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

Blah, this means I would have to remove my Airport 802.11n wireless card out of my macbook to get x2. Leaving me with no wireless when I go mobile with it.
Is the performance boost HUGE between x1 and x2? Worth losing the wireless card?

 

Also, is Expresscard 2.0 a hardware update on the motherboard of the computer or is it a simple firmware update?

 

To be fair a wireless usb dongle would give you wireless again, although possibly at worse performance. Expresscard 2.0 I think is a hardware change over 1.0. Someone please correct me if I am wrong though.

My question is, is the x2 given by the wireless card slot in conjunction with the expresscard 1.0 (I think) give same performance as expresscard 2.0?

 

Yeah. But you can always get an external WiFi card.

(compared to a normal X16 link)
X1 looses 47%-60% Performance
X2 looses 14%-22% Performance

So, at least IMO, thats a big increase and worth getting an external wireless card for.

Can moral hazard please put this on the front page? because idk how many times ive posted it.

It is a hardware change. The port will be connected at X2 to the motherboard, instead of X1 (currently)

Yes. you are correct.

because two (combined) X1 ports, equal an X2 port.

 

The new PM55 chipset supports PCIE 2.0, whether or not that means it can support X1 2.0 from the expresscard slot, I don't know. It definitely supports X1 2.0 from the mini-pcie though.

 

I think that once the PCI-e to miniPCI-e + Expresscard 1.0 port mod is done there is more than Vidock DIY in the sight:
http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=7372
You could have external scalable multi-GPU available to your laptop.

 

right now, the consensus is that a 1GB 4670 ATI GPU is best bang for the buck, and this card shouldn't require an extra PSU right?

 

as long as it doesnt need any extra PCIe power plugs, then no. And AFAIK, they dont.

But you will still need either a PSU or DC adapter to power the PE4L/H.

 

I'm doing this mostly as a proof of concept, although I do want to be able to play games at the lowest settings without lag (I don't care about quality). I want to get the $25 PE3 to work with this project. I'm just wondering if I can tack on a 12V power supply to the PE3.

 

It could be possible if you solder to wires to the 12V input pins on you graphics card.

Or if the graphics card has it's own power input.

But it is better to wait for the PE4L to go down in price.
HWtools does lower the price of their adapters. I would think the PE4L should go down to ~$40 soon.

 

The schematic for PE4L and PE3 are online. You could solder wires directly to the 12V pci-e video cardto power it. Though I would save myself the hassle and get a US$55 PE4L. It comes with a 30cm mini hdmi to mini hdmi cable so have some space between the expresscard (EC2C) and the PE4L. Also has a DC and floppy molex connector you can use to plug 12V into.

 

PE4H package contents say

PE4H (PCIe passive adapter ver1.0) x1
PCIEMM-030 (PCIe Male to Male cable 30cm) x1
External 5V/12V power supply cable x1

from the looks of the manual, the cable seems to be an adapter for a PSU connector?...

i guess if i just use a 4670 ATI card, all i need is

(4670 ATI card), (PE4H), (12V AC/DC adapter with 3A or more like this?)

 

I don't think so, I think it needs to be 16-20V adapter.
12V is not enough.

EDIT: also 12V @ 3A = 36W which is half of what you need.

 

seeing the cost of a 20V 3A adapter to be at least 20 on ebay, think it's wiser to get a decent 400W PSU.... any plain PSU would work right?

 

yes. as long as it has all the plugs you need, any psu wil work.

 

Could you use a regular laptop / notebook AC adapter rated at 19volts DC or would that burn out the Graphics card that are rated for 12Volts ???

If only 12volts then how about this AC Adapter that is 12Volts but rated at 18Amps which *should * be just about good enough for the new ATI HD5850 / HD5870 video card:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Original-NEW-Dell-Optiplex-SX280-Y2515-D3860-AC-Adapter_W0QQitemZ370178774756QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLaptop_Adapters_Chargers?hash=item56305fd6e4&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14


Of course you would have to splice in your own custom plug to fit and work. Let me know what you all think. God Bless

 

The PE4H has onboard voltage regulation, you can use your notebook AC adapter.

Any adapter will work as long as it's 15V to 20V.

A 12V adapter will not work with the PE4H.
A 19V adapter will work great, it will not burn anything.

 

I think you'll have to connect that to the 6-pin connector on the videocard.. if you connect it to PE4H the fuse will probably melt or PE4H won't draw more than ~75W also a sapphire 5850 has 2 6-pin connectors and each is rated at 75W according to this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102857 so maybe you'll have to mod that psu so it will have 3 power cables and then you connect 1 to PE4H and 2 to the videocard

... ask someone who knows more about electronics

 

Is anybody else planning on making this work with a Macbook Pro? I have a question about graphics card compatibility.
Will only "apple blessed" graphics cards work such as the nVidia GT 120, Radeon XT 2600, and Radeon 4870?
If that is the case would any 4870 work or does it have to be Apples version? http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB999ZM/A
or would one like this work: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121291

Obviously there is a huge price difference (typical Apple).
Any thoughts?

 

@ n3rd, you may find these links usefull:

Post 7:
http://maximumoverclock.com/?p=4#comment-3321

And the original page:
http://maximumoverclock.com/?p=4

 

Since the PE4H is currently out of stock, when do they expect anymore in ?? God Bless

 

With the high price of the PE4H + it being out of stock and me tired of waiting + that i probably wont be able to do X2 anyway on the laptop...

...i think im just gonna go with the PE4L. At least for now.

 

Noticed some changes on the hwtools buy-it-now page. So we have pretty much three levels of purchase depending on if you want PE4H's option of x2 mode and 12V voltage regulation. The US$85 option looks the most flexible imho.

US$55 PE4L-EC2C or PE4L-PM3N
US$85 PE4H-EC2C or PE4H-PM3N
US$85 PE4H-EC2C + US$20 PM3N + US$30 PCIEMM-100 (total=US$135)

Could save some money too by purchasing the additional mini hdmi to mini hdmi cable elsewhere but your still up for US$105 + additional hdmi cable cost to have the gear to try x2 mode.

 

Yeah... but with shipping alone the PE4H is $100. so, it kinda passed my budget. I think ill use the PE4L for now. and then maybe in a few months or so, then buy the PE4H. also, then there will be more definite information about it in X2 mode.

 

Not a bad idea actually. Given PE4L+EC2C+30cm cable is US$55, you can reuse EC2C and cable and buy the PE4H-PM3N later and connect it up. 30cm cable would be long enough for a trial run from the mPCIe slot to see if x2 mode works, but might otherwise be a little cramped for serious use. You'd have all the bits to see if it works and if not, could sell off one of the kits on ebay or on NBR. So you could have 2 kits for US$85+US$55=US$140

Certainly x2 mode is questionable on your DV9000. Using the DV2000's ports as an example, it has expressport=port1 and mini pci-e=port4. PE4H would connect mPCIe port4 to the pci-e slot's x2 pins. Now pci-e does have some flexibility on lane reversals so I'm wondering if that would work or not??'

 

That sound's viable, but I don't really want to solder on the GPU itself (I will if it's the only option). But are there any soldering points on the PE3 itself? Maybe on the bottom of the PE3's connector?

Also what's the difference between the PE4H and PE4L? The site doesn't say much (aside from the physical 1x and 16x slots). Does it really justify a $20 price difference?

 

for PE4L u need 12V (usually it's a huge desktop psu)
for PE4H u can use a laptop psu if it has enough power (V * A = Watts), and you can connect it to 2 pci-e ports to get 2x

 

The PE4H is capable of doing an X2 link. since it has two Mini-HDMI ports. The PE4L can only do X1.

 

What are the sizes of the mini HDMI cable's endpoints?
My mini pcie slot is near the RJ-11 (phone modem) hole, so if I will ever implement this I might want to squeeze out the cable through it.

 

I just noticed that I ran all of my tests with a 64 bit windows environment, maybe Ill try again this week . I hope I have enough luck with my HD4850 .

 

Cool. good luck!

 

Update!


in HWTools Buy it Now Section, the PM2C and EC2C have been added as well as both the cables they offer in the Accessories Category! So now you can get the PE4H and all stuff needed to do X2. (well after its in stock anyway)


otherwise, ill be ordering my PE4L+4870 soon...

 

When do you think the price will drop for the PE4L or when was the last time it dropped? It seems it'll take awhile for the PE4H to start bulk manufacturing and online sales.

Very interesting in using a DiY ViDock as i will get the performance without the heat and projected onto a nice big monitor.

Any ideas on other ways in adding e-sata without usb/expressports ?

 

I think when the PE4L came out it was ~$65 and now it's dropped to $55.
I would expect it to drop again soon after the PE4H is in stock.

 

Thanks buddy

Not sure if it's worth waiting. Only around $10 but yeah i still gotta ensure it will work fine on my system. I think less than a week its meant to finish production on the PE4H? so shouldn't hurt

 

think you meant PM3N (miniPCIe card to miniHDMI) and EC2C (expresscard to miniHDMI)

$85 (Expresscard combo for PE4H) plus $20 (PM3N) and $10 or cheaper(miniHDMI cable), $18 shipping... $132 or cheaper... kinda on the expensive side

 

It's definitely a lot more expensive than what I originally was hoping for.

I think the price will go down, but it depends if you're willing to wait a few more months for the price to settle.

 

yah, my bad on the update with the model numbers

and i agree, this has become more expensive than i thought. i estimated 50 bucks for the adapter and all... and then $150 for my 4870....

 

To recap. To pretty much do this you'd probably have to take out your wireless card from underneath right? and use a usb wireless and then somehow connect the mPCIx with the Expresscard.

Does connecting just a small section of a Graphics card (in black) and leaving the other parts of the card (in red) as shown here still allow it to work?

Lastly you didn't feel any heat off the PE4L or expresscard when running this setup? I'm expecting to use it for long term

 

I meant PE4L-EC2C + PM3N + IDE cable. PM3N is available for purchase in Buy It Now -> PE4H -> Accessories.

Yes.

That's how my HD4670 is connected in the PE4L.

No heat from the expresscard. The heat is on the PE4L end. Though I haven't seen my HD4670 go beyond 40 degrees when using ATI Catalyst so it's overall relatively cool. If I had x2 1.0 mode running I'd consider vmodding the HD4670 as shown here and here to allow RAM/GPU overclocks.

 

Crap, was just about to edit it. Realised after reading through the forum that its a addon part >< sorry.

Cool. However somewhere the hwtools engineer said they needed to add a heatsink to the modules because of the heat coming off them. This is only evident on PE4H?

I'm worried for testing purposes it'll be all good and working. But won't last long as the modules don't have heat sinks and will probably die after a few times of usage.

 

well, I got the gear from the first post (mini pci-e card, pci-e 1x ribbon extender) but it says 2 resistors and a capacitor.
now im stumped, but i read trough most of the pages of the thread (most was a lot of blah about the reduction in capacity between 16x and 1x) and i havent found anything on it.

can someone tell me what the values of said resistors and capacitor must be?

the one on #ClKREQ is.. *i guess* somewhere in the kohm range, being a logic pulldown but why there is a resistor and capacitor in the 3.3vaux (wich is just a powerlane?) I have no idea..

 

The first post was the initial idea that has subsequently developed in hwtools releasing a PE4L/PE4H, which you can connect to either an expresscard/mPCie port using EC2C/PM3N. All you need to add is a video card and a PSU to drive it.

It is not clear what resistor/capacitor you are referring to or the product you purchased, but might help if you post some details of what you bought, pics of your schematic/setup. Usually a resistor is used to terminate the endpoint of a signal line with a matched impedance to prevent reflections.

 

Just like the first post says...?

(yes, I've cut some of the stuff that wasn't nessecary, and a bunch of dead ebay links)

r12, r13, r14 and c12 in the schematic

 

Image: combined PE4L+ PE3N schematic, with edits: removed USB lines and regulated 3.3V.

Excellent!! I'd be keen to hear your result. Find above the an edit to help you along. I've physically viewed the PM3N and PE4L and can confirm there are only 2 resistors on the PE4L used to set the LED brightness. So hwtools have made changes to that original circuit, making the DIY-DIY ViDock easy with no need for any resistors or capacitors. Just note the shielding ground lines around the Tx/Rx/SM/Clk signals, ensure they are wired to the associated GND in parallel to the signal wire they are shielding.

 

oooooh okay.. will try to make it tomorrow

 

Will a radeon 4770 work without external power? different sites measure it's power consumption from 50W to 80W

http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au/index.php?showtopic=264
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd4770_5.html

even if it's 80W can it be underclocked a little bit without making it worse than 4670?

I got 60W and 90W laptop psu's, don't wanna have that destop psu monstrosity anywhere nearby.

 

A little update on the tech side:

1. Things are starting to look up for ATI/AMD XGP.
Acer Ferrari One 200 based on older 7 series chipset is coming out some time past the end of October this year with an XGP connector:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peBIXdL-jco
This might lead to a number of manufacturers finally spitting out a number of XGP equipped models, which in turn puts the pressure on to produce a XGP to desktop PCI-E x16 box - my wishful thinking that is...

2. As i said a few pages back - it looks like all the mobile Core i7/i5 laptops are going to be based on the new PM55 or upcoming GM55 chipsets with 8 PCI-E 2.0 x1 ports.
Benchmarks for these laptops in combination with PE4H connected at x2 are the only ones i'm looking forward to seeing.
At the same time i would love to see a PE4H version wired at x4 for models with 2-3 mPCI-E slots - no coherent answer back from hwtools as yet...

3. AMD's SB810 and SB850 southbridges with PCI-E 2.0 support that come with the new 8 series chipsets are going to be appearing on the shelves some time in April/May next year so Intel based laptops are the only way to experiment with PCI-E 2.0 for the time being.

 

Cheapest practical x2 mode: 8 soldered wires

mPCIe to Video card pinout 21-A23 GND 23-A22 PERn1 25-A21 PERp1 27-A20 GND 29-B21 GND 31-B20 PETn1 33-B19 PETp1 35-B18 GND

Pins for x2 mode from the PE4H and PM3N schematics

Cheapest practical way of trying x2 mode is buy the US$55 PE4L-EC2C + ebay $5 Mini PCI-e PCI Express to SATA SSD adapter + $1 IDE cable. I'd remove BOTH the USB and the SATA header and solder IDE cable as shown by the MAGENTA /GREEN bars. Connect those 8 wires from the IDE cable to the mPCIe blank and the video card's x2 pins as shown above. Only issue is the middle GREEN GND, as there should be two wires to act as a shield to either side. 1 may be OK, but I'd try to tie the wire on the end and squeeze two in that space. It really depends on the pitch of the IDE cable versus that of the SATA header. These wires must run parallel to each other to ensure zero parasitic inductance.

If it works can the consider buying the PE4H then for a proper cabled setup. I guess one advantage of the PE4H is you can swap the pci-e x1 and pci-e x2 ports around to be either expresscard or mPCIe whereas above hack can only use pci-e x2 port as mPCIe.

 

I get 3000 3dmark 06 score. According to nando's benches i believe i'll get 5500+ which is good.

Main reason i'm doing this is because of heat and longevity. I dislike having so much heating coming off my palms and knowing everytime i game brings it one step closer to frying my board doesn't help.

I actually have Re5 game and i think the bench was 30fps on pretty much lowest settings on 1024 or 1280 reso.

edit: stupid question but i believe the EC2C is a express card 34? i've never used these before and i blieve all expresscard slots are both 34/54 compliant except size 34 seems a bit small and doesnt fill up the whole slot right?