So I have had my Hades Canyon NUC for about 8 months now, and originally I bought it to be an emulation machine exclusively.

Turns out, I enjoy using a computer in the livingroom with a lapboard, so I am turning my NUC into my main gaming PC.

So far the specs are:

Hades Canyon NUC (Intel NUC8i7HVK)

* Intel i7-8809G @ 4.5GHz OC (all cores)

* AMD Vega M-GH GPU @ Stock Clocks

* 32GB DDR4-3200 @ 3000MHz

* 1TB NVME SSD, * 4TB USB-3 HDD for Steam

* ADT-Link R43SG-TU (m.2 M-key adapter for GPU)

* EVGA SC+ GTX 980 TI

Right now, I am designing and 3D printing an enclosure to make this solution feel/look more closely to something like a TB3 enclosure. I may run some tests with the Wavlink NVME to TB3 adapter to see the performance gains of staying with pure m.2 over thunderbolt 3.



Bare eGPU



Gallery of printed prototype enclosure



Tinkercad design of new Version 2 enclosure

This is a WIP and once I get the enclosure completely printed out, I will post some results of performance on this little beast.



Gallery of printed v2.0 enclosure

Building it



To anyone looking to build this, I have Tinkercad files located here: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/3z5jRmS9lMI

You need to use M3 threaded inserts in the 5mm holes on each end. I would recommend using PETG or ABS if possible for their heat resistance, I am trying blue PLA to see if it warps first. Also, you need to print 12 of those H-key shaped items from this to snap the doors together. I also super glued them in place for a strong bond.



Gallery of benchmarks