Which Thunderbolt 2 chassis for nMP?

[saulinpa]

I see that there are a few options to add one or two PCIe slots. I am not going to use for graphics but mainly for various PCIe adapter cards. Any opinions on AKiTiO, Sonnet, OWC, or something else? I think my priority is for something that is easy to pop open and swap cards quickly.

 

[mattspace]

the tb3 to tb2 adapter is bidirectional, so don't restrict your options to TB2 specific options - from the look of things TB3 chassis' seem to be cheaper, with better specifications, probably due to the growing current, and potentially future market for eGPU options.

 

[saulinpa]

I was looking a TB3 chassis but putting an adapter in the middle seems like another source of potential problems. Also adds US$80 to the cost. How solid is the adapter? I think it has a USB3.1 pigtail so would hang at the chassis with a regular TB2 cable going into my nMP. Would that be it?

 

[Flint Ironstag]

I hate dongles too, but mattspace is right. You're correct regarding the cabling.

 

[deconstruct60]

... I think it has a USB3.1 pigtail so would hang at the chassis with a regular TB2 cable going into my nMP. Would that be it?

You'd want to limit how much of bandwidth hogs would want to put on the TBv3 side of the adapter. They aren't going to run at full speed. They'll all have to downshift to 20Gb/s even if have active cables.

 

[saulinpa]

Not worried about TB3. Really just exploring what the possibilities are and some flexibility. The OWC requires removing four screw at the bottom so I am eliminating it from my list. Will probably order the Akitio Thunder 2 as is cheap and available.