DIY eGPU experiences

[prazisions]

I've deleted magmabox, tried to set up bridge.bat myself since my ram is 2gb, but couldn't get it to work, so I reinstalled magmabox, and booted the disk, and ran DV8000.bat again just to check it.
Now it does not give general protection fault, but once the first 'pt MEM write...' command is run, nothing happens and computer kind of freezes(I see blinking text cursor, but I can't do anything else other than rebooting).

For doing bootdisk method instead of magmabox as told by chung_gun, I need some help figuring out io window, memory window, etc...I will soon post required infos written in Appendix 2 of the first post.
I am sorry for keep asking these annoying questions. I am trying my best to learn myself the basics, but it has been very difficult.

p.s. Attached pics are my laptop's PCI space with magmabox installed for reference.

p.s.2. I went ahead and ran stuffs mentioned in the appendix 2, but several of them cuased errors(ex. atiflash gave general protection fault)...

[User Retired 2]

I've deleted magmabox, tried to set up bridge.bat myself since my ram is 2gb, but couldn't get it to work..

Try booting the DIY ViDock bootdisk and issue the following commands at the prompt step-by-step. I've also sandwiched in 'pt PCI map' to ensure pt can run on your system and 'lspci -tv -n' as a test just to ensure the PCI bus responds AND the system hasn't frozen. Commands are specific to DV8000's RCBA=0xFED1C001 AND your FD(3418h) register default being 0x3A0061 with port2 disabled as shown here.

pt PCI map
pt MEM write 4 0xFED1F418 0x3A0061
lspci -tv -n
pt MEM write 4 0xFED1c224 0x1
lspci -tv -n
grub --config-file="menu.w7"

Command above sets port1 as a x2 port but does NOT set it to be a high priority port. I recall testing that feature on my 2510P ages ago finding it would freeze, so maybe that is the problem? If so, will need to upgrade the x1E instructions.

Please advise if notice freeze and/or error after any of these commands. If it chainloads into Win7 OK, then can test with the Magmabox driver AND/or define the bridge manually.

[prazisions]

Please advise if notice freeze and/or error after any of these commands.

I followed your instruction, but it froze(did not return c:/> prompt) starting from 'pt PCI map' command .
It looks like all 'pt...' commands didn't work. I didn't test ones starting 'lspci...' commands separately, but I remember 'lspci -tv > tree.txt' of bootdisk code at least did not freeze on prompt.

[User Retired 2]

I followed your instruction, but it froze(did not return c:/> prompt) starting from 'pt PCI map' command .
It looks like all 'pt...' commands didn't work. I didn't test ones starting 'lspci...' commands separately, but I remember 'lspci -tv > tree.txt' of bootdisk code at least did not freeze on prompt.

Hmm.. suggest try making a proper MS-DOS bootdisk (eg: Win95 DOS bootdisk) from allbootdisks.com, in case freedos is causing some problems. Then download and extract peridos.zip to it and try 'pt PCI map' to see if it works. If not, then need an alternative way to do the two 32-bit memory writes you need

pt MEM write 4 0xFED1F418 0x3A0061
pt MEM write 4 0xFED1c224 0x1

If you use Ubuntu 9.10 with the grub2 bootloader, can just use 'write_dword' to do this by adding a write_dword line to th Win7 menuitem in /boot/grub/grub.cfg. Eg: 'write_dword 0xFED1F418 0x3A0061'.

[prazisions]

Hmm.. suggest try making a proper MS-DOS bootdisk (eg: Win95 DOS bootdisk) from allbootdisks.com, in case freedos is causing some problems.

Hello nando4,

Making Win95 bootdisk, extracting contents in peridos, and booting to prompt somehow gave that similar freeze/no response once I chose that start with prompt option.
Making DOS6.22 with same procedure resulted freezing at 'Starting MS-DOS' message.
I've also tried using Virtual FDD with both peridos and DIYViDock bootdisk extracted into, which successfully booted to DOS, but with pt commands I got the same result again .
As a not-at-all-computer person I even felt like maybe I did something wrong when I was making bootdisks.
Does it mean I am out of luck for x1E config?

Thanks again for thorough help.

[chung_gun]

Hello nando4,

Making Win95 bootdisk, extracting contents in peridos, and booting to prompt somehow gave that similar freeze/no response once I chose that start with prompt option.
Making DOS6.22 with same procedure resulted freezing at 'Starting MS-DOS' message.
I've also tried using Virtual FDD with both peridos and DIYViDock bootdisk extracted into, which successfully booted to DOS, but with pt commands I got the same result again .
As a not-at-all-computer person I even felt like maybe I did something wrong when I was making bootdisks.
Does it mean I am out of luck for x1E config?

Thanks again for thorough help.

hi, prazisions.

in the case of Virtual FDD, you must exclude files, command.com, kernel.sys, kernel2.sys of the DIYViDock folder from making a bootible VFDD, 'cause VFDD uses the boot image in itself.

and VFDD is not compatible with window7, but in XP.

[prazisions]

in the case of Virtual FDD, you must exclude files, command.com, kernel.sys, kernel2.sys of the DIYViDock folder from making a bootible VFDD, 'cause VFDD uses the boot image in itself.

Thanks for advice. Will keeping them in separate folder do the job?

[User Retired 2]

Performance: x2 1.0 versus x1E versus x1 1.0

Setup

ICH7M-equipped T2050-1.6 HP Pavilion DV2000 with HD5750. Using port3+port4 to do a x2 1.0 setup. Needed a mPCIe socket soldered onto the systemboard pads marked MINI2 to provide port3. This is easiest is solder flow the pads, position the mPCIe socket over the pads, then use a butane torch to effectively weld the two together being careful to not melt the plastic bits.

System	RAM	GPU	3dmark		RE5 dx10		dmcv4.scene4		PCIScript	Ports	OS
			06	vant.gpu	var	fixed	dx9	dx10
T2050-1.6 HP DV2000^1	3.0	HD5750@x2	6735	5579 +	38.5	18.3	60.1	55.4	dv2000	ICH7M	Win7/32
		HD5750@x1E	6694	4903 +	34.6	17.0	59.9	43.7		ICH7M
		HD5750@x1	6560	4219 +	33.2	16.2	43.8	36.7		ICH7M

^1 port3 required mPCIe socket to be soldered onto systemboard's pads marked MINI2
Bold - benchmarking showing x2's superior performance

I used dx10 since it is definitely more taxing on pci-e bandwidth than dx9. dmcv's scene4 has a lot of textures being shown so is a good one to compare performance. Faster P8600/T6600 x1E capable system dmcv4/dx10 results here cannot match x2 1.0 performance of the substantially slower T2050-1.6 cpu. The very texture heavy scene4 see x2 1.0 give 27% better performance than x1E and a whopping 51% better performance than x1 1.0 on the DV2000. x1E is 20% faster than x1 1.0 rendering scene4.

We can see that previous RE5 and 3dmark06 benchmarks are not indicative of DX10 gaming performance. Only 3dmark vantage and dmcv4.dx10 scene4 truly reflect how FPS increases with increases pci-e bandwidth.

Another example: NFS Shift is buttery smooth using x2 1.0, even when animating many cars using the T2050 CPU + HD5750@x2. x1E is a certainly more jumpy, even when using a faster T6600-2.2 CPU. x1 1.0 crawls with many cars shown simultaneously. The pci-e bandwidth is definitely the bottleneck with NFS Shift.

Summary

x1E is a good compromise but if your system can do x2 1.0 then it's definitely worth it for the substantially better performance especially in DX10.

[ithildin]

x2 1.0 versus x1E versus x1 1.0 preliminary results Setup ICH7M-equipped T2050-1.6 HP Pavilion DV2000 with HD5750. Using port3+port4 to do a x2 1.0 setup. Needed a mPCIe socket soldered onto the systemboard pads marked MINI2 to provide port3. I used dx10 since it is definitely more taxing on pci-e bandwidth than dx9. dmcv's scene4 has a lot of textures being shown so is a good one to compare performance. Faster P8600/T6600 x1E capable system dmcv4/dx10 results here cannot match x2 1.0 performance of the substantially slower T2050-1.6 cpu. The very texture heavy scene4 see x2 1.0 give 27% better performance than x1E and a whopping 52% better performance than x1 1.0 on the DV2000. Summary x1E is a good compromise, but if your system can do x2 1.0, it's definitely worth it for the substantially better performance especially in DX10. This info will be incorporated here in the next few days.

Link DMCV4 1280x800 DX10 Average Screenshot x2 1.0 86.0 x1E 64.8 x1 1.0 57.5

Excellent stuff, congratulations on your mod! Your results also fit with my observations that while it's fine for DX9, x1E doesn't quite cut it for DX10 (3dmark Vantage, Crysis, Bad Company 2, RE5 DX10, etc). Bad Company 2 runs great with DX9 (low detail, 1280x1024, 40-70 fps) on my x1E setup but visibly struggles on DX10/11 (same settings, 20-30 fps). I'll have some DX10 figures up soon.

Unfortunately, the mPCIe riser card I need to attempt an x2 link is coming from Taiwan via Sweden. With the volcanic ash cloud mess going on in Northern Europe right now, I doubt I will receive it before May

[prazisions]

How are you booting the USB stick?

I am booting in the same way you described(reboot->esc->boot order to usb).

Don't know if it is going to make any difference, but I will try making bootdisk out of MS-DOS 8 that comes along with XP just in case...