egpu Asus Vivobook S 14 + eGPU or New micro ATX build for College?

[Bobbyct]

Hi all, bare with me as this is a little bit long - I recently bought an Asus Vivobook S 14 (Ryzen AI 9 365, 32GB Ram) for College next year since it ticks all the boxes I was looking for.  I was originally planning to bring my desktop (semi-chunky Corsair iCUE 465X case, i7 10700k, EVGA 3060ti, 32GB Ram) with me when I move in, but I do realize that the space will be a bit tight with it whether I put it on the ground or anywhere- since I'm also bringing two 24" monitors.  I also am taking into consideration that bringing my main desktop will affect my family's use of my Plex server which I host on it.

 

I thought about the pros/cons but wanted to get the community's feedback, maybe someone else has had to do something similar:

Idea 1; My laptop has a USB 4.0 port (40gbps with thunderbolt logo), which from my understanding can run a thunderbolt 3 e-gpu, so I'd put my 3060ti in that, but I know you lose performance by doing this, though it would be the most cost-effective option and easiest.  I don't know how much gaming I plan to do in college, but I want to have the option.  Primary games are Rocket League, Star Citizen, and GTA V

Idea 2; I could try to budget for a micro-ATX build, and just bring that (still doesn't completely solve the space issue but I think would be more manageable)

 

Idea 1 is by far the easiest, I just don't know what kind of performance impact I'd be dealing with, especially if I run 2 monitors off of the card 

Idea 2 does turn into something more complex though, since I'd have to buy a CPU, MBO, Power Supply, Cooler (My current one is a 360mm rad), and whatever else.

If I went with idea 2, I could base the micro-ATX build off of my existing 10700k and DDR4 ram, and then wait for a sale to buy a more recent CPU, MBO, and Ram for my main desktop, and still just share the GPU between them. (Though this once again has the issue of the Plex server, but I'm not as concerned about that vs spending twice as much for current gen hardware)

 

Anyone have suggestions?

[strange13930]

6 minutes ago, Bobbyct said:

Hi all, bare with me as this is a little bit long - I recently bought an Asus Vivobook S 14 (Ryzen AI 9 365, 32GB Ram) for College next year since it ticks all the boxes I was looking for.  I was originally planning to bring my desktop (semi-chunky Corsair iCUE 465X case, i7 10700k, EVGA 3060ti, 32GB Ram) with me when I move in, but I do realize that the space will be a bit tight with it whether I put it on the ground or anywhere- since I'm also bringing two 24" monitors.  I also am taking into consideration that bringing my main desktop will affect my family's use of my Plex server which I host on it.

 

I thought about the pros/cons but wanted to get the community's feedback, maybe someone else has had to do something similar:

Idea 1; My laptop has a USB 4.0 port (40gbps with thunderbolt logo), which from my understanding can run a thunderbolt 3 e-gpu, so I'd put my 3060ti in that, but I know you lose performance by doing this, though it would be the most cost-effective option and easiest.  I don't know how much gaming I plan to do in college, but I want to have the option.  Primary games are Rocket League, Star Citizen, and GTA V

Idea 2; I could try to budget for a micro-ATX build, and just bring that (still doesn't completely solve the space issue but I think would be more manageable)

 

Idea 1 is by far the easiest, I just don't know what kind of performance impact I'd be dealing with, especially if I run 2 monitors off of the card 

Idea 2 does turn into something more complex though, since I'd have to buy a CPU, MBO, Power Supply, Cooler (My current one is a 360mm rad), and whatever else.

If I went with idea 2, I could base the micro-ATX build off of my existing 10700k and DDR4 ram, and then wait for a sale to buy a more recent CPU, MBO, and Ram for my main desktop, and still just share the GPU between them. (Though this once again has the issue of the Plex server, but I'm not as concerned about that vs spending twice as much for current gen hardware)

 

Anyone have suggestions?

could you build a new pc for your family to use as the plex server? For your monitors do you have a monitor arm that you could use to arrange them on top of one another?

[jaslion]

Idea 3. Return the vivobook and get a lighter gaming laptop. The right ones have proper battery life, dont weigh too much and well work great.

 

Cept for star citizen the vivo will run all of the above well.

[Bobbyct]

4 hours ago, strange13930 said:

could you build a new pc for your family to use as the plex server? For your monitors do you have a monitor arm that you could use to arrange them on top of one another?

I could ya, so Plex isn't as big of a concern for me since they don't use it too too often either.  As far as monitor arms, they apparently don't fit on the desks at the school from what I've read on the university's subreddit, so they'd have to go on a riser or something. I'm also a side-by-side guy so no matter what I wouldn't have them verticle

[Bobbyct]

4 hours ago, jaslion said:

Idea 3. Return the vivobook and get a lighter gaming laptop. The right ones have proper battery life, dont weigh too much and well work great.

 

Cept for star citizen the vivo will run all of the above well.

The Vivobook weighs 2.8 pounds in 0.6 inches and gets about 10 hours+ of regular-use time with basically no drain when sleeping in my bag.  I looked around a while before pulling the trigger on it, but there was no laptops with dedicated GPUs that were within my budget (~$1000) that had a similar weight, profile, battery life, spec, and port selection.  If I were to build a new machine I'd probably be going with second hand parts just since I need cash on-hand for loan interest payments.