ELSA Announces Thunderbolt PCI-Express Expansion Box

btarunr · Sep 12, 2012, 08:34 AM

Run out of expansion slots in your system? Bulky graphics cards eating into smaller PCI-Express x1/x4 slots for devices such as PCIe SSDs, sound cards, and other expansion cards? ELSA has a solution for you, provided you have a Thunderbolt port to spare. The company announced the MAGMA ExpressBox 3T, an external add-on card enclosure, which talks to its host over Thunderbolt.

The MAGMA ExpressBox 3T encloses three standard expansion card bays, with two open-ended PCI-Express 2.0 x8 slots and a PCI-Express 2.0 x4. The three can be used for PCI-Express add-on cards of nearly every electrical configuration. The enclosure packs its own 250W power supply. It features two Thunderbolt ports, with which it can be a part of a larger Thunderbolt device daisy-chain, letting you conserve the limited number of Thunderbolt ports in your system. The enclosure is PC and Mac-compatible. Measuring 371 x 200 x 110 mm (WxDxH), the enclosure is made of aluminum panels with a steel frame. The company did not reveal pricing or availability information.

Source: Hermitage Akihabara

Frick · Sep 12, 2012, 09:33 AM

Nice. How quick is Thunderbolt again?

Aquinus · Sep 12, 2012, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frick

Nice. How quick is Thunderbolt again?

20Gb/s, bi-directional. Each link is 10Gb/s.

TheLostSwede · Sep 12, 2012, 10:40 AM

Except that's not an Elsa product, it's made by Magma - http://www.magma.com/thunderbolt
Oh and they start out at $979...

Aquinus · Sep 12, 2012, 11:04 AM

What's really neat is when ThunderBolt sends data to the cable, it actually two different streams of data. There is a multiplexer/decoder on both ends of a thunderbolt cable that multiplexes the signal on each end shoving more data over thunderbolt. If you ever notice why your ThunderBolt cable gets warm (I do, I have one at work for imaging our newer Mac laptops,) that is why. The cable does a little more than just enable data to be sent back and forth, it's changing it to send it back and forth.

james888 · Sep 12, 2012, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquinus

What's really neat is when ThunderBolt sends data to the cable, it actually two different streams of data. There is a multiplexer/decoder on both ends of a thunderbolt cable that multiplexes the signal on each end shoving more data over thunderbolt. If you ever notice why your ThunderBolt cable gets warm (I do, I have one at work for imaging our newer Mac laptops,) that is why. The cable does a little more than just enable data to be sent back and forth, it's changing it to send it back and forth.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/at...1&d=1347447808

That is cool

cadaveca · Sep 12, 2012, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquinus

What's really neat is when ThunderBolt sends data to the cable, it actually two different streams of data. There is a multiplexer/decoder on both ends of a thunderbolt cable that multiplexes the signal on each end shoving more data over thunderbolt. If you ever notice why your ThunderBolt cable gets warm (I do, I have one at work for imaging our newer Mac laptops,) that is why. The cable does a little more than just enable data to be sent back and forth, it's changing it to send it back and forth.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/at...1&d=1347447808

ALso explains why the cables are so expensive. This is much better than DisplayPort cables that cost a lot, but for an unknown reason.

Huddo93 · Sep 12, 2012, 03:09 PM

Something like this would be awesome if you did a miniITX build with 1 expansion slot (used for graphics card) but still wanted to use a pci wireless card and a soundcard to, if the price is right. Surely this product is going to cost a fortune though

Sep 12, 2012, 08:34 AM	#1
btarunr Editor & Senior Moderator Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Hyderabad, India Posts: 14,984 (7.28/day) Thanks: 788 Thanked 12,913 Times in 5,656 Posts System Specs	ELSA Announces Thunderbolt PCI-Express Expansion Box Run out of expansion slots in your system? Bulky graphics cards eating into smaller PCI-Express x1/x4 slots for devices such as PCIe SSDs, sound cards, and other expansion cards? ELSA has a solution for you, provided you have a Thunderbolt port to spare. The company announced the MAGMA ExpressBox 3T, an external add-on card enclosure, which talks to its host over Thunderbolt. The MAGMA ExpressBox 3T encloses three standard expansion card bays, with two open-ended PCI-Express 2.0 x8 slots and a PCI-Express 2.0 x4. The three can be used for PCI-Express add-on cards of nearly every electrical configuration. The enclosure packs its own 250W power supply. It features two Thunderbolt ports, with which it can be a part of a larger Thunderbolt device daisy-chain, letting you conserve the limited number of Thunderbolt ports in your system. The enclosure is PC and Mac-compatible. Measuring 371 x 200 x 110 mm (WxDxH), the enclosure is made of aluminum panels with a steel frame. The company did not reveal pricing or availability information. Source: Hermitage Akihabara

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Sep 12, 2012, 09:33 AM	#2
Frick Fishfaced Nincompoop Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Sweden Posts: 7,912 (2.99/day) Thanks: 1,076 Thanked 1,453 Times in 1,158 Posts System Specs	Nice. How quick is Thunderbolt again? __________________ Typemachine: Acer Aspire One D250 \| Atom N280 1.6 Ghz \| 1GB DDR2 \| 160GB SATA \| 10.1' 1024 x 600 \| Lubuntu 12.10 Oldbox: HP D530 \| Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz \| 1GB DDR \| 40GB \| Windows XP "The 'gentle biker' look is overdone. I'm going for 'psycho hillbilly.' "

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Sep 12, 2012, 10:40 AM	#4
TheLostSwede Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: A little green island far far away Posts: 843 (0.27/day) Thanks: 16 Thanked 152 Times in 113 Posts System Specs	Except that's not an Elsa product, it's made by Magma - http://www.magma.com/thunderbolt Oh and they start out at $979...

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Sep 12, 2012, 11:04 AM	#5
Aquinus Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Dover, New Hampshire, USA Posts: 4,286 (8.84/day) Thanks: 1,289 Thanked 1,337 Times in 993 Posts System Specs	What's really neat is when ThunderBolt sends data to the cable, it actually two different streams of data. There is a multiplexer/decoder on both ends of a thunderbolt cable that multiplexes the signal on each end shoving more data over thunderbolt. If you ever notice why your ThunderBolt cable gets warm (I do, I have one at work for imaging our newer Mac laptops,) that is why. The cable does a little more than just enable data to be sent back and forth, it's changing it to send it back and forth. Attached Thumbnails __________________ MyHeat

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Sep 12, 2012, 03:09 PM	#8
Huddo93 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Perth, WA, Australia Posts: 286 (0.48/day) Thanks: 49 Thanked 56 Times in 53 Posts System Specs	Something like this would be awesome if you did a miniITX build with 1 expansion slot (used for graphics card) but still wanted to use a pci wireless card and a soundcard to, if the price is right. Surely this product is going to cost a fortune though

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