Question about a 2011 iMac + Sonnet Break Away Box 350 + Radeon RX 580 graphics card + High Sierra

[rmjohnso75]

Hi all,
Just hoping to confirm with the gurus on here that this set up would work:

Hardware:
1.) mid 2011 21.5" iMac
2.) Sonnet Breakaway Box 350
3.) Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter
4.) Gigabyte Radeon RX 580 graphics card.

Software:
1.) High Sierra OS

As I understand it, I should be able to plug the T3 side of the adapter into the Sonnet, the T2 into the 2011 iMac, with the Gigabyte Radeon RX 580 4gb card fitting fine in the Sonnet box, which also does not need a power brick, and with High Sierra installed, the 2011 iMac should pick up this eGPU set up just fine without any hacks.

... also, I have the ram on the 2011 iMac maxed out at 32, and a Samsung 850 Evo SSD as the start-up disk. Do you think it worth while to do the labor required to replace the 2.5ghz intel i5 to newest i7-6800k?

Thank you for any and all responses!
Ryan

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

2011 iMacs only have Thunderbolt original so it will be slow as slow.

And there is no TB 3 to TB.

 

[rmjohnso75]

TB3 to TB2 will work because TB2 and TB are same, but thanks.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Again the 2011 iMac is only Thunderbolt, not Thunderbolt2. It will work but at the slow speed of Thunderbolt.

Speed transfer rates are:-

Thunderbolt3 40Gbps
Thunderbolt2 20Gbps
Thunderbolt 10Gbps

 

[rmjohnso75]

Um, you don't seem to understand... T2 will work in T... have you even set up an eGPU before? If not, no reason to respond this thread...
[doublepost=1508557206][/doublepost]And I understand the 2011 is T... that is pretty obvious... if you haven't had experience setting up a eGPU then please go away.

 

[Fishrrman]

By the time you've spent all that $$$ for those add-ons.... you might just as well buy a new iMac and be done with it...

 

[rmjohnso75]

Lol... $99 for 250gb SSD, $200 for 32gb ram, $550 for 4gb external graphics card, $300 for 2011 iMac... I'll spend the $1200 instead.
[doublepost=1508599306][/doublepost]And the eGPU set up is better than anything currently stock... the same set-up would cost me $1000 more, with a poorer performing gpu... but I'd have the newest intel i7...

 

[Larvas]

eGPU was and still is a pain in the ass to bring it to life. I mean, it will work, although I didn't try it with your setup, but it's still in beta. If you're that into the Mac OS I would rather go for a quad mac mini 2011 or something like that. Makes it easier/faster with a separate monitor.

 

[rmjohnso75]

That's a good idea.

 

[Larvas]

Sorry, the wrong year, it's 2012.

My suggestion would be to buy this used:
- Mac Mini with a Core i7 3610QM (you can get them for as low as 400 usd, some of them have an SSD also)

And buy this new within the return period (in Germany it's 14 days)
- Powercolor Radeon RX 580 8GB
- eGpu enclosure per your choice

And test it out yourself. If it works, great, if not, return it. The quad mac minis have a great resale value so you can probably sell it for the same amount of money for which you bought it.

 

[Precursor]

Doesn't work with High Sierra though, not until spring 2018

 

[Chidorin]

Just for those who are concerned about tb2 or tb3

P.s. Next improvement should be cpu with tb3 as it should decrease latency