DIY eGPU experiences

[Rizzett]

Yeah removing your back-cover is a bit of a hassle nothing too hard, but time consuming having to unscrew and then screw those mPCI-e adapters.

According to nando, x2 + optimus should yield the highest benchmarks yet, but i would be more than happy to just have it up and running without major troubles hehe, I guess you can wait out the benchmark to make up your mind.

[Chesniak]

so now when i try go through the DIY Vidock setup i get this in cmd


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Can anyone help me here?

[yuuma]

Hey all,

sorry for popping in all of a sudden, but I wanted to share my experience

First, kudos & credits to all the pioneers who tried the DIY ViDock and came up with Optimus solutions Thanks a lot! (Nautis, nando4, ZoinksS2k, thomaskc.dk, igorstef and all others that helped in some way!)

So, after reading a lot I wanted to try this out myself and ordered the DIY ViDock things from hwtools. I wrote everything inside a Google Doc because it's easier to handle than a forum post.

In summary it contains a DIY ViDock experience with:

- Sony VPC-Z12
- Palit GF GTX 470
- PE4H 2.0a + ExpressCard adapter
- Windows 7 x64 / Nautis Optimus 258.96 / Intel 2226

Google Docs Link

Benchmark results

3DMark 2006 (default settings)

• GTX 470 x1: 5602
• GTX 470 x1.Opt: 15600
• GT 330M (internal): 5585

3DMark Vantage

• GTX 470 x1.Opt: P10866 (Performance preset)
• GTX 470 x1.Opt: H8681 (High preset)
• GT 330M (internal): P2123 (Performance preset)

Actually, the results are similar as already posted elsewhere in this thread.

Pics

[senseisin]

Wow yuuma it looks great!

It's starting to make me anxious about it and I might buy the parts before I go back to the US after all... Does anyone know if they ship the parts to Europe?

[droidx1886]

sorry guys i have nothing to contribute (yet) but i have many questions.
to be fair though, i've spent the entire last week reading almost every single post on this thread. thanks nando + contributers.

i am only interested in doing a 2x setup.
is it possible with the dell e5410? (or dell e6410, dell e4300, etc.)
i've read nando confirmed them to work with 2x speeds, but i haven't seen anyone do it.
i highlighted the two spots where i believe the mpcie slots are on the dell e5410 (seem to be for wwan and wlan judging from the extra wire connectors)
would they work for 2x speeds?
would the PM3N work with a half slot mpcie?

from reading many posts and doing many searches for this particular laptop model, i have a feeling that the e5410 is similar to the e6410; the express card is pcie #4.
if i wanted to do a 2x setup with the express card, i just need to find pcie #3 and make sure it's mpcie?

i'm still in the market for a notebook, and i think the e5410 might be a good choice if the 2x works. not really interested in waiting for sandy bridge pci performance increase if i can attain the same performance with 2 mpcie slots or 1 mpcie + 1 express card (if sandy bridge has the performance of 2x on one slot, can it attain 4x with two slots? even then, we already saw the performance of 1x, 2x, 4x and 16x. the extra improvement from increasing pci lane speeds from 2x to 4x isnt nearly as big of a jump from 1x to 2x)

[Khenglish]

sorry guys i have nothing to contribute (yet) but i have many questions.
to be fair though, i've spent the entire last week reading almost every single post on this thread. thanks nando + contributers.

i am only interested in doing a 2x setup.
is it possible with the dell e5410? (or dell e6410, dell e4300, etc.)
i've read nando confirmed them to work with 2x speeds, but i haven't seen anyone do it.
i highlighted the two spots where i believe the mpcie slots are on the dell e5410 (seem to be for wwan and wlan judging from the extra wire connectors) would they work for 2x speeds? would the PM3N work with a half slot mpcie?

i'm still in the market for a notebook, and i think the e5410 might be a good choice if the 2x works. not really interested in waiting for sandy bridge pci performance increase if i can attain the same performance with 2 mpcie slots or 1 mpcie + 1 express card (even if sandy bridge has the performance of 2x on one slot, can it attain 4x with two slots? even then, we already saw the performance of 1x, 2x, 4x and 16x.)

You need to run everest and look at how the ports are numbered to determine which ports are fully wired and if they are in the proper configuration for x2.

[Khenglish]

Can anyone help me here?

1. Disabled UAC
2. If that doesn't work, just try the "devcon resources ACPI\PNP*" anywhere on your c drive with with a devcon.exe in the same folder. Maybe your PC no longer likes your flash drive.

[AzzMan]

Hey everyone, I'm new to these forums and hoping you can provide some insight and help! I posted this in the other DIY ViDock thread, but this one seems a bit more active.

I have a Dell Latitude e6410 and I'm looking to get a DIY ViDock setup running with NO hardware mods. I will not use it with the internal monitor, as I connect it to an external monitor when I am at my desk. It's a Core i-5 520m with 3GB RAM and 32MB Intel HD Graphics. According to Everest, I have 4 PCI-E 2.0 ports. #1 is Empty, #2 is In Use (Intel Centrino (R) Advanced-N 6200 AGN), #3 is In Use (FireWire Controller), #4 is Empty.

From my understanding, I should get a 1GB GTX-460 to take advantage of NVidia's Optimus (best bang for buck)? Also, without a hardware mod, I have to run it in 1x because ports 2 and 3 are in use?

Also, can you please confirm that these are the parts that I need: GTX-460, PE4H 2.0a EC2C, a 400W PSU (preferably modular). Anything else? Should I wait for the PE4H 2.4? If so, does anyone know how long until it's available to be purchased?

I'm also looking to build/buy an enclosure for it, so if anyone has any tips that would be appreciated as well. Of course, I am more than happy to document the entire process and share it with everyone - I just need to confirm these details first!


Thank you for your help!

[yuuma]

Wow yuuma it looks great!

It's starting to make me anxious about it and I might buy the parts before I go back to the US after all... Does anyone know if they ship the parts to Europe?

Yes they do ship to Europe (I'm from Germany). Package came with FedEx.

[Chesniak]

So i now got DIY ViDock setup 1.2 working on Bootup. In the menu i get: PCI_ALLOC_VALID:YES*
from there is says all i need to do is a bridges relocate, but when i run it it gives 0 solutions.
Ive tried all the different combos of settings and nothing is working for me

The setup fails to see my HD5770 card when i connect it and refresh...