DIY eGPU experiences

[ryboto]

Thank you for joining up.

The DA-2 output would ideally be adapted to have 1x4-pin floppy molex and 2x 6-pin pci-e connectors on it. Then it could be plugged straight into a PE4H or PE4L (75W) and a video card with up to 2 pci-e connectors (150W).

Can you post pics of your handywork? Your pci-e connector will give an idea of what work is required.

I never actually went straight from the DA-2 to a PCIE connector, I went from the DA-2 to a 4-pin molex, and plugged a 4-pin molex-to-6pin PCIE adapter into that to power a video card. Here's the first thing I did, which allows you to use the DA-2 without modification:


Ugly, I know. Basically, the last 8 pins off of a 24-pin MB connector fit the DA-2 connector, so I hacked one up, and soldered to it. The issue here is that the pins are small, and have a huge resistance with so much current going through them. So, If you go this route, you should be mindful of that.

From this, just solder the leads to the connectors you need. PCIE plugs are just 12v and ground, but the floppy connector has a 5v line, so I'm not sure how you'd get that without an inline resistor or something.

Here's the other route I went-



I noticed huge voltage drops(~.5v) with the previous setup, so I went more direct. I cut the DA-2's cable, and took the 3 12v, and 3 ground, and used two screw-type terminals. I shorted the trigger wire to one of the grounds, and tied the two terminals together, then screwed in the leads to the connectors I needed to power. I taped the whole thing up, and saw a voltage drop of less than 0.1v from the solder point at the brick, to the PCIE power connector.




This is a picture of the leads, and where they went. I was using the DA-2 to power a PicoPSU 120, a 4-pin ATX power connector, and 2 4-pin molex connectors that connected to two 4-to-6pin PCIE power adapters for my HD5850. I would have cut my adapters and secured them directly to the screw terminals, but I didn't have long enough leads, and didn't feel like buying new ones.

Unfortunately, I don't have better pictures, but I hope these help a little.

[senseisin]

First of all, thanks for the answers provided so far, I really appreciate it

Yes, I'm absolutely positive the system boots all the way to the Windows shell and will remain stable for as long as I leave it on. I know this because the only way I have to force my GPU to boot is to stress test the CPU, causing it to overheat and since both the CPU and the GPU use the same heat sink pipeline it will make the GPU heat up as well. To do this I use a service known as LogMeIn, which allows me to connect remotely to the laptop and, asides from not detecting the presence of the 8600m GT, the computer runs perfectly. LogMeIn installs a mirror driver and that's why I can get a picture even with the faulty GPU.

The repair of my GPU is theoretically possible but it would involve "reballing" the GPU dye and there is no guarantee it won't fail again in the future, added that to the fact that it's an expensive procedure... This system at least gives me the ability to upgrade the GPU and the option of ending up using the graphic card for a future desktop, once I can afford building a new system from the ground up.

Because the 8600m GT is soldered into the motherboard it cannot be removed. I assume you could take it out with some method or another but it's not something you could do without highly advanced tools.

I'm very happy to know about customization of the boards, it gives me hope of getting my laptop working again. My main concern is that I travel between the US and Europe every few months so I need to be able to pack everything up and take it with me. I don't need to use the computer while travelling but I want to be able to use it once I get there and set everything on a desk comfortably.

I'll keep you guys posted on this project and how things go

Thanks for your answers guys!

[m2003]

My problems continue. Ihaven't get rid of error 12 with any combination I tried in Diy x1setup. Moreover I recently changed to win 7 64 and my boot disk ( created a new unfortunately) is not giving the menu. It only boots the windows 98 command prompt.
Can someone help me with that?
Also since I have tried all combinations I don't think it's possible for me to make this configuration work by chance.
Does anyone know if HIt technical support help with these issues?
b) Does anyone have a Latitude 6400/6500 working configuration with 4gb of ram?
c) Is it possible that changing the card to Nvidia will solve the error 12 issues?

Current configuration: e6500 4gb ram win 7 64 bit
internal gpu:nvidia nvs 160m ( discrete?)
external ati radeon 4870 1gb

Thanx to anyone that helped so far but any recommendation to this point would be helpful, I am in the verge of returning everything I bought to get rid of error 12.

[kevenp]

hi everyone i got a question I have a toshiba satellite with windows 7 64 bit with a gma4500m i will purchase a gtx460

could i install the optimus driver for been able to have the picture in my internal internal screen.( not put my portable on external lcd display)

Because i read its a gma4500mhd and mine is a gma4500m so will i be fine ?

I'm little scare to not be able to have a internal picture and pass by a external monitor....
thanks in advance for your answer...

[niffcreature]

I think I've found a better solution to people just looking to fix dead integrated GPU.
Might also end up working well to use internal LCD with VIDOCK... and maybe a few other things...
MPX-SDVOX - Mini-PCI Express 24-bit LVDS Module from BVM Limited

[niffcreature]

...and a little something for anyone with a REALLY old laptop (one that doesn't even have expresscard or pci-e for vidock anyway)
IBM xSeries 225 ATI Rage XL mini-PCI Video Card 71P8487 - eBay (item 370451056620 end time Nov-28-10 09:22:39 PST)

[twebb72]

Hi Panzer. I have a similar laptop HP HDX X16T-1000 CTO. Internally NVidia 9600M GT but looking to either DIY or ViDock 4+ it. What card did you have internally? Also, by your pic, did you have to disable the on board graphics to get the Radeon to work? I'm looking for a slightly more powerful xfx radeon hd 5870. I'm also running windows 7 x64 with 4gb of memory. What are my chances that I can get something like this up and running in 15 minutes? (I honestly don't want to have to devote weeks to get it working)

[skippper]

Hi everyone!

I know it's been asked 3942837427863 times, but it's 207 pages, I can't read them through

I'm planning to buy PE4H + EC2C ExpressCard to PCI-E Adapter Ver 2.0a + a PSU + heatsinks + fan for the PE4H + GTX460

My notebook is a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pi 3560 and I have a secondary monitor
(C2D 2.2GHz, 3GB ram, x64 W7)

Question :

Will it be rock solid? Any driver issues with x64 w7?

What PCI-e speed will I get with the PE4H through express card slot? 1x? 2x? 16x? (I'd like to make at least x2 work. Is there a link how can I do that?)

Is there warranty on the PE4H (if it burns for example)?

Thanks in advance

[skippper]

Another question :

If I'm buying an HD5770, will I be able to do x1E tweak without any hardware modding on my notebook? I have to do only software tweaks?

(my chipset is ICH9M)

Hi everyone!

I know it's been asked 3942837427863 times, but it's 207 pages, I can't read them through

I'm planning to buy PE4H + EC2C ExpressCard to PCI-E Adapter Ver 2.0a + a PSU + heatsinks + fan for the PE4H + GTX460

My notebook is a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pi 3560 and I have a secondary monitor
(C2D 2.2GHz, 3GB ram, x64 W7)

Question :

Will it be rock solid? Any driver issues with x64 w7?

What PCI-e speed will I get with the PE4H through express card slot? 1x? 2x? 16x? (I'd like to make at least x2 work. Is there a link how can I do that?)

Is there warranty on the PE4H (if it burns for example)?

Thanks in advance

[jsmp312]

Hi everybody,

Just got the PE4L today. I've got a GTX 460 with 430W PSU. I connected up the adapter into my laptop's expresscard slot, but nothing happened when I did. I tried rebooting, turning on the PE4L before the laptop, with no change. I know that the laptop is connecting to the PE4L because there's a LED lamp that turns on when I do. Also the fan on the GTX460 only turns when the adaptor is in the laptop (is this normal?).

I know someone has probably already had the same issue, but I can't read through hundreds of pages of posts.

I tried installing the Setup 1.0e4 but I couldn't manage to mount the image - it came up with error, both with two different image disk programs. Am I supposed to continue on this track? What is going on here?

I also used Everest to check the PCI slots on South Bridge. None of the slots had the graphics card and slot 3 showed up empty.

Then I attempted to install the drivers for GTX460. The install said that it couldn't recognise any hardware. So it seems the laptop is not recognising the graphics card at all.

Suggestions? Thanks for your contributions.