DIY eGPU experiences

[kindheart]

A better "PE4H":
----------------
Works like a charm, no Watt power limit (limit is your ATX PSU max W) and extremely reliable + super excellent technical support; still need to test with more than one graphics card/other PCI cards (in addition to graphics card):

ExpressCard 34 => 4 x PCI Expansion ATX Kit (pictured below - fully CE, FCC and RoHS compliant; the latter is mandatory in the EU)

[Skiddy]

fully CE, FCC and RoHS compliant; the latter is mandatory in the EU

On a side note: did you know that the CE marking does not mean anything? It is a self-declaration by the manufacturer to claim that his product complies with EU regulations. It does not indicate that the product has actually been checked/certified by anyone. No wonder dozens of "CE" marked products are found out to be blatantly non-compliant with regulations/standards every year: with compliance authorities overwhelmed with work, only a very small pct of products are actually controlled, enticing dubious producers to take their chance..

[japper88]

A better "PE4H":
----------------
Works like a charm, no Watt power limit (limit is your ATX PSU max W) and extremely reliable + super excellent technical support; still need to test with more than one graphics card/other PCI cards (in addition to graphics card):

ExpressCard 34 => 4 x PCI Expansion ATX Kit (pictured below - fully CE, FCC and RoHS compliant; the latter is mandatory in the EU)

I wonder if this would eventually be adapted to do a SLI or Crossfire setup?

On another note, I got my set up and running last night:

Sony Vaio VGN-SR129E (P8400 2.26ghz, 4GB RAM, Win 7 Pro 64-bit) with an on board Mobility Radeon 3470 HD hooked up to the DIY ViDock with the following:
305 Watt ATX PSU (free)
PE4L ($65 shipped)
EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 ($95 after rebate)

I did not have any time to do any benchmarks yet, but I was able to play Left 4 Dead 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on max settings on a 1680x1050 display. Whereas before the setup I had to play Left 4 Dead 2 on the lowest settings and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was very laggy even on the lowest settings.

[kindheart]

On a side note: did you know that the CE marking does not mean anything? It is a self-declaration by the manufacturer to claim that his product complies with EU regulations. It does not indicate that the product has actually been checked/certified by anyone. No wonder dozens of "CE" marked products are found out to be blatantly non-compliant with regulations/standards every year: with compliance authorities overwhelmed with work, only a very small pct of products are actually controlled, enticing dubious producers to take their chance..

The company is French and operates legally in the EU.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_mark...ing_CE_marking

On a side note, the "original" PE4H is not RoHS compliant, it seems, as some of its components, I have been told, include lead and other non-RoHS elements.

[kindheart]

I wonder if this would eventually be adapted to do a SLI or Crossfire setup?

That's what we wanted to try, but I first need to have two similar GPUs, e.g., two GTS 450s, to do so.

[japper88]

That's what we wanted to try, but I first need to have two similar GPUs, e.g., two GTS 450s, to do so.

I wonder if it would work through just one expresscard slot or would you need to do it in conjunction with a mPCI-e slot?

I also wonder if the bottle neck would make an SLI set up not even worth it?

I am just happy I got my 1x GTS 450 set up to work.

[Skiddy]

The company is French and operates legally in the EU.
CE mark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On a side note, the "original" PE4H is not RoHS compliant, it seems, as some of its components, I have been told, include lead and other non-RoHS elements.

Sure Kindheart, I did not mean to imply anything negative against this (your?) company. Environmental claims, declarations and labels just happen to be what I deal with for a living, so I felt obliged to do my usual rent against the CE marking and the lost opportunity it represents in terms of communicating sustainability&safety to the consumer

I now wonder why the PE4L packaging clearly stated "for engeneering purposes only".. that may be related to these regulations..

[fishy8082]

Hi Nando,
A little update. I got my macbook pro to reliably boot with both graphics cards. It sounds very strange but I belive EFIs/bios configuring of the pci address space is very important even though the system will not boot if the vidock is plugged in to the vidock. So far if the vidock is plugged in and the system is booted, the mac chime will sound. After 30 seconds the monitors on the external cards will come on but they display nothing but black. At this point the system is completely halted. It has to be shut down by pulling the battery. So I played around with this a little bit. If the computer is booted with the vidock plugged in and left plugged in for 5 seconds after the mac chime and then unplugged, the system would still boot. After this procedure, I can successfully do a 32 bit compaction on vid 1 & vid 2. The largest free memory block is always at e00000000. In fact if it is ever not at e00000000, I know that windows will boot with errors on one video card. I realize that the largest free block location is dependent on what hardware is installed and e00000000 is probably specific to my macbook/vidock setup.

This whole process got me thinking that any system that can get a 2gb ram vidock working without the vidock setup software should be able to do a 32 bit compaction on a 4gb+ system and have it work. In my case it seems like the 5 seconds that the vidock is plugged in during boot, allows the devices to be aligned closely enough for compaction to do its job properly.

I examined the difference between working and non working configurations and i discovered that compact does not always properly configure bridges. In my non working case I discovered that there was 318 mb of free addressable space, plenty for the external graphics card which requires 256 mb of free space. Unfortunately, the bridge which the card was addressed to was only allocated 4mb of free space. This is plenty for an ethernet(16kb), wifi(64kb) or other device. The memory was there, just not addressed to a bridge and therefore inaccessible to the external graphics card. I have no idea why booting with the card installed for a short time during boot solves this problem.

[acer47ok]

A better "PE4H":
----------------
Works like a charm, no Watt power limit (limit is your ATX PSU max W) and extremely reliable + super excellent technical support; still need to test with more than one graphics card/other PCI cards (in addition to graphics card):

ExpressCard 34 => 4 x PCI Expansion ATX Kit (pictured below - fully CE, FCC and RoHS compliant; the latter is mandatory in the EU)

The price is 200 pounds...which is a lot more than US/CAD. What kind of cable is that? hdmi to dvi?

I ordered the PE4L from hwtools on Jan 4th around eveningish. And it's Morning of July 6th and I already have it in my hands! From taiwan to here...this is TOO FAST for $22 shipping. No duties

[kindheart]

Sure Kindheart, I did not mean to imply anything negative against this (your?) company.

I wish I had a company like this but I don't earn my living from any commercial/industrial business.