DIY eGPU experiences

[Oddious]

please post info here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gami...ml#post5324240

you will be able to get all the info you need.

[ruhtraeel]

Still waiting for the PE4H to ship...

What is this new x2E thing I've been hearing about?

[junglebungle]

I really wanna do this, but i was wondering, i have a ExpressCard/54 slot on my laptop, i also have a spare link inside the laptop where the mini wifi adapter goes, there are two slots.

Would i be able to do it? and what would i need?

[ithildin]

Congratulations on the PE4H 2.0. Did you want to do further tests with a GTX460 when it's released in the next week or two? It's supposedly going to be a ~US$200-$250 card.

Cheers! Sure, I'll look into it once they come out.

I'm pretty sure your PE4H got fried because the GTX465 is a pci-e 2.0 card. The pci-e 2.0 spec can draw up to 150W from a slot as explained here. hwtools' PE4L/PE4H is only designed to draw 75W from a slot based on having only the single 4-pin floppy molex connector. If you attached the DC jack AND the floppy molex then it could have had 150W available, but that would have been overdriving the board, likely causing welding of tracks. hwtools' would need two floppy molex connectors for 150W.

That makes sense. I did not connect both the molex to the 550W PSU and the the notebook adapter to the DC jack. Unless there is a current limiter on the PE4H (which there shouldn't be since hwtools.net removed the fuse), the GPU could very well have drawn 150W through the PE4H which the 550W PSU could supply (single rail, 12V 36A max, meaning 432W on tap) and burned it.

BTW, the replacement PE4H 1.0 has arrived and is up and running. I'll get started on benchmarking the Enzyme beta drivers.

[User Retired 2]

Hey, I was just wondering on my current setup (8800GT) why my Notebook LCD monitor does not work? I would like to have both the 8800GT on external monitor and the Notebook monitor on so it would be easier to multitask. Any ideas?

Boot with the DIY ViDock switched off so your bios leaves the internal gpu and LCD as the primary adapter. Once in Win7 sleep system, poweron DIY ViDock, resume and test. If get error 12: cannot allocate resources against the 8800GT then use DIY ViDock Setup 1.x.

What is this new x2E thing I've been hearing about?

JamesBond007's benchmarking found he got an extra 15% performance by using x4 mode, using only lane1+lane2 (x2E mode). That can only apply to a port1+2 x2 setup.

I really wanna do this, but i was wondering, i have a ExpressCard/54 slot on my laptop, i also have a spare link inside the laptop where the mini wifi adapter goes, there are two slots.

Would i be able to do it? and what would i need?

Refer to Getting Started section on first post.

BTW, the replacement PE4H 1.0 has arrived and is up and running. I'll get started on benchmarking the Enzyme beta drivers.

Great. I did runs dmcv4 using DX9 and DX10 in x1E and found no performance improvements. Let's see if you have any better results.

[ualwayslose]

What exactly does error 12 mean?
Basically I followed your instructions and neither my external monitor nor my laptop monitor worked.
When I use my 8800GT it only uses the external and the laptop monitor is off. Also on the keyboard the caps lock and the numberpad lights are blinking (never seen that before until I used vidock)
When I used sleep and then turned on viDock then the lights turn on again, the internal monitor does not turn on, and the external monitor is not working either.

So.. any more ideas?

[User Retired 2]

When I used sleep and then turned on viDock then the lights turn on again, the internal monitor does not turn on, and the external monitor is not working either.

So.. any more ideas?

Sleep = standby the system. That is different to hibernating the system. The latter does a bios bootup, the former does not. Try that as well as booting up with DIY ViDock switched off, hit F8 quickly to bring up the bootup menu, turn on DIY ViDOck, then do a normal boot.

[Fardavid]

Hi!

I still owe you with my benchmarks, so here you are:

My config is:
Acer Extensa T5750 2.0 Ghz
2 GB RAM
Intel x3100
PE4L + Sapphire HD4870 1 GB @x1

3DBenchmark: 7135

DMC4 DX9, 1280x800, Maxed out

Imageshack - kp0137.jpg - Uploaded by fardavid

DMC4 DX9, 1280x800, Only High details

Imageshack - kp0140.jpg - Uploaded by fardavid

RE5 DX9, 1280x800

Imageshack - kp0141.jpg - Uploaded by fardavid

This result I don't really understand. I can play ME2 1440x900 max settings, and Crysis 1440x900 high setting without any problem, but somehow RE5 sucks. Good thing I don't want to play with it anyway.

I will try x1E sometime when I understand how to do it even on no-brainer way.

My friend has exactly the same laptop and he already ordered HD 5770 1 GB, so we will post that benchmark as well to compare.

Cheers!

[Collaris112]

I bought a 12V - 8A (96W) power supply in order to attempt this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gami...ml#post5964738

However my PE4L (v1.4c) does not seem to work with the DC jack on it Here is some scenarios:

1.a ATX power supply connected to PE4L with the floppy-power-cable = both LEDs light up on the board.

1.b 12V - 8A power supply connected to PE4L with the DC jack = no LEDs light up

2.a ATX power supply connected to PE4L with the floppy-power-cable & ATX power supply connected to Sapphire HD5750 via. molex-to-6-pin-converter = both LEDs light up on the board & the HD5750s fan runs at full speed

2.b 12V - 8A power supply connected to PE4L with the DC jack & HD5750 connected to PE4L with 6-pin converter, molex gender change & molex to floppy-power-cable-converter = no LEDs light up on the PE4L & the HD5750s fan runs at lowest possible speed

I have tried moving the jumpers around which makes no difference at all. I have measured the voltage to 12V different places from the 12V adapter all the way to the 6-pin connected to the HD5750. The voltage seems correct but nothing happens. It would seem that my PE4L have a problem being powered from the DC jack on it

[kilik433]

Help!!!!
I have been trying to get my Hp DV4 1120us to work with this DIY VIDOCK.
I got it all connected right but when i hook it up my system doesnt even detect the graphics card. I am using the powercolor 5750. Since i couldnt get it to detect my setup i tried making that bootdisk. Well i got it going and i got the "devcon" files right, but after a prompt it says it is checking my system and then it nothing happens, it jsut stays on that screen. Maybe i need to get the specific .bat file to load it. i was just going off of the ones that were there becasue i do not know how to creat my own.....
can anybody who has got this working for thier DV4 please tell me what to do and how they got it working.