DIY eGPU experiences

You need both 12V and 5V going to the floppy molex to be used on the PE4L.

xbox360 PSU has 5V@1A (5W) which is downregulated to 3.3V by the P4L.
expresscard slot can provide [email protected] (4.3W)
pci-e max requirements is 3.3V@3A (10W)

If you jumper JP3+JP4, you'd have 9W available. Just shy of the max 10W required but I highly doubt the 3.3V line on a video card would consume 10W. In fact, the 5W might be enough.

A good idea. Likely that connector uses higher gauge wiring. So the Black-Yellow-Yellow leads each can carry 25W. There's your 75W total.

 

i finally got myself a monitor!!!

i bought a used 20" Dell Ultrasharp 2007WFP S-IPS for $90 including tax and shipping

i also got a Steelseries Ikari Laser for $22


i can now play Grid @ 1680x1050 maxed out that is very playable (about 33-42FPS on Fraps)

i can also play Crysis @ 1680x1050 medium settings (about 24-35FPS on Fraps)

i can also play Dirt 2 @ 1680x1050 on low (about 27-42FPS on Fraps)

overall the feeling is positive and the monitor that i got is Phenomenal compared to my crappy internal LCD

i suspect my cpu and the bandwidth bottleneck is holding back my GPU. i also disabled my onboard gpu(X3100)

im currently installing my other games and want to have hands on as soon as possible

 

Hi guys, I have just installed my DIY Vidock. I don't know why my PSU always shut down when I run BIG 3D games? The external power supply is 600w, I think it should support enough for my Galaxy Gtx 460. Any one please can help me ?

 

i previously owned a Logisys 575w SLI power supply and whenever i ran any 3d apps, the video card and power supply would turn off

i discovered that if you power supply is not able to deliver the power required, it would turn off itself to prevent overload

not all powersupply can able to output the "claim "watts" of the manufacturer"

for example my Logisys 575w SLI can't deliver its claimed watts so it would turn off itself

i returned my power supply and got a quality one. i got an OCZ Stealth Xtreme 2 500w and so far it is very quiet and according to the reviews that i saw, its got a very good ripple and noise and has excellent power draw(80 plus)

my advice for you is to use the included molex to pci-e adapter because that works on my Logisys 575w SLI

 

Is this with a GTX 460 x1 without optimus?

 

my computer has X3100 so no optimus for me

 

Ok, thanks.

 

Thank you so much for your help, when I am running the 3D mark, it also turned off, I think I should replace it for a better one, although it was called '600w'...

 

ImportBeats,

Not sure if you still read this forum but Im not having much luck getting around this error 21 issue, so I was wondering if you could tell me how you got it to work? Did you need to use the boot disk? If so, what settings did you use?

To anyone else:
Even though in the setup it has pci_alloc_valid as 'yes' and 256MB block available, I'm still getting error 21 issue. Any tips on what I can try?

I have a GeForce 330M onboard and a Radeon 4870 externally.

Thanks very much in advance.

 

my notebook is not at all recognizing my gtx460/PE4L:

1) PE4L, no gpu attached, power supply and EC2C connected: both LEDs on, everything looks good, thumbdrive detected, board is cool
2) PE4L attached to gpu and notebook. PE4L is powered, but GPU disconnected from atx psu: D1 turns off but D2 remains lit, IC1 of the board quickly becomes EXTREMELY hot
3) PE4L attached to gpu and notebook. PE4L and GPU both connected to atx psu: fan of gpu spins up fast then maintains slow speed. D2 light on and D1 off. Notebook detects nothing, boots up fine as if nothing is plugged in at all.

* I tried every configuration of the switches/jumpers. currently, sw1 and sw2 set to default and jp3/jp4 both closed.
* ATX psu is turned on by SWEX. PE4L connected via 4-pin. gfx card hooked up to same psu.
* I also ordered a new PE4L because the 1st one heated up so much it fried
* I tested the PE4L with a small gpu from an old desktop (not requiring external power) and both lights were on. did not pursue further to try detecting crappy gpu in notebook.
* Tried a different mini-HDMI cable
* Tried restarting with vidock off, sleep, then connect
* Tried compacting ports with vidock setup-- boot with vidock off (doesnt make a diff if on or off, boots fine anyway), turn on psu, compact ports (tried bridges, 36-bit, and 32-bit), disconnect psu, then chainload-- win7x64 just hangs at splash screen

questions:
- Is it normal for the pcb to get so hot?
- What is this bizarre thing where the board gets hot / LED D1 turns off as soon as I plug in the (unpowered) gtx460-- does it just suck power out of the PE4L?
- Could my gfx card be defective? I dont' have a desktop to test it in. Galaxy gtx460gc edition, new.
- My PSU, from sparkle, is single rail rated 12V 25A -- should be enough?

I'm heading out today to buy a USB male-male cable to provide the board extra power, but otherwise I'm out of ideas. Also, I have no background in electrical engineering aside from being a garden-variety geek and helping an ex-bf with various EE projects, so anything involving an oscilloscope or soldering iron is out of the question.

Halp??

 

IC1 is the 5v->3.3V voltage regulator. For an ATX PSU, ensure have JP3=open and JP4=closed so that 3.3V is supplied by the 5V->3.3V regulator.

If Everest->Motherboard->Chipset->Southbridge doesn't list anything on your pci-e bus after you sleep, poweron DIY ViDock, resume, then your video card isn't detected.

Problem could be the DIY ViDock components OR your expresscard slot. I'd suggest try plugging your setup in another expresscard slot equipped notebook to eliminate the notebook being the problem.

 

Hi there. I recently bought me a gtx460 as i've read about its outstanding performance here and thought it might come in handy for optimus if I buy a new laptop. Right now I'm using a Macbook Pro first generation (2,16GHz Core Duo).

Problem:
I cannot get both video cards allocated correctly via compact. If I sleep the computer, plug in the vidock an resume, it works. Even though my drivers won't detect physx capability.
So there must be a possible solution to get all my PCI addresses allocated via compact.
Compact runs smooth and says there are 512MiB or even 1024 of free space left but depending on the configuration (ALL 32bit, 36bit external, force32 internal, only external 32bit, and so on) I get either a error code 35 from my internal gfx (Ati radeon x1600) or a code 43 from my external. I can't get both of them running.
I just tried to build a custom pci.bat using this startup.bat:

Code:

call waitvid 60 10de:0e22
a:/core/compact.exe pciend 100000000 useonly 10de:0e22 10de:0beb preserve 1002:71c5 import devcon.txt makebatch A:\config\pci.bat
call pci
call grub4dos w7

still code 35 on my internal.

I am using german Windows 7 32bit. I edited devcon txt to show "PCI BUS" and not "PCI-BUS".

What else might be wrong?

-> added screenshots of successful windows allocation.

here my pci.bat:

Code:

REM r:/core/compact.exe pciend 100000000 useonly 10de:0e22 10de:0beb preserve 1002:71c5 import devcon.txt makebatch R:\config\pci.bat
REM created Sun Feb 20 12:17:59 2011
echo Performing PCI write (compact@Sun Feb 20 12:17:59 2011)

setpci -s 4:0.0 14.l=f000000c 18.l=0 1c.l=f800000c 20.l=0 10.l=fc000000 -s 4:0.1 10.l=febfc000 -s 0:1.0 20.w=ffd0
setpci -s 0:1.0 22.w=ffd0 24.w=d001 28.l=0 26.w=dff1 2c.l=0 -s 0:1c.0 20.w=ffa0 22.w=ffa0 24.w=fff1 28.l=0
setpci -s 0:1c.0 26.w=1 2c.l=0 -s 0:1c.1 20.w=ffc0 22.w=ffc0 24.w=fff1 28.l=0 26.w=1 2c.l=0 -s 0:1c.2 20.w=fc00
setpci -s 0:1c.2 22.w=feb0 24.w=f001 28.l=0 26.w=fbf1 2c.l=0 -s 0:1e.0 20.w=ff90 22.w=ff90 24.w=fff1 28.l=0
setpci -s 0:1e.0 26.w=1 2c.l=0 -s 0:1c.2 1c.b=50 1d.b=50
set pci_written=yes

I tried to imitate the computer's suspend->plug vidock in->resume behavior. Didn't work. Still error 35 on internal.

 

Your getting the error 43 on the GTX460 because it's being hotplugged and isn't 'configured'. Correct this by going into Setup->Video Cards->PCI Dump.Save (Win). Follow instructions to create \config\10de0e22.bin, then alter your startup.bat to contain:

Code:

:: Prompt to hotplug the GTX460
call waitvid 60 10de:0e22
:: Ensure have done Video Cards->PCI Dump.Save (Win)
call pcicap load -d 10de:0e22
:: ensure have done a 32-bit PCI compaction in Setup
call pci.bat
:: Chainload to Win7
call grub4dos w7

If you still have problems with your combo then I'd suggest evaluate the generated pci.bat, comparing to your pci space after you do a standby/resume and manually alter to suit.

 

Thanks for reply nando.

But:
I still get the error. During setup, after I ran compact, nvflash shows me the card as configured, regardless of whether or not I loaded the pci dump.
I now loaded the dump and did a 32bit vid_2 (nvidia) only compact.
internal x1600 is okay, but still code 43 on external.

same result using your startup.bat. I somehow guess, there's some other problem going on here ... :/

How do I read the PCI.bat?

Code:

setpci -s 4:0.0 14.l=f000000c 18.l=0 1c.l=f800000c 20.l=0 10.l=fc000000 -s 4:0.1 10.l=febfc000 -s 0:1.0 20.w=9830

looks very cryptic to me. Do I only have to take care of the memory addresses? or do I need to assign an IRQ and E/A addresses, too?

and about pcie scaling:
Anyone know if there's a chance of an ati 68xx or even 69xx outperforming an gtx460 or 560 x1 2.0 (optimus?) setup?
Seems to me, the ati cards are easier to use, while nvidia delivers higher performance via optimus :/

I might change my card and try some others, love RMA 2GB don't seem to improve performance that much anyway.

 

Great news - I finally got the viDock to register on my VAIO F-Series without the 21 error!

Bad news - It was only after going from 6GB of RAM to 2GB.

I tried pretty much every combination of settings in the boot disk compactor, but it either freezes on boot up, or still gives me the 21 error. I also tried enabling 4 hidden PCIe ports, disabling the WLAN card, and even tried adding the Disable4GBTAGLimit reg key as suggested in the FAQ.

Here are the screen shots of before I installed everything:

memory layout:
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/6...0215171705.png

South Bridge configuration from AIDA64:
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/525...0215172613.png

Can you guys tell by looking at this if my machine is even capable of using the ViDock with over 2GB of ram?

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi Nando. But, is this solution compliant with ithildin's PSU recommendations? Are all 12V and 5V in a single rail?

 

Please repost your memory layout with a valid link. Also run Setup 1.x's diag and post a link to an archive of the \diag folder's contents.

Your GTX460 will is 4:0.0. It's also attached to an Intel pci-e port, 0:1c.x. The pci-e port needs to be configured with resources matching those required by the GTX460. Your pci.bat will have both.

Your Macbook Pro could get better performance with an ATI card if it can do the x1E tweak. Even without it the ATI card is likely to perform better with dx9 titles. DX10 see Nvidia outperform the ATI card.

The 203W xbox 360 PSU is a single-rail [email protected] (198W) and 5V@1A (5W). A reference 675/1800 GTX460 requires ~160W so 198W is certainly sufficient.

 

Ok, sorry for digging up this question, but Nando said my laptop probably wont be able to run Optimus and acer47 said mine can. Can any1 clarify this? My laptop is Asus A42kj series with i5 520M and HD5145 graphics from ATI.

 

Good day all,
Can I fit a DIY ViDock to my Asus 5735Z, if so what do I need to purchase besides graphics card.

 

Nando4: Sorry about the broken links - my mistake! I will retake the screenshots and zip up the diag folder as you requested.

Question: When I take the screenshots of the memory and south bridge, should I have the external video card inserted at the time? And should I have all 6GB of RAM in, or just the 2GB?

Thanks again. Looking forward to being able to use all my mem soon!

 

Hi, I have just put together my ViDock using an HD4650 and I'm having a few problems. I've been searching through these pages for an answer, I've yet to find anyone with a similar experience to mine but I have also not read all 300 pages, so please tell me to go off and do more homework if the answer is out there already.



I'm running win7-64bit on a Toshiba U500. The graphics card is an ATI Radeon HD4650 and I'm not supplying any extra power to it (it doesn't have the option) and the only power I'm supplying to the PE4H is through the AC power supply. I understood that no ATX power supply was needed.

Right after windows finishes loading and before the login screen appears I get a blue screen. I can work around this issue using the sleep workaround. When I do this however, the system will recognize the card but it is very unstable. The external screen is very choppy and it looks similar to what becak experienced. The slightest increase in processing, such as switching to another window, causes the card to restart which takes between a second and 5 minutes, usually switching back and fourth between a black screen and a screen on which the mouse will move but nothing else will change (my start menu won't even light up when hovering over it). Sometimes the system will not recover at all but if it does I get a balloon from windows saying something along the lines of: "the display adapter stopped responding but has now successfully restarted".

I've spent some time trying to change the configuration using the setup but have not been able to make any noticeable changes. My knowledge of ports and memory addressing and so-fourth is pretty limited, I do have a computer science degree but I focused on more high level programming.

Has anyone considered starting a wiki manual?

Thanks!

 

Hello,
I will be getting a free laptop in a week, Asus 5735Z, recon its no to bad but the on board graphics is very poor. Will a DIY ViDock work on this machine? I do not no if it has the right ports to connect a external pci-e gpu. Have a 32" full HD panel that I would like to connect it to, but I recon the intel gpu will struggle even with HD movies, let alone a fairly recent game. This ViDock set up looks great because even a reasonably cheap graphics card will boost the performance of the asus machine I am getting. Added bonus is it can be used with future laptops and rather spend cash on a better spec and not have to fork out for expensive mobile graphics chips and deal with the noise/heat.

 

Gather pics/diags with the video card installed and detected and 6GB RAM installed.

Your symptoms sound like power starvation. Suggest attach a ATX PSU to drive your PE4H. It will have a guaranteed 75W on tap to drive the slot. If the problem still occurs, then use ATI Catalyst to overvolt your GPU slightly. It may not be getting enough power to run reliably.

No wiki manual, but a good idea if someone wants to take it onboard.

 

Just One Question about your Problems. Which Driver do you use for that setup????

 

Quote from my earlier post

//Now, no problem with vidock, however if I am not using vidock

I have this screen refresh problem [see image]. When you are browsing the top part of your browser (above file, edit etc), the image is kinda distorted. sometimes your icon on the desktop get distorted too until you mouse over them which cause the image to get refreshed then it now clear. I never experienced this before installing vidock setup.

Anybody experience this?
Attached Images screen refresh problem.png (274.1 KB, 15 views)

I thought i had resolved this by reinstalling my intel video driver but it didn't.

Whenever I am not using my vidock, I have a screen refresh problem especially when I am running Visual studio 2010.
The fix now will be to disable the IGP but I dont think thats appropriate.

I also pin down the diy vidock image file link to the start->all programs-> accesories->startup
which will automatically give the option to choose upon windows bootup to do the diy vidock setup or start windows 7 normally.

I am also coming from xp to win7


@apollo_fox
Since we had similar laptop do you experience this case when you are not using vidock.
Thx for the optimus test link, I will check it out later. I think my optimus driver is fine, i am satisfied with the performance so far.

Input from others also appreciated

 

Nando4: I have followed you requests and provide you with the following:

North Bridge: http://i53.tinypic.com/vcvts6.png
South Bridge: http://i52.tinypic.com/24x2ur4.png
Memory: http://i51.tinypic.com/1zdyeed.png
Zip of /diag folder: http://yewchuk.com/diag.zip

FYI:
- I dont mind disabling the wireless adapter and memory card readers if it will help.
- In the setup tool I noticed that there are bios-hidden ports 4, 5, 7, and 8 that I can enable if that helps (though it didnt seem to when I tried it)

Thanks again for your efforts, Nando4!

 

I attached a 400W power supply, it didn't seem to have any effect. I also can't seem to get into the catalyst setup, windows crashes when I try to.

Thanks for your dedication. If someone is able to get a domain I can certainly set up and help maintain a wki for this, it may take some burden off of your shoulders.

 

You have 32-bit space to accomodate your HD4870. Proceed to:

1. Boot DIY ViDock Setup 1.x
2. Once in setup, power on your DIY ViDock, hit F5, confirm the HD4870 is listed.
3. Perform 32-bit PCI Compaction on ALL devices on the PCI BUS. Confirm a solution is found. This is necessary to move the devices using range Exxxxxxx to Fxxxxxxx, creating space for the video card to use Exxxxxxx.
4. Chainload Win7.

If this is problematic which it can be on some systems since you are relocating sata controllers/usb controllers, etc, then do a cold restart and change step 4 to be a 36-bit PCI Compaction using only the HD4870. Ensure you have the latest NVidia and ATI drivers loaded as this depends on them being able to address 36-bit PCI space.

Faulty mini HDMI cable or video card is where I'd say the problem is. If have another video card to test then can confirm if it's the former.

If someone can set up a revision-control type setup where can submit, alter and automatically repackage the latest help docs then that would be super. I like the freedos help system - it can be used in Setup 1.x, put on the web or perused as standalone documents. Maybe even googledocs would do?

 

nando4:

Thanks for looking at my config. I followed your steps and had the following results:

- Installed latest drivers for both video cards.
- Booted into ViDock Setup
- inserted ExpressCard when prompted
- selected 32-bit PCI Compaction on ALL devices. Solution was not found.
- selected 36-bit PCI Compaction on just HD4870. Solution was found.
- chainloaded into windows 7.
- laptop display working and booted into Win 7, but HD4870 not working.
- in device manager HD4870 was not listed under display adapters.
- in System devices, The "Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family PCE Express Root Port 6 - 3B4C" device had an error code of 12.

So it seems the error has moved from the Display Adapters section into the System Devices section.. ie: from the card itself, to the port.. Hmm..

 

Yes. 32-bit will fail because of the entry in devcon.txt below. Make a backup of devcon.txt and then delete the line in RED below and try again. Not sure how important this device is. The 32-bit PCI compaction would then use the Exxxxxxx range for the video card.

Code:

ACPI\PNP0C02\1
    Name: Motherboard resources
    Device has the following resources reserved:
        MEM : fed1c000-fed1ffff
        MEM : fed1b000-fed1bfff
        MEM : f8000000-fbffffff
        MEM : fed20000-fed3ffff
        MEM : fed45000-fed8ffff
        MEM : ff000000-ffffffff
        MEM : fee00000-feefffff
[B][COLOR=RED]        MEM : e8e0b000-e8e0bfff
[/B][/COLOR]

 

Nando4,

I removed the line you suggested and went back into the setup to run the 32-bit compaction once again. This time it did return a solution! However, from the looks of the results I'm not sure it is desired (64MB@f000). Upon booting into windows it locked up right away before even getting to the windows logo.

I took some shots of it before and after the compaction with my iPhone, and uploaded them to my server:

http://yewchuk.com/before.jpg
http://yewchuk.com/after.jpg

Does the help?

Thanks again for your time on this.

 

Updated to the latest ATI driver?

 

can any1 help me clarify whether my laptop can run optimus from GTX460?

 

PM sent.

For others, he has a bios-allocated "systemboard" device at E8000000 that prevents the ATI card from having a contiguous 256MB 32-bit block to allocate to. Unless that device can be moved by bios mods/DSDT overrides or be disabled, he can't use an ATI card. A NVidia Fermi card does 128MB+64MB+32MB allocation so could allocate around the problem area.

Easy way to confirm. Does your Device Manager-> Display Adapters show a Intel Series-4 (4500MHD) or HD adapter like shown here? If no then it's no Optimus for you.

 

so if I have a HD4250 then i can't use the laptops lcd if i tried this?

 

If it just says "Intel HD Graphics" (the chip on an i5) it can run optimus, correct?

 

Means you can't use the automated Optimus internal LCD mode. You could still use the Ultramon/Chung-Gun method with windowed-only apps but would get < 30FPS.

Yes.

 

mine only shows radeon 4500/5100 series... so i guess not then

 

Hey guys,

I've been reading this thread for months now and I'm ready to try this out myself. However, I'd like a little bit of input before I purchase all the hardware, get started, etc.

I'd like to try a PCIe 1.0 x2 using my ExpressCard port and swapping out my Ethernet port. The laptop I'm using has an accessible door to cover the Ethernet port when I'm not using it, so I may be able to use this door instead of unscrewing the bottom of my laptop every time I want to hook-up. Check it out here... (the door is marked with the Ethernet and modem logo that flips open)

Ethernet Port Door: http://thinklaptops.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Sony-VAIO-VGN-SR410J-Side.jpg

The Laptop
Sony Vaio SR490CD
Win 7 64bit
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8800 @ 2.66GHz, 2667 Mhz, 2 Core(s)
North Bridge
Montevina Intel Cantiga PM45
2 GB of RAM x1 which will be upgraded to 4GB x2 (8GB total)
PCI-E 1.0 x16 port #2 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
South Bridge
Montevina Intel 82801IM ICH9M
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #1 - Ethernet controller
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #2 - Empty
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #3 - WiFi Link (to be upgraded as well
PCI-E 1.0 x1 port #4 - Empty

The Set-up
- GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
- PE4H v2.4 connected through ExpressCard and mPCIe port that is currently being used by my Ethernet port
- ASUS VW246H 24" HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor
- PSU (to be determined)

Couple Questions:
a) Do you think this will work???
b) Which PSU should I purchase if I don't want a whole bunch of wires hanging around?
c) Has anyone put any thought into Port Replicator interfaces? Aren't these connected to the motherboard directly and are insanely fast??? I've got a port replicator on the bottom of my lappy to connect with some sort of docking station. Would this be an easy solution for some or am I nutso?

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!!!

 

You might want to consider a GTX560, as they have about the same performance as a GTX470 (even a little better), but draw less power. That is probably what I am going to use when I eventually do my DIY Vidock setup.

 

b) Modular is the way to go, use only the cables you need
c) I have a dock, too - and thought that would be a great idea. It would be a custom job for every system though. Purchased a schematic from one of the websites in Nando4's OP. Though from looking at it couldn't tell if it is possible to do. A lot of TX pins with unknown functions, probably proprietary.

 

Yes I did. I went out today and picked up a new card, GTS450. I think this confirms that something was off with the ATI card but I'm having different troubles now.

Code 43. I used RW-Everything 1.4.7 to create a new binary dump just as explained in previous posts. Setup recognizes my card after loading it but when I try to chainload windows I still get the error.

The steps to create the dump file have been gone over in detail, in my case I'm saving c:\10de0dc4.bin memory 0xe0400000 0x2000.

After that I restart with my expresscard unloaded, lug it in when asked, get into gui dos setup, load state, check it with nvflash, run bridged compaction, select chainload using w7|orig, and select windows 7.

Am I missing something? Any suggestions?

Thanks again!

 

Any of you have issues with playing HD movies in your browser? If I have the vidock on then it lags in fullscreen, but if I run on my intel gpu then it runs fluently :s

 

It is not clear what port is your expresscard slot. If it's port4 then yes, can do a port3+port4 x2 setup. If it's port2 then you cannot do a x2 setup because the Ethernet controller cannot be disconnected and it's lanes used.

After you chainload into Win7 proceed to poweroff the DIY ViDock, do a Device Manager scan to confirm. Then sleep system, resume system and check if the error 43 has gone. If so, do a PCI Save using r-w everything now.

The lag is documented in the spoiler here. Summary: your HD5770@x1 doesn't have enough bandwidth to do 1080p@60Hz. A GTX460 @x1.Opt would solve your problem.

 

I use a 8800GTS 512 but that prolly also has the issue.

Btw would I get alot of performance getting one of the GPUs that support optimus? Seems that way from your post or should I also get that from my 8800gts ?

And also it seems like ATI cards run better on x1 so should I just stick with that or does optimus give other advantages?

Damm a bad score compared to my HD5770

 

Still there. To be sure, this is what I did: Chainload win7|orig, select windows 7, wait for everything to load, unplug express card, checked device manager to see that the card is gone, sleep, plug in express card, end sleep state, checked device manager, still code 43. I also tried unplugging the express card before windows loaded, no difference.

Once again, thank you so much for your help.

 

Hey nando4 - I don't understand. I can't disconnect the Ethernet controller? Does the WiFi link use the Ethernet controller??? I almost never plug in my laptop to an Ethernet cable, I only use WiFi...

So, if the WiFi card uses the Ethernet controller, should I switch the location of my WiFi card to port #2, to open port #3? I'm just confused as to whether I actually use the Ethernet controller. (i.e. I'm not very technically inclined - just a hobbyist)

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

 

Hey apollo - what do you think the bandwidth is on the typical laptop through a port replicator? Do you know how this port actually connects to the motherboard? Maybe it uses one of the PCIe ports... maybe not... wish I knew.

 

Would the DIY ViDock work with Adobe Premiere Pro's mercury engine? I would use an nvidia card, of course

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but the Mercury Engine is just software that takes advantage of whatever hardware you have. Using a video card via the DIY ViDock will add to this hardware. If you want to do some really intense stuff you might find the same GPU works better when installed into a desktop and you can also get a better processor to help out but Premiere will have no idea about your ViDock, only your video card.

Sort of akin to asking whether my glasses will be compatible with my television.