failing, I wouldn't walk around giving people advice - but since you asked: It is my understanding that TB3 solutions are significantly more expensive and also bottleneck more strongly the performance of your GPU. But they are indeed more convenient, as you can easily unplug them if TB3 while my bottom cover was indeed off all the time to plug into the second M.2 slot   

@dxphegpuio, I see that you're responding to the OP but do you have any idea if this similar situation would happen with a 2080Ti? Would underclocking it be a possible fix for this situation?

@art1384, WTF! I think you should update your post or at the very least, add a comment to the title to let SEO do the job of warning everyone. The reason it took so long is because the plastic takes a while to weaken from heat and it's not always on which was how the miners instead of gamers with tri/quad SLI/Crossfire setups were first to find out 24 pin connectors can melt- they put it under constant load 24/7. The 24 pin's main job is to signal the PSU to switch on which would then power the PCIe plugs directly connected to the GPU so your idea is how it works in a desktop and should also work with the R43SG unless it needs precise power timing for some reason. It's only meant to supply a little power (<100W) to the PCIe slots so it's getting overworked for sure.

@JohnnyIdahoan, it should occur similarly because it has a 250W TGP with melt timing differing based on GPU load duration and intensity, PSU wire gauges, and ambient temperatures. Underclocking/underpowering is not much more than a band-aid solution because 1) you don't know the threshold where it would melt as it'd differ for different PSUs, with thicker wires taking longer, and if you go too conservative, say 150W, then you just nuked your performance to the point a Thunderbolt enclosure could outright beat it and 2) a driver update or even waking from sleep could set the GPU back to defaults which puts you back at risk anyway so you need eternal vigilance. The proper solution is free and simple which is to just power the GPU directly with the PSU's cables and not use the breakout cable with the R43SG, and if that doesn't work than I'd seriously reconsider using either the 2080Ti or the R43SG. Shouldn't the R43SG have an auxiliary 12V input to avoid precisely this situation?

SMH at this situation, it's worse than the 4090's 12VHPWR issues because this was a foreseeable and preventable problem that is far more likely to happen but could have been avoided entirely, whereas at least 12VHPWR is a new connector that worked just fine with 3090Ti. It's not my station to issue PSAs but this is a recipe for bad eGPU headlines...

@dxphegpuio, Tbh until now I just assumed it was faulty hardware from aliexpress where I didn't expect perfect quality control anyway (since there are multiple vendors on aliexpress and I don't even know for sure if I bought mine from an "official" vendor). That's one of the reason I never left my GPU on when I was not home etc. 

Also, I thought I followed pictures and instructions on the ADT website (although they of course didn't confirm compatbility with GPUs like a 3070). 

http://www.adt.link/product/R43SG.html  

Edit: Actually on the picture above, it seems they didn't just connect the 24-pin connector, but also a connector that is called "CPU 4-pin connector" on the R43SG

Now that you are providing a quite good alternative explanation, I realize it might not just be a faulty unit but my mistake. At least that explanation sounds good enough to me that I would include a disclaimer in my original post.  

@dxphegpuio, thanks for offering your insight into this situation!

So, to make sure I understand what you're saying, instead of plugging more cables into the R43SG I should plug straight into the GPU. Like in this amazing picture I created, I would not plug into the board where the red X is, instead following the green line and just going straight to the GPU?

Lastly, you were talking about how thunderbolt enclosures seriously affect performance of higher end cards. I was thinking of building an enclosure using the R43SG-TB3 which is similar to what OP uses but is not M.2, instead it connects to the computer with thunderbolt. Is that a complete waste of time?

I already have the GPU from an old desktop I built but the desktop is not available to me anymore but the graphics card is and building a whole new desktop right now is not possible. I am trying to find the best way to use this card with my laptop. Any insights there?