Designing and printing an external GPU enclosure for my laptop. Picture heavy.

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Thought I’d share the project I’m working on. I’m building an external GPU setup for my laptop so I can work on VR projects and in real-time development environments. I’m using the PCIe card/bracket/fan from an AKiTiO Thunder2 enclosure, 550w computer power supply, and a front intake fan from an old Antec case collecting dust.



MSI GTX 1060 3gb Armor, designed the enclosure so that I can upgrade to just about any full-size card and a powerful enough power supply to handle any card on the market.



Need to add a connector for the on/off switch wires so it can be installed from outside the case. Was originally going to keep the bullet plug, but I’m going to solder directly to the board instead and add a connector between the PSU and the wires soldered to the TB2 board.


Reusing the Akitio fan blowing air from under, the PSU’s fan also draws air from the bottom of the case.


The frame is held together using a combination of M3 Socket head screws, M3 heatset inserts, and M3 nylock nuts.


Should be able to fit any gpu in the case.

IMG_4576.JPG
IMG_4576.JPG4032×3024 3.31 MB

IMG_4575.JPG
IMG_4573.JPG
IMG_4573.JPG4032×3024 2.3 MB

IMG_4572.JPG
IMG_4572.JPG4032×3024 2.3 MB

IMG_4571.JPG
IMG_4571.JPG4032×3024 2.16 MB

IMG_4570.JPG
IMG_4570.JPG4032×3024 2.35 MB

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How are you going to go from the video cards pci express 16x bus into the laptop bus?

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It uses a Thunderbolt 2 connection, should be a 15-20% performance hit but still enough to run my VR hardware.

Also, are the images showing? When I post I can only see the first image that was uploaded repeated and errors for the rest. When I try and use imgur linked images it just shows as a broken link.

edit: nvm, figured it out

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Exterior shell base.



Added a Formula 1 wing and camera foil, should add 5-10Mhz. Right?

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Added martini racing stripes/logos/intake ducts, becasue it’ll go faster… or something.








Probably going to nix the wing to keep a cleaner look.

I’ve started printing parts to test fitment and to see if I need to add any more nuts and screws to make it more solid.

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Started testing fitment






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Looks great though if I remember correctly. Stickers add more HP than hard logos. Great job so far

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Some more updates, was out of the country so printing was put on hold. Have the main frame structure printed and almost everything lines up. Nothing a dremel can’t fix.