One of the usage scenario can be separate direct link via patch cord to your fast NAS with footage.

If you can, get original INTEL EXPI9301CT (it has special Yottamark code and hologram on the back). It is lot of knockoffs. It is 82574L controller based.

OEM

Retail (differs in connector and transformer)

Price at aliexpress around $13 (proven new local is around $30-38)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/INTEL-EXPI9301CT-Gigabit-CT-Desktop-PCI-e-Network-Adapter-82574L-Chipset-NIC/32827567945.html

Intel 82575 double port controllers

It is not only two ports, but also "Four optimized Transmit (Tx) and Receive (Rx) queues per port" and few other improvements.

If you have not lot of ports or want to connect two NAS with keep direct connection.

Price is around $25 shipped (it is not original Intel card, only Intel controller).

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/E575T2-Dual-port-PCI-E-X1-Gigabit-Ethernet-Network-Card-10-100-1000Mbps-LAN-Adapter-Controller/32831751898.html

Good thing for them is support of Auto-MDI(X), meaning that you can use any 5e-6 category patch to connect directly computers. Lot of 1000Base-T adapter support it also, but some actually don't. It is part of standard, but optional part :-)

This controllers uses only one PCIe 3.0 line or two PCIe 2.0 lines - checkhttp://www.asmedia.com.tw/eng/e_show_products.php?cate_index=175&item=158 .
So, disadvantage is that not even one port is able to transfer 10Gbit, it'll be lower than 8Gbit.

If you use both ports, for example, to copy from one NVME drive to another - it'll be much worse and speed will drop to 4Gbit.
Yet - card has advantage that you can make it fit into PCIe x1 slot by making proper cut.

Price is from $13 on sale to $17-20 regular.

You can find 2xUSB-A, USB-A + USB-C, and pair of USB-C ports

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/PCIE-to-USB-3-1-Adapter-ekran-kart-Multi-level-Protection-PCI-Express-Adapter-10Gbps-Data/32890392646.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2-Ports-External-USB-3-1-10Gbps-PCI-Express-Card-tp-1-X-Type-C-1/32840719286.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/dodocool-SuperSpeed-USB-3-1-PCI-Express-Card-with-Dual-Reversible-Type-C-Ports-5V-15/32815659556.html

Asmedia ASM3142 and ASM2142 controller based board

This controllers use either two PCIe 3.0 lines or two PCIe 2.0 lines (on bad motherboards or if you inserts card into PCIe 2.0 slot).

Advantage is that one port is able to transfer full 10Gbit, and both will top at around 8Gbit.

Disadvantage is that you really need PCIe x4 slot, or motherboard manufacturer need to route two lines and make them unavailable for other devices/slots.

Price is same as previous at $16-17 including shipping.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/USB-3-1-PCI-Express-Card-2-Ports-Superspeed-USB-3-1-10Gbps-Raiser-Adapter-PCIE/32950854951.html

• Portable All-In-One design with 15.6 inch FHD LCD display
• 6 channel inputs: 4×SDI and 2×DVI-I/HDMI/VGA/USB
• 3×SDI PGM out(1×AUX), 2×HDMI PGM & 1×HDMI multiview out
• Input format auto-detected and PGM/AUX output format selectable
• T-Bar/AUTO/CUT transitions and MIX/ FADE/ WIPE effects
• Luma Key/ Chroma Key for virtual studio
• PIP/POP window size and position adjustable
• Record PGM video to SD card, up to 1080p60
• Audio mixer: TRS audio & SDI, HDMI, USB embedded audio

Product page at https://www.avmatrix.net/products/portable-video-switcher/

StudioBook S is powered by an 8th Generation Intel® Xeon® or Intel Core™ i7 hexa-core processor designed to handle complex, multithreaded applications. These processors take mobile computing to another level, easily outperforming previous generation offerings to give you incredibly smooth and responsive multitasking.

With its compact dimensions — it measures just 382 x 265 x 18.4mm, comparable to many 15-inch laptops — StudioBook S is the first 17-inch laptop that easily slips into your briefcase or messenger bag for professional-grade graphics wherever you go.

 
• Intel® Xeon® E-2176M processor 2.7GHz hexa-core with Turbo Boost (up to 4.4GHz) and 12MB cache
• Intel® Core™ i7-8750H processor 2.2GHz hexa-core with Turbo Boost (up to 4.1GHz) and 9MB cache
• NVIDIA® Quadro® P3200 6GB GDDR5 VRAM
• 17” LED-backlit FHD (1920 x 1200) NanoEdge display 16:10 aspect ratio
• Up to 64GB DDR4 2666MHz (SO-DIMM x 2, supports ECC)
• Up to 4TB (PCIe® NVMe Gen3 x4 SSD x 2) Supports CPU-attached RAID 0/1 (up to 48Gbps)

https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ASUS-StudioBook-S-W700G3P/

In few days new RTX 2060 and GTX 1160 Ti will be announced and shipping will start around February. It is expected to be good price hike with future GTX 1150 Ti 4GB taking price range of current GTX 1060 6GB having same or slightly lower performance, and new cards being positioned much higher.

GTX 1070 and 1070 Ti also will become very rare soon.

Intel unveiled new Gen11 integrated graphics with 64 enhanced execution units, more than double previous Intel Gen9 graphics (24 EUs), designed to break the 1 TFLOPS barrier. The new integrated graphics will be delivered in 10nm-based processors beginning in 2019.

The new integrated graphics architecture is expected to double the computing performance-per-clock compared to Intel Gen9 graphics. With >1 TFLOPS performance capability, this architecture is designed to increase game playability. At the event, Intel showed Gen11 graphics nearly doubling the performance of a popular photo recognition application when compared to Intel’s Gen9 graphics. Gen11 graphics is expected to also feature an advanced media encoder and decoder, supporting 4K video streams and 8K content creation in constrained power envelopes. Gen11 will also feature Intel® Adaptive Sync technology enabling smooth frame rates for gaming.

Intel also reaffirmed its plan to introduce a discrete graphics processor by 2020

It is full blown GTX 1060 6GB card, but if you look around it can be got cheaper, as it lacks any video output.

Locally can be now around $100-129. Look around at Craiglist, OLX, Avito - your most popular C2C platform.

If you have Studio license (or other means of running Studio version of Resolve) with multiple GPU support, it will work and will add a lot of power.

Affordable network card for around $99

https://www.amazon.com/XG-C100C-Network-Adapter-PCI-E-Single/dp/B072N84DG6/

Switch

Affordable switch, sadly only 2 10Gbit ports here.

https://www.amazon.com/XG-U2008-Unmanaged-2-Port-8-Port-Gigabit/dp/B01LZMM7ZO

• 1080p60
• 4K at 30 frames
• Cameras list - https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/cam-link/camera-check

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Elgato-Gaming/Capture/Game-Capture/p/10GAC9901

• Place for two 3.5" HDDs
• Place for two M.2 SSDs
• Celeron J4105 Gemini Lake CPU (can decode 10bit HEVC 4K)
• HDMI 2.0 output
• two RJ-45 ports - one 10Gbe, one 1Gbe

Cost is around $235 with $5 paypal coupon.

• 11.6 inch IPS FHD Screen
• Intel Celeron Gemini Lake N4100 Quad Core, decodes almost all heavy HEVC 10bit stuff
• 4GB DDR4L RAM
• 64Gb eMMC + 64GB SSD (later upgradable M.2 to any size up to 2TB and more)
• Dual Band 2.4GHz / 5.0GHz WiFi
• MicroUSB, USB-C, MicroSD reader.
• HDMI 2.0 output
• Weigh is around 1.05kg

One of the best and modern options to view footage on place.

https://www.gearbest.com/laptops/pp_009695647210.html

• Intel Gemini Lake - Two HDMI 2.0a ports, MPEG-2 1080p(up to High), 10bit HEVC up to 4K60fps(Main 5.1), 8bit H.264 up to 4K30fps (up to 5.1), VC-1 4K (Advanced/High), VP9 Profile2 4K 10-bit, no HDR support at all for now
• AmLogic 905X - One HDMI 2.0b port, 10bit HEVC up to 4K60fps, 8bit H.264 up to 4K30fps, VP9 Profile2 4K 10-bit, HDR10, HLG support, depend of implementation
• AmLogic 912 - One HDMI 2.0b port, 10bit HEVC up to 4K60fps, 8bit H.264 up to 4K30fps, VP9 Profile2 4K 10-bit, HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision support, depend of implementation
• AmLogic 905X2 - One HDMI 2.0b/2.1 port,10bit HEVC up to 4K75fps, 8bit H.264 up to 4K30fps, VP9 Profile2 4K 10-bit, AVS2 up to 4K30fps, HDR10, HLG, HDR10+, Dolby Vision support, depend of implementation
• Allwinner H6 - One HDMI 2.0b,10bit HEVC up to 4K60fps, 8bit H.264 up to 4K30fps, VP9 Profile2 4K 10-bit, HDR10 and HLG support, depend of implementation
• Rockchip RK3328 - One HDMI 2.0b port,10bit HEVC up to 4K60fps, 8bit/10bit H.264 up to 4K30fps, VP9 Profile2 4K 10-bit, HDR10 and HLG support, depend of implementation
• AMD 2200-2400G - DP/HDMI 2.0b ports, 10bit HEVC up to 4K60fps, 8bit H.264 up to 4K30fps, VP9 Profile2 4K 10-bit, HDR support even on old motherboards
• Nvidia GPUs 10xx - HDMI 2.0b ports, 12bit HEVC 420 up to 8K, 8bit H.264 up to 4K and lot of fps, VP9 Profile2 4K 12-bit, HDR support
• Nvidia GPUs 20xx - HDMI 2.0b ports, 12bit HEVC 444 up to 8K, 8bit H.264 up to 4K and lot of fps, VP9 Profile2 4K 12-bit, HDR support

Case uses all 2018 design trends:

• 3 led lit fans
• covered PSU / drives tunnel
• transparent side panel

Good thing here is front mech panel without plastic shit behind.

Extremely good is fan controller for all 6 fans (case comes with 4 actually)

As all modern cases it focuses on SSDs, so only 2 places for 3.5" HDDs

Yet it has high clearance for cooler. Normal range is 150-160mm, here it is 175mm, good for large Noctua and similar coolers.

Very nice case, price is around $50.

Specs

• 15.6" 1080p display
• Core i3-i5-i7 processors
• Dual fan / dual heatpipe cooling from top Pro Notebooks to run CPU and GPU at max always.
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB of SSD + 1TB of HDD
• GeForce MX110 GPU with 2GB DDR5
• Dedicated numerical keypad
• All-metal case
• 3W powerful internal speakers
• SD card slot, good set of ports (3.5mm jack, Ethernet port, HDMI interface, two USB 3.0 + USB 2.0)
• ~$671 for good base model
• $448 for i3 model on preorder
• Start shipping at 11.11

They have two versions, but one for twister pair will be more popular obviously.

• Will work both with Windows and macOS
• USB Type-C power supply, so do not need external power
• 27,6 × 56 × 113,2 mm
• 160 g

Specs

• Measures LED, HMI, Fluorescent, Tungsten, Natural Light and Flash, from 380 to 780 nm
• Expanded Color Rendering Properties (CRI, SSI, TLCI, TLMF, TM-30-15)
• Extended Color Control Parameters (Hue/Saturation, CIE 1931 x, y chromaticity coordinate).
• Wide measurement range of Color Temperature (1,600 to 40,000K) and illumination (1 to 200,000lx in ambient light, 20 to 20,500lx in flash light)
• User-friendly design: 270 degrees swivel head, dark calibration without a cap, large 4.3" color touch panel LCD and Customize function
• Various displays (Text, Spectrum Graph, Spectrum Comparison, CRI, CRI Comparison, SSI, TLCI/TLMF, TM-30-15, Lighting Filter for Rosco© and LEE©, C amera Filter for Kodak Wratten©, LEE© and Fuji©, Multiple Lights Comparison, White Balance Correction)
• Measurements of Kelvin (K), Illuminance (lux/fc), LB/CC Filters (for Camera Lens or Lighting Filters), LB/CC Index, CRI (Ra, R1 thru. R15), ⊿uv, SSI, TLCI, TM-30-15(Rf, Rg), CIE1931(x, y), Hue, Saturation
• Up to 99 data measurements can be stored in memory.
• $1,499 USD
• ships in December.

Blackmagic Design today announced the Blackmagic eGPU Pro, an external graphics processor featuring the blazingly fast AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics processor. Designed to accelerate pro creative software such as DaVinci Resolve, 3D games and VR, the Blackmagic eGPU Pro delivers nearly twice the performance of the original Blackmagic eGPU model and up to 22x faster performance than the built-in graphics on a 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The Blackmagic eGPU Pro features a built-in AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, a new DisplayPort for connecting 5K displays, HDMI 2.0, 85W of charging power and four USB 3.1 connections. Designed in collaboration with Apple, the integrated design brings cutting-edge workstation-class graphics processing and computational acceleration to customers working in professional video, playing 3D games or using the latest virtual reality software.

The Blackmagic eGPU Pro will be available in November for only US$1,199 from apple.com.

The Blackmagic eGPU Pro features 8GB of HBM2 RAM, a massive 2048-bit memory interface with 410 gigabyte per second bandwidth, and 56 discreet compute units for up to 10.5 teraflops of processing power. The AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 can fill 94 billion textured pixels per second. In addition, the Blackmagic eGPU Pro supports Metal graphics technology from Apple, which provides near-direct access to the GPU for maximizing graphics and compute performance with games and applications.

With nearly 2x faster performance than the previous eGPU model, customers running DaVinci Resolve will get more realtime effects and color correction than ever before. That means they can spend more time exploring creative options and less time waiting. Customers running DaVinci Resolve on a 13-inch MacBook Pro will find that GPU-intensive operations, such as noise reduction, are up to 22x faster with the Blackmagic eGPU Pro. DaVinci Resolve 15 also supports multiple GPUs as well as Metal, so it’s the best way to get the full benefit of the Blackmagic eGPU Pro. Customers can download DaVinci Resolve 15 now free of charge from the Blackmagic Design website for the best editing, color correction, audio post and visual effects solution available.

For gamers and customers using VR software and headsets, the Blackmagic eGPU Pro delivers higher resolution images, higher frame rate gameplay, better lighting and more detailed textures for truly immersive experiences, even on a laptop computer. Plus, the Blackmagic eGPU Pro features a DisplayPort connection that can drive a 5K display.

The elegant, textured finish of the Blackmagic eGPU Pro is extruded from a single piece of aluminum and features a unique thermal cooling system that’s been designed to perfectly balance the airflow and dissipate heat more efficiently. The cooling system also enables extremely quiet operation, which is vital for those working in video production and audio engineering environments.

In addition to graphics and computational acceleration, the Blackmagic eGPU Pro is also the perfect docking hub for connecting devices such as keyboards, mice, Thunderbolt monitors, big screen HDMI televisions, 5K displays, VR headsets, high speed storage and more. It features two 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 connections, a built-in 4 port USB hub, DisplayPort and HDMI. Plus, the connections are ergonomically spaced, making it easy to connect and disconnect peripherals.

When it comes to power, the Blackmagic eGPU Pro has a built-in power supply that powers the GPU while also providing 85W of downstream power via Thunderbolt 3 for charging laptop computers and powering peripherals. The power supply works from 100V to 240V and features a standard IEC power connector so it can be used anywhere in the world.

“The new Blackmagic eGPU Pro is exciting because it delivers nearly twice the performance of the original model of the Blackmagic eGPU,” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “Whether you’re editing and color grading professional video with DaVinci Resolve, playing 3D games or working in VR, the Blackmagic eGPU Pro gives you the latest cutting edge graphics performance and computational acceleration available. It simply makes everything faster and makes everything look better!”

Only two questions remains. First - how such price can be explained. Second - where exactly Vega 56 is 2x faster than RX 580.

Mostly advertised by many resources as external GPU it is actually designed as dick station with build in GPU.

If you ask me, I much more prefer universal simpler and cheaper external GPU solution.

This one is $699, available only via Apple - https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HM8Y2VC/A/blackmagic-egpu

Btw it is good to notice that BM follow Red, and it seems like we see first from many steps of another private agreement.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Fanless-Mini-Computer-Mini-PC-4GB-32GB-MeLE-PCG35-GLK-Intel-Celeron-J4105-Quad-Core-Windows/32911000650.html

• $69 now
• Active - https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GeForce-GV-N1030D5-2GL-Computer-Graphics/dp/B071DY2VJR/
• Passive - https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GeForce-GV-N1030SL-2GL-Silent-Profile/dp/B072HRD3CY/

Note - if you plan to use two 4K displays (strange for such card, but) better get MSI card with DP port (as DVI is 1080p120 max).

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GT-1030-2G-LP/dp/B071L4VKF6/

Note - it is not really good card for BM or such.

Decoding modes (DXVA Checker, most important)

• MPEG2and1_VLD: DXVA2/D3D11, SD / HD / FHD / 4K
• MPEG2_VLD: DXVA2/D3D11, SD / HD / FHD / 4K
• H264_VLD_Stereo_Progressive_NoFGT: DXVA2/D3D11, SD / HD / FHD / 4K
• H264_VLD_Stereo_NoFGT: DXVA2/D3D11, SD / HD / FHD / 4K
• H264_VLD_NoFGT: DXVA2/D3D11, SD / HD / FHD / 4K
• HEVC_VLD_Main: DXVA2/D3D11, SD / HD / FHD / 4K / 8K
• HEVC_VLD_Main10: DXVA2/D3D11, SD / HD / FHD / 4K / 8K
• MJPEG_VLD_NVIDIA: DXVA2/D3D11, SD / HD / FHD / 4K
• VP9_VLD_Profile0: DXVA2/D3D11, SD / HD / FHD / 4K / 8K
• VP9_VLD_10bit_Profile2: DXVA2/D3D11, SD / HD / FHD / 4K / 8K

iMac5K (2017)

• 4 Ghz i7
• 32GB Memory

This presents as an 8 core system.

The new system:

Model Name: iMac Pro

• Model Identifier: iMacPro1,1
• Processor Name: Intel Xeon W
• Processor Speed: 2.3 GHz
• Number of Processors: 1
• Total Number of Cores: 18
• L2 Cache (per Core): 1 MB
• L3 Cache: 24.8 MB
• Memory: 128 GB
• Boot ROM Version: 15.16.6059.0.0,0

Presents as 18 cores and has significantly more memory at 128GB. I set out to do a couple of tests that I could measure and then sum up how the two systems feel.

Blender Render (Cycles)

Old iMac 5K 1:16:41 H:M:S
IMac Pro 15:58 H:M:S

Cheetah 3D Render

Old iMac 5K 28167 S
iMac Pro 12082 S

Conclusions

So, Blender has a 5 times speed up and Cheetah3D has just over twice. I checked the activity monitor and both were using pretty much all the CPU.

The installation of the iMac Pro was painful, many painful. In the background the audio and Lacie RAID drivers were disabled. The trouble is that Lacie didn't write the drivers so it's not obvious which drivers should be enabled. I basically re-installed all the audio and RAID drivers and got to thinking that the Thunderbolt 3-2 adapters didn't work because the Lacie and Focusrite kit are Thunderbolt 1. Five hours of forum hunting later and all was running.

In truth I'm underwhelmed with the performance improvements compared to the three year difference and the eye-watering £10K price tag.

What is useful though is the ability to comfortably run other programs whilst Blender/Cheetah3D/Fusion/Resolve are thrashing through renders.

Of note is that the Radeon card supports the RadeonProRender plugin for blender, this can offload the render work to the graphics card. However you need to be aware that materials used by the Cycles render engine don't work with ProRender, and that the tool that converts between the two silently barfs on stuff like hair. I run the app from the terminal so that I can see the debug messages - this led me to changing enough materials to get the renders going.

It can even run FCPx and Blender (whilst rendering an animation). My guess is that this is a function of memory as well as the number of available cores.

So, perhaps the real joy of ownership is that the editing/grading interface is more responsive.

In the meantime, I've been looking at the cost of online render farms, which for me will work out at 3$ per frame -- so that's another ouch moment.

Specs

• 15.6" FHD IPS screen
• Core i5 or i7 8xxxU CPUs
• i5 can even have mere 4GB of RAM, huh
• 128GB SSD
• 1TB HDD
• GeForce MX110 2GB RAM
• Double fan design, 2+2 heat pipe layout, best cooling among U designs
• 2 x USB 3.0 ports, HDMI port
• USB 2.0 port, Full size SD card slot, DC port
• dual 3W speakers
• Starts at ¥3999 (~$582) for i5 4GB +128GB + 1TB, to ¥4499 (~$655) for extra 4GB
• i7 with 8GB RAM is ¥4999 (~$727)
• https://www.geekbuying.com/item/Xiaomi-Mi-Notebook-Intel-Core-i5-8250U-8GB-128GB-1TB-Dark-Grey-403270.html

• Intel Gemini Lake N4100 Quad Core 1.1GHz,up to 2.4GHz
• 13.3 inch Screen with 1920 x 1080 Resolution
• 4GB LPDDR4 RAM for Advanced Multitasking
• 32GB eMMC + 128GB SSD Storage Capacity
• Dual Band 2.4GHz / 5.0GHz WiFi
• HDMI Output

https://www.gearbest.com/laptops/pp_009234299592.html