DIY eGPU experiences

[ithildin]

Woah, beastly! The Geforce strained the PE4H too far and bust the voltage regulator circuit for the laptop-style plug. The PE4H LED for power doesn't turn on now and the laptop power adapter makes a strange buzzing noise (with two different power bricks). I can start up the PE4H if I connect it to the PSU via the floppy molex and the HD5750 boots up fine but the GTX 465 gives me a BSOD. Ouch.

My PSU is a 400W dual 12 V rails that should be sufficient to power the GTX 465. I only plugged in the laptop power adapter to give some extra juice as I was already getting some instability in the final tests last night. Today, the GPU crashed while running 3dmark06 at x1 and I haven't been able to start it up since (fans are spinning but BSOD in windows 7).

I really hope the GTX 465 isn't damaged...! I'm thinking that the GPU is still power-starved so I'm off to buy a 4 pin 12 V to molex converter so that I can connect all the lines from the PSU and put both 12V rails and all 400W on the PE4H+GTX465. Wish me luck!

EDIT: Power starving is the likely reason as it appears that my PSU can only output <180W on the 12V molex/sata cables. The remaining capacity is hooked up to the second 12V rail, which means that I need to find an 4 pin 12V ATX to molex adapter to tap into some of that power. Unfortunately, there isn't one that I can find so I either make one myself or replace the PSU with one of more adequate design. Argh!

UPDATE: the GPU is a dud. Even with a single rail 550W PSU the card crashes at the login screen. On the other hand the little HD5750 keeps chugging along. The PE4H is fine and so is the PSU. I'll RMA and send the card back on Monday.

[User Retired 2]

UPDATE: the GPU is a dud. Even with a single rail 550W PSU the card crashes at the login screen. On the other hand the little HD5750 keeps chugging along. The PE4H is fine and so is the PSU. I'll RMA and send the card back on Monday.

If the prelim results make the GTX465 a keeper, may suggest you obtain a PNY or Point-of-View branded GTX465 as a replacement. Their units are 1.2GB (10mem chip) GTX470 flashed with a GTX465 bios, sold as a GTX465. Easily flashed to be a GTX470 as shown here. Some even flashing a GTX470 to a be a 1.2GB GTX480(!!).

Nando, I will have my new benchamarks ready from my 9800gt posted later today.

This will give a clear indication of x1 versus x1E on NVidia cards. Can you post your results results here?

[Hottracks]

nando4, really sorry but there's too much to go through so i thought it'd be easier to ask you directly.. I have a Dell Studio 1737 which i'd like to boost with an external GPU.. So could you tell me what are the parts i'll require so that i could make a neat setup out of it.. And also refer a card to me, nothing over the top, say a ATI 5xxx or nVidia equivalent cuz i don't have a deep pocket yet.. :P And probably still use it as a normal laptop and carry it around by disconnecting the externals if possible.. Thanks..

[User Retired 2]

I have a Dell Studio 1737 which i'd like to boost with an external GPU.. So could you tell me what are the parts i'll require so that i could make a neat setup out of it.. And also refer a card to me, nothing over the top, say a ATI 5xxx or nVidia equivalent cuz i don't have a deep pocket yet.. :P

The best bang-per-buck setups atm imho being:

US$250 low-power HD5750 + AC Adapter here
US$250 HD5770 + ATX PSU using PE4L-EC2C
US$380 POV/PNY GTX465 + ATX PSU using PE4L-EC2C (POV/PNY can be flashed to be a GTX470)

If you need CUDA processing or what appears to be significantly faster DX10 performance from prelim benchmarking than an ATI card, suggest spend the US$130 extra over a HD5770 on a NVidia GTX465.

Your Studio 1737 might have the same port3+port4 mpcie+expresscard slot layout as the Studio 1555 here. In which case you may consider doing a x2 setup linking those ports for 30-60% better FPS performance. To do that add US$62 to use a PE4H-EC2C+PM3N instead.

For parts listing see first post->Getting Started->What parts do I need?

[Hottracks]

The best bang-per-buck setups atm imho being:

US$250 low-power HD5750 + AC Adapter here
US$250 HD5770 + ATX PSU using PE4L-EC2C
US$380 POV/PNY GTX465 + ATX PSU using PE4L-EC2C (POV/PNY can be flashed to be a GTX470)

If you need CUDA processing or what appears to be significantly faster DX10 performance from prelim benchmarking than an ATI card, suggest spend the US$130 extra over a HD5770 on a NVidia GTX465.

Your Studio 1737 might have the same port3+port4 mpcie+expresscard slot layout as the Studio 1555 here. In which case you may consider doing a x2 setup linking those ports for 30-60% better FPS performance. To do that add US$62 to use a PE4H-EC2C+PM3N instead.

For parts listing see first post->Getting Started->What parts do I need?

Thanks a ton.. But do you have any idea whether i'll get all this hardware on the indian sub-continent??!! Lol.. Other than the card itself..

[User Retired 2]

Thanks a ton.. But do you have any idea whether i'll get all this hardware on the indian sub-continent??!! Lol.. Other than the card itself..

hwtools ship the PE4H/PE4L worldwide from Taiwan. tech freegans could get you an ATX PSU from a dumpster diving session. Many of your questions likely answered in the Getting Started and Mini-FAQ sections on the first post.

[Pepero]

Hey nando4

My laptop got two free pcie 2.0 x1 and one of them is an expresscard, i was just wondering if i should buy the PE4H or PE4L, the graphic card that i will be connecting is gtx 260 and mainly use for video processing and a bit of gaming. I might upgrade my graphic card with gtx 460 in near future. Should i go with X1 or X2 link?

[Gershom]

Hi nando,

My laptop is a Clevo m570RU, Windows 7 64 Bit, 3GB RAM, 8700m GT and has the following ports free:
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #1
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #2
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #5
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #6

Is it possible to connect these 4 ports? To make it the x2E you said?

I would like to achieve the maximum amount of power I can squeeze out of this laptop and price isn't an issue. I'll be using this laptop for gaming. From the research I have done on your threads, I would just like to ask if I am correct in saying that all I need is a:
- PE4H
- PM3N
- Video Card (5870, is any higher possible?) + Compatible Power Supply

Did you also pay any additional fees when importing it to Australia?

Thanks in advance.

[User Retired 2]

Is it possible to connect these 4 ports? To make it the x2E you said?

I would like to achieve the maximum amount of power I can squeeze out of this laptop and price isn't an issue. I'll be using this laptop for gaming. From the research I have done on your threads, I would just like to ask if I am correct in saying that all I need is a:
- PE4H
- PM3Nf
- Video Card (5870, is any higher possible?) + Compatible Power Supply

Did you also pay any additional fees when importing it to Australia?

Updated from the first post:

2. Can my system use PE4H's x2/x4 link for superior performance shown in PCI-E Scaling Analysis?

hwtools' PE4H has made provision to allow compatible 2xmini pci-e ports, or mini pci-e port and expressport to be combined to form a x2 port. To identify what is possible, find your Intel I/O chipset below to identify what ports can be combined to create a x2 or x4 width link.

Intel Chipset max# pci-e ports x2 link x4 link ICH7M 4 p1+2, p3+4* p1+2+3+4 ICH8M/ICH9M/HM55 6 p1+2, p3+4*, p5+6 PM55/HM57/QM57/QS57 8 p1+2, p3+4*, p5+6,p7+p8^ p1+2+3+4, p5+6+7+8

2510P's port

DV2000's port

*=switches port1+2 into x2 mode. ^switches port5+6 into x2 as well. An Intel limitation.

Other combinations to get x2/x4 ports such as p1+3, p2+4 do not work! In example above, the 2510P can't do a x2 link since it has only the 1 physical mPCIe slot. The DV2000 has expresscard=port1, mPCIe=port3, mPCIe=port4. So the DV2000 can do a x2 link using the 2 mPCIe slots as port3+4.

The best way to identify your port layout is to insert a expresscard e-sata card and see what port it reports as being on, then checking too the wifi card. If have multiple mPCIe slots, worth swapping the wifi aiming for a port1+2, port3+4, port5+6 setup. Could consider too using >Accessing BGA pins<- to find nearby vias and wire them up manually if missing ports.

No import duties in getting gear into Australia.

A X9000 CPU + unlocked multiplier + HD5870@x2 or GTX480@x2 would be as far as you could push your system's performance.

[ithildin]

If the prelim results make the GTX465 a keeper, may suggest you obtain a PNY or Point-of-View branded GTX465 as a replacement. Their units are 1.2GB (10mem chip) GTX470 flashed with a GTX465 bios, sold as a GTX465. Easily flashed to be a GTX470 as shown here. Some even flashing a GTX470 to a be a 1.2GB GTX480(!!).

Humm... The GTX 465 is clearly superior in DX10 but unexpectedly chokes in DX9. DX11 is not relevant yet so I am not too worried about it. Still, it's a bit disappointing that the GTX465@x1E doesn't really deliver with the tessellation tests, which should be its forte. Right now, I am not sure +25 fps at DX10 and -20 fps at DX9 justifies paying twice the price of the HD5750 for a GTX 465. I will wait for the final x1 tests and additional benchmarks (Crysis, World in Conflict) to make my decision.

As a side note, I keep thinking that the reason for the extra performance on the GTX 465 probably is in driver optimizations and also on the fact that this GPU architecture doesn't seem to make use of Turbocache (share memory) hence lower waste of PCIe bandwidth. I wonder if it's possible to disable Hypermemory by tweaking the ATI drivers. Perhaps it would boost the performance of ATI cards on DIY Vidock setups significantly. Would it be worthwhile to get in touch with some driver tweakers (e.g. DNA, Omega, etc) and see what they say?

BTW - 3dmark vantage is showing you are running the HD5750 with 870/1430 clocks. If so, that's a pretty big overclock from the stock 700/1150 levels. Meaning you're running more of a HD5770 than a HD5750.

That's bizarre. I haven't OC'd the HD5750 at all (Overdrive is disabled). The fan hasn't sped up from whisper quiet in any of my tests so that must be bogus. Still, I'll keep an eye on the monitoring data the next time I run Vantage.