DIY eGPU experiences

[bache]

Hey guys, just registered to ask a few questions,
I've read through as much of the 316 pages I can stand :P

1. Will this work with a Dell Inspiron 1545? It has an ExpressCard slot and an Intel 4500MHD, so I think it should.
2. What's a decent card for the PE4H under $100 but still good enough for gaming? Is this suitable? http://cgi.ebay.com.au/PowerColor-2G...#ht_2681wt_905
3. Will this PSU suit the card you just recommended or the one I mentioned above? 500W ATX Power Supply P4 / AMD 24&20pin, 1 xSATA inc. (eBay item 270724050626 end time 23-Mar-11 18:55:01 AEDST) : Computers

Thanks for the help guys, and please keep this great thread alive!

[ithildin]

Hey guys, just registered to ask a few questions,
I've read through as much of the 316 pages I can stand :P

1. Will this work with a Dell Inspiron 1545? It has an ExpressCard slot and an Intel 4500MHD, so I think it should.
2. What's a decent card for the PE4H under $100 but still good enough for gaming? Is this suitable? PowerColor 2GB HD 5450 Silent Graphic HDMI Radeon Video (eBay item 290512516391 end time 13-Apr-11 23:27:10 AEST) : Computers
3. Will this PSU suit the card you just recommended or the one I mentioned above? 500W ATX Power Supply P4 / AMD 24&20pin, 1 xSATA inc. (eBay item 270724050626 end time 23-Mar-11 18:55:01 AEDST) : Computers

Thanks for the help guys, and please keep this great thread alive!

1. Yes, the Inspiron 1545 can support a x1E link to a Radeon card. Better still, your Intel 4500MHD should allow you to run a x1.Opt link with a NVidia Fermi card for excellent performance.
2. I would say a AMD Radeon HD 5670 or a NVidia GTS450, The GTS450 is the better card here and will give you the best performance for your setup.
3. That looks like trouble. The specs seem OK but a very cheap PSU is often a bad PSU. I've had issues with more expensive PSUs frying my PE4H and GPU so I don't recommend going cheap on the PSU. Also, if you go for one of the above cards, you can get away with using a 120W/12V laptop power brick which is more convenient.

Nvidia setups are giving the best bang per buck on Vidocks at the moment. Nando has a pretty useful breakdown of relative performance and total cost of parts involved in building Fermi Vidocks here.

Have fun building your DIY Vidock!

[bache]

1. Yes, the Inspiron 1545 can support a x1E link to a Radeon card. Better still, your Intel 4500MHD should allow you to run a x1.Opt link with a NVidia Fermi card for excellent performance.
2. I would say a AMD Radeon HD 5670 or a NVidia GTS450, The GTS450 is the better card here and will give you the best performance for your setup.
3. That looks like trouble. The specs seem OK but a very cheap PSU is often a bad PSU. I've had issues with more expensive PSUs frying my PE4H and GPU so I don't recommend going cheap on the PSU. Also, if you go for one of the above cards, you can get away with using a 120W/12V laptop power brick which is more convenient.

Nvidia setups are giving the best bang per buck on Vidocks at the moment. Nando has a pretty useful breakdown of relative performance and total cost of parts involved in building Fermi Vidocks here.

Have fun building your DIY Vidock!

Thanks so much for the answers! I have a spare 250W PSU laying around, so if you think it would run fine on a 125, I'll give this a go. The extra money will go towards the 450. It has some decent reviews and appears to do what I need it to. I'll order the parts tomorrow, and I'll let you all know of my experiences when it all arrives! Thanks again so much for the answers

[ithildin]

Thanks so much for the answers! I have a spare 250W PSU laying around, so if you think it would run fine on a 125, I'll give this a go. The extra money will go towards the 450. It has some decent reviews and appears to do what I need it to. I'll order the parts tomorrow, and I'll let you all know of my experiences when it all arrives! Thanks again so much for the answers

As long as it's a decent PSU that can deliver 10 amps on the 12V rail (check specs on the PSU case) I don't see a problem. Good luck!

[serialk11r]

Well, I don't have a big a** fan and I am out of desktop room. So now I learn that I am using a defunct card unlike everyone else? Well then, congradulations to me for wasting 200 bucks unless there is a solution

Just buy a 120mm case fan, you can get it from Frys (although their store sucks so if possible don't) or any of the online aftermarket cooling stores like Sidewinder or Jabtech. Might want to try switching the thermal paste too, arctic cooling mx-2,3,4 are all good. Tape it onto the card, and it'll work great.


So I'm planning to buy a Lenovo X220 when it comes out, and I've followed this DIY ViDock thing for a while. I noticed on the spec sheet it says it has 1 mpci-e, 1 half mpci-e, and 1 expresscard slot. Does this possibly mean it would be possible to use all 3? :O Or is it only possible to use x1, x2, x4, x8, x16, i.e. powers of 2 lanes? If they're all PCI-e 2.0 electrically that would be pretty awesome.

[bache]

As long as it's a decent PSU that can deliver 10 amps on the 12V rail (check specs on the PSU case) I don't see a problem. Good luck!

It's 16 amps.

[ithildin]

Well, I don't have a big a** fan and I am out of desktop room. So now I learn that I am using a defunct card unlike everyone else? Well then, congradulations to me for wasting 200 bucks unless there is a solution

It's possible your card is defective, in which case your best solution is to RMA it. You card is actively ventilated so unless you have constrained airflow around it, it should be sufficient to keep the temperature low even under load. My Gainward GTX 460 GC barely registers above 60C under load. Is your Galaxy GTX 460 running at stock clocks? Have you tried increasing the fan speed on the card?

It's 16 amps.

That should be plenty, even with usual PSU output degradation.

[User Retired 2]

Both transcode at about 60 fps on my system. Has anyone used Badaboom in the forum with better GPU benchmarks?

Tweaktown have some GTX460 badaboom transcoding benchmark results to compare against.

I noticed on the spec sheet it says it has 1 mpci-e, 1 half mpci-e, and 1 expresscard slot. Does this possibly mean it would be possible to use all 3? :O Or is it only possible to use x1, x2, x4, x8, x16, i.e. powers of 2 lanes? If they're all PCI-e 2.0 electrically that would be pretty awesome.

Based on my investigation of the Series-6 chipset, Intel have locked the port width to only be settable in the flash descriptor. Means then pre-boot software like Setup 1.x can no longer enable a x2 link so neither x2 2.0 or x2 1.0 is feasible on Series-6 chipsets.

A better bet would be waiting for a Thunderbolt based notebook PC for which Intel have already combined ports as either x2 2.0 or x4 1.0. Sony being the first to provide notebook PCs with Thunderbolt ports.

Though x1 2.0 Optimus on a X220 then would get some pretty impressive performance. We still require hwtools to provide pci-e 2.0 EM compliance of their hardware to make that possible.

It's 16 amps.

I'm running a GTX460 with a 12V/15A ATX PSU here. Based on you linking ebay-au, have you considered an ebay GTX460 instead? They go for b/w AU$110-$170. Your Inspiron 1545's 4500MHD means a x1.Opt link is possible so a GTX460 would have a ~10-30% performance gain over a GTS450. A better bang-per-buck option imho. Careful of the GTX460SE Smart Edition, it has 15% less CUDA cores than a GTX460; 288 versus 336.

[ithildin]

Based on my investigation of the [URL="http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences-245.html#post7027248"]Series-6 chipset[/URL
A better bet would be waiting for a Thunderbolt based notebook PC for which Intel have already combined ports as either x2 2.0 or x4 1.0. Sony being the first to provide notebook PCs with Thunderbolt ports.

That Sony Vaio Hybrid PC (described here) sounds just like what we were looking for. A lightweight Core i7 2011 equipped laptop with a Thunderbolt-linked base station sporting an AMD/ATI next-gen Whistler GPU, Bluray writer, ethernet, usb and VGA/HDMI out? Sold! Better still, Sony expects to launch it this Summer, going against predictions of Thunderbolt-equipped PC laptops being released only in Q1 2012.

Excellent news! I was getting an itchy trigger finger for the Lenovo X220 but I can wait until Summer.

[serialk11r]

Tweaktown have some GTX460 badaboom transcoding benchmark results to compare against.



Based on my investigation of the Series-6 chipset, Intel have locked the port width to only be settable in the flash descriptor. Means then pre-boot software like Setup 1.x can no longer enable a x2 link so neither x2 2.0 or x2 1.0 is feasible on Series-6 chipsets.

A better bet would be waiting for a Thunderbolt based notebook PC for which Intel have already combined ports as either x2 2.0 or x4 1.0. Sony being the first to provide notebook PCs with Thunderbolt ports.

Though x1 2.0 Optimus on a X220 then would get some pretty impressive performance. We still require hwtools to provide pci-e 2.0 EM compliance of their hardware to make that possible.

that's disappointing especially since Intel decided to partner with Satan for their Thunderbolt release.

Do you see some fix in the future for this? An x1 2.0 link would probably be okay with lower resolutions I suppose. I'm a bit disappointed to hear this since the X220 seemed so perfect with all the spare mPCI-e ports on the bottom, and at such a low price compared to ridiculous Sony stuff.