3D Printed Enclosure for Thunderbolt Dock with ConnectX 4 Lx

[nexox]

I finally mostly finished designing this and posted the BOM and instructions:

Enclosure for 10/25GB Thunderbolt Network Dock by Nexox Enigma | Download free STL model | Printables.com

An enclosure to hold a Thunderbolt dock, ConnectX-4 Lx NIC, fan, and PSU. | Download free 3D printable STL models

www.printables.com

If you don't need a dock that can charge a laptop this combination may not be the best choice.

Let me know if you have any questions, I also have a CX512F on the way and I suppose I will have to check to see if it's a drop-in fit, anyone that wants to fit another low-profile NIC feel free to message me to work out dimensions and test prints.

@luckylinux fyi.

 

[nexox]

Update: Dell CX512F almost fits, but the heatsink is larger than the CX4-Lx, which would mean changes to every part of the enclosure, I'm just going to stick to my plan of using the ConnectX 5 in a different system.

 

[Dave Corder]

Cool design! I need to do something similar for an NVME SSD enclosure I have that also happens to work as a Thunderbolt bridge if you put an M.2 NVME to PCIe adapter in it.

 

[nexox]

Cool design! I need to do something similar for an NVME SSD enclosure I have that also happens to work as a Thunderbolt bridge if you put an M.2 NVME to PCIe adapter in it.

I started out looking for a setup like that but there was very little information about any particular model and it seems that some of them (and some of the docks with full PCIe slots, for some reason) don't provide the 12V supply required to run a NIC, only 3.3V for an M.2 SSD.

Also I eventually realized I wanted it to provide charging, which really narrowed down the dock options.

 

[Dave Corder]

I started out looking for a setup like that but there was very little information about any particular model and it seems that some of them (and some of the docks with full PCIe slots, for some reason) don't provide the 12V supply required to run a NIC, only 3.3V for an M.2 SSD.

Also I eventually realized I wanted it to provide charging, which really narrowed down the dock options.

Yeah, I don't actually need dock functionality, so that didn't apply to me. I just* wanted a cheap-ish Thunderbolt 10Gbps networking solution for my M1 Mac Mini...it does need +12vdc from a wall wart still, but I feel that's to be expected.

*Actually I also very much like building things and making devices do things they weren't originally intended to do.