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2 days in with the Sonnet eGPX Breakaway Puck

N9JIG

N9JIG

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 25, 2019
230
140
SW USA
Last week I ordered a Sonnet ePGX Breakaway Puck for $300 from the Apple Store. It was delivered Friday. I wanted to use it on my Mac Mini 2018 and perhaps later when I get a new MBP.

I had been using 3 ASUS 32 inch 2560x1440 monitors. I have 4 of these, and I had been using 2 on the Mac and one on the PC (Intel HC NUC) with the 4th shared by using the input selector. I have since been using the NUC headless with remote access so wanted to use all 4 monitors on the Mac. I had also purchased a 4-monitor stand with 2 up and 2 across.

The eGPU arrived just after I finished working on Friday so the timing was good. It was packed in an oversized cardboard box with balloon packing. Oddly the Sonnet box appear unsealed, no shrink-wrap and no peels on the unit itself. It all looked OK, I saw no evidence of having been opened in the past but there was no real way to tell. This comes into play later.

I took it out and started to connect it all up. It seems pretty simple, a TB3 cable to plug into the Mac Mini and a fairly large power brick. There are 3 Display Port outputs and an HDMI one.

A little rant on a tangent here: I actually prefer power bricks in my situation, probably one of the few who does... The use of exterior power bricks helps reduce the internal heat of the unit as well as reducing the unit size. I wish they had used an external brick on on the Mac Mini. Under my desk I have slung a fairly large clamp-on monitor stand upside down to act as sort of an undershelf. On this resides the various power bricks (one each for the monitors, the NUC, the switch, the USB hub and my radio stack as well as now for the eGPU.) The switch, TimeMachine drive USB hub all live here as well to reduce clutter on the desktop. Too much stuff, even for my huge desk!

Back to the story...
I got the eGPU all hooked up. To simplify things (and to get around a bad DP on one of the monitors) I had also purchased 3 DP to HDMI adapters, thus effectively giving me 4 HDMI ports. I connected all 4 monitors to the eGPU with HDMI cables and turned on the computer. The Mac turned on but the monitors did not display anything. I checked that the inputs were all selected to HDMI (they automatically hunt to an available source anyway). and then noticed that there was no lit "S" on the eGPU that the directions said would be. (Yes, I read the instructions...) I then checked the connections, I was a little concerned with the 4-pin power connector with its funky plastic sleeve release. I tried using a different TB cable and a different outlet for the power cord. I connected one of the monitors directly to the Mac Mini and there was no indication that the eGPU was present.

I was just about to give up and call Apple to arrange a return when I realized that I had confused the power brick of the NUC with this one, they were of similar size, shape and color. I found that the power cord into the Sonnet was not fully inserted and once I pushed it in all the way it came right up. Once it did the Mac took a little bit to digest that it was there. I saw the eGPU icon on the menu bar but I could not get into the Display Preferences or open any applications. Any application I tried to open just had hopping icons on the Dock. So far I was not impressed to say the least.

I restarted the computer since I had to Force Quit the Finder to get rid of the orphaned Display Preferences menu item. It appeared on all 4 screens even though they were not mirrored. Once I did restart every thing seemed to work just fine. All 4 screens appeared and I was able to go into Display Preferences and arrange them properly. I was worried that the monitors would not turn off automatically after a period of inactivity (I have it set for 15 minutes) but they go off right on schedule.

I have been running Intel Power Gadget and it appear the temps are slightly lower on average. I see less maxed out spikes and running temps are mostly in the low 60's C. They were running in the higher 60's and low 70's before with the 3 monitors connected directly to the Mini.

So far it seems to be a worthwhile investment. For a little less than I paid for one of my monitors I can now run 4 instead of 3. Hopefully this will offload some of the work from the Mac Mini. Since I work from home this gives me 33% more screen real estate and on weekends I can still use one or two of the monitors on the PC if remote access doesn't cut it.

I will see how this all shakes out next week when I am back to work but it looks like it should work just fine.
 
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FYI, it's $299 though most channels, including Amazon, where I see it's no tax (shipped to my state), and with Amazon, we get 5% back, so that's ~$284 to my door, which is __very__ enticing.

My goal is to switch from two 25" QHD displays, to two 27" 4K, and I don't need a ton of GPU performance (I'm not gaming, or doing anything that's particularly GPU intensive), just want the UI to be reasonably snappy @ 4K with two displays. For under $300, this looks good - also like that it's a really small footprint.
 
How loud is the breakaway puck? Potential noise is what has kept me from trying eGPU.

$270 on apple.com with Veteran's discount, tempting. EDIT: n/m ships in 10-12 weeks :)
 
Wow! I must have received one of the last ones in stock! I have always been lucky when ordering from Apple.com. About 5 years ago I ordered an iMac and they said it would be 3-4 weeks for a BTO unit. A week later they introduced the 5K iMac and upgraded me to it at less than I had paid for the previous non-5K version so I used the extra money budgeted for more RAM.

As for noise, I do not hear any at all. I assume there is a fan but I cannot hear it and the case is not even warm to the touch. I wish the Mac Mini was that cool!

If it came with a longer TB3 cable I would have set it on the undershelf beneath the desktop. I would put the Mac Mini itself there as well except that I have one of those Satachi fan-docks and use the USB ports and SD Card slot often.
 
I ordered one today. B&H says the model has been discontinued. Adorama says it’s on backorder. Amazon says it’s unavailable at the moment. Sonnet says it’s on backorder. Apple said I would get it in early June.

I suspect the item has been discontinued, but we will see what Apple says. They’re “processing” my order.
 
DookSucks said:
I ordered one today. B&H says the model has been discontinued. Adorama says it’s on backorder. Amazon says it’s unavailable at the moment. Sonnet says it’s on backorder. Apple said I would get it in early June.

I suspect the item has been discontinued, but we will see what Apple says. They’re “processing” my order.
Click to expand...

Hmmm I wonder if they are going to upgrade to an RX 5500 puck instead
 
im_to_hyper said:
Hmmm I wonder if they are going to upgrade to an RX 5500 puck instead
Click to expand...

Given the recent price drop and the delays, I have wondered the same. If I was experiencing a delay without the price drop, I would have chalked it up to covid-19 related delays, but everything combined makes me wonder.

I spoke with two separate folks at Apple customer service. Both said that the items have not been discontinued but are delayed due to manufacturing issues. I’m not sure I’m buying that, but we shall see.
 
They are back in stock on Apple's site so I assume they are not discontinued.

So now I am 5 weeks in and I still think it was a good purchase. I have been using either 3 or 4 monitors depending on my mood and need for the PC. Either way it has performed flawlessly. I rearranged the desk a little and swapped out the TB3/USB-C cable for a longer one that came with a hard drive and relocated the eGPU to the undershelf and it seems to have no problem. I have never heard the fan ramp up and the case is slightly warm to the touch after running 24/7 for the past 5 weeks.

If I had to I would buy it again, it was worth the $300.
 
N9JIG said:
They are back in stock on Apple's site so I assume they are not discontinued.

So now I am 5 weeks in and I still think it was a good purchase. I have been using either 3 or 4 monitors depending on my mood and need for the PC. Either way it has performed flawlessly. I rearranged the desk a little and swapped out the TB3/USB-C cable for a longer one that came with a hard drive and relocated the eGPU to the undershelf and it seems to have no problem. I have never heard the fan ramp up and the case is slightly warm to the touch after running 24/7 for the past 5 weeks.

If I had to I would buy it again, it was worth the $300.
Click to expand...

Have you still not heard any coil whine or anything? I actually bought one last week but it whined like crazy so I returned it. Performance was great for smoothing out the UI on a scaled 4k display. But I couldn’t deal with the whining.

Messed around with a razor x core and used rx580. Had some issues and didn’t like the fan noise from the razor. Got rid of that also.

Thinking about trying another sonnet 560 puck because I’ve heard some people say it’s quiet. Maybe I got a bad one.
 
I have not noticed any coil whine but my hearing is not that good (40 years of driving with the window open and other causes), and I have a lot of other devices that may cause a whine as well. I do shut down all my computers overnight on Fridays and things do not seem any quieter.
 
I just got one of these and so far so good. Does anyone know if there is a way to turn off the large LED on top of the breakaway puck? With Sonnet's larger eGPU boxes you can open them up and toggle a switch to turn the LED off. But there is no indication you can do the same in the quck start guide for the puck.
 
It does not appear there is a way to turn off the light. The light is also used to indicate that the eGPU has been noticed by the computer so I suspect that there would not be a way to turn it off.

BTW, I am now 5 months in with this and still happy. It works fine and I have not had a lick of problems. I also have a Hades Canyon NUC that is pretty similar in form, function and specs to my 2018 Mac Mini and I tried connecting the Sonnet to it, it worked just fine, just as easy as the Mac. I set up the NUC with all my work-from-home programs and access and now if my Mac Mini vapor-locks I can swap in the NUC in a matter of a minute or two. While not as elegant as the Mac, it all works.
 
N9JIG said:
It does not appear there is a way to turn off the light. The light is also used to indicate that the eGPU has been noticed by the computer so I suspect that there would not be a way to turn it off.

BTW, I am now 5 months in with this and still happy. It works fine and I have not had a lick of problems. I also have a Hades Canyon NUC that is pretty similar in form, function and specs to my 2018 Mac Mini and I tried connecting the Sonnet to it, it worked just fine, just as easy as the Mac. I set up the NUC with all my work-from-home programs and access and now if my Mac Mini vapor-locks I can swap in the NUC in a matter of a minute or two. While not as elegant as the Mac, it all works.
Click to expand...
I may have misspoke before. Sonnet's other eGPU boxes don't have a swtich, but you unplug the wire that goes to the LED. That is what I did to the puck. Although you can't access the internals as easily, you remove the four rubber feet to access the philips screws. Three of the four screws are long, one is a shorty. Which means you can't completely open the case, but thankfully the side where the LED wire plugs into the circuit board can be opened just enough to stick your finger in and unplug the cable. Worked like a charm. Never understood why the box needs to light up to tell you if it is working. You know that its working when you're monitor is working properly. If your monitor is blank, then it is not working. You don't need an LED to tell you that.
 
MidwestMacGuy said:
Never understood why the box needs to light up to tell you if it is working. You know that its working when you're monitor is working properly. If your monitor is blank, then it is not working. You don't need an LED to tell you that.
Click to expand...

The light indicates whether the eGPU itself is seen by the computer, there can be many other reasons the display(s) do not work. The light helps eliminate the eGPU as the source of the problem.

The monitor(s) could be unplugged (video or power), they would be switched off, defective etc. I once had a monitor plugged into an outlet I never knew was controlled by a light switch. (Why the prior owners of the house connected two separate outlets, and only one side of each) to the same switch I will never know!) It took an electrician to figure THAT out.

With that said, if it works for you then it works for you!:D
 
N9JIG said:
The light indicates whether the eGPU itself is seen by the computer, there can be many other reasons the display(s) do not work. The light helps eliminate the eGPU as the source of the problem.

The monitor(s) could be unplugged (video or power), they would be switched off, defective etc. I once had a monitor plugged into an outlet I never knew was controlled by a light switch. (Why the prior owners of the house connected two separate outlets, and only one side of each) to the same switch I will never know!) It took an electrician to figure THAT out.

With that said, if it works for you then it works for you!:D
Click to expand...
Well, if you need that light to figure things out then you're in good shape. Those LED's consume a watt or two of power and leaving that on 24/7 is a waste of energy. Also being in my bedroom the light is a distraction at night. At least things like my wifi router and my NAS have a way to turn off their LED's through the software because they know some customers prefer that.
 
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MidwestMacGuy said:
Also being in my bedroom the light is a distraction at night.
Click to expand...
I've put little pieces of electrical tape on the LED lights of many of my components because it's distracting trying to watch a movie with all those lights on (some blinking). Don't be afraid to stealth out the lights.
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