Zotac finally put a name to its Thunderbolt 3-powered external graphics and PCIe SSD enclosures. Meet the AMP Box and AMP Box Mini.
AMP Box
The company has been teasing its eGPU cases since Computex , now we know the AMP Box will be heading to CES 2017. The demo device (prototype) could hold dual-slot graphics cards up to 13″ long, but Zotac later reduced the size of the chassisto accommodate GPUs up to 9” long. Both of these early prototypes were powered by a 400W PSU and featured three USB 3.0 ports in addition to a Quick Charge USB 3.0 port.
The Amp Box is compatible with both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards, and similar to an overweight cat attempting to get comfortable in a shoebox, if it fits, it sits.
Zotac also increased the PSU wattage to 450W (50W more than the prototypes) and expanded compatibility to PCIe SSD devices.
Amp Box Mini
Zotac’s AMP Box Mini was demoed as External Box. The initial design focused on PCIe SSDs, with Zotac displaying it as Computex with one of its Sonix SSDs inside. The company also said you could also use the Thunderbolt 3 device to power a small graphics cards. The funny thing was there were not any PCIe power connectors inside, so the best it could support was GTX 1050 Ti.
Now Zotac has increased the depth of the chassis, and it added a 6-pin PCIe power connector from a 180W PSU to accommodate graphics cards that draw up to 150W and measure in under 7.87 inches in length. Now the mini has less of a selection of compatible graphics cards is less than that of the larger AMP Box due to power and size constraints.
We should learn more about these units at CES.
