Let's figure out how to make a DIY eGPU (previously DIY ViDock)

[mbarry]

Good luck with the 9800.

Do you know what your CPU and GPU temps are just before it fails?

I'm sure that the CPU is fine, as I play these games on my Laptop regularly. The GPU doesn't feel hot at all, only slightly above room temp, so I'm really at a loss here. Power should be fine, as I tried both a 200W ATX power supply, and a 180W Laptop power supply.

[mbarry]

every 10 minutes? try setting your power options in windows to 'always on' and make sure it's not turning off your expresscard

get gpu-z or rivatuner to see your card's temperature. since you can hear sounds from it is your card fanless?

10 minutes was just a rough estimate, if I run ATI Tool, it crashes within a minute or two, and if I run something like COD, it crashes around 10 minutes.
My card has a fan, but it is pretty silent, so I can hear the noise. Are they supposed to make a scratchy/clicky noise?

EDIT: One important point I left out - I am using 4GB of RAM on 7 x64. Doubt that has anything to do with it. I also can't seem to boot with it plugged in, so I have to plug it in after 7 completely boots.

[moral hazard]

Can you test it with 2gb?

[mbarry]

Okay, with 2GB of RAM, the machine POSTs, but somehow Windows 7 blue screens right before the login page shows up. Surprisingly, Vista works perfectly with 2GB of RAM, and it seems to have disabled the on-board Intel GMA 4500MHD as well. I will run ATI Tool again and see how that goes.

EDIT: Still the same problem, when put under stress, the whole system crashes. Clicky/Scratchy sound is still there when anything happens on the screen (i.e. dragging a window around, playing a game, or running ATI Tool).

[Ohem]

So, I've been wondering if it's possible to make an portable graphic card. This and and the other thread(s) have already covered the most things discussed here, and so I wonder - what about a practical enclosure? I mean, if/when you're going to LAN with your 13"-15" laptop with the card you'd need a decent box. Not too big or too small, one that could possibly fit a disassembled(?) Shuttle 300W and the card itself, alternative using a cheap laptop re-charger - this would drastically shrink the size of the box.

I suppose a custom-made aluminium box is one way to go but not everyone are capable making one, or a company got the time (or take too much money for it), you maybe don't have the correct dimensions and so on. So, at least something that everyone can buy and use as enclosure - maybe preferrably online.

[jamesbond007]

been wondering hows the progress of the pe4m. Is it schedule for release anytime soon. just considering because i am planning to get the pe4h but i am putting it on hold to see if there is any progress on the pe4m

[User Retired 2]

been wondering hows the progress of the pe4m. Is it schedule for release anytime soon. just considering because i am planning to get the pe4h but i am putting it on hold to see if there is any progress on the pe4m

I'm awaiting a response to my email query about PE4M sent before Xmas. I noticed too they are now selling PM3N (mPCIe card) version 1.1, which has the jumpered 6.9s delay to bypass one type of bios whitelisting/halting.

Also PE4H now includes a little board to provide switched on/off power of a ATX PSU.

[kocoman]

Resident evil 5 with my external HD 4850 is fully playable @ 720p, including the HD videos, I dont think star trek online would be a problem...

Have anyone used this option in DXVAChecker, “Video Acceleration Settings…”, then "DXVA for HD h.264 under PCI-E x1 mode"

[timohour]

Hello guys,
As you can see I'm a little bit extraneous but I would like moral hazard or nando 4 or whoever is an expert on this DIY Vidock thing to answer me some questions (if possible). I've read that laptops with more than one mini pcie or express card is possible to have 2x performance using both of them. As I m also a fan of ultra-portable 12.1'' laptops I own a fujitsu U9200 Fujitsu laptop.
specs
gm965 ich-8
First of all my laptop has inside (under keyboard) 2 mini pci-e slots. One of them is for 3 Dual band WLAN and it is empty and the other one is for my wireless (switched to Dell 1390 Broadcom 4311 chipset). There is also an express card 34 slot. I was ready to buy a PE4H adapter when I saw this 2x thing. If I buy now this only with the EC2C adapter and later the mini pcie one I would have to pay 12$ more for shipping so I decided someone with more experience. Now I'm thinking to try the 2x mode, but is it possible to use the empty 3Dual band WLAN slot and my express card or I have to sacrifise my wireless? (As it is under the keyboard it is a bit difficult to switch between wireless graphics) And, how do I know which pci is 1 or 2 so I connect them on my PE4H and have 2x performance?
Right now I'm running OS X and my DPCI manage shows me something like this:
8086:2a00 Intel Corporation Mobile Memory Controller Hub
8086:2a02 Intel Corporation Mobile Intergrated Graphics Controller
8086:284b Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
8086:283f Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1
8086:2841 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2
11ab:4363 Marvell Techno... 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ehternet Controller
8086:2843 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3
14e4:4311 Broadcom Corp... BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI
8086:2830 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2831 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2832 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2834 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2835 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2836 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:283a Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2448 Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
8086:2815 Intel Corporation Mobile LPC Interface controller
8086:2850 Intel Corporation Mobile IDE Controller
8086:2829 Intel Corporation Mobile SATA AHCI Controller
8086:283e Intel Corporation Mobile Intergrated Graphics controller

the bold ones are those which show me the pci ports but how can I know which is which?

Last Question. Can this thing work with os X (the Macintosh OS)? Is there someone who tried it, even on a Macbook pro?
Thanks for your patience, I 'm waiting your answer to make my order.

I played around with another mini-pcie Atheros card after posting and I saw that when I have both cards I had this:

8086:2a00 Intel Corporation Mobile Memory Controller Hub
8086:2a02 Intel Corporation Mobile Intergrated Graphics Controller
8086:284b Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
8086:283f Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1
8086:2841 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2
11ab:4363 Marvell Techno... 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ehternet Controller
8086:2843 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3
14e4:4311 Broadcom Corp... BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI
8086:2845 Intel corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4
167c:001c Atheros Comm... AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter
8086:2830 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2831 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2832 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2834 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2835 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2836 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:283a Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2448 Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
8086:2815 Intel Corporation Mobile LPC Interface controller
8086:2850 Intel Corporation Mobile IDE Controller
8086:2829 Intel Corporation Mobile SATA AHCI Controller
8086:283e Intel Corporation Mobile Intergrated Graphics controller

when i had only the Atheros (on the 3G slot):
8086:2a00 Intel Corporation Mobile Memory Controller Hub
8086:2a02 Intel Corporation Mobile Intergrated Graphics Controller
8086:284b Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
8086:283f Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1
8086:2841 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2
11ab:4363 Marvell Techno... 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ehternet Controller
8086:2845 Intel corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4
167c:001c Atheros Comm... AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter
8086:2830 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2831 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2832 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2834 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2835 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2836 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:283a Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2448 Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
8086:2815 Intel Corporation Mobile LPC Interface controller
8086:2850 Intel Corporation Mobile IDE Controller
8086:2829 Intel Corporation Mobile SATA AHCI Controller
8086:283e Intel Corporation Mobile Intergrated Graphics controller

and when I had neither:
8086:2a00 Intel Corporation Mobile Memory Controller Hub
8086:2a02 Intel Corporation Mobile Intergrated Graphics Controller
8086:284b Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
8086:283f Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1
8086:2841 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2
11ab:4363 Marvell Techno... 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ehternet Controller
8086:2830 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2831 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2832 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2834 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2835 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2836 Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:283a Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller
8086:2448 Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
8086:2815 Intel Corporation Mobile LPC Interface controller
8086:2850 Intel Corporation Mobile IDE Controller
8086:2829 Intel Corporation Mobile SATA AHCI Controller
8086:283e Intel Corporation Mobile Intergrated Graphics controller

looked like this
That probably means that my WLAN is pci express port 3 and my 3G slot is pci express port 4.
Maybe my express card is pci express port 1? does that mean that i can not use the x2 function?
Does x2 function works for port 1 and port 4?

[moral hazard]

x2 only works with port 1 and port 2.
x4 works if you have 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Looks like you wont get x2. But you might be able to run 2 GPUs in SLI.

I did remember that I posted a link a while ago about somebody trying it on a mac. Here it is again:
http://maximumoverclock.com/?p=4

The important info on that page is the post that Joseph made:

I realize this is a way late follow up, and perhaps no one is actually visiting anymore, but I did finally get around to hooking up an ATI 2600 GT from a Mac Pro. It works! Now, the video card I used was from a Mac, and perhaps it has appropriate firmware to be recognized at boot. Nothing on the software side needed to be done. I booted and the external monitor fired up with the OS X desktop (10.5.6, and still in 10.5.7)

To recap, I’m NOT using the mini-PCIE connector, but instead using an Expresscard-to-extenal-PCIE adapter. The chain of parts is:

1) Macbook Pro …connected to…
2) Expresscard x1 (host) to x4 (cable) adapter…
3) PCIE x4 external cable…
4) PCIE-cable-to-add-on-card adapter x4 (cable) to x16 (add-on card) and ATX power socket…
5) ATI 2600 GT video card **and** ATX power supply

So, item (4), the cable-to-card adapter, provides power and signal speed shifting (and whatever else - there are a lot of chips on there) for the video card.

Now as I mentioned above, it appears that both the Expresscard and the Mini-PCIE ports are both going through the South Bridge (oops on my prior North Bridge note). Perhaps it was just that the 7800GT that didn’t have the right firmware? Or perhaps that PCIE adapter card I have does some extra necessary signalling at boot?