DIY eGPU experiences

[kevenp]

thanks,

it's the psu i want buy Ultra X4 400-Watt Modular Power Supply - 98mm Fan, MicroATX
and buy a Ultra ULT40391 Dual Molex to pci-express

do you think it will work...

[User Retired 2]

it's the psu i want buy Ultra X4 400-Watt Modular Power Supply - 98mm Fan, MicroATX
and buy a Ultra ULT40391 Dual Molex to pci-express

do you think it will work...

US$55 Ultra X4 400W microATX PSU has 12V@21A so can deliver 252W maximum off the 12V rail. A GTX460 was measured by techpower to need 155W at peak. That peak will increase with overclocking. The Ultra x4 has enough grunt to power a GTX460.

A good find that's worth the $25 premium over the $30 Corsair CX-400 if want the smaller footprint and modular cabling to keep things neater.

[kizakisu]

does any one know where i can get a t8300 or a t9300 so i can boost my vidock performance because the t3400 i have is really hurting my performance and all my retail sites like newegg dont carry these anymore

[andeelym]

Oh wow, ViDock4 plus is available now. It should allow the use of GTX460 as it has 2 x 6pin power connectors. Should be able to function as an enclosure too I guess.

Village Instruments : ViDock

[xbrickx]

First off, after reading many pages of this forum, I am super impressed with how helpful and kind you all are. So here it goes.

I AM ON THE PATH TO BEGIN MY DIY VIDOCK EXPERIENCE!
Current laptop Specs.

Dell Latitude D630
Intel(R)Centrino Duo CPU T9300 @ 2.50GHz
Nvidia Quadro NVS 135M <--------Ouch >.<
4GB ram
Windows 7 (64bit)
Chipset: ICH8

I haven't bought any hardware because I have had a few concerns.

1. My Laptop does not have an expresscard slot. However, it has a PCMCIA. And when I open up my device manager, it brings me to believe I have a PCI-e port. Forgive me if these are the same thing. I am justing getting into this stuff because I've recently switched from console gaming. The device manager shows devices such as:
Intel(R) ICH8 Family PCI Express Root Port1 - 283F
Intel(R) ICH8 Family PCI Express Root Port2 - 2841
Intel(R) ICH8 Family PCI Express Root Port6 - 2849
Mobile Intel(R) PM965/GM965/GL960/GS965 Express Root Port - 2A01
PCI bus

2. I was planning on purchasing the PEAH when the new version comes out August 10th for the X2 link capabilites. However, I'm unsure if I can even support this. Would this Everest program that I see everyone talking about show me if I can x2 link?

3. I was planning on purchasing the ATI 5770, but I see that many people have said that Nvidia 4XX series has better results on this dock. However, I think that I will spend most of my time with this dock playing Final Fantasy XIV and the FF benchmark results between the 5770 and the 460 are very similar! (Student on a budget)

So in short,
1. Is it worth building a dock?
2. Will everest tell me if I can X2 link?
3. Nvidia over ATI?

I already have this guy. Gift from a friend.
Newegg.com - APEX SL-D460EXP 460W ATX12V Ver.2.01 Power Supply

Thank you so much for your time!

......::::::UPDATE!::::::......
I searched around the thread and found the answer to my first question. Looks like I'm going to have to go for the PM3N solution, which means opening up my laptop.

[avlan]

Try PE4L with miniPCIE card. Could you give us PCIe layout (Everest or something?)?

[User Retired 2]

3. I was planning on purchasing the ATI 5770, but I see that many people have said that Nvidia 4XX series has better results on this dock. However, I think that I will spend most of my time with this dock playing Final Fantasy XIV and the FF benchmark results between the 5770 and the 460 are very similar! (Student on a budget)

So in short,
1. Is it worth building a dock?
2. Will everest tell me if I can X2 link?
3. Nvidia over ATI?

IMHO, it's worth building the DIY ViDock.

You have only PM3N (mPCIe) options. Would need a second mPCIe port to consider a x2 link. If have one, swap the wifi over and see what port number it comes up on. There are specific ports required for x2 as discussed on the first post.

GTX460 is far superior for FFXIV. The FFIXV demo on the 2510P posts ~700 on the HD5750 and 1739 with the GTX470. The 768MB GTX460 is only $40 more than a HD5770 and well worth it for the far better x1 1.0 performance.

[xbrickx]

Thanks!

I actually had my computer all in pieces a couple minutes ago. I have an open turbo memory slot (WWAN?) which I'm guessing would be filled by the PM3N. I have to download Everest and see what port that occupies. If I wanted X2 link I would have to remove my wireless card if it is the adequate port?

If I get the gtx 460 i'm going 1gb all the way haha. Thank you so much for the advice. Its really appreciated.

.....:::::UPDATE!::::.......
@avlan

I installed Everest and checked out my ports. I have 3 ports.
#1 is empty (must be the turbomemory WWAN slot)
#2 is in use by Intel(R) Wireless WIFI Link
#6 is (Gigabyte ethernet controller)

If I remove the wifi card and leave that free does this mean I can x2? According the the main page of this thread I just need to combine ports 1 & 2 or do I need ports 3 & 4 combined as well? Thanks.

[PanzerHauptmann]

I need some help here guys... I got my system all setup with my GTX460... the comp is recognizing it, but in the devicee manager it keeps giving me CODE $#, Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems..

I have tried the sleep mode; power on DIY vidock, then resume, but it keeps reverting back to the same device manager error code.. I dont know what to do at this point, I think it may be that I cant have two GPU running at the same time, perhaps?? Ive tried to disable my onboard GT 130M, then amazingly the error code on the GTX460 goes away. But when I reboot with the DIY vidock ON the system just hangs... and when i try to switch out to projector only mode it says no projector detected.... HELP!!!!

Edit: When i first hooked it up, win7 x64 installed it as "Standard VGA Driver" or something like that.. thats how it recognized it I guess, then it said that a reboot was reqqured, which I did with the ViDock still ON and the system just hangs until I physically remove the expresscard from the slot..

[flaunt]

I need some help here guys... I got my system all setup with my GTX460... the comp is recognizing it, but in the devicee manager it keeps giving me CODE $#, Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems..

I have tried the sleep mode; power on DIY vidock, then resume, but it keeps reverting back to the same device manager error code.. I dont know what to do at this point, I think it may be that I cant have two GPU running at the same time, perhaps?? Ive tried to disable my onboard GT 130M, then amazingly the error code on the GTX460 goes away. But when I reboot with the DIY vidock ON the system just hangs... and when i try to switch out to projector only mode it says no projector detected.... HELP!!!!

Edit: When i first hooked it up, win7 x64 installed it as "Standard VGA Driver" or something like that.. thats how it recognized it I guess, then it said that a reboot was reqqured, which I did with the ViDock still ON and the system just hangs until I physically remove the expresscard from the slot..

What system specs do you have? all the specifics if you dont mind. it works out differently for different systems. For instance, mine will not recognize it from standby/plugin/resume - I have to have mine connected from the bootup - whereas others need to not have it on during bootup because the bios will hang.

Have you installed the latest nvidia DESKTOP drivers? - I accidently kept trying to install the notebook drivers to my desktop card.

Also, you may need to get familiar with DIY vidock setup 1.0e2 - as you may have some PCI allocation issues. In general, the code 43 error is fixed by putting the comp in standy by, plugging in the device and the resuming.

You can certainly have two gpus running at the same time- I run an 8400M and the GTX 460.

Im pretty sure we can get yours working, we just need more info!