DIY ViDock & Eyefinity. Questions

Eyefinity Questions
Does any know if this would work?


If anyone has the available equipment to do such would you test?

I just very curious.

In all sense it should work. But I don't know all the in and outs of the Vidock DYI.

ViDock Questions. Or If I have my info stright.

Expresscard >> To PCI Express Board(2.0 Connect Type)(Power This via Powersupply & And Switch)>> (Video Card Of Choice)(Power Via Power Supply>> External Montior.

Im confused as you do need to have grub to run it before you run an OS or you don't need it anymore?


Any thing I should serious stay way from.?

Finally Is Vidock really only meant for IGP type of notebook or would my 1720 do just fine?

 

I don't have another LCD, but the ATI driver controls multi-monitors. So EyeFinity will work.

See DIY ViDock Setup v1.0x installation instructions blurb for reasons when you'd need to use it.

You have 8600M, which too 64-bit relocatable. So if you have 3GB or 4GB of system RAM then it's a bit touch-and-go whether you can host an ATI card. So I'd suggest see if the DIY ViDock setup can free up 256MB of 32-bit space to host it and test chainloading with grub4dos to Win7.

If can't free up 256MB of 32-bit space consider getting a NVidia desktop card. Their drivers work with the card using 64-bit PCI space, can use Win7's 64-bit PCI allocation. Means a plug-and-play solution.

Also prelim GTX480@x1 benchmark results see if outperforming ATI cards by quite a margin.

DIY ViDock+NVidia-gfx could become the choice option for those wanting premium performance at premium cost.

 

I'm confused on one finally part to the ViDock DYI Solution.

The whole 1X/2X PCI Express to 2X Express.From what I can understand is
That 2 X 1.0 Ports. (Can = PCI Express X 2).
Or That 1 X 2.0 Port. (Can = PCI Express X 2).
How can i identify a 2.0 Port?
Or identify a port that can run at 2.0? (That is still a 1.0 port)

Off Topic Question.
The answer maybe already a no but I thought to ask.
SLI Or CrossFire? Possible?

Also has anyone experiment with software Triplehead and Vidock?
Using the laptop screen and than two other monitors.

Thank you so much Nando4 for all your guide's and info.

And Thanks to the community.

 

My pleasure. No expresscard 2.0 notebooks yet (x2 1.0 = 5Gbps). All notebooks having x1 1.0 speed expresscard ports atm. Intel series-5 chipsets (QM57, HM55, etc) are advertised with pci-e 2.0 ports. The only part of 2.0 they comply with is the revised power management NOT the revised 5GBps link speed (x1 2.0). So they perform the same as ICH7M/ICH8M/ICH9M I/O controllers at x1 1.0 speed (2.5GBps). Well, Intel aren't delivering that either, it's like 70-80% of that speed. See here.

Combining 2 x1 1.0 ports using port1+port2 or port3+port4 or port5+port6 will give x2 1.0 (same as x1 2.0) speed. Only a handful of systems have an expresscard + mPCIe port that have that layout. Other combinations like port2+port4 will not work.

SLI/crossfire might be possible but is simply not worth it. The 2 GPUs will be mostly sitting around doing not much while waiting for the bottleneck x1 1.0 link to deliver them data. Better to get more VRAM with a single GPU, eg: 1.5GB GTX480 or 2GB HD5850/HD5870. Appears GTX4xx is more pci-e bandwidth efficient based on recently posted results.

 

So there is no notebook out there that X2 port. (WWAN or WLAN).
Im confused on how some setups can do X4?
I understand how expresscard aren't 2.0. Can WWAN or WLAN be 2.0?

 

mPCIe and expresscard uses the same pci-e lanes from the I/O controller, just package it differently. There are no x1 2.0 notebooks atm (5GBps). ASUS informed me 'later this year'.

Having the right combo of ports to do x2 1.0 is difficult enough to find. Only system identified so far that might be able to do x4 is a MSI GT627. An owner believes he might be able to do x4 by soldering on another mPCIe header on the systemboard pads. Would need port1-port4 ALL accessible as mPCIe/expresscard slots. So x4 capability is like 0.5% of notebooks if that. Still nice to have the ability to do that.

Likely the more popular use of the x4-capability of PE4H is in allowing a desktop video card to be externally connected to a desktop system. Done via a HP4A connected to the PE4H via 4 mini HDMI cables. Allows easy sharing of the desktop video card with a desktop and notebook system without incurring too much performance loss on the desktop.