I recently received the Minisforum DEG1 eGPU Dock to add a more powerful GPU to my MS-A1 mini workstation. The MS-A1 has an OCuLink port, making it a perfect candidate for an external GPU setup.
What is the DEG1?
The DEG1 is an external GPU dock from Minisforum that connects via an OCuLink interface, providing a PCIe 4.0 x4 connection with up to 64Gbps of bandwidth. It has an open frame metal design with no GPU length limit, supporting cards all the way up to the NVIDIA RTX 4090 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
Key Specs
- Interface: OCuLink SFF-8612 (PCIe 4.0 x4, 64Gbps)
- GPU slot: PCIe x16
- Power: ATX or SFX standard power supply (not included)
- Dimensions: 270 x 175 x 41mm
- Includes: OCuLink cable and mounting hardware
- Price: $109
Why I Got It
The integrated AMD Ryzen 7 8700G GPU in the MS-A1 is capable for general use, but for more demanding AI and machine learning workloads I want a dedicated GPU with more VRAM and compute power. The DEG1 lets me add a full-size desktop GPU without replacing the whole machine.
What GPU?
Still deciding on the GPU. I will update this post once I have chosen and installed it, along with performance results running Ollama and other AI workloads.
sumo.computer 