DIY eGPU experiences

[Kallogan]

One year to hear that the PEAL 2.0 will be sold at 105 dollars.

They should have released it long time ago. Seriously just a little modified PE3A with power input would have been simplier to make. No freaking mHDMI cable, a pci-riser and there you go.

[atticus182]

Hello!

Do we still need to modify the PE3A with the riser to use it? If yes, what we have to do in detail..? I am excited to use 2.0 speed at a low price tag.

Thanks!

[fierywater]

Hello all,

I have a Dell Precision M4500 with an i7-620M and an FX1800M GPU in it, along with 8GB of RAM. It looks like I have TOLUD=3.25GB, so that's all well and good. I apologize for what might be a bit of a noob question; I've been racking my brain for about an hour now trying to definitively figure this out, but to no avail.

Basically, I'm just trying to figure out what the best type of link I'll be able to pull off will be. I saw that someone had really good performance with an M4500 and a Radeon 6850, so I know there must be an answer.

I believe it has a Series-5 chipset, so that would mean that it's only 2.5GT/PCIe 1.0 compatible, so no need to hold out for the newer hardware. Am I right on this?

Can I do a x1.Opt link, even though my system doesn't use Optimus natively? I know the CPU in it has a built-in GPU, but the chipset isn't configured to use it in any way.

x1E doesn't seem applicable because the chipset is Series-5, not 4.

Otherwise, I looked at AIDA64 and it looks like only PCI-E ports #1 and #4 are open. #2 is the WiFi card (mini PCIe) and #3 is the SD card slot. That would lead me to guess that #4 is likely the ExpressCard slot, but I have nothing to test with. This seems to kill the possibility of using an x2 link either way (no consecutive ports open), but as I said, I could be wrong. I couldn't find a schematic for the M4500 on any of the sites in the OP, either.

If anyone could guide me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated. I have a desktop that I've been thinking of tearing apart to pull this off (500W PSU and a 8800GT that I would replace in the future) but I want to make sure that it'll be beneficial. Thanks!

[SimoxTav]

One year to hear that the PEAL 2.0 will be sold at 105 dollars.

They should have released it long time ago. Seriously just a little modified PE3A with power input would have been simplier to make. No freaking mHDMI cable, a pci-riser and there you go.

That's not so competitive price, but the Thunderbolt adapter, to me sounds a bit far in timeline compared to other "older but new" solutions. It is true that MSI has shown its prototype at CES, but before to have enough notebooks compliant to Thunderbolt (at GDO level) and a solution able to deliver more than 75W priced right (something like 250W @ 200$), we'll have to wait another year IMHO...Furthermore AMD launched its (IMHO) "poor" version of Thunderbolt, that delivers USB3.0/2.0 + Displayport 1.2 and that could fragment the market (even if I think that solution "sucks" compared to the Intel one), but we can expect it in every future Llano solution. In conclusion: to me PCIe 2.0 solution still have his market spot at least for the next 12 months.

[SimoxTav]

Hello all,
I have a Dell Precision M4500 with an i7-620M and an FX1800M GPU in it, along with 8GB of RAM. It looks like I have TOLUD=3.25GB, so that's all well and good. I apologize for what might be a bit of a noob question; I've been racking my brain for about an hour now trying to definitively figure this out, but to no avail.
Basically, I'm just trying to figure out what the best type of link I'll be able to pull off will be. I saw that someone had really good performance with an M4500 and a Radeon 6850, so I know there must be an answer.
I believe it has a Series-5 chipset, so that would mean that it's only 2.5GT/PCIe 1.0 compatible, so no need to hold out for the newer hardware. Am I right on this?

Right, current version is more than enough.

Can I do a x1.Opt link, even though my system doesn't use Optimus natively? I know the CPU in it has a built-in GPU, but the chipset isn't configured to use it in any way.

Arrandale i7 don't have integrated GPU inside as far as i know, so no Optimus.

x1E doesn't seem applicable because the chipset is Series-5, not 4.

Right

Otherwise, I looked at AIDA64 and it looks like only PCI-E ports #1 and #4 are open. #2 is the WiFi card (mini PCIe) and #3 is the SD card slot. That would lead me to guess that #4 is likely the ExpressCard slot, but I have nothing to test with. This seems to kill the possibility of using an x2 link either way (no consecutive ports open), but as I said, I could be wrong. I couldn't find a schematic for the M4500 on any of the sites in the OP, either.
If anyone could guide me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated. I have a desktop that I've been thinking of tearing apart to pull this off (500W PSU and a 8800GT that I would replace in the future) but I want to make sure that it'll be beneficial. Thanks!

Don't know for sure but your aanalysis seems right on consecutive ports, so no 2x connection available.

[flekx]

Hey guys, I'm not a computer engineer but I've grown steadily fed up with my on-board graphics card on my HP Dv6t-6100 Quad. I've been scratching my head to see if I have an express card slot but all I've read about is an 18-in-1 media card reader, is that the same?

I also heard that the current generation sony z has a power media dock that is thunderbolt compliant but has a USB shaped connector. Would anyone care to elaborate?

[squawkBirds]

Hello,

When I look at Device Manager with Resources By Connection, there are two PCI Bus entries.

[00000000000A0000-00000000000BFFFF] PCI Bus
[000000009FA00000-00000000FEAFFFFF] PCI Bus

This means I can't use an eGPU, right?

Thanks for explaining this to me!

[pyr0]

Hey guys, I'm not a computer engineer but I've grown steadily fed up with my on-board graphics card on my HP Dv6t-6100 Quad. I've been scratching my head to see if I have an express card slot but all I've read about is an 18-in-1 media card reader, is that the same?

A card reader is only compatible to SD/MMC/Memory Stick etc cards. It is no ExpressCard interface so incompatible to the EC2C product.

I also heard that the current generation sony z has a power media dock that is thunderbolt compliant but has a USB shaped connector. Would anyone care to elaborate?

The current Sony VAIO Z features a proprietary Lightpeak implementation (optical fiber, Thunderbolt is copper-electric) inside the USB3.0 jack. As for now there is no other applicable device than the Z's own Power Media Dock. Theoretically, there are ways to use this port for other devices but there is no end-user product available to the market yet. DIY hack would require major modification of the PMD including reflow soldering of the PMD's guts that no user has done so far (I'm accepting a donated PMD to do pioneer's work).
More info here: ViDock 4G for Light Peak (Z21) - POSSIBLE.

[aduy]

i have a clevo p150hm that has mxm 3.0b, is it in any way possible to use that interface for an egpu? just curious not really considering actually doing it though.

[fierywater]

Right, current version is more than enough.

Arrandale i7 don't have integrated GPU inside as far as i know, so no Optimus.

Right

Don't know for sure but your aanalysis seems right on consecutive ports, so no 2x connection available.

The Arrandale i7 dual cores have integrated GPUs but the chipset in the M4500, to my knowledge, doesn't support Optimus. So that probably answers my question.

I just wonder how the person who used an M4500 in this thread managed such high scores (in line with what something with x1.Opt would manage) with their 6850. Might have to shoot him a PM.

Edit: Just looked through his previous posts and saw he mentioned he couldn't pull off a 2x connection because the ExpressCard port is on #4. If I'm using a 1x port, I'm probably not going to see much of a boost from an old 8800GT (which is better than my 1800M on a desktop, but bottlenecked in this solution might not be). Might need to run some benchmarks on my built in card and see what I'm getting now compared to what he got with the 6850.