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

Glad to help out.

PE4L has an open-ended x1 slot. PE4H has a x16 slot. Both can physically accomodate a x16 card like a GTX460. When you attach the EC2C to your x1 1.0 expresscard slot then only the GTX460's x1 lane will be attached. So PE4L and PE4H give exactly the same x1 1.0 performance.

A PE4H can provide better performance *if* you can gang together a wifi and expresscard slot to do a x2 1.0 setup. Only possible if those ports show up in Everest to be: p1+2 or p3+4 or p5+6 or P7+8. Can't use intermediate combos like p2+3. That's a Intel limitations. Only a small number of notebooks shown at the bottom of this post are x2 1.0 capable.

I've tested my GTX470 on a PE4L 1.3 and a PE4H 2.0. Both work though I prefer using the PE4H as it can self support the card in an upright position. PE4L would need to be mounted on a wide and flat support, like a metal ruler to ensure it could support a GTX460 in an upright position.

 

Ok, well I just placed my PE4H order a few mins ago.... now all I gotta do is go grab a good, affordable yet definitely powerful gfx card (looking at GTX460, for $200, u cant beat it!) Also gotta get a PSU and wanna get that pre-boot configuration all set up so by the time I have all the components i can hit the ground running... any additional advice nando4?? thankx.

 

Update from hwtool's Gerry, copied from the progress link

2010/8/1
Let you know a bad news.

Attached file is PE4H ver2.1 and HP4A photo. But test failed. Engineering sample of next version schedule will postpone to Aug/28.

By the way, I don’t have plan to develop legacy product. Such as Cardbus, mPCI

​

 

Ok guys lets say that on this field i'm a complete noob. I read but i'm a bit confuse.
I have an dell e6410 and i was close to buy a desktop just to be able to run some 3d app specially arma 2 but that's not the point. The point is would i be able to run an external 3d graphic card on my dell e6410 and if yes would it run at x1 or x2.
The last question what is the lastest (most powerful) card that i can use or the best to use in this system

 

I have the x200 tablet, I am planning on doing the 6 monitor set up with 5870 eyefinity set up.

Which is better? PE4L or PE4H?

and will I be needing the EC2C or the PM3N?

I am a complete noob, I just want to know the main parts I will be needing.

Thanks guys.

 

The Vidock 4 plus - official is tha same as PE4H + Case ?
anyone?

 

Your port2=wifi. If port1 is your expresscard slot OR the WWAN mPCIe slot in your system, then could do a x2 option. If have Intel HD graphics then you may be satisfied with the Optimus setup if go a GTX4xx card.

PE4H can self-support itself in the upright position, so might be better for your application. PE4H is also supplied with a SWEX to give an on/off switch for your ATX PSU. Without the SWEX you'd need to apply the paperclip trick (wire GREEN+BLACK) to switch on the ATX PSU. So then options are:

Cheapest: PE4L-EC2C + paperclip trick + ATX PSU
More sturdy: PE4H-EC2C (use SWEX) + ATX PSU

5870 needs 220W at peak . Recommend a Corsair CX-400 400W single-rail PSU, which can be bought for < $70 in AUS to power it.

The equivalence of Vidock4 back to PE4L/PE4H is as below. I'm guestimating the Vidock4 PLUS since I can't see any specs on it anywhere other than it "can run a GTX4xx or HD58xx".

Vidock4 = PE4L + SWEX + 150W PSU + case + 2-port USB hub?
Vidock4 PLUS = PE4L + SWEX + 300W(?) PSU + 2-port USB hub?

PE4H is some options the Vidock4 doesn't offer:

- up to x4 connectivity
- 15/20V voltage regulator DC jack
- easily replacable interconnect mini HDMI cables [ US$6-delivered worldwide from Dealextreme ]
- mPCIe slot connectivity option using PM3N

 

is this PE4H AND EC2C on ebay cheaper than from HWTOOL?

And apart from ebay, do you know where can I buy CX400 and 5870 eyefinity in Australia? I had a look on msy, I couldn't find them.

And also there seem to be so many different brands of HD5870, there is the HIS, GIGABYTE, ATI, RADEON, SAPPHIRE and ASUS. Can someone clarify for me which brand is best for my purpose.

thanks.

 

1. I tried Galaxy over PNY or nVidia (whoever the hell they r lol) and was utterly disappointed. Partly cuz the loud 747-esq fan noise, and probably mainly kuz it just didn't work!!! It felt cheap, like a cheap Transformer toy from 1987. Thats kinda what it reminded me of actually, kuz the fan can even be detached and reset.. wow!!

2. U should google and find out for urself, that way u wont be mad at anyone in particular if they say "choose asus over aTi" and ur asus turns out to be an a$$us. =)

3. I never even knew tablet PC's had Expresscard slots?? I thought u were kiddingwhen u said u wanted a 6 monitor setup from a Tablet pc. correct me if im wrong, but arent tablet PC's those things where u can flip the monitor downwards and write notes on it with a specially designed e-pen?

 

do you really need an Eyefinity edition 5870? is the regular 5870 with 3 external monitor support not good enough? also in the vidock, the 5870 is only slightly faster than the 5770, the PCI-E 1x slot just doesn't provide enough bandwidth. Maybe you should just consider the ATI 5770 instead.

 

Do you have a link to back up this claim? or can some else confirm this?

If it is true, which thinkpad have a faster PCIe that's capable of running six monitors through eyefinity 5870?

 

SIX monitors?? what are you, part mosquito??

 

I've picked this up from Engadget the other day:

Atheros and Wilocity embrace 'tri-band' wireless wares, 60GHz wireless PCIe



Basically it's a wireless PCI-express (wPCIe) implementation for connecting enabled devices to a docking station through a 60Hz tri-band link. The current specs mention 5 Gbps (PCIe x1 2.0) and apparently it can be further scaled up to 7 Gbps (!). This would be just perfect for DIY Vidocks and indeed external GPUs are listed as a potential application of the technology

The white paper has a few more details.

 

Will connecting a USB Hub w/ HDD, keyboard, mouse, etc. slow down the GPU at all? I ask because from what I've been reading, there is already a considerable limit on the bandwidth of the express card port, so would adding usb devices to a PE4L or PE4H take up more bandwidth, and therefore limit graphics performance?

Sorry if this has been posted already.

 

The USB pins do not share bandwidth with the pci-e pins used to host the desktop video card. They are a completely separate link to the notebook's southbridge. Meaning then there is no performance penalty in connecting a USB hub, keyboard, mouse to the PE4L/PE4H USB port.

 

EDIT: slow post, anyway nando is right.

@ithildin, that would be nice to see.

 

I think on SOME level there is a performance hit if ANYTHING is going I/O of CPU. Whether it's technically not "supposed" to i think it probably does.. yes, no?

kinda like a car charger. Who'd think it would add to petrol consumption? but on some level, it does, due to overall battery usage vs. speed at which alternator spins = flywheel spin = gas consumption.

If every little bit of info being sent into a CPU is being processed, then theoretically woudlnt it function better if less information was being sent into it?

Just think, if u disconnect ur printer you'll get a .000056 better 3dmark score. =)

 

Hi, I've connected the PE4H 2.0 to a Dell Latitude E6400, a EVGA Geforce 8800GTS 320MB and a Sea Sonic S12II-330, but it will not turn on.
I've connected the motherboard power cable, the PCI-E on the 8800GTS and the molex on the PE4H.
At the PE4H, a single green LED is on, the second one briefly flashes after flipping the power switch on the PE4H, the 8800GTS fan moves a bit.

Did I miss anything?

 

dunno if u did this or not, but the PE4H requires power also, i dont know what its called but its a tiny connector situated on the edge of the rectagular shape, similar to that of the USB connector it has on it ( is that for???) You gotta power that part also...maybe thahts what u meant when u said motherboard connector, or if u were refferring to the SWEX on.off adapter.

If the e is ON, the fan on the card shouldnt spin a little, it should be spinning all the time, constantly, and i think there are two led lights that come on once u get it up and running right.. what type of PSU do u have?

did u make sure that the gfx card was set firmly in the pci 16x slot??

hope this helps

 

Thanks, yeah I've hooked it all up.
Apparently it's something with the PSU, unless I connect it to a motherboard with CPU/RAM it will not turn on.
An older PSU I borrowed from my brother does turn on, but lacks the PCI-e power connector, I guess I'll buy a 2x molex to PCI-e converter cable.
http://forum.tt-hardware.com/fichiers/uploads/upload_16_3/molex-to-pci-express-2.jpg

edit: I'm using the PE4H set:
So I shouldn't have to short circuit anything myself.

 

a cool thing to have may also be a mini-PCIe to MXM adapter, at least I would find it very useful.

 

OK so I ordered enough parts to do x2 and possibly x4. port 4 is my Ethernet chip. I always use wireless so I wanted to see if the system would post and function normally without the ethernet chip. There's a pin on it where if grounded, the chip would no longer communicate over pci-e, making it like it wasn't even there since all I/O would be dead. The pin was easy to ground since it was surrounded by a bunch of "not connected" pins so globing some solder on the surrounding pins was no big deal. I wired it to a ground on my expresscard port, booted the system up, and the bios posted fine with no ethernet chip.

I tried soldering wires directly to the pins, but it's just too difficult to get right so I think soldering onto the flat contacts on the motherboard will be much easier and doable. The plan now is to buy some chipquik and remove the chip, then wire the pci-e lanes formerly going to the nic chip to a mini pci-e port which currently has no pci-e functionality. I got a bunch of old aluminum insulated usb cable lying around to do that with.

I still haven't bought a graphics card yet. Optimus will work with a 9600m gt right? Optimus sounds really nice so I could use my internal LCD and avoid any half-duplex complications. The performance penalty of using the internal lcd should be tiny if I do miraculously get x4 working. A big problem with going Nvidia though is IDK if I have a good enough PSU for a 470. I have a 315W PSU that I used to run a 2.53ghz (65 watts) p4 and a 6800gt at 6800U (~110 watts) clocks and voltage. It can do 250W sustained, but a 470 pulling 216W mostly off the 12V rail concerns me. Stock clocks I think would be okay, but I might not be able to overclock even at stock voltage. 188W from a 5870 and even less from a 5850 sounds fine, but then no internal LCD and x4 might be half duplex.

I am a bit concerned over using mini HDMI cables instead of the HWtools cables. HWtools MAY have twisted the differential PCI-E signals together, which is supposed to be done, while the regular HDMI cables definitely do not have the wires twisted together, and might not even have them next to each other, removing the advantages of having differential signals in the first place. Then again, HTtools may know full well that a regular mini HDMI cable is fine and is looking for a way to make money by selling marked up mini HDMI cables.

 

I'm a little newbie here so umm
How would the external power work..? Like outlet? haha I really don't know and well where would you find the (cables?) to connect to the external power source? Sorry I would need a noob proof guide for help. lol Don't attack me

 

Good luck! Let us know how it goes. If you're successful and it's relatively easy I might try it on my own laptop.

You should be OK with 188W for a GTX460. I haven't yet run Furmark tests on mine but peak consumption under regular use hasn't gone beyond ~155W. Techpowerup ran a few tests with Furmark and PCIe x16 and found the peak consumption to be 181W. Your PSU should do fine for a GTX 460 - if you want more performance you can consider overclocking it to 470 clocks and the performance will be identical to the stock GTX 470 with a much more power efficient chip. Unlike with the Radeons, you will still have the option of running Optimus which makes a huge difference for restricted bandwidth setups.

I use a regular 2m mini-HDMI cable which I bought from a HiFi/HT cable supplier. Other people have reported success using cables from different vendors so it's clear the cables from hwtools are just regular mini-HDMI ones.

 

They generally won't zaggy, you have to short the green and black pins on the 24pin ATX connector to power the supply on, normally with something like a paperclip. Wouldn't really want to leave a paperclip in their all the time tho lol

 

Odd...the SWEX should be able to trigger zaggy's PSU, much like the paperclip would. It's basically a switch connecting those very same pins, just a bit safer and convenient to use.

 

Thats sorta a my bad for not reading his previous post before saying he had connected it to that rofl.

 

I have a laptop Hase q540s mPCIE connector and as I plugged the adapter PE4L-PM3N and put the graphics card is that everything worked?

 

Has anyone confirmed yet if Optimus will work with an internal nvidia card? I have only seen people do optimus with intel integrated graphics so far.

Also is anyone familiar with the big central grounds that some chips have? The nic chip I have has one and I'm wondering if that will make it more difficult to remove.

 

I have a laptop Hase q540s mPCIE connector and as I plugged the adapter PE4L-PM3N and put the graphics card is that everything worked?

 

This may be old news for you but I just picked up something interesting from Anandtech's Intel Sandy Bridge preview:



Anand mentions the known "feature" of current Intel chipsets of having PCIe lanes limited to 2.5 GT/s despite being PCIe 2.0 compliant. That is about to change with Sandy Bridge - the new P67, H67 and H61 chipsets will support full 5.0 GT/s! This should enable laptop manufacturers to incorporate mPCIe 2.0 ports and expresscard 2.0 slots - good news for Vidock users! Unfortunately we have to wait another 4 or so more months for expresscard 2.0 laptops since Intel will only release Sandy Bridge in Q1 2011.

EDIT: I realize now that these are not the mobile chipsets but the point stands. Intel will now implement full bandwidth PCIe 2.0 lanes on future chipset specs which is good news for us Vidockers.

 

Anyone can help me mod G1S bios
I have an Asus G1S...
And I de-soldered (hot-air station) the GPU and VidMemory chips, because of the well known nVIDIA Defect... I know I could just put a new chip, but after a while it would die again... and I already bought a G73Jh...

Now I want to make a server from the G1S, I don’t need to have the graphics card always connected, I only need it to get into the bios or install windows...
But it only works when I have 2 GB of mem, if I put 4 GB I need to do pci remap

I’ve found a datasheet of an 8600mGT and I made connections between the graphics card and the bga balls (pads) where the 8600mgt chip was soldered, it worked, but between tests some of the pads get ripped of the board, and I can’t find any other place to connect the RFCLK signal, so my great idea was discarded and I am now using the express card slot

I need help to mod G1S bios so the memory mapping that was associated with pcie0 became associated with pcie3

 

Hello, im new to this, i have Toshiba Satellite L305 S5955, i wanna use vidock to run gforce gtx 460, will this work? if not whats the best video card i can run with my laptop with vidock? thanks!

 

allright i decided to try this, my project laptop is Toshiba Satellite L305 S5955, running windows vista, so i will have to use ATI video card, i ordered PE4H+EC2C, tomorrow im getting video card and PSU, already got the external monitor, will see what happens

 

I'm using the PE4H set, which has a nice I/O switch and socket for the motherboard power connector:

So I really don't have to short circuit anything without using a I/O switch.

 

Okey, I just found this and i really want to do this project as my VGA port is dead, and i would like to run a second monitor and play some beautiful(!) games!

Anyway, I have some questions, I have a T5010, and I saw Max_Headroom had one as well, so I guess it will work for me.

Is it possible to use this as an extended desktop? So that I can still use my laptop as usual just with one more screen?

I'm going for the PE4H, should I get v1.0 or 2.0?

Should I go for an nVidia card to benefit from optimus?

Thanks guys, its just a bit overwhelming with over 150 pages.. I tried searching but did not find anything regarding extended desktop

 

Hi All

Many thanks for this great guide.

I have Dell Inspiron 1525 with the following specs:

3.0 GB Ram DDR2 SDRAM @ 667 MHz.
Intel Core 2 Duo T7250
Graphics - Intel Mobile 965 express
1 x Express Card Slot.
Windows Vista 32bit

Several questions:

Will a DIY Vidock work for this laptop?

Can i use the power supply from a laptop as the PSU?

is there any preference between PE4L and PE4H?

Many thanks in anticipation.

DOm

 

Hi all,

After a lot of troubles with my previous laptop, the webshop finally decided to let me pick a new one from their assortment.
Currently there isn't really a single laptop that completely fulfills my needs and they refuse to give me a gift coupon
Now I have to choose a model as fast as possible. I saw a Dell Inspiron 15R which meets my requirements pretty much, except for the VGA card.
I mainly use my desktop for gaming, but I want to have the possibilty to play games on my laptop every now and then.

Then I found out about the DIY ViDock threads and thought it could be an interesting solution for my gaming needs on my laptop, so I was wondering if an Inspiron 15R will be suitable for this. So far I found out that the Inspiron 15R does not have an expresscard slot. Then I wanted to get more information about its mPCIe slots and I found documentary on Dell's website about changing the wireless mini-card. The documentary says that you have to remove the battery, base cover, memory modules, optical drive, keyboard and palm rest in order to remove the wireless mini-card. Does this mean that every mPCIe cardslot is located at the same place and thus makes it nearly impossible to use this laptop for a ViDock?

I am not sure if I posted this thread in the right section, if not, feel free to move it to the right section


Regards

 

i screwed up, i have windows vista and intel chipset video card, this will not work with windows vista unless you have ati card in ur laptop, i will try to get xp installed on my laptop and try to get it to work, but if u have vista and not ati card, its not gonna work

 

dude, its not gonna work, u gotta have xp or windows 7

 

Update from hwtool's Gerry on PE4H 2.3, copied from the progress link.

2010/9/9

PE4H ver2.3 will add JUMP short for floppy cable power 12V to PCIe 12V directly. But this JUMP is “NA”, “no assembly”. Please check attached file for schematic and dimension. PE4H version history as below:

Date/Version/Description

2009 Oct 07 / 1.0 / First Release
2010 Mar 07 / 2.0 / Support x4 PCIe connector
2010 Aug 01 / 2.1 / Support PERST# delay timing, Add 3.3V, 5V, 12V, PERST# LED
2010 Aug 25 / 2.2 / Add 3V, 5V, 12V POWER input conn, Add 12V_DC fuse, 5V_USB fuse
2010 Sep 06 / 2.3 / Add JP4 jump for FD_12V bypass to PCIe conn

Ver2.1, V2.2 test not so good. So I don’t have release it.

PE4H Ver2.3 with HP4A engineering sample will test next week.

PCIe [3.0] 8Gbps will be supported when I get mainboard and video card next year.

PE4H_20100825 Model (1).pdf
PE4H_VER23_schematic_2010SEP07.pdf​

 

which version pe4h should I get?

 

Question for the experienced ViDock users since I can't find the post if it's out there.

Can I buy a laptop with an integrated intel GPU plus a dedicated GPU such as ATI HD5650 and still hook up the DIY ViDock? This will let me have something on the go if needed, but keep the powerhouse available for home use.

Also, I have been searching for a suitable compact external enclosure for a DIY Vidock setup? Does it exist?

 

Hi,

maybe you are interested in this two posts of me?!?!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...1-diy-vidock-experiences-165.html#post6697831

Bye
Tom

 

Nando..have you figured out how to keep the 4gb of ram and have an Nvidia gtx460 plugged in? Also i'm getting my parts in this week for the set-up....and am currently staring at the paperclip required...what's it for?

 

Hey guys I saw PE3A on hwtools.net

is this for external video card??? also is it faster than pe4L pe4H???
it said it support expresscard 2.0

 

I would like to know the answer to this problem as well.
Just got a ViDock 4 with 460 GTX running last night, but I had to remove RAM to get it recognized.
System: ASUS F8Sn
OS: WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE X64

 

I have everything physically setup with my laptop, Graphics Card, & external monitor. The card is showing up in device manager, however when I connect the monitor to the card the monitor remains black but my laptop tells me it's on.

I've got a Dell Studio 1558, 4GB RAM, Intel Core i5 2.27 GHz Processor, with and external ATI Radeon 5670 512 MB Graphics card.

Using the PE4H with EC2C setup. Just looking for any suggestions on any ways to fix.

 

Is the diy vidock pci-e 2.0 x 1 ready yet?

PCI-E 3.0 in laptops with compatible expresscard 3.0 cards may be more than 9 months off.

 

Removing 2GB of RAM might help.