DIY eGPU experiences

Anybody know where I might be able to buy a Mini PCI-e SOCKET and where I can go to get someone to solder it on for me?

 

So that means that I cant run my eGPU? (without TOLUD)

 

Got mine on ebay, just search for "mini pci-e card slot". Perhaps someone in a repair shop can do the soldering for you.

 

Hi I have a Gateway MT6728
Specs
Intel Pentium
2gb ram
GMA 965
Windows 7 64 bit
Express card slot /54
m-PCIe port


Will this setup work or not? and if so what do i need to do? Preferably i would like to still have wifi card but still be able to use a video card to play major games

Thanks

 

Before I spend the dough, does anyone have the PE4H w/ Expresscard slot nd all accessories for sale? If not, is PE4H (PCIe passive adapter ver2.4) with EC2C all I need?

I have a Vostro 1720, has anyone else tested this?

 

So the new PCIe adapters will have the cable soldered to the board and to the miniPCIe card? I wonder why they're doing that; I'd really want the cable to have sockets. Now to have a removable eGPU, one would have to do something like this: miniPCIe to Expresscard to external PCIe slot. That's awkward and one would have to pray that somehow, that PCIe slot is getting 2.0 x1 performance.

 

"No TOLUD issue" = "no issue". Your notebook have Nvidia Optimus. With this kind of notebook, for sure you will have no problem using eGPU with 4GB or more RAM.

@031775 & LVNeptune,

First thing you need to do to know whether your notebook suitable using eGPU or not, please refer to Pre-purchase FAQ -> How can I check if my notebook is compatible with an eGPU?.

 

Ok Thank you for reply.

 

If you are in the US you might be interested in my PE4H + EC2C that I am selling here:
eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

 

-> @kizwan

I just have "this device is not functioning properly"

Is there a step by step guide somewhere ?

regards

 

What is the error code? The error message is not useful to figure out what is the problem. You might want to check TOLUD on your notebook. Go to Pre-purchase FAQ --> How can I check if my notebook is compatible with an eGPU?

 

Ok thanks. Here is my Mem Tree below and it looks like it should work and I should have enough 32 bit PCI space for it to work so I don't know why compaction causes system freeze.

[/IMG]

 

Ensure chainloading prior to compaction loads to Win7 OK. Then try *selective* 32-bit compaction, eg: eGPU, iGPU+eGPU. If still no success, please run Save diags->Compact_fails, archive the resultant \diag folder contents and link here for review.

 

Chainload works ok without compaction. Here is my devcon.txt file

 

Are you using a disk image or USB boot of Setup 1.x.

Please also do a clean boot into Setup 1.x, attach your eGPU then run Save diags->Compact_fails, archive the resultant \diag folder contents and link here for review.

 

Ok, thanks. I'm using the disk image method to boot. If I plug the egpu when prompted in after entering Setup 1.x it can't seem to find it. DIAG folder just coming

 

You need to press F5 after attaching eGPU in Setup 1.x.

 

Here is my DIAG folder.

 

I still doesn't find the card when hitting F5 after prompting. Strange because plugged in from boot its fine and the status is this:

[/IMG]

 

Why does it list Athros in port 2? Isn't this the ethernet controller, is that normal to show up?

 

There's no eGPU attached when the diags were taken. If you can attach the eGPU and get it detected then a 32-bit selective eGPU OR iGPU+eGPU would do the job. You have the range C0000000 freely available already. No reason why a better x1.Opt capable NVidia card wouldn't work for you.

You also have lines in your startup.bat to force gen1 link speed operation. That is not necessary since your QM57 chipset is only gen1 capable.

 

Thanks. Yep I do, just reset startup.bat. I still cant understand why it seems to successfully compact but then immediately freezes.

 

I've a question:
Is it possible to connect the eGPU via USB3.0? I've read the news article but i'm not sure if the needed controller/adapters are available yet.

 

compaction creates a pci.bat first then runs it. I'd suggest cherry pick out the lines pertaining to port1 (0:1c.0) and your ATI card in the pci.bat and delete the others. Then just Run startup.bat (runs pci.bat) to test.

Per the Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, PCIe 2.0 eGPU update:

So option then is to see if the mPCIe slot is accessible to connect the eGPU OR seek a system with an expresscard slot like shown in the thin-and-light link in my sig.

 

Thanks for your help on this nando. I just left the line pertaining to port and ati card : @echo -s 0:1c.0 1c.b=20 1d.b=20 >> setpci.arg

However I boot using startup.bat and it freezes during windows logo

Could I try say 30 30 instead of 20 20?

 

Thank you

 

Hi,

I'm using a X220(old bios to enable 8gb ram) with a GTX460OC( Driver:WHQL 285.62) and Win7(64bit). If I'm able to start my notebook with my egpu attached, everything runs smooth but it takes annoing much attempts/time to start.
If I start my notebook, the login screen shows up on the external epu monitor but between the windows loading screen(after the login) and the visible desktop I often receive a bluescreen caused by the nvidia driver. I think the chance to get a bluescreen is nearly 100% if I don't wait at the loginscreen. If I wait approx. 5min my chance is ~50% but it's still annoying.

Is there anyone with the same error? Do you know how I can fix it or do you have a hint for a solution?

thanks in advance

 

Yes you try that. Just to clarify, did you edit out all lines in the \config\pci.bat file and the \config\startup.bat to leave only the port1-specific entries?

 

Yes thats correct

 

Hi,

If you able to login into windows without BSOD, can you play games without BSOD at all? Does BSOD happen only on cold-boot?

 

Does anyone know how I can determine unused PCI I/O space so I can put the correct entry in my PCI.bat file?

For example @echo -s 0:1c.0 1c.b=20 1d.b=20 would be 2000-20FF so I want to check that it is available.

 

GOT IT! Thanks a ton nando. Basically deleted too many lines in PCI.bat. So I had a careful look and kept ALL pertaining lines to my egpu port and number including the PCI bus number the card was on, 8 in my case . Up and running

 

I am curious about this external pci-e device, it has a floppy power connector and some sort of pci-e extension cable :

LinITX.com - Mini PCI Express Card to PCI Express X1 Socket - 9cm Cable - Left Sided

Anyone knew about this ?

 

Looks like this is the manufacturer's page: Ably-Tech Corp. == View Products . Appears the floppy connector on it is used to draw 12V/75W slot power. Supplied 9cm cable's short length is very limiting.

 

hello

i have another question:
on my Full HD screen the textures are sharp and AA works perfect but when i make a screenshot with fraps, so the screenshot haven't sharp textures and no AA. i believe the screen comes from the onboard graphic. is there a solution maybe?

 

Yeah the cable is horribly short. And the pci-e 1X slot seems to be closed even if it's easy to cut it. It's a shame cause it's cheap and maybe it can sustain PCI 2.0 signal.

I don't understand why mini-pci extender/riser cable doesn't exist, it would allow to use this kind of stuff easily and maybe with a PCi-e 2.0 signal :

ADAPTATEUR PCI-EXPRESS ET PCI EXPRESS MINI USB (ALIMENTATION EXTERNE) achat et prix ADAPTATEUR PCI-EXPRESS ET PCI EXPRESS MINI USB (ALIMENTATION EXTERNE)

Sometimes i have the feeling that everything is made to prevent people using external gpus

 

My mistake it does exist this riser is interesting :

Amfeltec :: Flexible MiniPCI Express to PCI Express Adapter

It costs 72 euros excluding VAT here :

http://www.thedebugstore.com/acatalog/SKU-035-03-MiniPCIe-PCIe-Adapter.html

 

can someone answer me please?

if you need pictures or log please tell me wich one

i try DIY eGPU Setup 1.x but i cant alocate dGPU and eGPU in same time with 4GBram. its posible disable something other as wifi/BT/cardreader/cdrom...?

Thx

 

Please check TOLUD per- Pre-Purchase FAQ --> How can I check if my notebook is compatible with an eGPU?

 

Boot Setup 1.x, run Save Diags->compact_fails, then Save Diags->Windows_fails following the prompts. Boot back to Windows, mount the Setup 1.x image, archive the v:\diag folder with Winrar/WinZIP, upload to mediafire.com and link here for perusal.

 

If I have luck, I maybe can run my GTX 590 and my GTX 560 Direct CU in SLI mode.
But I dont think so because GTX 590 is a dual GPU-Card and GTX 560 is only a one GPU Card.

 

Yes without BSOD at all, if I manage to get through the login. Yes it could be, right now(my egpu was "hot") I restartet my notebook twice without waiting and without BSOD. But cold-boot is not equal to the first boot, the second and futher boot attampts can fail too.

And sorry I forgot to mention a thing...
At the moment, my external montior(via egpu) is the default screen and the internal LCD is off.

But first time I used the eGPU my internal LCD was the default screen and I was always able to login without BSOD, but my laptop received a BSOD while starting a 3D game or something eGPU powered(, but after few BSOD's & statups I was able to play).

Maybe my eGPU needs to be "hot" to calculate. Do you know a solution?

 

So I got a 580 today. Here are some benchmarks at 1000/4800. Yes I got 1ghz, but it took much more voltage than I would have liked (1.25675V). The card seems to overclock a bit below average, but it isn't terrible. I could clock it a bit higher, but I am concerned about my PSU, so I'm going to get a new PSU first before I go higher. Hopefully the PSU is the reason behind the relatively poor overclocking.

3dm11: 6226
3dmv: 21205
3dm06: 22062
RE5: 157.8
DMC4S4: 149.8
Heaven: 1696
FF14 1080P: 5219

 

here it is: jumboss DIAG.zip

 

HP 8540P has a motherboard resource preventing access to contiguous pci-e space

The problem like we discovered with a few other systems is that you have a unmovable Motherboard resource sitting right in the middle of your D0000000 range:

Code:

ACPI\PNP0C02\1
    Name: Motherboard resources
    Device has the following resources reserved:
        MEM : fed1c000-fed1ffff
        MEM : fed10000-fed13fff
        MEM : fed1b000-fed1bfff
        MEM : fed19000-fed19fff
[B][COLOR="Red"]        MEM : d7600000-d7600fff[/COLOR][/B]
        MEM : e0000000-efffffff
        MEM : fed20000-fed3ffff
        MEM : fed90000-fed93fff
        MEM : fed45000-fed8ffff
        MEM : fec00000-fec00fff

Meaning you cannot have a contiguous 32-bit 256MB pci-e config space block no matter what pci-e compaction is performed. So the GeForce 7900 GT/GTO eGPU you are attaching which requires such a block will not work while you have 3GB or more RAM installed in your system. You have TOLUD=3GB. It would however work with 2GB RAM installed.

The solution is to get a newer NVidia Fermi video card (GTX460, GTX560Ti, etc) that uses fragmented 128MB+64MB+32MB PCI BARs instead so can be allocated around this Motherboard resource.

It might well be worth you logging a support case with HP on this issue as it effectively means the expresscard slot is limited to devices using a 128MB BAR or less. ATiAMD eGPUs cannot be used due to their 256MB PCI BAR requirement. Not that I'd recommend one given the superior x1.Opt performance you'd get with a NVidia Fermi. See Request to fix TOLUD in newer BIOS files - Lenovo Community for an example of how to deal with vendors with such issues. The HP bios programmer would just need to move that device to F7xxxxxx instead allowing the D0000000 range to then be 'compacted' into a 256MB contiguous space.

 

cold-boot = power ON computer from OFF state

When it boot with internal LCD OFF & external monitor is primary, can you turn on your internal LCD & play games on it using eGPU processing power (Optimus)? What happen if external monitor is not connected prior booting?

I believed your PSU is to be blame here. It might take time to warm-up hence the BSOD while login. What is the PSU specification (+12V max current)? Or if you don't know, give me the PSU model name.

 

Looking forward to sharing my experiences of my new Dell E6220 + PE4H and 460GTX.

 

You will be the first E6220 DIY eGPU implementation. A better machine allround than the Vostro V131 you shortlisted earlier so congratulations on an excellent purchase.

Would advise also purchasing a PE4L 2.1 instead of a PE4H 2.4 as it gets you double the bandwidth (pci-e 2.0's 5GT/s versus pci-e 1.1 2.5GT/s). The pci-e 2.0 capable PE4H 3.0 has yet to be released.

 

Dang. I did not realize that. I found a deal on one for $45 on eBay and figured I'd grab it. Think I should cancel and grab a PE4L, or can I get similar bandwidth by some other means?

 

I'd cancel and grab a PE4L 2.1. No way of getting pci-e 2.0 speed from a PE4L 1.5 or a PE4H 2.4. Need either a PE4L 2.1, wait for a PE4H 3.0 or get a US$304-shipped ViDock4+.

EDIT: you'll need to request an engineering sample of the PE4L 2.1 from BPlus since they're not listing them as yet.