DIY eGPU experiences

[tpro]

In light of how much things have decreased in price, I dropped the buy-it-now price of the auction listed above down to $150- that includes pe4l, ati hd5770 1gb, 250w PSU, 72w ac adapter, and a 3 foot hdmi mini to mini cable (plus the original shorty cable). Hope it's enough to interest somebody. Thanks guys.

Well, it should be nvidia, well i have the cheapest setup but the PSU mail in rebate has expired , with the psu rebate , overall including shipping GTX460 PE4L ... = 222.7 $ . But without the PSU rebate, maybe 242.7... (Corsair 430W 80 plus)

By the way, whats the PSU are you using? And of coarse this is cheaper for you and more powerful (rebate) :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ID=skim525X832

However thanks for the info, maybe i will change my option for nvidia (i dont need optimus)

[tpro]

Hi all, i need to answer this

-Is the 430W PSU needed for a setup with GTX460 which uses x1 port?

I am really confused, assuming theres a bottleneck... Because someone posted a 203 watt psu assuming that theres a bottleneck. oh well...

I appreciate any help. Thanks nando4!

[tpro]

Here is a diagram showing how I wired it up:

Can you pot a benchmark? I'm really interested.

[allister]

US$90 GTX460-768MB after rebate deal just appeared

A US$50 rebate form was just posted on newegg so can get a desktop GTX460-768MB for US$90. A bargain. Incentive to do a DIY ViDock if have been delaying it.

US$90 or US$90 Galaxy GTX460-768MB after US$50 rebate (UPC 845735000785) valid 03/07-05/01. Channel Wide in the rebate refers to any authorized dealer which Frys and Microcenter are.

Creating a US$142-$172 GTX460-768MB DIY ViDock with this deal

$65-shipped PE4L-EC2C with 30cm mini HDMI cable + $17AR-shipped Raidmax 12V/21A PSU + $90 GTX460-768MB

Can get another $30 rebate if purchase your GTX460 from Microcenter to bring the total to $145. See details (valid till 4/3/2011)

Good news for nVidia GTX 460 buyers - you can get the GTX 460 for a further 10% off or $76 after the rebate - in addition to what nando4 said above, use the 10% off any graphics card from Micro Center coupon (only in-store) here

$140 then 10% then a rebate of $50 = $76

Still have to work the whole thing into my student budget though lol

[thendless]

Can you pot a benchmark? I'm really interested.

I havent had time to do any benchmarks other than the 3dmark06 free version. I was getting around 7500 for internal optimus and around 8500 for external monitor on my 1.86GHz SL9300. I'll be working on more benchmarks on the weekend but ya I think my CPU is really holding my score back. Based on the compiled benchmark chart on the first page it seems my results are somewhat consistent with similar configurations.

[tpro]

I havent had time to do any benchmarks other than the 3dmark06 free version. I was getting around 7500 for internal optimus and around 8500 for external monitor on my 1.86GHz SL9300. I'll be working on more benchmarks on the weekend but ya I think my CPU is really holding my score back. Based on the compiled benchmark chart on the first page it seems my results are somewhat consistent with similar configurations.

yeah, but i mean benchamrk on somehow a game like RE5... (FPS average).

Thanks, take your time...

[Yossarian256]

Hello, new user here over from HardOCP. Saw a thread about this a couple of months ago and now that I have a laptop I've been eager to try this.

The laptop I'm running is Lenovo Thinkpad T410 (2516CTO).
Specifications are as follows:
Intel Core i5 560m
4096MB(4GB) RAM
Nvidia Optimus NVS3100 Switchable Graphics @ WXGA+ (1440x900)
No WAN/Gobi/Fingerprint reader

I've purchased the PE4L-EC2C, Nvidia GTS450, and I have reputable power supply at my disposal (Antec Earthwatts 500W).

I am looking for about a 60-80% performance increase for my laptop's internal display but the way I have it configured currently I do not experience much improvement at all. Perhaps I set it up incorrectly? It runs almost as if I am still using the NVS3100 (which I'm not, I've disabled it in BIOS).

First I went into BIOS and disabled the built-in Optimus of the NVS3100.
Secondly, I installed the Nautis Optimus drivers (Forceware 258.96 according GPU-Z).
Thirdly, I can see the GTS450 under GPU-Z but I have no application to check the occupancy of my PCIe slots, any advice on some software for that?

I launch a game (mainly Battlefield Bad Company 2) and I can tell by the FPS Fraps is displaying and also the heat being dissipated by the video card that it indeed is working, however, I don't think it is working at full performance. The benchmarks at the beginning of this thread show much higher gains for similar setups or worse setups with GTS450 but older/slower processors.

Is there any advice you can give? I'm pretty new to this and I would appreciate any help you could provide. I'm just looking to get stable frame rates in Bad Company 2, Starcraft 2, etc... all using internal via Optimus.

I thank you in advance, keep up the good work and I hope to hear from some of you soon!

[User Retired 2]

I am looking for about a 60-80% performance increase for my laptop's internal display but the way I have it configured currently I do not experience much improvement at all. Perhaps I set it up incorrectly? It runs almost as if I am still using the NVS3100 (which I'm not, I've disabled it in BIOS).
..
Is there any advice you can give? I'm pretty new to this and I would appreciate any help you could provide. I'm just looking to get stable frame rates in Bad Company 2, Starcraft 2, etc... all using internal via Optimus.

The internal LCD mode reserves a chunk of the already limited x1 bandwidth for internal LCD display traffic. If you connect an external LCD to the GTS450 then there is no need for that additional bandwidth overhead resulting in significantly better performance. See ViDock Experience: 12" HP 2530P + NVidia GTX460 @x1.Opt for a comparison. Disabling the NVidia audio and running at 1280x800 resolution would help performance if you must run internal LCD mode, as would a pci-e bus overclock.

Can you review the system report from my upper thread and help me understand which PCIE ports are indeed available for a x2/x4(!?) setup?

What about insights regarding performance gains for my CUDA focused usage (of x1 Vs. x2/x4 and GTX460 Vs. GTX560 Ti ) ?

Swap your wifi in the other ports and map your ports out with AIDA/Everest. That's the only way to know what is what, other than your expresscard slot is port4 based on another user's experience/ports on the first post.

We have no CUDA-based benchmarking results. It may well be a low bandwidth application for which even x1 is OK? Not sure.

[avlan]

We have no CUDA-based benchmarking results. It may well be a low bandwidth application for which even x1 is OK? Not sure.

FluidMark seems to be quite laggy. Faster than CPU, but not what I've expected.

[kice]

Hi guys,

I am new here.

Basically the story is, All started when I got addicted to starcraft 2. I want ultra graphics however the HD5730 on my Asus N61JQ was a no go, same with my HP prior to that. I have been looking at doing DIY ViDock for a couple years now but never had a Laptop capable. I recently got rid of my Asus N61JQ to make way for a desktop to play starcraft 2. It's a sandy bridge core i5 2500 with hd6950 unlocked to a hd6970 etc.

Currently my girlfriend has her computer at my house which is a GTX 460, core i5 650 etc However this is soon to move back to her house and that would be an issue as we sometimes play games together. She does not want any less than ultra graphics either. So I decided to get another laptop... Toshiba 505... noticed that didnt have full hd screen and then saw the Asus G73SW which was a no brainer... Hybrid drives... Full HD Screen.. Yeah went and ordered the G73SW at JB Hi Fi...

To my demise they sucked and did not keep me updated and was very poor service. Then guess what, SB recall.

So was left without a laptop... I also do DJ and had a gig comming up... so started looking for last gen PC's that can do ViDock...

TADA... a DEMO Acer 5750G at The Good Guys electrical store. Literally opened from the box that day to set on display, the store I bought it from sadly were unaware about the recall. To my WIN, I bought it for a very good price too. WIN again... Acer will do like for like swap.. i.e. whole laptop when revised version comes out. (Already registered for this)

Stand-by for story part 2 in next post.