Razer Core X (Mercury) is currently $354 @ Razer AU. You can also reduce the price down further to $339 by subscribing to the newsletter and obtaining a $15 off coupon.
Razer Core X (Mercury) $354 Delivered @ Razer AU
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This is part of Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals for 2022
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And, you didn't bother posting the deal?
HEATHEN
HERETIC
UNBELIEVER
So you're the one who beat me to it when I was considering the Chroma when it was back in stock lol (mainly because I already ordered the Core X Mercury which has shipped and it'll be a pain to have to either refuse delivery of it or RMA it)
I got another e-mail notification that the Chroma was back in stock at around 5AM today, but it's already out of stock again when I checked 4 hours later.
Worth noting the 6950 XT won't fit fully closed. If you're happy with some gap then it will work fine.
Does anyone know anything about bandwith limits of usb4/tb3 with these? Like is a 6950xt overkill because we become bandwidth limited?
Best to have a GPU such as a 3070 or 6700xt or lower to make the most out of the bandwidth available, otherwise you are not really getting your money's worth.
Add ons, hmm let me scroll here and see, ooh yes a TB4 cable, just what I need for my new purchases, ooh yeah cant wait to break in this bad boy, I'll just click on that and …
AU$179.00 …
FOR A CABLE …
MORE THAN HALF THE PRICE OF THE HARDWARE
FOR SOME WIRES..
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I bought a Core X Chroma around May this year for a bit over $500. In my case I used it with a Razer Blade Stealth and an RTX 2070. My intention was to turn my laptop into my main computer since my old PC was coming along in age.
Some things I wish I knew beforehand:
The thunderbolt cable supplied is not that long, so your laptop and the Core need to be really close to one another. In the case of my Blade, only the right thunderbolt port was compatible with the Core, but I wanted to set my laptop out of the way because I had an external monitor. This was a pain in the butt when trying to manage my workspace neatly when considering USB port locations, Windows Hello webcam built-in to laptop, stuff like that.
The USB ports on the Core seem to be unreliably powered. I had reliability problems plugging in webcams, some gaming mice, audio interfaces, and a Rift S headset. In the end I could only use the hub for a keyboard and a USB powered lamp and fan. Insanely inconvenient when it came to my VR headset, I think it could be rectified by plugging the USB cable directly into your laptop, but in my setup I couldn't comfortably make the cables reach both the Core and my laptop. I ended up using a separate USB hub that was plugged directly into the laptop. It wasn't very elegant.
Dust filtration is not great, if you're in a dusty environment expect to see fluff buildup in the grills and your GPU.
Switching power on the Core more often than not caused a loud crack noise, as if something was going to fry every time power came in. Didn't appear to affect its ability to work.
When the Core is powered on and plugged in, the PSU fan will stay on basically always. This is probably to keep it cool while charging the laptop, but it's grating if silent PCs are preferable for you.
To get maximum performance, you need an external display plugged into your GPU instead of letting the thunderbolt cable send it back to your laptop.
I often had irritable situations where the Core wouldn't register that an external display was plugged in whenever I powered it back on (because I hated the constant fan noise). The most straightforward solution was to do the following: connect the Core and laptop, wait for recognition that they were connected, then restart the laptop. This wasn't consistently working either.
Using a sit-stand desk? The power cable for the Chroma is not that long, so you'll want to have a power board attached to your desk. It does use a standard C13 cable that computer PSUs use, so replacements or extensions can be found.
When everything works, the Core does appear to be useful, but I got one hoping to negate needing a new desktop PC. Though ultimately the poor USB power occurrences and lack of versatility in the short thunderbolt cable led me to just plug in my old PC and give up making my Blade my main computer. Now my Core X Chroma is back in its box until I can find a nice way to set it up on my TV bench.
Hope this helps somebody.
What kind of framerates did you get?
I didn't play much without the external monitor so I can't give much detail on how that would perform, but when plugged into an external monitor everything was comparable to using the 2070 in a desktop. My Blade Stealth has an i7 and 16gb RAM for reference.
To generalise: in 2K resolution AAA games more or less were 60fps+ on high settings, or much higher framerate if set to 1080p. Esports titles would all function with framerates in the hundreds, but my monitor was only rated for 75hz, so I couldn't capitalize on that extra gain much. If I managed to get VR games going, I imagine they wouldn't have been a problem either.
Thanks for your review.
I’ve been using a Sonnet Breakaway 350 with an RX 580 for about 4(?) years now.
You make valid points - don’t rely on the USB ports on the eGPU, they compete with your PCI bandwidth over the thunderbolt connection. Likewise, you need to plug in an external monitor, otherwise sending the display signal back over the cable also competes for the bandwidth.
I bought a 2 metre Thunderbolt 3 cable so the eGPU could live under the desk and avoid the desk arrangement issues you’ve described.
Fortunately the Sonnet is quiet as a mouse so I’ve avoided the noise issues you’ve had.
Mine’s been quite reliable with the exception almost exactly once a year it starts acting up and won’t be recognised by the computer. I’ve discovered that dismantling it, removing and reseating the graphics card fixes the issue and it’ll be fine for another year.
You can now pre order any of the models including the black for $169 with a eta of the 24/12/22
Black is out of stock again…
I spotted this a few days ago - the black version is ~$160 but OOS, and the Chroma is ~$349 but also OOS. However, the chroma did flitter back in stock briefly yesterday (and I ordered and has shipped already). So might well be worth subbing for updates if you're more interested in the Chroma (built in usb hub + ethernet) and/or the cheaper black version.