Laptops and mini PCs are great, but they have one big drawback: you can’t upgrade the graphics card. A long time ago, to solve this problem, a solution was created called external graphics cards. The mini PC manufacturer Minisforum surprised by launching the solution DEG1, a base eGPU which supports the most powerful graphics cards on the market.
An eGPU is nothing more than a graphics card installed in a special case and connected to the computer via Thunderbolt or USB4. These systems failed because they came to market too early and because they were extremely expensive.
There have been various attempts to resurrect this technology, but it has never been successful. The main problem is that the boxes to install a graphics card cost between 300 and 500 dollars. Then you have to add the price of a powerful graphics card which generally starts at 400 dollars. Come on, you will soon go to 1,000 dollars or more.
Minisforum surprises by presenting an eGPU
Minisforum surely looks familiar to you thanks to its powerful and economical mini PCs. It is one of the most important manufacturers of these systems, with an extensive catalog. For some time now, it has been expanding into other segments, such as convertible portable systems.
Thinking of their powerful mini PCs, they launched an external base for graphics cards. The Minisforum DEG1 is a GPU dock that uses OCuLink technology, offering up to 64 Gbps of bandwidth.
Normally boxes are created which, due to space, limit the graphics cards we can install. Since we simply have a base here, we can literally install any graphics card, regardless of size. We could choose to install an RTX 4090 or an RX 7900 XTX without problem, not to mention the new high-end gaming graphics which have yet to arrive.
It has a signal amplifier that ensures that the video signal sent to the CPU from the GPU remains stable. It is interesting that it is as close as possible to the PC and that the cable is as short as possible, to avoid losses.
You should know that you will need a power supply for the graphics card to work. The base and graphics card must be powered. The ideal is a modular source which of course has enough power to power the graphics card.
What is interesting is that the DEG1 base lights up directly when you turn on the PC, it does not require any power button. Once connected to the system, the eGPU will turn on and off with it.
Usually these systems have a USB4 connection to connect to the system, but this is not mentioned in this case. This simply indicates that you have an OCuLink connection and nothing more.
But, without a doubt, the best of the Minisforum DEG1 is its price, since it only costs 99 dollars. It is the most affordable solution on the market to install an eGPU on our computer. Obviously, this is a very niche product that probably won’t interest most users, but it makes owning an external graphics card more accessible.
