DIY eGPU experiences

In DIY ViDock Setup 1.x you want pci_alloc_valid=yes before chainloading into Win7. Do that by incrementally testing compaction methods below:

1. 36-bit: HD2400
2. 32-bit: HD2400
3. 36-bit for the FX2700M and HD2400, force the HD2400 to 32-bit
4. 32-bit: ALL

I believe (3) won't work as FX2700M probably wants to only be in 32-bit space, but worth a try anyway.

6930P schematic shows port2=wifi and port3=expresscard slot, and is a series-4 chipset so can do x1E tweak, though the wifi card will not work concurrently in that mode. x1E means ATI is still an option. Onboard HD3450 means no NVidia Optimus. So review the ATI and NVidia back-to-back benchmarking results and decide for yourself if want ATI or NVidia. If it was my system, I'd go a NVidia GTX460 and seek ways to get Optimus or x2 working to get higher performance Or could wish for NVidia roll the Optimus performance tweaks into the desktop driver. IF NVidia did that then there would be no reason to go an ATI solution at x1 1.0 bandwidths.

 

Thank you for the fast reply! You are correct in saying: (2) won't work as FX2700M probably wants to only be in 32-bit space because it always reverts back! When I try the chainloading, I just get a blinking cursor. Is my problem due to a dual boot scenario? Windows7/64 and WindowsXP/64 and I should remove one OS?

 

This is confusing. Have you followed the instructions to get chainloading working? Ensure you can chainload to Win7 first. Then try the various PCI compaction methods. Your dual-boot setup likely requires altering the default parameters in the config files. The Setup 1.x environment providing all the menuitems and grub4dos help text necessary to get that done.

 

Tried the following:

1.NVidia (onboard) 32MB works

1. 36-bit: HD2400 (256MB)
2. 32-bit: HD2400 (256MB)
3. 36-bit for the FX2700M and HD2400, force the HD2400 to 32-bit (32MB)
4. 32-bit: ALL (No solution found!)

Chainload gives me:
STOP c000007b {Bad Image} The application or DLL \??\C:\Windows\System32\sfcfiles.dll is not a valid Windows image. Please check this against your installation disket.

 

Hmm.

I have followed both of the two installation directions for the Nvidia Optimus drivers for my apples-to-apples HD6850 vs GTX470 test but once installed they do not have the extra Optimus features following either set of directions. It just looks like the regular Nvidia control panel without the extra options from the video that Nautis posted.

Any suggestions?

Without Optimus enabled the GTX470 performs horribly in 3DMark2006...

 

1. Ensure chainloading works prior to performing PCI compaction.
2. The selective compaction is relative to the existing PCI space configuration. Suggest reboot b/w trying the different PCI compaction methods to get an accurate result.

Did you at any point load the standard desktop driver? I had to resort to cleaning all remnants of it and it's registry settings with Driver Sweeper, then load the Optimus driver to get it Optimus enhancements activated. Optimus will be activated when the NVidia Manage 3D panel gives you a Preferred Graphics processor option as shown.

Optimus will more than double the 3dmark06 score, panning the Return To Proxycon scene with the same smoothness as your HD6850.

 

Pardon my lack of understanding, but is the HP DV6tse capable of doing a DIY Vidock. Does it have a mPCIe capable of it since it lacks the ExpressCard slot? Same goes for the ENVY 14?

 

Nope, no Nvidia drivers had ever been on this computer prior to today.

I did - however - make one mistake. I didn't realize you needed drivers with the special .INF file so the first time I installed it, I got the Optimus drivers directly from the Nvidia.

When I realized my mistake after it didn't work, I uninstalled those drivers, rebooted, ran Guru3d's Driver Sweeper to clean things up, and then reinstalled the drivers here with the proper .INF file. Still no success.

I can not justify paying money for driver sweeper right now. I'm going to try reinstalling a few more times, but I am about ready to give up on Optimus, and without it, the GTX470 is very sluggish, and not even worth benchmarking.

 

I think I may have discovered the reason for the problem, but I am not quite sure how to fix it.

When I start up the laptop with the diy vidock connected, the "Intel HD Graphics" is no longer in the Device Manager.

My guess is the BIOS is being smart and realizing that it does not have enough address space for both and disables the internal IGP. Since Optimus ties together the two GPU's, I'd imagine it wouldn't work without the Intel HD Graphics there.

Any suggestions for how I may be able to fix this?

 

I have completely removed Windows XP from dual boot and now only have Windows7/64. When I try chainload it starts a Windows XP screen and I get autochk program not found and a STOP c000021a Fatal System Error. How do I make sure this is working correctly? What do I need to change in
GRUB4DOS.bat if anything? Sorry...I just don't get this!
-----------------------------------------------------
@echo off
echo.
if NOT "%1"=="" goto start
:usage
echo Usage: grub4dos [w7 mbr xp]
echo.
echo w7 - Chainload Windows 7 or Vista (bootmgr)
echo xp - Chainload Windows XP (ntldr)
echo mbr - Chainload Linux, or if above two items don't work
echo.
goto exit

:start
:: convert commandline to lowercase
echo %1 | lmod [l] | varset par1 read 0

:grub_start
if not "%RAMD%"=="" set DRIVE=%RAMD%
if "%DRIVE%" =="" set DRIVE=%DRV%
set conf_file=%DRIVE%:\config\menu.%par1%
if "%par1%"=="xp" grub --config-file="%conf_file%"
if "%par1%"=="w7" grub --config-file="%conf_file%"
if "%par1%"=="mbr" grub --config-file="%conf_file%"
if "%cmd%"=="" echo ERROR: wrong commandline
if "%cmd%"=="" goto usage
%cmd%
echo If you are here then chainloading failed. Please edit
echo '%conf_file%', with settings suitable for your system.
echo Then retry chainloading with '%cmd%'.
pause

:cleanup
set par1=
set drive=

:exit

 

Good news.
My vidock is running.
I was having problems with my HP 6910p but I think it is because of some corupted files. Anyway got my old nc6400 installed XP, connected PE4H-EC2C ver2.0a and it is running. 6910p should also work without a problem will try that later.
For those who don't know nc6400 and 6910p don't have Expresscard port but the HP advanced docking station does. This makes the configuration very simple just put laptop in docking station and that's it.

Here's the info:
PE4H-EC2C V2.0a
HP nc6400
Ram: 3GB
OS: WindowsXP
Video Card: Saphire hd5570

Is it 3dMark06 that you are using to run the test ?

 

For anyone who might have the same problem, I fixed this issue by doing a repair install of Windows. It keeps all your files and installed programs, but it changes a few things in the registry that made my setup work again. My problem was that running my external graphics would not switch to the external monitor and it would prevent all input devices other than my trackpoint/trackpad from working on my X201t.

 

I have been reading for 2 days now, and i Still Dont know if this Could Work On my Laptop, Is a Dell Vostro 1320, Any hints?, Also iam going to buy from mexico in hwtools, so i will post my Progress With The Shipping, if anyone is interested, and last question!!, whats the best Card u can use!!

 

Please run 3dmark06 and RE5 so can be included on the first page. I believe the 6910P/NC6400 has the expresscard slot as port3, so could do the x1E tweak to get noticable performance improvement. Though the wifi port2 would not worth concurrently in that setup.

Yes. Your vostro 1320 can do a DIY ViDock. If your Vostro 1320 has a 4500MHD primary graphics then a US$220/$280 NVidia GTS450/GTX460 x1.Opt (Optimus setup) will give you very fast performance AND allow you use a internal LCD setup as well. If you have the NVidia primary graphics, then review the ATI versus NVidia back-to-back benchmark results on the first post to decide which performance level you want. imho: if your system can't do the x1E tweak, then really not worth going ATI as a performance solution.

 

Any comments on the chainload problem and what I need to do to get this to work booting into Windows 7/64. Will this ViDock even work on my systems or am I waisting my precious time???

 

New item added to DIY ViDock Setup 1.x Troubleshooting.

4. Why does chainloading not work?

Chainloading using grub4dos must work prior to attempting any PCI configuration space changes. If your system has a unique partition setup then the default parameters may not work. So it then is just a matter of finding where your ntldr (NT) or bootmgr (W7) is, eg: (hd0,0)/bootmgr. Refer to Grub4dos Guide - Command Line for examples of how to query your disks using the grub4dos commandline. You can get to the grub4dos commanline using Setup 1.x's, Chainloader->grub4dos.commandline menuitem. Then use Chainloader.!Edit config to edit the parameters (will edit menu.xp, menu.w7 or menu.mbr depending on your Chainloader mode/ver settings).

There's also the grub4dos forum if you get completely stuck.

 

Thank you Nando4! I will try this? Should the ViDock work with my system to begin with? Specs again:
Precision M6400, Intel t9900 @ 3.06, 8 gig DDR3, Windows7/64

 

I was wondering if this external graphic card setup would work with my system as well, it is a Lenovo Ideapad y550P, with an intel core i7 Q 720 1.60 ghz, 4gb ram, and win7 x64.

I was also wondering that, if I could do this with my laptop, and I used a video card such as the radeon hd 4850, would I see much performance difference in comparison to my nvidia geforce 230m?

 

I've got 5872 in 3dMark06 on nc6400. Sorry could not run the other test as I've rebuild the laptop.

The best thing though is that in WinXP I was getting error 12 (not enough resources) and had to use DIY Vidock setup.
After rebuilding the same laptop with Windows 7 32bit the card work straight away no error 12.
I only have to delay it before booting the laptop as it would not boot otherway.
I'll try to run benchmarks this evening.

 

Hey Nando, I just wanted to say thanks for the response. You are like the all knowing guru. I looked over Panzer's experiences and it's killing me that I won't be able to fully utilize the card. I guess I'll just have to wait a few months and look at a new laptop or even desktop.

 

If you can only do an x1 or x1E link, the 4850 will at times be slower than the 230m. If you could do x2 or X2E then the 4850 will always be significantly faster than the 230m. IMO only use a DIY ViDock if you can do x2 or x2E since your internal card is decent.

 

If I were to use a higher card such as a 58xx series/gtx 480 (that blanket results video card) would it be better, and is x2 or x2E basically crossfire/SLI?

Thanks for the reply btw.

 

I've linked you from the first post. 3dmark0=5872 is pretty impressive for a HD5570. More details/ benchmark results would be great to have, as would x1E testing.

SLI/crossfire would be possible but the bottleneck is not the GPU processing speed. The bottleneck is getting data to/from the GPU across the x1 pci-e link. x2/x2E providing more bandwidth.

Based on the Y550 schematic your system has 3 mPCIe slots and 1 expresscard slot. It's a series-4 chipset so can apply the x1E tweak (and x2E) with ATI cards to force them into full performance mode. x1E/x2E is not required with latest Fermi GPUs to get their full performance.

To do x2E would require ganging port1+port. To get x2 would require ganging port3+port4 or port5+port6. See 5. (Performance) Can my system do a PE4H x2 or x4 link as shown in PCI-E Scaling Analysis? on first post for details on how to check your port layout.

I concur with Khenglish. If can't do x2/x2E, with x1.Opt not possible, then I'd recommend just overclock your GT230M or sell up and get a better DIY ViDock candidate notebook. Sandy Bridge systems certainly will be.

 

Hi nando4, I have a mac mini intel duo core with integrated i945 intel graphic chipset. I have recently open up the mac mini to upgrade the harddisk. I saw that there is a mini pcie slot which is taken up by the wireless airport adapter. I intend to buy a PE4H ver 2.0A+ PM3N from HWtools to insert into the mini PCIE slot in my Mac Mini. Do u come across anyone using this DIY Vidock on their mac mini and whether will it works. Currently, my mac mini is runing Snow Leopard Mac OS X + bootcamp - Windows 7. Appreciate your advise on this. Thank you

 

Since i don’t have the post count to do a private message I'll just throw this wall of text here haha, here are some DIY ViDock questions that I have and I would be glad if anyone could help (i know you guys will).
So about 2 months or so ago i started to learn Japanese... err i mean i started to learn the intricacies of a DIY ViDock, and now i feel like i have enough knowledge and understanding of the subject to actually ask some stuff here. I fully plan to post my results later on the year when i have my setup ready, that will be mid to late December at most (got to take advantage of Black Friday haha).

Without further ado, here are my laptop specs:
Brand: Acer
Model: Aspire 6930 (the one without graphics card)
CPU: Core 2 Duo T5800 2.0 GHz
Chipset: GM45 / ICH9M (6 ports to work with)
IGP: Intel GMA 4500 MHD
Memory: 4 GB
OS: Win 7 64-bit

Port layout:
1= Expresscard
2= mPCIe
3= Not connected
4= mPCIe
5= Not connected
6= Onboard Lan

Since i can do a 2x 1.0 setup (port1+port2), these are the parts that I'm probably going to order:
US$85 PE4H-EC2C
US$20 PM3N
US$10 PCIEMM-100
US$200 MSI GTX460 1GB
Any PSU with at least 12V1@19A following ithildin's PSU recommendations


Now here are the questions that i have:

1) It was mentioned on page 155, that my laptop can indeed support a 2xE setup, is this really that much better over a 2x 1.0 with nvidia + optimus drivers? If so would I have to switch to a HD 6xxx GPU to get the max out of it?

2) Since I'm ordering from hwtools i was wondering what the shipping time to arrive at the US is, I guess what I’m asking is if the time frame displayed at hwtools page is the right one for an order to arrive (about 15 days or so i think)

3) What do you guys think about this Flat mini hdmi cable + adapter setup instead of the PCIEMM-100 at around US$14? I couldn’t really find any other “flat mini hdmi cable” cheaper than this, I could however find a cheaper adapter at dealextreme.com but then you have to buy from 2 different places and that’s not really convenient, for me at least.

4) How do you actually install all of this? Do I just hotplug the setup after using ViDock Setup v1.0e4 for x2 enabling?

5) Since I'm buying my parts late-November / early-December, should I wait for PE4H v2.4 release to buy it?

6) Will i have any > 2.5 GB of ram issues?

I know it’s a lot of questions but any ONE question that you can answer is a step closer for me to buy this setup. Thanks in advance for your help.

Also a big thanks to Nando for compiling the info and constant research, so even noobs like me can comprehend after some time what everything or almost everything means.

 

Thx Nando, But I dont really know what choose, a PE4L or a PE4H. with the vostro i was on the website just about to buy.

 

ey guys so iam attemping my set up. So far I have chosen the PE4H (150dlls)from hwtools., i just ordered my video card, a gtx460 768mb(330dlls),
i have a Dell Vostro 1320 with HDM4500, CPU core 2 duo t6670 2.20gh(1600dlls) my dad bought it for me 3 months ago as a present.(STUPID DAD DIDNT LET ME CHOOSE THE ING LAPTOP) but thx. , SO, Now i got confusse because you guys are so smart in pc things, iam a geologist so i dont ing know what u are talking about sometimes, So here are the biggest, Dumb, Stupid Questions, That all the "Noobs and Fails Like me" Will ask.

1.- With the PE4L-EC2C, I get a small and strange green card, like the part of a Motherboard, Does this means i have to open up My laptop?

2.- I have an Small Rectangle Hole in one of the sides of the Notebook, But Its more bigger than the EC2C, How can I Fix that?.

3.- Where Do i connect the video card with the PE4L-EC2C?

4.- Its HD4500 The same as HDM4500?

5.- How do i Know if i can do a Sli or Crossfire In my Laptop?

6.- I have Windows 7 but i have 32bits with 4 Ram, Should i Upgrade to 64bits For better Performance.

OK, Answer them As if u were talking To a 9 year Old boy , who just learned to say "Why"?.

Btw iam mexican , so sorry for my english,and the prices i Showed are the prices i get In mexico, ing expensive i need to expend 2000Dlls to get a 1000dlls Pc, stupid stupid, I bought a car Instead 2 years ago instead of Upgrading my CPU.LAME

 

Just a Random Comment, We Should All pay 1 dollar To Nando.

 

@arkantos78:

1) No you don't need to open your laptop with a PE4L-EC2C, the little green motherboard is of external use.

2) Your laptop has a 54mm ExpressCard slot (the little rectangle hole on the side) this is considered to be universal. It can handle both, a 54mm one or a 32mm one. The EC2C is a 32mm ExpressCard, so you shouldn't have any problems with this.

3) So basically you connect the EC2C on the 54mm ExpressCard slot, then you mount your video card on top of the PE4L (the little green motherboard which is outside your laptop)

4) Yes, your Integrated Graphics Processor, should be a GMA 4500MHD. So don't worry.

5) Don't know.

6) I think you need to run Win 7 64-bit, for GPU reallocation but I'm not completely sure, need confirmation.

I hope this helps you, so you can do your set up properly.

Edit: Photograph of Page 1 of this thread, in here you should see a little green miniboard and the videocard connected to it. This is actually a PE4L-EC2C setup like the one you are trying to make.

http://img91.imageshack.us/i/dv2000w7gamingrig.jpg/

 

I just read that there will be a new version of the PE4H, That will solve some problems with the power adapter(more fuse or something) in NOV 20, so Should i wait for it? or what? also about the cards, Should it be DDR3? Or DDR5? Because of the Bandwith you can get?
I already got my GTX460 768mb DDR5, so iam asking this a little late..-.-

Laptop: Vostro 1320

 

Great idea US$1 per view of this thread would have earned $305,000 already at the rate of > $30,000/month

PE4H 2.4 will have a fuse bypass pad (solderable point) and add protective fuses at other points. See differences here. Most importantly, it will have a PCI Reset Delay so don't need to power off/on the PE4H to get past your bios. That feature means don't need to switch off/on on every reboot. Much more convenient.

GTX460 is DDR5. Your T6670-2.2 Vostro 1320 will get you impressive x1.Opt performance: 3dmark06 and 3dmarkvantage.gpu both > 10k.

 

So i basicly Order My PE4H 2.0 Right away!! because i already got a 500w power suply by thermaltake. Ok Guys, I Ordered My PE4H, I will Post Screenshots in 2 weeks from Now, Iam not a high end especialist like nando but my all my family have workshops,autocars centers, crafstman and stuffs like that i learned to solder at 10 years old.. lol, but i never got a thing for that stuff so i will make A Enclosure With Some Fans For the GPU And Modd it, So it will take me 2 weeks from now. Wait for details, And Again, thx nando i will order another PE4H 2.4 In april or maybe sooner , if i get good results with the PE4H 2.0, take care guys.

PD: I just read that i have to pay 555% taxes for taiwain or china products, I hope Its just a joke or dont apply to me. (mexico)

 

Look forward to seeing your custom enclosure. There's some examples already in http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...se-post-your-diy-vidock-pics.html#post6109661 adapted from cardboard or chassis designed for other purposes. Maybe you could come up with a design specifically for the PE4H board?

Consider too you can order the ExpressCard External Graphics x16 (PE4H) from the North Americal distributor HIT instead. Could be a way of avoiding 555% taxes.

DIY ViDock Setup 1.x will setup your port1+port2 into x2 or x2E mode and perform PCI compaction if you need it. The flat mini HDMI cable is a good idea. The mini hdmi to hdmi adapter will likely need to go on the PE4H. All the systems I've done mPCIe setups on had a small mPCie cavity with just enough room to slot in the mini HDMI cable end which often was a tight fit. Your system is x2E capable, so ATI is an option. I'd personally go NVidia since your 4500MHD would mean Optimus is enabled. A x2.Opt link would mean you'd get the fastest 3dmark06 SM3.0 and 3dmarkvantage.gpu results to date.

Consider asking HIT to supply a x2 kit if need it delivered faster.

 

Omg, Do you Want me To do a enclosure specifically for the PE4H?, Thats.. gonna take time.. i already disamble my Beta player for modding.. lol, but well..., i will ask my uncle for advice to do a Nicer Box but dont think u will see it soon, i got some bad grades last month and need to make it up this one, so i will be off the Pc for 2 weeks, Maybe for April i will Have something, Btw, Whats the Name? DIY VIDOCK?, I will keep my Beta player modding because i already have all the settings, and My acrilic Draw Of the PEDOBEAR FTW!.

 

Lol, when i said "The name" is, What Name do you Want in the Front cover Of the Enclosure?

 

Just thought I'd share with you guys... It seems that there is a GTS455 coming soon, and there are some rumours that it will actually be a slightly cut-down GTX460, rather than a souped-up GTS450:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Nvid...tioned-in-New-Development-Driver-163616.shtml

I think it's also likely that it will have a single 6-pin PCI-E connector, so if this comes out soon, I think it will be ideal for a "portable" DIY ViDock setup with a 150W DC power brick.

 

I have a Dell XPS 1530 and it appears I would not be able to do X2 link. How much of an improvement would I get if I used the DIY ViDock on an X1 link over my 8600m gt that is in the computer right now if I used a GTX 470 in the vidock.

Thanks

 

I do like the idea of the recycled 80s beta video recorder making a Sony BetaMax/ViDock hybrid? So it could be a BetaViD, BetaDock, MaxiDock or MaxVid, retroDock or any other endearing name.

3dmark06: 8600GT = 3269

Suggest review HD5750 versus GTX460 on x1 and x1E links (T9300-2.5, ithildin) to help you compare performance with your existing 8600GT.

First post has both a GTX460 and HD5770 implementation on a M1530. Note the M1530's expresscard slot is port5, so can do a x1E link with ATI cards, gaining another 15-30% performance. The M1530 HD5770 results on the first page are not x1E.

 

I apologize if this has been answered before but I couldn't find the answer. I just bought HIT's ExpressCard External Graphics x16 with no power supply and plan to connect it to my latitudes' e6500 express card. I also bought an ASus ati radeon hd4870 1gb.
Now It remains for me to buy an atx power unit.
From the previous notes I understood that it must be at least 225 Watt ( it's only going to be used for the card) , however does anyone have a good suggestion for an atx unit that would be used only for this cause ( I would like it to be within the 40 $ range if possible).
Thank you in advance

 

Don't look at the total wattage of the power supply... In the power supply specs, it gives the supported current for each of the various voltages it supports (e.g. 3.3V, 5V, 12V).

If your video card requires, say, 225W (75W for PCI slot and 2x75W for 2x6-pin connectors), then you will need 225/12 = 18.75A. (Your video card will need a 12V source)

Of course, I'm not implying that all cards that have 2x6-pin connectors requires 225W.. I'm just throwing an example out there. So if you know how much Watts your card will require, that's the method you will need to use when looking at the specs of your power supply.

 

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and trying to find out whether anyone come across the DIY Vidock works for a mac mini. I saw someone posted a picture of Macmini connected to DIY Vidock but no other comments whether working or not. Specs for my Mac mini- intel duo core with integrated i945 intel graphic chipset. I have recently open up the mac mini to upgrade the harddisk. I saw that there is a mini pcie slot which is taken up by the wireless airport adapter. I intend to buy a PE4H ver 2.0A+ PM3N from HWtools to insert into the mini PCIE slot in my Mac Mini. Do u come across anyone using this DIY Vidock on their mac mini and whether will it works. Currently, my mac mini is runing Snow Leopard Mac OS X + bootcamp - Windows 7. Appreciate your advise on this. Thank you

 

Is anyone else with GTX 460 experience random lag spikes?

At first I thought it was my power supply, so I upgraded to a 400W 80+ certified, yet I still have the same problems.

Then I came across this
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- How to fix sound pop/click/stutter due to DPC latency

Which helped fix lag a little bit, I was experience massive lag during downclocking, and now GTX 460 stays at standard clocks. However on some games I still experience major lag spikes. Any tips?

 

Thanks Faruk. This cleared a lot for me. I went for the Antec EA 500 it has 2 6 pin adapters that give 22 Volts, it was not recommended by amd's offcial site but my guess is that if you have other stuff feeding from the power source 500 Watts are not enough, for vidock though...
Anyway this was the cheapest I found for this particular card.
I'll put the pieces together in a few days and come back for advices on how to fix the setup.

 

Does the E6500 have the same expresscard slot port4 as the E6400 shown here? If so, I'd advise against an ATI solution, since you can't do x1E. If did still want an ATI solution, then consider a HD56xx or better series will perform better than a HD48xx on x1, example here. A HD5670 would probably be cheaper too. Finally, if you have a 4500MHD equipped E6500 then could do x1.Opt, so a GTS450 or GTX460 would be the best choice for highest performance on your platform.

Can also ensure the card doesn't downclock by setting NVidia Control Panel -> Power Management Mode changing Adaptive to Prefer Maximum Performance. Lag may be due to memory<->vram data being shuffled across the x1 link which only the Optimus driver's tweak or more bandwidth will correct.

No implementations on a mac mini as yet. There are two attempts on a MBP shown in the Macbook Compatibility Matrix section on the first post.

The system you have uses a ICH7M controller which will physically allow you to connect a PE4H+PM3N to it. Then it's up to the OS to actually use it correctly. This is where you are likely to encounter difficulties. Suggest review the following to guide you:

- Villagetronic's Is ViDock compatible with MacBook Pro?

- DIY ViDock Setup 1.x to see if can get chainloading and PCI compaction working.

- search macforums for "vidock". There's specific video firmware and video cards that work on Mac OS.

mac mini + DIY ViDock could be a tidy HTPC setup. I'd be curious to see your results.

 

Thanks nando, I have already ordered the PE4H+PM3N yesterday.Shipped out from Taipei yesterday and reach Singapore today. I will receive the package today. Will work on the DIY Vidock over the weekend and post results next week. I do intend to use it as a HTPC with a HDMI plug to my 42'' LCD TV. I want to try playing Starcraft2 on my big TV using macmini rather than my duocore laptop.wish me luck.

 

Nando, thank you very much for your reply. My e6500 express card slot should probably be the same technology as an e6400. It has an Intel(R) ICH9 family pci express root ports 1 to 4. I don't know however if the video card will be connected to port 4 though, however I assume it would do the same it did for e6400. ( IN case this is not a fuss how could I see what device is connected to which port?)

However I have already purchaced the 4870 because it was a a special offer and it was cheaper than a 5670. Would that be a great handicap? Anyway I assume still the card will be faster than my unreliable quadro Nvs 160 M

Also I should note that my laptop's integrated video card is a Nvidia Nvs 160M.

 

Ok sorry for the double post, but I saw that nothing is connected to port1. my wi fi card is in port 2. ports 3 and 4 are empty. I hope these information help.

 

@m2003,

You can post a screenshot from Everest - Chipset section (south bridge) like this.

 

Thanx here it is:

 

Will nvidia 3d vision work with the DIY ViDock? I currently have a 3d desktop setup with sli GTX 470's, but I am considering parting it out and just keeping one of the GTX 470's and use it in the vidock. I am hoping 3d vision would still work for 3d blu rays. I know 3d gaming would take a decent hit due to the 1x limitation of the vidock.