DIY eGPU experiences

i tried using the DiY setup
what i did was
1. boot the from the DiY Setup
choose menu #2
then when it says plug in the Vidock i plug it in then i enter
on the window on ports, it doesn't display anything on port 3, i even unplug power off replug, change jumper setting to see if it will make anydifference but so far nothing happens

i also do the nvflash but it says no video card is detected
i also try stuff like the whistle thing and compaction and enable and re-enable the ports and even set it to x2 but nothing happened

i tried almost all possible combination of jumpers i can think of but so far is has no effect

i don't have any desktop right now cause i sold my previous one because of financial issues

also i manage to make the my video card recognize only one time on my sister's computer then i quickly put it back to my computer and it recognize

but when i reboot my computer it won't recognize anymore, i also try to do it again on my sister's computer but so far no luck

i managed to make it recognize by accident because i am using brute force of plugging and and unplugging due to frustration. when i found out it is DOA i almost threw my computer out of the window

 

Thank you Nando4

Now it works !!!

Both go7700 and gtx 460 works fine

 

Sounds like you already tried the jumper thing. I had a similar problem to yours, the fan would spin really loud and the comp wouldnt recognize it. I used the exact OPPOSITE configuration that the harmonicinversion website told me to do and then it finally worked. (FYI I used an atx power supply setup)

 

I am a newbie in the DIY ViDock assembly... I really dont know how and if I can support this setup.
My spec are listed below, can u guys tell me what to do and what part to get? I really appeciate any help I can get here =)

My laptop is Asus A42J, i5 520M, K42JK motherboard and ATI HD5145 1G graphics with 4g ram. Any additional information that's needed I can provide as well.. I have a 375 PSU from my old dell desktop which hopefully can be used to for this setup.

What do I have to get in order to make this external graphics card work? And what graphics card should I get in order to not bottleneck the card and waste money? I was thinking of HD6850(195USD) or Plalit GTX460 1GB (170USD)
I play Starcraft 2 semi competitively and would like to play it on Ultra and at a resolution of 1920x1080.

 

Go with the 460 gtx since you can do optimus. You can either run on the internal laptop lcd with a performance drop. Or run on the external monitor only and get a 20-30% performance boost.

 

Y is it that it is only 20-30% boost? I thought it should be a huge boost to my graphics as a 5145 is really pathetic as compared to gtx460? And what is optimus? Also, can my laptop support DIY ViDock?

 

I earlier reported an issue when the Intel Driver was updated and then disabled the external card. Now I'm encountering the same symptoms (card recognized but unable to extend to monitor), but I have prevented the Intel drivers from updating so that doesn't seem to be the issue here.

This happens about once every few weeks, and only a complete OS reinstall solves it. Any insight into this problem?

 

i tried my PE4L EC2C with a 3rd computer earlier

his computer is an AMD and has expresscard

i put the computer to sleep and wait for the hdd to finish then i poweron my vidock and plug it on the computer then i resume the computer and nothing is detected

i got the reply from the harmonic guys and they said they will replace my unit.
i also ask them if it is possible to replace my PE4L EC2C with a PE4H PM3N and they said yes, i just had to pay for the difference

right now i am thinking of getting the PE4H PM3N. will that be better for me or should i stick with the EC2C(expresscard)?


also can anyone here try removing video card on vidock and plug it on the computer and run everest and to see if the port is taken(occupied by vidock)?

 

Here are all my videos using the PE3A Adapter and 1st HIS Slience Radeon HD 5570 and then, a Galaxy GTX460 Razor. Enjoy. This is some dangerous stuff make sure your sober and awake.

---------------
PE3A No Mods
YouTube - PE3A Adapter V3.1a Up Close

-----------------

PE3A Modded
YouTube - PE3A v3.1a unrecommended modification for external 12V DC power supply.

-----------------

PE3A Modded with HIS Silence Radeon HD 5570 (Inadequate Power Supply Low Amps 2A max on 12V Rails). Later, I got a 12V 5A Adapter.
YouTube - Dirt 2 with the PE3A Adapter & Same Settings as the Intel HD Graphics on x201 i7-620m

-----------------

PE3A Modded with Galaxy GTX 460 Razor (5 Separate Power Supplies Totaling 156W on 12V Rails)
YouTube - Galaxy GTX 460 Razor on a Lenovo Thinkpad x201 Laptop PE3A

-----------------

PE3A Modded with Galaxy GTX 460 Razor (5 Separate Power Supplies Totaling 156W on 12V Rails) NFS Hot Pursuit 2010
YouTube - NFS Hot Pursuit 2010 (Lenovo Thinkpad x201 Laptop with External Graphics)


External Galaxy GTX 460 Razor with an ExpressCard PE3A Adapter Power On & Power Off [These two additional links were added on 01/29/2011]
Part 1 of 2
YouTube - External Galaxy GTX 460 Razor with an ExpressCard PE3A Adapter Power On & Power Off (1 of 2)
Part 2 of 2
YouTube - External Galaxy GTX 460 Razor with an ExpressCard PE3A Adapter Power On & Power Off (2 of 2)


Enjoy.

 

Selling my pe4h set.
PM for details

 

Hey... The dv7-5000 has a intel hm55 chipset....does that mean the likelyhood of other laptops with the hm55 should have expresscard 2.0 as well?

 

DV7-5000 has a HM65 (Series-6) chipset capable of pci-e 2.0 5GT/s. HM55 is pci-e 2.0 for the power management only. It's still only 2.5GT/s.

You'll need an accessible mPCIe or expresscard slot to do a DIY ViDock. Complete listing of parts is available on the first page. The question as to what video card to get for best performance is often asked, so is now a FAQ item on the first page Which video card do you recommend for best performance on my system?.

 

Hi, I am really not sure whether I have an accessible mPCIe or expresscard slot, theres only a HDMI slot and a SD MMC slot from what I've seen on the outside of the laptop and I dont know if the wifi card is accessible as well.. My model is the Asus A42KJ

 

Your notebook doesn't have express card slot & wireless card is located below the keyboard.

 

Oh, thx a lot, and the wireless card is hard to be reached? Must I peel open the lappy in order to access it? And will my warranty be voided?
Anyways, will the wireless card be counted as a 1.0 expresscard or a 2.0

 

No need to disassemble the whole laptop. You just need to disconnect the keyboard to access wireless card. Someone at another forum nice enough to share the pictures shown how to access the wireless card. He have A42JE, should be similar with all A42 series.


As long as you don't tempered the warranty sticker, shouldn't be no problem. Wireless card is attached to mini-PCI-E slot - PCI-E 2.0 x1 port 2 (checked on my Asus, port # might different on yours).

For DIY ViDock setup suggestion, maybe someone else can help/suggest you for the best approach to apply/setup it.

 

Wow, its kinda hard to take out the keyboard huh? Must we unscrew any screws before the keyboard can be taken out? And once the wireless card goes out, then I wont be able to use wifi?

 

The method to take out the keyboard almost similar with any notebooks. I don't see any screw holding the keyboard. You can take out the keyboard without unscrewing anything else (look here). Yes, you won't be able to use wifi.

 

I thought the dv7-5000 had a hm55...well at least according to HP Pavilion dv7-5000 Entertainment Notebook PC series specifications - HP Home & Home Office products

Is it possible for a laptop with the sandy bridge chipset such as hm55/65 to still use a 1st gen I core processor(eg i5 430m)...?

For my vidock setup. The ATX PSU is outside instead of inside a normal PC case....since it's outside. exposed to the elements...could I just block off thetop of the power supply so no dust gets sucked inside? The fan still spins...and the psu never really gets hot at all so I dont think it needs that much air circulation anyways.

 

I have the ViDock 2 Plus with 225watt power adapters which I was using to run my ATI 5870 on my laptop but finally took the chance it could power the GTX 580 which specs state 244Watts. I converted one 6 pin to 8pin and runs just fine and wow what a difference between the 5870 and 580

 

Could you post system details and benchmark results such as 3dmark06/vantage, RE5, dmcv4 per first post? If your system has 4500MHD or Intel HD primary graphics consider installing the Optimus drivers (x1.Opt) to see a 20-333% improvement in performance. Would be a great community service to show benchmark results of HD5870 versus GTX580 on a x1 ViDock.

It's a typo. The new Sandy Bridge DV7-5000 uses a HM65 chipset.

 

Thx so much, wait until I get my hands on the necessary equipments then I will try and fix it onto my laptop, hope you guys can continue to help me once I buy the stuffs =)

Hmm, after seeing your table I really still dont know what chipset or what card should I get. Which card in your opinion would be most value for money and yet bring abt a significant change to my laptop.. I wanna play SC2 at ultra without lags even during 200pop vs 200pop battles and maybe Diablo 3 in the future.

 

Oh ya, a few more qns. Without the wifi card, my lappy is still able to connect to the Internet via LAN cable right? And I only have 1 pcie slot which is beneath the wifi card right?

 

Hi Guys!

I finally jumped in and bought a PE4L and am using it with a GTX460 768MB RAM. I have a Thinkpad T61P (T7300@2GHz, 3GB RAM, Win 7 Pro). How do I get my games to use only the external GPU? Or should I even force the computer to do that?

My internal GPU is a Nvidia Quadro FX570. I have a widget open in Win7 that shows me GPU usage. I tested Team Fortress 2 and my internal GPU goes to 100% but my external GPU only goes to around 60% usage. Is this the best I can do? Or would it help to get the driver to force only external GPU? How do I do that?

Thanks! I searched but this thread is so huge I can't find what the best settings are... I know there are some settings in "Manage 3D settings" in the Nvidia control panel but it is over my head.

I also don't know how to run 3DMark06 for my external card... in the info box it states only my internal card and it runs on my laptop screen, not the external screen attached to it.

Help? Thanks!

 

In Display properties, click on monitor that's being driven by your GTX460 and set it to be the main display:



Please post full system details and benchmarks if you wish to have it included in the first post.

Doesn't look like your system is x1.Opt capable. I'd still get a GTS450 or GTX460. If the non-Optimus performance is unsatisfactory or disconnecting the keyboard to run the DIY ViDock overly tedious, then consider a notebook upgrade to a more DIY ViDock friendly one, eg: SB or x1.Opt capable.

 

Oh gosh... I can't believe that never crossed my mind... I'll try it and report in! I'll also do a full benchmark after I um.. play a few games. Hehe.

 

On your first page u've posted that the card would be running at 50% effectiveness as compared to the card running on pcie16 slot.. So with the x1 opt. Laptop, the card would be running at 60-70% effectiveness? The tedious part is ok, since I can still play at low without the card. Just that it may not be able to support a 1920x1080 resolution..

 

Here is my Report:

System: Lenovo Thinkpad T61p 14-inch
CPU: T7300 @ 2GHz
RAM: 3 GB
Video Card: GTX460 @ 1x
3Dmk6: 4827
RE5.var: 53.6

Experience: bleuiko
Setup: Yes
Ports: ICH8M / ExpressCard
OS: Win 7 32-bit

UPDATED: Ran into some trouble but it is working now. Here is the new experience report:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences-277.html#post7130632

 

Blah.

I'm a bit conflicted. I'm trying to figure out whether to get the GTX 460 or the 6850; the 6850 is much more power efficient and as a result is generally much quieter with their stock coolers (e.g. the Asus 6850 review on SPCR). In this case, if I ever decide to use the video card in a dedicated desktop system, which is very likely, the 6850 would make it much easier (and cost-effective) to build a near-silent rig.

However, I've been hearing bad experiences with using AMD cards for DIY ViDocks, so I'm also leaning towards the GTX 460. With the Optimus drivers, the 460 seems to outperform the 6850 quite significantly, but at the cost of it being noisier.

This has been killing me for the past few days. Anyone have any insight to offer?

 

I'm so sorry, but all this information is really confusing to me. I really want to do a DIY ViDock because my laptop has a crappy x3100 built in. I own a Acer Extensa 5620-6830 and I have a expresscard 54 slot. I'm just wondering how would I go about doing a DIY ViDock. I'm seriously thinking about just buying a setup that's already been implemented such as this one here. I don't understand what the difference between a PE4H and a PE4L is. If anything, I know that graphic cards can fit into PE4H since it has that one slot. I wouldn't know what to do with a PE4L. I just want to spend say $200 and stop using this integrated chip I have on my laptop. Any help would be greatly appreciated, really. My cousin has been wanting me to play some new games with him and I can't due to my laptops poor GPU. Either a suggested setup or anything that will work will be helpful. Thank you.

 

Newbie question here;
My system
Lenovo t400
Intel P8600
CPU-Memory 3gb
OS: windows xp 32bit

diy vidock setup
pe4h
gtx460
430w pwr supply

Current problem
GTX 460 card was detected but showing error 12.

I have been reading this forum for hours. trying to follow this

// How do I create the DIY ViDock Setup 1.x bootitem in my XP/Vista/W7 bootmenu or create a USB bootdisk?

Step 1: Install the DIY ViDock Setup 1.x image as a bootloader menuitem
Spoiler :
1. Download and install ImDisk

2. Run DIY ViDock Setup v1.x downloaded from the above. Extract to c:\DIYVDock (default).

3. Run c:\DIYVDock\setup-disk-image.bat which will defrag the disk image, a pre-requisite for being able to be used as a disk image. It will then automatically setup your XP/Vista/Win7 bootloader to contain a DIY ViDock Setup 1.x menuitem. The disk image will be read and *written* to exactly as if it was a floppy/USB drive. Advantage being faster speed and more convenience than a USB bootdisk. c:\DIYVDock\setup-disk-image automatically doing the steps in the spoiler, with these results. Can setup the files manually as shown in the link if there is a problem with setup-disk-image.
Spoiler :
For XP adds the following line to the end of c:\boot.ini
Code:

c:\grldr="DIY ViDock Setup v1.x"

For Vista/Win7 creates a new BCD entry, substituting {fcdfe...} below with the {id} returned as output of the the first command.
Code:

bcdedit /create /d "DIY ViDock Setup 1.x" /application bootsector
The entry {fcdfe75a-e170-11de-9711-001f3ba541f7} was successfully created.

bcdedit /set {fcdfe75a-e170-11de-9711-001f3ba541f7} device partition=c:
bcdedit /set {fcdfe75a-e170-11de-9711-001f3ba541f7} path \grldr.mbr
bcdedit /displayorder {fcdfe75a-e170-11de-9711-001f3ba541f7} /addlast

4. Unmount v: if it's mounted. In Explorer right-click v: and choosing unmount.

5. Mount c:\DIYVDock\DIYViDock-Setup-10e5.img as V: by running C:\DIYVDock\diyvidock-mount.bat or right-clicking it->select mount->v:.

6. [Optional] Place shortcut to C:\DIYVDock\diyvidock-mount.bat into your Windows Startup Folder to mount the DIY ViDock Setup disk image as v: drive on bootup. It is handy to have access to make changes using notepad to v:\config\startup.bat, v:\config\pci.bat, v:\config\devcon.txt and access v:\diag diagnostic output files.

I m currently stuck on 3 as I have no clue how to add the line to c:\boot.ini (see attachment picture)

I am wondering if this is the right step for me. I have also try the USB boot method but when I try to create DOS system file from directory C:\DiyVidock. its says that there is no DOS system file exist

I also manage to mount diy vidock image.bat into V but I have no clue what to do after that

Any helps will be appreciated

 

PCI-e graphics cards will fit fine in the PE4L, I have one. I am not 100% sure about the difference between the PE4H and the PE4L, I think the PE4H allows for dual connection (expresscard slot + mPCI-e). If you're trying to do a cheap set up just go PE4L. I managed to get my DIY ViDock set up for about $155 total (with a EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 - 1GB RAM, $95 AR shipped). I got a PE4L ($60 shipped) and took an old ATX power supply (free). Even if you have to buy an ATX or DC power supply you could do your entire setup for under $200.

 

ok - i'm a noob.

this is where i get stuck - aft i issue the igp off command, i'm stuck on this screen - nothing happens. if i recall right, i need to hard-reset from here.



help!

 

Wow, the issue was iTunes. Installing iTunes breaks my ViDock, uninstalled it and everything worked again. Why would this be?

 

Howdy all,

Semi-long-time reader, first-time poster here.

First, the relavent laptop specs:
Lenovo U330
Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.4GHz
4GB DDR3 1066MHz
Switchable graphics:
ATi Mobility Radeon HD 3450 256MB DDR3
Intel 4500MHD

I had considered putting together a DIY setup, but I decided to see if I could find a ViDock first. Sure enough, I found and bought a ViDock3 on Craigslist. The guy had a ViDock and Sapphire HD 5570 1GB DDR3 in it, and sold it for a fantastic deal.

Anywho, the HD 5570 was a pain to get working. It took 3 days, and somewhere in the middle there my tinkerings corrupted whatever system file(s) handle(s) PnP in Windows 7, so I had to reinstall Windows. If I plugged it in pre-POST, I would get blank screens and no hard drive activity. If I plugged it in with Windows running, it would give me a Code 12. If I plugged it in after sleeping, it would give me a Code 12. If I used the DIY thumbdrive and plugged in the card, it would blank out my laptop screen while the external monitor remained blank, and I had to eject the adapter again to be able to sleep or reboot the computer (the screen would remain blank until put to sleep or rebooted). When I was close to losing hope, I stumbled upon a procedure that worked!

I think the fact that my switchable graphics were also ATi somehow led to a driver conflict. I may also have had trouble using a real Vidock that a DIY-er might not have had, perhaps because the DIY set can be powered up before plugging in (right?).

Since I could never find a good link explaining how to do it, I thought I'd share the procedure that I finally found to work for my system (Switchable ATI/Intel graphics, real ViDock, ATI card, Windows 7 x64):

(1) Using the DIY ViDock setup on a USB thumbdrive, remove discrete graphics, compact, eject external graphics adapter, bootload.
(2) Go into your device manager, and disable your Intel graphics.
(3) Plug in external ATi card.
(3A) If drivers have already been installed, uninstall the device, eject, plug in again, allow to install drivers.
(4) Uninstall your Intel graphics. You don't want to restart now.
(5) Let ATI finish installing. It'll show the device working without errors in the device manager, but you'll still be looking at your laptop screen.
(6) Scan for new hardware, let Intel drivers reinstall. If this works for your system, you'll have a signal on your external monitor soon thereafter.

Yeah, there may be a better way, but I couldn't find one, and this worked. When I got it running, I could install Catalyst, so I maxxed out the OC settings (700MHz clock, 950MHz memory) and it was perfectly stable.

3DMark06 score for the HD 5570 (OC'd) was 6238.

My second dilemma was whether to get something a little better. I was torn between the HD 5670 and the GT 430, which were the best cards I could get to work within 75W. The GT 430 wouldn't normally be in the same class as the HD 5670, but I wondered if, with Optimus drivers, it would be. I couldn't really find a direct comparison here. It's understandable. People here have mostly DIY setups running off of desktop power supplies, and are not limited to 75W. Actually, I really wanted a GT 440, which is supposedly an OEM-only part, but I swear to goodness they don't freaking exist. I think I saw it in a new Gateway system, but there's no way to buy just the card, so whatever.

That considered, I decided to get the MSI N430GT, a GT 430 part that's factory overclocked to 785MHz core and 1000MHz memory. It only took a night to figure this one out, as it was far easier to get it working. You just <S>do step 1 above, then</S> sleep your computer, then plug in the ViDock and wake up your computer again. No more having to uninstall drivers every time I want to use the ViDock. I love it!

Getting Optimus to work was also easy ( Avlan's 266.35 64-bit).

3DMark06 score for the GT 430 (factory OC'd, Optimus drivers) is 7721. That's about 24% better than the HD 5570, though I don't know if that over- or under-represents the impovement in real game performance. Also, haven't tried overclocking the GT 430 yet, though, so it's not quite a fair fight.

I'll see about posting scores for the GT 430 (1) without the Optimus drivers, and also (2) properly overclocked with the Optimus drivers.

I hope this helps somebody someday. If not, still thought I'd share, maybe for benchmark purposes.

UPDATE 1/27/2011: I had assumed the ViDock boot disk would be necessary for my NVidia card because it was necessary for my ATi card, but I have mistakenly discovered that this is not the case. I can, in fact, normally boot, put the computer to sleep, plug in the ViDock, and wake the system, and the external NVidia card works just fine while my ATi dedicated GPU gets a Code 10 (device will not start).

 

Update on the problem
I decided to do a clean install on my system using Windows 7 64bit now.
No more error 12. gtx 460 se is detected but I get code 43 instead. When I disable the internal graphic card (mobile intel(R)45 Express Chipset Family), the error 43 disappeared but I still get no signal on my monitor.

Any help from the experts out there

 

Hi!

Thanks for all the help everyone. I'm here to post my results.

I have a HP tx2z-1000 CTO (the touchscreen laptop)

My 3dmarks score went from 1346 to 5682 using HD5670 !!! Huuuuuge!

The only problem is I'm not seeing any improvement in actual usage, like in starcraft 2. I have set it to only show on external monitor and when I check dxdiag. It says that I have the right video card but a whopping 2675mb of ram (the card is only 1 gb).

Therefore, I'm pretty sure that its using the onboard graphics. Is there anything I can do to improve performance? Thanks!

Ram

 

Sadly I can't benchmark the GTX 580, there is some sort of conflict with the dedicated gpu on the laptop that keeps trying to use it for any benchmarks. This is including if I disable my primary card in device manager just for the benchmark. I'm assuming this is because both the dedicated and vidock'd gpus are both nvidia. When I was using the ATI 5870 the 2 devices ran w/o a hitch and could benchmark, including running windows experience index which came out to be 6.9 on the 5870. My dedicated gpu is a Quadro FX880M so no luck on using Optimus drivers. Only reason I went w/ a GTX 580 vs say a new ATI 6970 was because my 5870 had problems running some games (mainly FPS like Bad Compay 2) on the 580 all games I have which had issues on the ATI are no more. Only benchmark I could do are ones from games... I now use Final Fantasy XIV benchmark for score comparison that I can give you: (all running on max settings and on AC power)

FX880M : 1500 (just barely hit the minimum specs occassionaly get slightly lower)
ATI 5870 : 2432
GTX 580 : 3485

Runs Bad Company 2 both campaign and multiplayer w/o any hitch on max everything.

My laptop specs are:
Lenovo W510 touchscreen
i7-940XM 2.1Ghz turbo 3.3Ghz (oc'd 3.86Ghz)
Nvidia Quadro FX880M 1GB dedicated gpu
OCZ 260GB Agility 2 SSD
OCZ 16GB (4x4GB) 10666 9-9-9-20
ViDock2 Plus with PNY XLR8 GTX 580

 

Are these screenshots taken with the GTX driving the screens? I had a code 43 and it turned out that my card was bad. I changed nothing and replaced the card at the store and it worked perfectly. This is not always the case as driver issue can cause code 43 too but I would try to test the card on another computer or swap it out to eliminate that possibility before messing too much with it.

 

There is a significant development regarding the ExpressCard 2.0 port
that was supposed to bring some hope in future for this solution:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/547233-sager-8150-expresscard-slot.html#post7094885

All new high-end notebooks do not have an ExpressCard port, which clearly states where all the ODM/OEM abuse is going. I see this as a direct response towards solutions like *Vidock.

Same thing with Optimus, they will not unlock its functionality but for the under mid-level laptops.

 

Hopefully not ALL notebook companies abuse the potential of a vidock.
Think of MSI and it's GUS.At least they should be encouraging it.

Is it possible in the future we could use USB 3.0, ESATA, and or multiple expresscard slots for a vidock....if a notebook was designed that way....

 

If your game is CPU-intensive ( http://www.techspot.com/review/305-starcraft2-performance/page13.html), it won't benefit a lot, given the weak AMD CPUs on the TX2s and the added bottleneck of the new graphics card communicating via the @x1 Vidock bus (normally these cards would communicate via @x16, whether as Desktop cards or mobile cards inside the notebook).

The extra RAM available to the card does not mean the new card is not being used. The drivers/Windows, by default, "attach" extra system RAM (Shared System Memory) to the card's own dedicated VRAM.

You may also need to revisit the graphics settings within the games you mention...

 

For a vidock setup, is it suggested to get a external monitor with a low resolution such as 1366x768/1440x900 for best performance? Or go with a 1920x1080 monitor? Card is a 460 gtx 1gb.....if it was running at x16 then it'd be the higher resolutionis obviously the choice..but since we are limited to x1 wut would u suggest?

 

Playersnoopy, what resolution are you running BFBC2 at? Is it a x1 setup?

 

Okay, just looking through some of the post and I realize there was a guy who had the same laptop as me, Fardavid to be exact. Anyway, he managed to get a HD4870 attached to a PE4L. I'm guessing I could do the same, but I also read that a HD5xxx card would give better results. I'm probably going to go with a similar setup since we both have the same laptop, I may run into similar problems but I will have this thread to guide me through it, in a way.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if I could use a similar setup. I plan on getting a PE4L-EC2C(express card) since I have an unused expresscard 54 slot that I can just pop it into right...? Hopefully, I didn't buy anything yet, but I will once I get confirmation. Anyway, I plan on getting a HD5xxx card, but when searching for cards, I get like a Diamond/HIS/XFX Radeon HD 5770 results. Are all these cards the same, why the different names. They are all labeled as a Radeon HD5770, but the all have different prices. Is one better than the other, or are they all the same?

Sorry for the long post, so in the end, I just want to know. Would I be able to use a PE4L-EC2C cable along with a HD5770 and get things working? Also, what power supply would I need to power up the card, either a suggested power supply, or specifications needed to get the card running? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm trying to get this done asap.

EDIT
Could I use this setup. I plan on getting a HD5770 anyway, so would this work on my Acer Extensa 5620? Thanks.

 

@ bleuiko
Notebook Enthusiast

Thx for the reply. However i don't think the problem is defective card because when I disable the onboard graphic card first from device manager before installing the nvidia driver, i don't have any error. Its just that I get no signal on my external monitor.
"Are these screenshots taken with the GTX driving the screens?" I am not too sure and I don't think so since the only connection between the card and my laptop is the expresscard. There is a separate div cable from the card connected to my external monitor and I get no signal.

Default Re: DIY ViDock Experiences
Quote:
Originally Posted by becak View Post
Update on the problem
I decided to do a clean install on my system using Windows 7 64bit now.
No more error 12. gtx 460 se is detected but I get code 43 instead. When I disable the internal graphic card (mobile intel(R)45 Express Chipset Family), the error 43 disappeared but I still get no signal on my monitor.

Any help from the experts out there
Are these screenshots taken with the GTX driving the screens? I had a code 43 and it turned out that my card was bad. I changed nothing and replaced the card at the store and it worked perfectly. This is not always the case as driver issue can cause code 43 too but I would try to test the card on another computer or swap it out to eliminate that possibility before messing too much with it.

 

You know what I'm sorry I've been calling mine ViDock 2 Plus.. I meant ViDock 4 Plus... sorry for any confusion.

It's x16 and I run everything on full res on my 24" which is 1920x1200 cuz it's an older monitor. Seems new standard full res is 1080.

So all my games including BFBC2 is at 1920x1200 at max settings. SC2 also at full res, ultra+extreme, and even that game looks better for some reason than before. When playing desert strike midway I can still manage 50-103fps depending on number of troops on screen, final fight is still ridiculously laggy of course, but definitely dramatically noticibly better on the GTX 580.

I probably would have been happy with the ATI 5870 if it wasn't buggy and crashed occassionally in games like BFBC2 and Crysis. Performance while I would estimate about 30% lower than the 580, in actual use, it was still more than adequate for almost all games (as long as it didn't crash at least on my computer). I also prefer having an ATI driver along side my dedicated Nvidia driver because they never ran into problems but with 2 Nvidia cards I have driver issues when I unplug my vidock, kinda annoying but manageable.

 

Well if it is a Vidock 4plus i'm pretty sure it is still a x1 interface with the computer, since that is all an expresscard 1.0 slot can do. I was thinking about doing a x1 optimus or x2 setup with the DIY vidock components using a gtx 470, 560, or possibly a gtx 570 but I would be running it at 1920 x 1080 (or 1920 x 1200 if i use the monitor currently on my desktop).
Have you tried running 3dmark11, or does that not work as well? There must be a way to disable the onboard card completely...

 

Run the RE5 demo, the FPS will at least give an idea of performance as compared to other setups.

 

@apollo fox

I have similar system to yours.
Do you encounter any error code/problem whatsoever when you first hook up everything?

or you just perform the vidock setup method before messing with the graphic card? and that's the reason everything is smooth sailing for you.