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

In theory....will the PE4H/EC2C be capable of expressport 2.0 on future laptops?

 

Not a bad name, I vote for it.

 

Yes. Expresscard 2.0 just doubles the clocking rate. The pinouts are exactly the same as expresscard 1.0. The PE4L/PE4H wiring can handle the double-clocked transmission.

MexicanSnake - any chance you can test a 1MB 4850? Quite a big difference between your 3dmark06 score and the the RE5 benchmark and I'm wondering if the 512MB means RE5 needs to do more pci-e transactions for texture maps thereby capping performance? We can see relative performance o fthe [email protected]/HD4850-1GB to the [email protected]/HD4670-1GB from the table:

Config	3dmark06	RE5
[email protected]/HD4670-1GB	5340	30.6
[email protected]/HD4850-512B	8495 (+59.1%)	40.6(+32.7%)

As to naming the product, a couple of basic posts have requested this, though with mixed results. Is anyone willing to take it on board, perhaps listing some suggestions in a new post and adding a poll?

 

Nando, I checked the ports with everest and it appears that my port 1 is my onboard Ethernet. And port 2 is my mini pcie wireless network card. This can be moved though, and port 5 is my express card port. Does this mean that 2x pci express wont work on my laptop (because the onboard ethernet is on port 1)? And what is the reason it wont work with any other port combination? (ie: port 4 and 5?)

 

From DIY ViDock - My experiences so far

3. Can my system use PE4H's x2 1.0 link for superior performance shown in PCI-E Scaling Analysis?

According to ICH8M/ ICH9M datasheet, some combination of ports can provide a x2 or x4 link. [/TR]

2510P's port layout

DV2000's port layout

hwtools' PE4H shown here has made provision to allow compatible 2xmini pci-e ports, or mini pci-e port and expressport to be combined to form a x2 port. Though datasheet extract above suggests this would need to be port1 and port2. Not sure if port1-port4 can be combined to make a x4 link, with 2 lanes removed in the case of the DV2000. We'll find out soon enough what can do x2 mode once users report experiences with PE4H.

 

Yeah, im guessing they will just make a new version of the EC2C
this...


As long as that Mini HDMI cable can support expresscard 2.0's bandwith, then they will only need to update that adapter.



Well sorry for the dissapointment.... PE4L not ordered yet not exactly sure when tbh...

 

Hey dimass can you reup those photo's. They are gone and very curious

 

At me it is visible... There was no normal camera when soldered. Already I will not begin to assort what to photograph.

 

It looks like you connect 8 pins?

So can you tell me which pins are connected exactly?

 

Right

Look the circuit

 

Looks like:
PETp0
PETpn
PERp0
PERpn
REFCLK+
REFCLK-
PERST#
WAKE#


Is that is or do you also need:
CPPE#
CLKREQ#


Thanks.

 

Is there a step by step guide on how to do this? Is it true that my computer's not compatible? (Vista w/ nVidia dedicated 8600M-GT)

 

u got expresscard or minipcie on ur vostro?

 

Well, you will want to get Windows 7.

Other than that, you have an Expresscard slot. So you should have no problems.

 

Vista will not be compatible with ATI setup on your system as it only use the driver from the same family. An Nvidia card would work, but not recommended due to their higher pci-e bandwidth requirements.

XP/Win7 are better choices, with Win7 allowing suspend/plug in/resume to external graphics. See DIY ViDock - my experiences so far for an idea of what's involved.

Also worth perusing your port layout to see if port1 + port2 is a combo of expressport/mPCIe ports, as then could do a x2 1.0 setup for superior performance. x2 1.0 with a HD5870 achieves a 3dmark06 of > 20k (!!).

 

Ok, so I should get Windows 7 (how is it by the way?)... I do not understand what the rest of the stuff means

 

It is not necessary

CPPE# = PRSNT#. Signal PRSNT2# for the device х1 is not meaningful.
CLKREQ# = Inquiry of an external Clock (i.e. signal REFCLK)

 

Thankyou.

I have a tecra M9, I think it has a dead GPU.

Since I will buy a new motherboard anyway, I thought I would try to solder directly to the old motherboard.

My first test would be with an ethernet card, but I will wait until I get my new CPU (already shipped, hopefully will arive this week).

@Nando, if you want me to test the miniPCIe port signals with a DMM I can do that on my M9. Since I don't care about damage to this already faulty notebook. It has 3 miniPCIe ports so it should be good to compare to see if maybe one of the ports has the extra lane connected.

 

@MH , certainly an idea to check the other mPCIe ports you have. I believe you said some are merely pads, with no sockets. In which case can you see if there are tracks running off the PER/PET pins or at least they are not high impedance to indicate it's disconnected.

Perhaps hwtools should sell pre-tinned mPCIe sockets as an accessory for user mounting?? Quite a few systems out there with extra mPCIe pads, just awaiting a socket to be mounted.HP DV2000, HP 8710W, Acer AS1410 just to name a few. Some might be WWAN (usb) sockets though.

 

On this model, 1 socket and 2 sets of pads. So yes when I take it apart tommorow I will check for tracks.

Funny thing is, the two empty slots have their use written on them.
One says WWAN and the other 3G if I remember correctly.
So they might not have the PCI lane. I guess I will find out for sure tommorow.

 

What an awesome thread - I love these "ridiculous but clever" DIY projects.

I did some research on this topic a couple of years ago when I heard of the MSI Luxium and the Asus XG Station. Nothing much came of these products though. I thought I'd make my own, but was unable to find a good ExpressCard-to-PCIe solution.

Yesterday I accidentally discovered the ViDock and got excited about this idea again. After a bit og googling I found this thread and promptly dropped my plans to buy a ViDock box. After all, why go for an easy solution when there is an overly complicated one?

My laptop is a Fujitsu T5010. It has an ExpressCard slot and three Mini PCIe slots - two half height and one full height. One slot is populated by a Sierra Wireless UMTS adapter, the second by an Intel Wi-Fi adapter, and the third one is free. (Attached image)

Device Manager and Everest both show three PCI Express root ports, numbered 1, 2 and 3. #1-2 are empty and the Wi-Fi adapter is connected to #3. I was fairly sure that the ExpressCard slot and the unpopulated half height slot were #1 and 2 (The UMTS adapter shows up as a USB device and its Mini PCIe slot is connected to USB only).

Thinking I had good chances of making a working x2 solution, I tested the free slot by moving the Wi-Fi adapter - but alas! the adapter now showed up connected to a new PCI Express root port that hadn't been there before, #5.

Curses! I guess I'll make do with ExpressCard x1 mode only. I haven't confirmed which PCI Express port the ExpressCard connects to, but I guess it doesn't matter - as I understand it, x2 mode can only work in port 1 and 2.

Great effort guys! I'll be waiting impatiently for my order from hwtools.

Incidentally, have anyone tried the GeForce 9800 GT "Green Edition"? This is a low power version of the 9800 GT (which in turn is an identical clone of 8800 GT) that does not require PCI-Express power connectors. I'd be interested to know how it compares to Radeon HD4670, which seems to be the current favorite for our purposes. The GeForce has a much more powerful GPU, but it might not be able to utilize that advantage with only one PCIe lane because GeForce cards supposedly put more load on the PCI Express bus. The GeForce also costs about twice as much in my area.

 

You're quite quick to catch on with only just joining , took me numerous posts and replies and going back and forth to clear things up and understand how it works lol.

Yeah also interested to know how the other nvidia series or other cards go in general. Like is the 4670 still the favoured card? 1x is most practical easy solution so its best to get the most you can. ati 58xx series was the best wasn't it.

Anyway time will tell when more people start testing. Wonder how a 7900GTX would do pretty much scrap to me atm

 

nice lol, looks like you put out some effort but definitely worth it. Very cool. Maybe you can write a guide in new thread

 

It's been a while since I checked up on this thread... Personally I'm not too good with modding so I'll be waiting to get some ideas from other people about how to build a compact case for the card and what-not It's pretty sad that I'm in electrical engineering but only ever held a soldering gun once in my life Once the whole casing issue is worked out I'd be glad to post my results after giving it a shot...

nando, what do you say to starting a wiki for this? I created a wiki on wikispaces, here's the URL:

http://diyvidock.wikispaces.com/

I set it to public viewing, but private editing. So if anybody wants to add stuff to the wiki, just sign up on the web site and PM me your user name here so I can add you to the list of members. We'll keep it exclusively for NBR'ers.

I think it would be nice to have a wiki so that newcomers don't have to sift through the whole 93 pages of posts!

 

Great idea. This thread is a great discussion board but a wiki could capture the need to know stuff.

Faruk - any chance you'd like to re-org some of the posted information? A lot of info could be easily cut and paste if familiar with wiki. The info suggested for transplant being:

• first post of this thread
• My experiences so far thread

Any content I've posted is most welcome to be wikified. Worth asking Moral Hazard if that would be OK as well.

 

Yep, no problem using any of my posts.

 

nando4/moral_hazard:

I have began copy/pasting some of the main information from your posts this thread. Whenever I have more time I will go back and try to further organize it.

For now I split it into 4 pages:
1. Home
2. Configuration and Performance Matrix
3. FAQ
4. Hardware Requirements

If you sign up for a wikispaces account, I can add you to the list of members. That way, if you update any of the pages (such as the FAQ), we could just easily link to the FAQ page instead of replicating all the information.

This is my first time ever doing a wiki, but it seems pretty easy to use, it took me about 5-10 mins to figure out how to add the pages and copy everything over

By the way, are we getting close to having an official name? We should replace the default logo on that page with our official one

 

I started this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=432643

Hopefully we will get a logo soon.

 

Nice! And by the way, when we come up with an official name, we can also change the URL of the wiki. There's a setting to do that, so it will be really easy...

 

@Faruk, check the logo thread, there is one already.

I'm about to take apart the M9 and I'll post some pics, to show if there are tracks.

EDIT:
Photo of tracks here:



Looks like the robson miniPCIe port has the extra lane connected, maybe.

 

Robson = Turbo Memory. You've go a pci-e lane there as we see tracks running from pins 23,25,31,33. WWAN = USB. No pci-e lane there, just USB pins 36, 38. If you wanted could mask pins on your wifi card to see what *minimal* number of pins it could be detected with in it's normal slot, then solder lines directly from those wifi card pins to the Robson slot and see what slot it's detected as. If you do the wifi masking, please report the pins needed as others might want to follow your lead. Left: Using baredit to enable *all* mPCIe ports.

 

Have to wait a bit to get a working CPU, hopefully get it monday.
If I can boot into windows with this notebook, I will try the masking.

 

WOW guys, I discovered that I can overclock the card really good, I mean it loses performance due overheating but if you mod the fan speeds it performs like a champ. OH rivatuner I love you.... with a light OC I get around 8200 3dmarks @ 1200x1024 . Ermmm we should name this thing .

 

Hello everyone.

I've been following this topic for a long while now and I've finally suscribed since I bought a few days ago the PE4H

There are just some stuff I wish we could clarify...

1) I have ordered with my PE4H , two sets of PM3N ! If I understood correctly, I am gonna be able to have 2x connection since mpcie ports #1 and #2 are ..well mpcie ports and not my express card slot ( it's a bit blurry for me here ).

2) I am running Windows 7. Once again, if I understood correctly , I'll just have to plug in the video cards and i'll be detected ? Directly with 2x or...?

3) My laptop is a Dell Vostro 1700 with a T7500 (2.2 ghz) and 4G of ddr2. I was planning to go on the Ati 5850 but I wonder if it's really necessary because I might be cpu limited ? What do you think ?

Well anyway, thank you all for this thread. it's really wonderful I hope I'll receive the pe4h so I can share some photos It might take a while to go to France !

 

Definatly a question for nando, he knows this best.

I think your CPU is good. If you want I can try to help you overclock the CPU. My T7300 gets to 2.6ghz stable.

Great, please share your results.

 

The thing is, as far as I know, CPU's from Dell notebooks can't be overclocked ! Stuck to 2.2ghz

 

yes it can overclock.

Just might need a pin mod like this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=393027

 

Congratulations on the PE4H purchase. If swapping the mPCIe wifi to each of the two ports has Everest reporting it being seen on port1 in one slot and port2 in the other, then yes, your ICH8M 1720 is x2 capable.

As to Windows 7 working out of the box.. it depends on if your bios sets up the 256MB Window to accomodate the video card. If not, you'll need the PCI CONFIG USB disk from this thread to do it prior to it chainloading Win7. Same file has x2-conf.bat showing setpci commands to check/set x2 link mode based on datasheet information. If are running Linux, loading grub2 instead of legacy grub as the bootloader then can add the pci bridge config in grub2's grub.cfg instead to bypass the need for a USB drive as explained at the bottom of this post.

I hope you're system can be one of the first to showcase x2 link performance, so will help as much as possible to make that happen. Consider that a x2 1.0 link with a desktp HD5870 has shown 3dmark06 over 20k. At that level it would outperform a GTX280M-SLI notebook which gets 3dmark=15k. Now that would be a serious gaming performance notebook.

Agree with Moral Hazard's comments. Overclocking the cpu would bring a more balanced cpu/gpu performance if contemplating x2 link performance.

 

From x2-conf.bat :
--------------------------------------------
:: RCBA+0238 - See if the RPFN Root Port Function Numbers match physical ports.
:: - Default is 0x543210 but vendor bios might change this.
pt MEM read 4 0xFED90238

:: If bios has RPFN set to something other than 0x543210, let's override it
:: to match the physical port layout.
pt MEM write 4 0xFED90238 0x543210
--------------------------------------------
Shouldn't this be done first before checking that ports 1 and 2 are true ports 1 and 2 ?

Also, a little insignificant typo here:
:: port1: 0x11=x4 mode, 0x10=x2 mode, 00=x1 mode
pt MEM write 4 0xFED90224 0x01

 

that DIY vidock only can to used at external LCD/TV.true or not?i want using second gpu at laptop screen not at external LCD/TV.could i use portable desktop hardisk casing for DIY vidock?maybe need little modification.

 

True.

Maybe try a miniPCIe capture card?

 

Or a USB one. With an ExpressCard DIY ViDock (or the official ViDock) plus a USB video captude device it would not even be necessary to open the laptop. You'd need a capture device with component video input and at least 720p HD support to get good picture quality though, and they don't appear to come cheap. ( Example)

Unfortunately I think that you'd get unacceptable video delay due to processing in the capture device. It would be an interesting experiment though.

 

What about the lag.

I thought a miniPCIe capture card would do a better job.

I wonder if there is a good capture card that will not show any lag and will be capable of high res output.

 

A mini PCIe would almost certainly do a better job, but you would need to open your laptop and have cables hanging out of it - not very elegant or practical. To be fair, elegance or practicality aren't exactly the main topics in this thread...

I just thought of something. A mini PCIe capture card might be able to display live video without compression, this could eliminate most of the video lag. (USB devices must compress due to the limited USB bandwidth, at least when capturing at DVD-quality or higher)

 

I disagree.. I think it's pretty easy to plug/unplug an ExpressCard

By the way guys, I was just examining the ExpressCard pinout here:

http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_Connector_ExpressCard_Bus.html

And it seems that there are quite a few unused pins. Do you guys think it would be possible to hook up an extra PCI-E lane from the mini-PCI-E socket to the ExpressCard socket by soldering a few lines?

Of course, we would then need to modify the ExpressCard module itself to take the input from those pins... but this would eliminate the impracticality of having to plug in a mini-PCI-E module each time. What do you guys think? nando4, do you think this is possible?

 

Been a while since i looked in this thread as i had almost givin up. Thanks to the quote my LEDS are both on. BUT windows 7 64bit is not giving me the smallest indication that i've just plugged something into it. Tried restarting and sleep/wake. I'm using a 100w 12v universal notebook psu so i'm not using the molex wire thingy. How do you guys set your jumpers? And what to do from here? appreciate all the help so far

edit:
USB port works on the adapter.

2nd edit:
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On my universal psu i changed the "head" to 1 size smaller and suddenly it all comes alive :O
guess this means that it's confirmed working on a sony vaio vgn-fw21e w7 64bit with tp1 shorted.

 

Congratuations! Wondering if you could post benchmarks/config details as shown in the Configuration and Performance Matrix in the
DIY ViDock - my experiences so far thread. Worth noting too if your mPCIe and expresscard slots are port1/port2 by running Everest. If so, then could do a x2 setup for superior performance.

 

i found a laptop on engadget that uses the dockng port to link to another GPU, an nvidia 220m, but i was wondering what speed can be achieved over the docking port connection vs the express pot connnection? heres a link to the thread i made about the question.
might be a bit easier to continue this particular line of enquiry there so it doesnt get lost in the sea of other questions?

 

roosta,

Potentially sad news here:
http://www.mybestlaptop.org/gigabyte-m1305-laptop-feature.html#more-3357

It's clearly a desktop card, not a laptop card and there are claims that it is wired only at x1.
Still, need to see the internal pics, everest screens and read the manual to understand how it pushes the video signal to the laptop's screen.

more pics here:
http://translate.google.com/transla....oc.com.tw/ocitview.asp?gitid=1096978&prev=hp

 

Sounds like it should work. It also would keep things looking good.