PELADN Link S-2 is an OCuLink graphics dock for under $100
Last year mini PC maker PELADN launched an external graphics dock called the PELADN Link S1 that allowed you to add a desktop graphics card to any PC with a Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, or compatible USB4 port. Now the company has launched a new model with an OCuLink connector for higher-speed connections to a PC.
The new PELADN Link S-2 is available now from the SZBox store at AliExpress for $87.
The dock measures 253 x 162 x 41mm (10″ x 6.4″ x 1.6″) and has an open-air design: it’s not a case that houses a graphics card, it’s more of a base that holds a GPU in place and provides everything you need to connect it to a PC… assuming you’ve got a PC with an OCuLink port.
The SZBOX/PELADN Link S-2 has a PCIe x16 interface, a 24-pin ATX connector for power supply, and the dock comes with an OCuLink connector and graphics card bracket. And that’s about it.
Unlike some other external GPU solutions, this is not a USB hub, external storage device, or wireless amplifier. This is a device that’s meant for one thing and one thing only: adding a discrete GPU to a computer that might not otherwise have one, while using a high-speed OCuLink connector.
OCuLink is basically an external cabling solution for PCIe, capable of data transfer speeds up to 64 Gbps. That makes it a better fit for external GPUs than Thunderbolt 4 or earlier, which have theoretical top speeds of 40 Gbps, but real-world speeds that are often substantially lower than that. In other words, the cables aren’t fast enough to let you get all the performance you’d expect from some high-end graphics cards.
Unfortunately OCuLink isn’t as widely adopted in the commercial PC space as USB4/Thunderbolt, which means that this dock will only work with the relatively small number of mini PCs, laptops, and handhelds that have compatible ports. And since the Link S-2 graphics dock doesn’t have a USB4/Thunderbolt port, it can only be used with computers that support OCuLink. If you need something with wider compatibility, you may have to look elsewhere.
Oh, and if the design of this device looks familiar, that may be because it not only looks a lot like the original PELADN Link S1, but also like the recently released MINISFORUM DEG1, which is also a barebones eGPU dock with an OCuLink connector. The DEG1 costs a little more though: it’s currently available for $99 from the MINISFORUM website.
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