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New to me Mac mini i7 want to use Egpu

Matty_TypeR

Matty_TypeR

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 1, 2016
642
558
UK
Today I set up a new to me Mac mini i7 3.4g 6 core 64g of ram. It runs very well but I plan on useing it with an Egpu system on both OSX and windows.

I have windows 10 booting from an external TB3 M2 drive via boot camp which took a bit of time to figure out but it work’s perfectly to switch between OSX Monterey and win 10.

The Egpu will be the Razor chroma with a RX 590 nitro in it to start with but maybe will update to 6000 series if it all works out ok.

Has anyone here used the Razor chroma Egpu on there Mac mini?

If so how were your results?

Matt
 
Well I have my Egpu all set up now, running a RX590 nitro plus in it at the moment to try it all out, works perfectly in both OSX and bootcamp. will upgrade the GFX card to 6800 or 6900 when the prices start to get sensible.

As the Mac mini 6 core has 2 thunderbolt chips on board unlike the M1 mini I will be using one for Egpu and the other with 2 X TB-3 external 1T drives, one which I have boot camp win 11 on and the other OSX Monterey.

I also have some cooling options on order for the mini, one is a bottom cover like this, the other is a stand with cooling fan built into it. Keep that mini cool :)

Screenshot 2022-05-06 at 16.46.23.png
Screenshot 2022-05-06 at 16.46.59.png
 
Last edited:
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AAPLGeek said:
Looks great! What enclosure are you using?

Could you post results with AmorhphousDiskMark app?
Click to expand...
These are the enclosures I am using https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08X9YTWJC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Andrea Filippini said:
Great performance.
Can you post also the speed of the internal SSD?
Click to expand...
Next time I boot to the internal drive I will grab a screen shot for you. but write was just over 2000 and read 2250 so the 980 pro M2's are faster plus you don't deteriorate your internal drive.

I now have a few upgrades on the way for the Egpu as well, sapphire nitro plus SE OC 6900xt make sure if you go 6900xt its the XTX version not the newer XTXH version which is not supported in Mac OSX also a corsair SF750 psu for the Egpu because it has more than 2 x 8 pin vga connectors as standard PSU only has 2 x 8 pin and the sapphire needs 2 x 8 plus 1 x 6 pin and a noctua 120mm fan to replace the standard Egpu case fan which isn't way to loud but the Noctua will be much better. then I am done with this setup.
 
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Boyd01 said:
Those speeds are really good! But USB 3 externals are fast enough for my needs and much cheaper. My internal boot drive is just a bit faster than your external.

View attachment 2002358
Click to expand...
yes very impressive speed there, but 2t drives are faster as internal drives, but very expensive of course. mine internal is only 512G so not as fast as yours. I use a 2TB drive for data storage over USB also. which I agree is fast enough for storage purposes.
 
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OP:

Could you provide the links for the two products you described in reply 3 above?
(bottom cover and cooling-fan stand)
 
I was running a Razer (non Chroma) and a 5700XT on a mini under Catalina. Performance was good but suffered from random kernal panics. The system would freeze for 5 seconds at a time and ultimately reboot. There’s a thread on here were others experienced the same thing.
 
Fishrrman said:
OP:

Could you provide the links for the two products you described in reply 3 above?
(bottom cover and cooling-fan stand)
Click to expand...
Here are the links for the cooling stand and base cover for the Mac mini.

www.aliexpress.com

Honeycomb Back Cover Cooling With Lamp For Apple Mac Mini Silent Base Bracket Computer Modification Dustproof Dissipate Heat - AliExpress 502

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com www.aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

Cooling Fan Stand For Mac Mini Radiator Overclock Base Frame With 14cm Adjustable Speed Silent Fan Summer Dissipation Heat - AliExpress 502

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com www.aliexpress.com

AlumaMac said:
I was running a Razer (non Chroma) and a 5700XT on a mini under Catalina. Performance was good but suffered from random kernal panics. The system would freeze for 5 seconds at a time and ultimately reboot. There’s a thread on here were others experienced the same thing.
Click to expand...


Today I will be fitting a Sapphire Nitro plus SE OC 6900XT in my Egpu so will add some pics later. but so far in Monterey I have had no issues at all with my Egpu setup and hopefully the 6900xt will be behaving just the same. I have also upgraded the PSU in my Razor chroma as the standard 700w PSU is noisy, I went for the Corsair SF750 which offers 62.5amps on the 12v rail and fits nicely into the chroma and is silent.
 
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Well today the 6900XT went into the Egpu and all good so far. only thing I would say is Mac fan control does not see the temps of the card unlike the RX 590 but it seems to be very good, only thing I might do is disconnect all the RGB on it, I don't need it looking like an Xmas tree :)

Screenshot 2022-05-10 at 18.03.02.png
 
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Matty_TypeR said:
Well today the 6900XT went into the Egpu and all good so far. only thing I would say is Mac fan control does not see the temps of the card unlike the RX 590 but it seems to be very good, only thing I might do is disconnect all the RGB on it, I don't need it looking like an Xmas tree :)
Click to expand...

How often are you using bootcamp? 50% 50%?
 
I use about 50/50 depends what I have to do, some things windows, some OSX also the 6900xt works great in windows also. No issues at all. very pleased with the card.
 
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I decided I would update the 6900XT drivers in Win 11 bootcamp on my Egpu as they were months old so downloaded the latest drivers from AMD, I then go install and it extracts them all to a folder on C drive in windows. then complains they are not compatible with your system and they close. Copy the Extract folder from C drive to desktop.

When you open device manager and open 6900XT click update drivers. browse to the folder on your desktop and click update. it will go through the process of updating then reboot. Not only do you get the latest drivers for windows but a fully functioning AMD Adrenalin GFX control panel, which works perfectly.

So as you will see below I now have the latest drivers in my bootcamp win 11 and all working 100%

tempImageUIsqP9.png
tempImageAR1Lt9.png
tempImagehxClyT.png
tempImage1y445B.png
 
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Matty_TypeR said:
Today I set up a new to me Mac mini i7 3.4g 6 core 64g of ram. It runs very well but I plan on useing it with an Egpu system on both OSX and windows.

I have windows 10 booting from an external TB3 M2 drive via boot camp which took a bit of time to figure out but it work’s perfectly to switch between OSX Monterey and win 10.

The Egpu will be the Razor chroma with a RX 590 nitro in it to start with but maybe will update to 6000 series if it all works out ok.

Has anyone here used the Razor chroma Egpu on there Mac mini?

If so how were your results?

Matt
Click to expand...
I am familiar with the egpu set up, though I will probably use an nvidia card. The one area which I am worried about is the cooling. I think a small fan CPU cooler could fit on if you took of the cover. Maybe even run out of case? If all else fails a liquid cooler could maybe fit and then fans could help tremendously. Asking because the 8700k i7 in some of the 2018 Mac mini’s are hard to boost past 3.6 ghz and I would like to reach much higher without thermal throttling
 
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