Introduction
Did someone recognize those metal bars in my sepia-toned forum icon? It’s a NA211TB – the same chassis is the base of Netstor’s just announced HL23T single-slot PCIe expansion. It has gotten a refreshed appearance. Precisely painted aluminium, the fascia decorated by a cartoonish super hero that represents a power boost to your gaming experience. I was lucky to get the neon green variant from their 3-color collection for a review. I’m going to try some arm-wrestling with this super hero and we’ll find out how superb the box really is.
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Exceptionally, Netstor hasn’t followed the mainstream path. HL23T is the first eGPU enclosure with two Thunderbolt 3 ports and you can mount up to 32cm card in there. It’s not advertised for external GPUs, but I have very good news for you. It’s Mac certified and works out of the box on macOS High Sierra with a Sapphire NITRO+ RX 580 8GD5 Special Edition. Clamshell mode works as well in the latest beta. Literally plug-and-play.
Windows through Bootcamp on a Mac is a bit more involved. I’m using my Late 2016 13″ non-Touch bar MacBook Pro with an Apple Extended USB keyboard via Apple USB-C to USB adapter. This keyboard works great as a hub with two USB ports on either end. On one side, you can put your wireless mouse transceiver, and to the other the EFI USB stick. Read my instructions to successfully boot into Windows with the integrated GPU activated so that you can have instant internal screen acceleration with new AMD cards and Windows 10 built-in drivers. For performance testing, I downloaded the latest Crimson ReLive Edition drivers from AMD’s web site. Accordingly, you can install Nvidia drivers, restart from the USB stick, and you have a ready gaming machine.
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Hardware Specifics
At the first look, the box definitely looks to be targeting gamers; a super hero holding a sledgehammer in his muscled hand. On opening the chassis, I was amazed to see how tiny the backplane was, all electrical components hidden underneath wisely to be in cover from the heat. All shells are accurately painted from the inside too, only the shiny metal frames and the side metal rail are left unpainted. The rail has a movable 8cm intake cooling fan and you can move it to any spot in the rail you like, to match the position with a blower style GPU cooler. There are three fan speed levels that can be adjusted by the switch on the top of the metal rail.
The box is primarily designed for reference cards that can be up to 12cm in height. Other cards that blow hot air vertically or to both sides are not ideal to be used with this enclosure because the side rail may block and interfere air flow. In this case, you can completely remove the rail to have more room to fit wider cards with bigger fans.
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Unlike other manufacturers that have trusted on TUL Corporation’s backplane design and single TB3 port, Netstor has designed and manufactured their own dual port Thunderbolt 3 card. In this iteration all components are flattened; no sticking out capacitors that can accidentally loosen up and peel off when you pull the card out (yes, one dropped from my NA211TB, I got it fixed).
The TB3 card is powered by the common DSL6540 and two TI83 PD chips, providing Nvidia compatibility with older macOS versions. My automate-eGPU.sh script couldn’t scrape Nvidia’s hosted XML file for new packages at the time of testing, so I had to manually check the correct web address and use script’s -url option. Ran, rebooted, and it worked on macOS 10.12.5. I don’t know if the situation is still the same, but we all know that Apple favours AMD, and the script has became to the end of its lifecycle.
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Overall, my first impressions are very positive.
Pros
+ Very good build quality
+ Dual TB3 ports and firmware switching possibility
+ Lightness and size, only 2.7kg in total
+ Easily removable 170g top shell with a thumb screw
+ Adjustable side fan
+ 1m TB3 cable included
Cons
– Cards over 12cm in height (such as the Sapphire NITRO+ RX 580) can be used only with a top shell removed
– Somewhat buzzy 4cm PSU fan
– Although the 300W PSU survived from 320W peaks in a stress test with R9 390, 400W power promise would have been better
– Only 15W power delivery to the host computer
Testings & Benchmarks
All the benchmarks are conducted on the external UHD display at full HD resolution, at maxed out settings, just the USB-C power adapter cable and included 1m TB3 cable plugged in.
Netstor told that it may not reach the 22XX MiB/s H2D performance with the factory default firmware, but it did on the Windows 10 Boot Camp after warmed up. They provided a firmware upgrade tool for testing and said that end users will have a possibility to switch between the factory firmware and specialized eGFX configuration in order to gain maximum H2D transfer speeds.
Details regarding the eGFX configuration are not discussed in this review but you will be notified on Netstor’s website about this when these boxes become more widespread in autumn. MSRP of Netstor HL23T is $379 USD.
After running a couple of rounds of Fire Strike stress tests, I checked CUDA-Z readings and they looked great.
 F1 2016 Benchmark |
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 Hitman 2016 Benchmark |
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Conclusion
It’s not a Hulk, but gives expected power boost in gaming, especially with Nvidia. Keep in mind, that AMDs are generally better in computing tasks. Additional devices connected to the other USB-C port got detected on startup straight away. The additional USB-C port makes possible to daisy chain 10Gbps USB3.1 Gen2 device, NVMe SSD via TB3 or another RX 580 on High Sierra. It’s important to keep devices connected from the beginning. Hot-plugging didn’t work properly on Windows with a 2016 13” MBP. The colourful appearance might divide opinions in professional use, but the whole unit including inner components are high quality and it is very likely capable of supporting more professional cards under 300W power consumption, such as Vega FE. The only minor downsides being the PSU, a bit buzzy to my ears, a well known issue in other vendors’ boxes too with an industrial Flex ATX PSU. Finding a silent balance between compactness and good air ventilation is not an easy task. Keep up the good work Netstor.
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Hello @Goalque,
Could you post also the picture of the main board and if you could specify also the ic controllers on board.Or at least list them like you did for the TB add in board.Thanks you a lot!Nvm, i’m noob!
I can take a photo from the rear side of the Netstor’s NP953ABP PCIe 3.0 backplane later today.
No it’s ok thanks you a lot, my bad i’m noob.
I thought nestor would also provide an external TB pci-e card, since the main board looked like an add in card.
It took me just a couple of minutes to understand.
Thanks you for the review.
The power supply – 300W is a problem. Yes RX580 and WX7100 will be fine, however for anything beyond that you will need a beefier power supply.
Try to find a mini-ITX power supply >400W… (with reasonable price and noise)
To be honest, something strange with the psu.
Even rated 300W, it seems to be 300W on the 12v only, plus 80/100W on the +3/5v i think.
It should not be bad just looking the specs, 12v1/12v2 20A each for 25/30A combined for… Read more »
This looks like the exact enclosure I have been waiting for! A lick of paint to cover those gross graphics and its a winner… any news on availability or did I miss that? (edit: yep did, bit expensive too considering its just an enclosure – unlike Mantiz etc).
This is an interesting choice of a power supply. All the Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosures we’ve seen so far have PSUs with single +12V rail. The Netstor HL23T is the only one with a dual rail +12V PSU.
Have you seen the PSU in HP box?
@wimpzilla:
I found one photo, testing the 3.3V part of 75W with a R9 Nano 🙂
@goalque, then you for the great review. I believe dual TB3 USB-C port units are not eGFX certified and so have PCIe firmware instead. Mymantiz_John suggested the this differs to eGFX firmware by not support hotplugging within Windows. Can you verify if that is the case?
I have not. I’ve contacted OMEN by HP social media reps but was told no media sample available.
Please don’t get me wrong – this is an interesting device, but I do not want people to have illusions about what GPUs they can plug.
Since this box is dual-port, it cannot officially advertise eGPU support and hence the OEM has not tested that many GPUs – and there is no official compatibility list.
@nando4: HL23T is macOS certified for all PCIe devices. Apple doesn’t support eGFX on Windows Boot Camp.
At some point, my 2015 15″ (M370X) TB2 MBP suddenly became hot-pluggable on Windows, thanks to new AMD drivers. I am not sure about the current status. Late 2016 13″ MBP is a bit more tricky due to its firmware but apple_set_os.efi works. Netstor’s simplified single-slot backplane should be more Windows friendly than their multi-slot version in a NA211TB3 regarding eGPU use.
I will do more tests later, also with the new “eGFX” firmware when I come back from a cottage holiday.
True, there is no guarantee that your GPU would work in Windows. People should be aware that this is officially under macOS PCIe expansion category with the factory firmware: for major professional PCIe cards like Blackmagic Design video cards, audio cards, RAID controllers, and video transcoding such as Red Rocket-X are supported, as with the more expensive NA211TB3.
Samsung 960 PRO NVMe SSD is automatically recognized with the M.2 NVMe to PCIe adapter on macOS High Sierra. I’ve successfully daisy chained RX 580 and … Read more »
Thanks for this picture, i did not thought they would use the backplane to hold a part of the board voltage regulation.
As you wisely said, it seems to me too, the enclosure is pretty straight forward without fancy add-in options. The main board shown only the TB ic controllers and a bunch of voltage regulatory component.
What the 3pin on the… Read more »
@wimpzilla: If I recall correctly, the 3-pin connector provides 5V to the TB3 card and powering on via TB host.
5V from the 4-pin on the backplane is converted to 3.3V by the DC-to-DC converter.
Thanks you.
Edit: Gotcha, that connector should care the PSU sense pin, a ground and the 5vsb or -12v to the TB main board.
The R9 390 that I tested was a Sapphire Nitro R9 390 with two 8pin power connectors.
http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=C436E37C-8A09-48B6-9F2B-F4AF86E377B6&lang=eng
The TDP of this card is 375W and I had no problems running it through Fire Strike stress loops (do not try this… Read more »
I found Enhance’s product specification:
http://www.enhance.com.tw/new/enp7000-80plus-series/
http://www.enhance.com.tw/new/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2013/11/ENP7030-SPEC.pdf
Notes:
( 1 ) The maximum combined load on +5V and +3.3V outputs shall not exceed 80W
( 2 ) +12V total DC output power shall not exceed 275W
( 3 ) When +12V load is 14A, the Min load of +5V is 3A.
( 4 ) The maximum continuous average DC outputs power shall not exceed 300W
It has an over-power protection:
3.1 Over-power protection
The power supply will be shutdown and latch off when output power over 110% ~ 150% of rated DC output.
… Read more »I think each setup need to be tested before, especially if testing Vega or power hungry cards. Including all other parameters that are the psu T°, main pcb’s t°, power consumption of the various box component, psu behavior depending the load and the box t°, etc. To clearly describe the overall product behavior when used and stressed.
Nevertheless as you said, the psu 5v should not excess 80Watt. I hope the whole TB main board + backplane + charge, do not pump so much.
If i not mistake here, the load of the psu rail is divided, since… Read more »
The specs of PCIe slot are 12V @ 5.5A and 3.3V @ 3A for a total of 75W. It’s generally not much more than 3 Amps when the 5V is converted to 3.3V. The backplane and the TB3 card are not power hungry. Their TB2 variant worked without the 3-pin connector and I suppose the TB3 behaves the same way. I think the main purpose of the 3-pin is just to power on the PSU, and the TB controller relies on PCIe slot power.
The total power consumption matters, and the PSU manufacturer stated that 300W should not be exceeded.
… Read more »PSU problem solved.
Two 8cm Noctua fans + Silvestone SFX ST45SF-G (450W)
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=342
I removed the side rail and was able to fit up to 22cm card + 12cm fan, the SFX PSU tightly in the corner. PSU cables on the top and exhaust downwards this time, lots of empty space there.
Very DIYable 🙂
Yeah, lots of empty space. Not really a smart move in MY opinion, but I guess you need an enclosure for everyone, right?
Netstor can modify the enclosure for your needs in the future, feedback is welcome.
In my opinion, a SFX PSU is a smart move if they can customize and place it under the GPU, only 6.4cm in height.
1) eliminates the buzziness of the 4cm fan
2) GPUs with 300W TDP aren’t an issue anymore
3) May open possibility for 60W-100W power delivery to the host
@goalque, as the product isn’t released yet, did Netstor want to integrate those three mods into the Intel-certified final product? An upcoming competitor, the AKiTiO Node Pro: https://egpu.io/forums/thunderbolt-enclosures/akitio-node-pro-tb3-egpu/ has a tentative spec sheet integrating features in your mod list. It too is a dual-TB3 port enclosure targetting professional users.
HL23T is reviewed as a final product. I meant in future versions.
Already listed by the retailers:
http://www.atreid.com/netstor-hl23t.html
341€
Keep in mind that the included 1m 40Gbps TB3 cable is more expensive (~$50-$60) than those shorter o.5m from other manufacturers.
With a 1m cable? Does this mean that you can do 100W PD to the laptop via ACTIVE CABLE? The cable must be getting its power from the laptop, then?
No, the PD firmware delivers 15W. The TB3 card gets its juice from the PCIe slot up to 75W (12V + 3.3V combined). Assuming that the 3-pin connector can be utilized for extra power, a more powerful PSU might open this possibility. I don’t know if it requires a new PCB design.
Then it would be on the same line with the Akitio Node Pro, two TB3 ports and 60W PD.
Netstor’s 40Gbps active cable has a bigger header than 0,5m Belkin but I don’t know how it’s rated. There does exist… Read more »
Has there been an update to when this will be available? Can’t seem to find the information anywhere
Mass production has just been started.
span.com shows green and +12 days.
Who will be interested, how it copes with a RX Vega 64? I installed a semi-fanless Seasonic SS-500L1U 500W PSU. Buzziness went away.
One 8cm fan in front and three 8cm side-by-side fans? The green metal grill can be removed to provide the best cooling solution.
The most DIYable enclosure ever made.
Anyone interested in results or an implementation guide with the RX Vega 64?
2 x Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800 PWM on the green grill, attached magnetically without screws, pushing hot air out of the case, NF-A9x14 PWM (92x92x14mm) pulling fresh air in, and NF-A4X20 FLX in front of the Seasonic 500W PSU. HL23T passed FireStrike’s 335W peaks (measured from the power strip) without any issues. This wasn’t much more compared to a R9 390 (two 8pins).
I was running it over 20 minutes, and the Seasonic PSU stayed cool at… Read more »
The modifications looks great! I really like the placement of the temp screen. Please post your implementation with the RX Vega 64.
Thanks! I was a bit wondering why HL23T doesn’t bring much discussion, despite being at the same price range as Akitio Node in Europe (341€) but benefits are dual TB3 ports, macOS certified, 1m cable, and this aluminium enclosure is light in weight (~2.4kg side metal rail removed), you can easily put it into a backpack.
I made a video 🙂
https://youtu.be/IF324jHlEsM
Sadly I really dislike the design, a green warrior with an hammer? Oh god…
Anyway it seems a nice solution, dual TB3 is quite interesting.
They are aware of your feedback and would be happy to hear suggestions how to improve. What kind of color would you like?
I guess none of these.
I would prefer minimalistic color appearance and paintings as well. Stay tuned, something new may be coming 😉
I too like the look of these, but the graphics on the case make it a non starter for me… give me plane Space Grey please… (love your mod btw!)
Just all black or solid color eh eh or anything but not a Warrior with an hammer.
Not a badly drawn Warrior with a hammer… or the awful typography.
Anyone tried plugging an LG/Apple display into the additional thunderbolt port? Would that even work?
I’ve only tried out with an USB-C-to-DP adapter, and it worked. The DP 4K monitor is then accelerated by the iGPU/dGPU.
Sorry, I’m confused… you used an adapter to plug the 5k display into a display port of a GPU and it worked, but was powered by the laptops GPU? And the eGPU powered the internal laptop screen? Are you able to power the LG screen with the eGPU?Ahh.. you were not using the LG 5k display.
Yep, sorry for the confusion. I am using Samsung 28″ 4K UHD monitor.
@Goalque: congratulations to your invaluable help to the eGPU community. In one of your replies you wrote “I’ve successfully daisy chained RX 580 and RX 480 but officially Apple supports just a single Sapphire RX 580 Pulse at the moment.” and as I understood, the TB3 port between Mac-HL23T runs at 40 Gbit/s, but the second one between HL23T-Other_eGPU_Enclosure should run only at 10 Gbit/s ? Am I wrong ?
… Read more »
@AlainR:
You’re welcome.
Q1: They both run via 40Gbps link:
PCIe transfers are limited up to 22Gbps in reality, in both directions.
Anyway, M samples/s speed doubles in IndigoBench. With two cards, the rendering time cuts in half.
Nvidia cards are peculiarly more bottlenecked on macOS.
Q2: Yes.
Q3: My DevilBox is in pieces, not sure if it works anymore.
By the way, it’s in stock: 341,1€
http://www.atreid.com/netstor-hl23t.html
Thank you for these precisions !
Alain 🙂
Why is this removed from the recommended list?
Why is this removed from the recommended list?
The Netsor HL23T was dropped temporarily due to the lack of width space in the table. TB3 enclosures are now separated into eGFX and PCIe TB3 enclosures accessible by different tabs. Hover over each tab to see their differences:
https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-guide-2018/
Upgraded to macOS10.13
From [APP] NVIDIA eGPU support for High Sierra (NVIDIAEGPUSupport)
Keep in mind that HL23T is under PCIe expansion category, now also listed at Intel’s Thunderbolt site:
https://thunderbolttechnology.net/product/netstor-hl23t
Interestingly, Intel has published a video of imaginary eGFX box which has dual TB3 ports, but AFAIK, all eGFX certified enclosures should be with just one TB3 port.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLDS6SLA_8g (at 0:25)
eGFX vs PCIe expansion:
https://youtu.be/Q6hKteZgonM