Let's figure out how to make a DIY eGPU (previously DIY ViDock)

research the vidock...

 

What if you connect expressport --> PE4L --> videocard --> ??? --> pci-e x1 tuner <-- PE4L <-- minipci-e ?

 

umm... can you explain more? not following what you mean, sorry.

 

What I mean is.. Can we convert the output from the videocard to a signal that's recognizable by the tuner and direct it to the tuner so we could use our laptop's lcd instead of an external monitor? PCI-E tuner should be faster than usb 2.0

Or maybe there are other devices other than a tuner that can do the same?

 

Interesting. Is there a TV Tuner that can take VGA or HDMI input? If yes, then it's technically possible to redirect the output from a video card attached to a PE4L+EC2C (expressport) to a PE4L+PM3N (mini pci-e port) for capture and display on the internal LCD.

Previously we had discussed using a USB 2.0 frame grabber which wouldn't have the bandwidth for smooth response. x1 1.0 pci-e is plenty of bandwidth for this.

 

So do you mean you will buy two PE4Ls, use one to connect an external graphics card.

then use the other to connect a PCIe video capture card.

It sounds like it would work.
But those PCIe capture cards arnt so cheap.

 

any update on this?

 

New thread created to share the PE4L/PE4H user experience

I've started a new thread DIY ViDock - My experiences so far to share performance and experiences using the finished PE4H/ PE4L products beginning with my own.

I would suggest we move the user experience to that thread and allow this thread to continue with discussion of Let's Figure out how to make a DIY ViDock, ie: creating the hardware.

 

^^^
cool, i responded in there.


any new updates on the PE4H release????

 

Cool. I'm waiting to use this for my Dell E1505. Is there any timetable for the PE4H? I'm really itching to get it, but if it's taking too long, I might settle for the PE4L.
Question, would it be better for me to get an HD 4770 or a HD 4850/70? I know the 48-- series performs better but as far as power goes, will I be able to power the video card from the PE4 directly if I have the molex or DC adapter?

 

Shot off another email to Gerry requesting an ETA On PE4H.

See The Truth About Graphics Power Requirements.

• HD4670 can be powered off a 75W adapter as I am doing.
• HD4770 is grey area. It might work off say a 75W adapter, it might not. Officially it has an additional pci-e power connector to drive it so it would be a risk to assume the former.
• HD48xx definitely needs more than 75W. You'll need to connect it's additional pci-e power connectors to something, eg: ATX PSU

pci-e scaling analysis shows x2 link mode benefits from the HD4770/HD48xx increased performance. As does the tested HD3850 which benchmarks to give similar performance to a HD4670. THough note the tested HD3850 only had 256MB of VRAM.

For x1 link mode, it's questionable as the performance wall appears to be pci-e bandwidth rather than GPU processing power. I would suggest more VRAM to decrease pci-e traffic would be more helpful than an incremental gpu speed increase.

We'll get more results as more ppl post their user experiences in the DIY ViDock - My experiences so far thread. A work in progress..

 

Ok, you need an external power supply, but why does it need an external monitor? Can't the laptop receive the video signal of the external graphics card and switch between this and the internal gpu as desired?. Sorry if my question sounds stupid, but I still don't understand completely how this works.
This project sounds quite promissing cause it's quite difficult at least to upgrade the gpu of laptops, and simply impossible in most of cases.

 

It's a smart question, lots of people ask it (including myself).
I will point you to this post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5315502&postcount=506

You can do it, but you might see a delay.
Also you would need to buy two adapters (instead of one) and a PCIe capture card.

It would really need to be tested.

 

Another question:
There are chipsets that already support PCI Express 2.0 like Intel P45M If I'm not mistaken this revision doubles the speed per lane , so 1x = 500 MB. Does this mean that the expressCard interface in laptops with such chipset also has its bandwidth doubled ?.

 

I do not think so. I think you are confusing it with the ExpressCard 2.0. That will double the bandwidth of the express card connection but it still has not been implemented in any computers yet.

 

The "cheapest" tuner/card with hdmi/dvi? input I found is a 'black magic intensity' for $190.... I'd rather buy a 23"+ monitor for that price

 

same here.

 

as for power supply, could I use the adapter of a precision M4400 laptop? it provides 130W. For a Ati 4850 it should be enough.

 

yes, but I think you would need the PE4H because it has voltage regulation.
I'm not sure but I think the PE4L can only accept 12V adapters, while your notebook adapter is probably 15V.

 

Yeah, it is 19.6 V. I don't think PE4L will support it.

 

so we have to use a computer desktop psu correct? if so those can be real cheap.

 

yes.

You have two options I believe.
1. Use a desktop PSU (this is good since you can power any card).
2. Find a power adapter like the one from your notebook (probably best to go for the PE4H if you want to use your notebook power adapter).

 

I'm really wondering about the PCI-E Male to Male cable 30cm x1 schematics.

 

Update from Gerry of hwtools.net

Posted in the progress link duplicated below:

2009/9/21
Finally, PE4H hardware test passed on my Dell M1330 platform.
PE4H engineering sample 14PCS should release Sep/25. You can buy more next week.

Pilot run 300PCS should launch Oct/16

We will do more compatibility test next week.
​

 

Awesome. If the engineering samples are the same as the production ones, I'll pick one up in four days! I'll report back in the other thread depending on how it all turns out.
+rep

 

Awesome nando4!

 

I have a big issue and a question. About 3 years ago I bought a Lenovo ThinkPad T60. I paid it a lot and unfortunately it came with a really crappy graphic solution: Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family. Obviously in this way I cannot use at all any demanding software. Could you please let me know whether I can sort out this issue with a docking station and if yes which model? My idea is to use a decent graphic card attached to it. I know that is a workaround but, for the moment, I don't have any will to change my laptop.

A second option is to try what you described here:
1) buy a case
2) buy PE4H (is my laptop able to support it?)
3) buy a monitor
4) buy a power generator
5) change something in the settings of my pc (what I'm supposed to do? I didn't get that)
6) switch on and pray

Could you please let me know your opinion?

Thank you very much! It's really a very good thread!

 

There's already 1 of the newest radeons from the 5000 series on newegg, it's a 5870...but it's the only one.

I think I'm gonna wait for 5600-5700 instead of getting a 4670, unless it'll be power-hungry

 

56xx is scheduled for Q1 2010 release as shown here. Advantages being:
- 1.5 times increase in performance
- lower consumption 40nm technology (as used in current HD4770)

Though again if you review the PCI-E scaling analysis you see that unless the 5xxx series has decreased pci-e bandwidth limits, at x1 1.0 speed you will likely find bandwidth limiting performance more than the faster processing speed of the newer gpus. At x2 1.0 speed, the more gpu processing speed the better

 

+ Directx 11
+ supposedly the 5750 will be released in Oct 09

- probably has a 6-pin power connector

 

Need a name -> ViDock is copyrighted

Folks - have encountered some resistence from a ViDock reseller to the use of the copywright term ViDock here. There was some minor previous discussion on a product name here, eg: LEGX, GELX which I suggest requires further exploration. Ideally whatever name is chosen should be reflective of the total product. eg:

• GFXArray-x1 = hwtools' PE4L+EC2C/PM3N+Video Card (x1 capable)
• GFXArray-x2 = hwtools' PE4H+EC2C/PM3N+Video Card (x2 capable)

Please post some naming suggestions. This will lead to the thread title "DIY ViDock" replaced with the new name.

 

Sorry guys, I have asked a question yesterday. Could you please be so kind to answer?

Thank you very much

 

I don't think there is any docking station for any notebook that can provide good graphics.

Does your notebook have an express card slot?
Does your notebook have a miniPCIe slot?

If the answer is yes to one or both of my questions then you can do what is described in this thread.

First thing to do would be get your hands on the PE4L or PE4H or the vidock2 (if you have an expresscard slot).

Then connect it to your notebook, stick a card in there.
Start up and see what happens.

If it doesn't work then more help will be given to you.
Right now it's hard to tell you what to do since there is a chance it will work straight away

 

Thank you very much. This is what I have. No idea about the slots you mentioned. From here http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T60 stated tha I should have it. How I can chek it out?


Lenovo T60 (1951FEG) with mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset Family

CPU: T5600 x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 6

Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile Report

Report Date: 09/21/2009
Report Time[hr:mm:ss]: 18:50:18
Driver Version: 6.14.10.4926
Operating System: Windows XP* Professional, Service Pack 3 (5.1.2600)
Default Language: English
DirectX* Version: 9.0
Physical Memory: 2038 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory: 8 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory: 224 MB
Graphics Memory in Use: 7 MB
Processor: x86 family 6 Model 15 Stepping 6
Processor Speed: 1828 MHZ
Vendor ID: 8086
Device ID: 27A2
Device Revision: 03


* Accelerator Information *

Accelerator in Use: Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family
Video BIOS: 1313
Current Graphics Mode: 1024 by 768 High Color (60 Hz)



* Devices Connected to the Graphics Accelerator *


Active Notebook Displays: 1


* Notebook *

Monitor Name: ThinkPad Display 1024x768
Display Type: Digital
Gamma Value: 2.20
DDC2 Protocol: Supported
Maximum Image Size: Horizontal: Not Available
Vertical: Not Available
Monitor Supported Modes:
640 by 480 (60 Hz)
800 by 600 (60 Hz)
1024 by 768 (50 Hz)
1024 by 768 (60 Hz)
Display Power Management Support:
Standby Mode: Supported
Suspend Mode: Supported
Active Off Mode: Supported


* SDVO Encoder Report *

** Encoder 1 **
Vendor ID: Chrontel
Device ID: 60
Device Revision: 6
Major Version: 1
Minor Version: 1

* Other names and brands are the property of their respective owners.

 

I don't really think it's important to know what your current video card is.

I think your notebook has an expresscard slot (from the quick search I did on the net), but can you confirm this?

 

From here http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T60 is stated that I should have it. How I can chek it out? I mean there is a kind of sysinfo that I can run?

 

Firstly, what do you have on the side of your notebook?

Do you see a slot or two?


EDIT: here is what they look like:
http://images.google.com.au/images?gbv=2&hl=en&sa=1&q=express+card+slot&aq=f&oq=&start=0

 

I cannot answer right now because that laptop is at home. Right now I'm working on a T400 and I can see the slot. But my previous question was: there is a way to check out the slots via a dos command or more in general via software? Longtime ago (but I can be wrong) I recall there was a sysinfo.

 

You can check it in windows... control panel->system->hardware->device manager... turn on 'show hidden devices' and then there will be stuff like "PCI Express Root Port" in system devices

also check the manual that came with your laptop, it usually has pictures of a laptop from all sides with descriptions for each connector

Just rename the thread to 'DIY cheap external video card for a laptop'

 

Notebook Graphics Extender

 

would the DIY Vidock work on an Hp Dv6500 with nvidia 8400m gs and vista 32 bit or would i run into complications

 

Vista 32-bit might be problematic as the ViDock Compatibility Guide explains:

Windows Vista

Windows Vista limits multi display support by allowing only one graphics driver running in the system. For this reason only systems featuring ATI graphics engines on the motherboard are supported, and systems running NVidia or Intel graphcis are not compatible.​

Otherwise hwtools' Dell M1330 with nv8400M was tested successfully with a HD4670/GTX260M under Win7 64-bit as shown in the progress link.

 

Thank you very much you are very kind. Please see the picture attached: It seems to me that there are 4 ports. Am I wrong?

 

Let us see if the picture is better now

 

ICH7M, 4 pci-e ports enabled by default in bios. This would suggest there are some physical mini pci-e slots on your system that look like



Suggest you run Everest which can tell you want is in what port:



You probably have a mini pci-e wifi card in a slot. If you find two such mini pci-e slots run Everest with the wifi in each slot to see if the ports correspond to port1 and port2. If so, then you could even try the x2 1.0 link mode for superior performance. Though I'm not sure what sort of whitelisting Lenovo does, whether it's as drastic as the HP sort that appears to electrically disconnect the port if a non HP wifi card is detected during bios bootup.

 

so the chart listed, does that show one free mini PCIe slot not in use, so there would be no need to remove the Wifi card

 

I would suggest for a strong push for a so called "PE8H" board from HWTools for laptops with 2 or 3 mPCI-E slots - there are a lot of them out there.
PE8H would be a x4 version of PE4H with 4 mini-HDMI ports.

Tom's Hardware scaling benchmarks suggest possibly nearly identical performance of pci-e x4 compared to x16:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-2.0,1915-9.html

To confirm the possibility of a x3 connection someone with access to a desktop computer could tape off the slot and perform a test along the lines of the following:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-2.0,1915-5.html

On the whole, the "diy vidock" game would only get interesting with the arrival of pci-e 2.0 capable south bridges. Something like PE8H would definitively add to the excitement.

 

... Here we go - PM55 chipset does PCI-E 2.0 - we're getting closer.
I suspect that all Core-i7 supporting chipsets would do PCI-E 2.0

First batch of laptos with them is listed here:
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/...enchmarks-prove-fastest-laptop-processor-ever

Core-i7 would also be just about the only appropriate processor to get in order to squeeze all the potential out of PE4H or "PE8H"

 

PE4H brief is up on the hwtools website:

 

Awesome. Hope I can grab this tomorrow. Is the price point still at the $55 we were looking at earlier?