DIY eGPU experiences

[moral hazard]

What I did was this:

1. Make the V: drive.
2. Put my devcon file onto that V drive.
3. Make an image of that V drive.
4. Use that new image to setup the win7 boot loader.


If I remember correctly.

[dommcg]

Hi All

Many thanks for this great guide.

I have Dell Inspiron 1525 with the following specs:

3.0 GB Ram DDR2 SDRAM @ 667 MHz.
Intel Core 2 Duo T7250
Graphics - Intel Mobile 965 express
1 x Express Card Slot.

Several questions:

Will a DIY Vidock work for this laptop?

Can i use the power supply from a laptop as the PSU?

is there any preference between PE4L and PE4H?

Many thanks in anticipation.

DOm

[jamesbond007]

@dommcg yes it should work since you have an express card slot. As for the power supply you could use the laptop adapter as a power supply as long as it can provided sufficient power to the card. The pe4l is cheaper but only can do x1. The pe4h has the possibility to do up to x4 plus it provides better support for your card

[Mech0z]

Got my thing today and with my X201 i7 620 Tablet I get 11400 points in 3dmark 06

Worked right out of the box with my HD5770

Just waiting for my 1.5 meter cable now so I can rearrange my desk.

[PanzerHauptmann]

Hey all this isn't DIY-related, or even laptop related, however, since I've been a regular contributing member on this forum, I felt it was my obligation & responsibility to inform everyone of the successful build of my 1st custom computer!

Specs:

Intel i7 930 2.8Ghz Processor
Rampage II Extreme MB
1.5TB 'Cuda 7200 RPM HDD (1 500GB, 1 1TB, for separate OS partition )
6GB Corsair Triple-channel RAM
EVGA nVidia GTX 470 1.28GB vid card (same used for DiY ViDock)
HX850 Corsair PSU
Sony Blu-Ray BWU-300S Blu-Ray Burner
D-Link Wireless Xtreme-N DWA-552 PCIe adapter
Creative SoundMAX 7.1 audio card
HAF 922 Chassis


What would specs be without scores, right?

Vantage score:


3dMark06 score:


FurMark:


Basically, the DIY-Vidock opened the door to realization of the true happiness that a high FPS can create

The legendary PE4H is currently residing quietly in it's anti-static bag, in the cabinet right above the HP HDX laptop it so faithfully formally served. I haven't decided yet if I am going to sell it, or keep it around just n case for future testing...

[xstrike]

I thought it would be helpful to mention that I attempted to use a GTX 295 in a setup with no luck:

Toshiba Qosmio F55-Q502 with Windows 7 Ultimate 4 GB Ram
GTX 295
Corsair 650W Power Supply (12V @ I think at least 40 Amps)
PE4H with an EC2C

Everest sees the device as a PCI to PCI bridge with a GTX 295. At first I was getting the infamous black screen of death, which was remedied after the soldering with the Panzer fuse bypass. Unfortunately, while Device Manager sees the GTX 295 twice (the 295 has dual GPU's), after countless NVidia driver install attempts, Device Manager still reports a "!" with an explanation of "not enough resources" after a driver isntall and a successful reboot. This might coincide with nando4's explanation from the first post of this thread (2x256MB PCI-E space required).

Despite that warning I thought I'd give it a shot just for kicks. I'll be selling the PE4H kit I have on eBay soon since I no longer have interest in getting this to work, if anyone wants dibs before I auction it off feel free to PM me. It'll include:

PE4H with EC2C Express Card

PM3N PCIe Adapter (If this setup worked @ 1x, was going to attempt 2x)

All the fixins that came with the PE4H (Motherboard Switch, miniHDMI cable, screws, etc.)

Lesson learned, no GTX 295 and no Radeon 5970, or that fabled Asus Ares. Maybe it would of worked if I attempted 2x, but I seriously doubted it and didn't want to open up my laptop for a 3rd time to test again with the PM3N.

[User Retired 2]

Unfortunately, while Device Manager sees the GTX 295 twice (the 295 has dual GPU's), after countless NVidia driver install attempts, Device Manager still reports a "!" with an explanation of "not enough resources" after a driver isntall and a successful reboot. This might coincide with nando4's explanation from the first post of this thread (2x256MB PCI-E space required).

F55 uses a PM45 chipset and has onboard GeForce 9700 GTS. Use DIY ViDock Setup 1.x to perform 36-bit PCI allocation on the GTX295 then chainload into Win7 and see if that corrects your resource issue.

[xstrike]

I performed 36-bit PCI allocation to my GTX 295 via the DIY Setup via USB with 1.0e and 1.0e2. The menu-based prompt says that 512MB is free with 1.0e2 when I allocate 36-bit to everything and it proceeds chainloading, but the system hangs on the "Starting Windows" screen where those 4 spheres merge to form the windows logo. If I attempt 36-bit allocation to just the video card, the system says that it can't find any PCI solutions. 1.0e can't find any PCI solutions whatsoever.

When the Express card is disconnected, even if I play around with random settings with either version (1.0e or 1.0e2) and proceed to chainloading, it'll still hang on the same screen. That being the case, it's not the card that's causing the system to hang.

At this point I'm thinking maybe removing the built-in graphics card, which is simple since it's MXM, might do the trick. Maybe I'll try it some day, since opening the laptop is a chore.

On a sidenote, in 1.0e, there is an option to disable the internal 9700M GTS, which yielded the same results of freezing at the Starting Windows screen.

[User Retired 2]

If I attempt 36-bit allocation to just the video card, the system says that it can't find any PCI solutions. 1.0e can't find any PCI solutions whatsoever.

That should not be the case. Try selecting just the GTX295 via the menus. If have no success via the menus perform a compaction at the commandline followed by chainloading to Win7. Use 'lspci -tv -n' to identify vid:did of GTX295.

compact pciend 310000000 useonly [vid:did of GTX295] import \config\devcon.txt
grub4dos w7

If the GTX295 isn't detected when you hotplug it in DOS then the compaction will fail in which case try to allocate it into 36-bit space manually as shown here.

[thinkpadx60]

Hi, I need the exact measures (especially the max. thickness) of the PM3N-Adapter. I plan to integrate it into a X60 Thinkpad and i hope that it will fit under the palmrest. How thick is a mini-HDMI-Plug?
If the PM3N with a plugged in mini-HDMI-Connecter will fit under the palmrest it will be no problem to route a flatcable out of the pcmcia-port.

Thanks for the information

Greetz...