Leaving mac hardware

[Fred]

Both were contenders, but I am happy.

[eight]

Yeah, I am nearing same decision to go with the Blade, but there is something that stops me. Perhaps painful memories of using Windows compared to Mac.

Please keep us updated on Razer experience.

--8

[primaldivine]

HI Fred, 

Yep, I am about to buy a Razer Blade... SOmeone wants to buy my souped up MacBook Pro, and I am ready to shift to Windows... I think.

Anyone using the Razer Core external Graphics card with It? 

I guess depending on the graphics card I can get various output options, including Triplehead Matrox. Anyone using it this way that can offer some feedback or performance review? 

Jamie

[Russell]

@primaldivine said:

Yep, I am about to buy a Razer Blade

So this transition is the result of an unsatisfactory response to the latest round of MacBook Pro's?
4 x USB-C/thunderbolt 3 ports with adaptors and hubs to get the same connectivity with previous MacBook Pro hardware. Thunderbolt 3 is a faster bus which is promising - so four of these could be an advantage - but at the moment 3rd party hubs are less attractive with reports of bad performance and overheating. The Razor Blade has 1 x Thunderbolt 3 port with the option for a breakout graphics enclosure - but its not clear what the cost for the Core enclosure is going to be and then add the cost of graphics cards for the enclosure on top?  There is a significant cost difference in favour of the Blade, but I would have to put that against the potential of what is possible with multiple Thunderbolt 3 hubs/enclosures hanging off a new MacBook Pro - assuming that some decent 3rd party graphics enclosures and professional hubs are going to come on the market at some stage. 

[Fred]

@Russell the main gripe with the MacBook pros is very poor GPUs. Considering the power we get from GPUs for real time and offline video work the low power GPUs and power to cost ratio of apple gear makes the choice easy. Only 2 of the 4 thunderbolt ports on the MacBook pro are full speed. Yes there is a single port on the blade but there are 3 usb 3 ports, hdmi and a thunderbolt 3 that can take a thunderbolt expansion box getting you more ports and still beating the price and power of a donglebook. I think the razor without the high end GPU is a complicated option, but the HD screen 1060 equipped 14" blade is great value and super powerful.

[Russell]

@Fred said:

a thunderbolt 3 that can take a thunderbolt expansion box getting you more ports and still beating the price and power of a donglebook

 As an example the Blade + Core enclosure + graphics card say GeForce GTX 1080 =  2 x Display Port and 2 x HDMI (one on the laptop one on the card) giving 4 beamers. What kind of multi screen output are you anticipating/getting - is it something like this? Can you imagine hanging a TH2G off the enclosure?

[Fred]

@Russell one example is the owc dock, but the issue of displays is not hard to solve, you can use a cheap MST hub on Windows with any display port or mini display port outputs. This will get you 4 legit display port outs, albeit with limited resolution, but better than a triple head and much cheaper. Depending on your needs you could get a thunderbolt 3 to display port and then an MST hub, this would give you 5 HD outputs including the built on hdmi and the internal screen, plus you still have your in ports. The same with a dock instead of a thunderbolt 3 to display port convertor would leave you with another free thunderbolt port and a bunch of other ports depending on the dock you use. Yes you are limited to the internal gtx1060 in this config.

[Russell]

@Fred I have been using an owc 12 port thunderbolt 2 dock for a couple of years... It is great being able to use old i/o equipment sometimes + the additional 6 x  USB + hdmi + other legacy ports.. the yet-to-be-released 13 port Thunderbolt 3 hub looks like it might have even better connectivity due to the addition of 2 x thunderbolt 3 and retaining a single thunderbolt 2 port. I kinda agree - apple's offering of graphics cards have lagged for a long time now, however, they must be getting the message because the first thunderbolt 3 external graphics enclosures for mac have been announced this month https://developer.apple.com/de... it includes an AMD graphics card aimed at the high-end and to rival NVIDIA.

So with the Blade you get the superior graphics straight out of the box in a Mac-like aluminium form factor - it is very tempting.
Does the existing Isadora HASP USB key used with OSX transfer directly to Windows drivers?

[Fred]

@Russell the external gfx looks good and is pretty cheap, the included gfx is a bit behind the 1060 (http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/C...) and the psu at 300 watts is a bit below what is needed for a high end card like the 1080 ti, but ok for lesser cards. Looks like a nice piece of kit. The hasp is dual platform.

[mwasser]

Thanks for the info! I'm in need of an upgrade, and deciding between the Blade and a MacBook too. I'm grateful for all the insight, and it's good to hear from people who are moving away from MacOS, and who are pretty pleased with the Blade. 

On eGPUs, the enclosure that the Apple kit comes with is made by Sonnet, and they also have a 550w option (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/...). 

The most attractive thing to me about eGPUs is getting more outputs - more powerful cards will see a bigger reduction in performance over TB3. The Blade, for example, is difficult to upgrade with an eGPU because faster cards than the built-in 1060 want more bandwidth than TB3. It's still possible though, and at least offers the extra outputs & quieter fans.