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

Is there any way to disable the 2GB of RAM or do I physically need to take it out?

 

Hey guys,

My PE4H+PM3N arrived today and everything else (Corsair 400W + Ati 5850) the other day. I connected everything up (Power supply and video card runs), installed the latest Ati Drivers and my laptop can't seem to recognise the card. I checked Everest and the port shows up as empty. I am currently attempting a x2 setup, using ports 1 and 2.



As you can see from the picture below I have it connected it to the PCI labelled Robson, which is port 1. I have tried it on the WLAN slot (port 3) as well, but still doesn't recognise it. I have also removed some RAM, initially 4GB now only 2GB.



I have also setted up the DIY ViDock Setup v1.0e2, from nando's instructions here http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...51-diy-vidock-experiences-63.html#post6295529 and now have that Automated startup via startup.bat. Although in the menu based option, it can't recognise the card.

I have also followed the "Recipe for hotplugging GTX470 in DIY ViDock Setup 1.x." which did not work.

Maybe I connected it wrong? Pictures below



Really stumped on what to do next, any help will be much appreciated. Thanks

 

Congratulations on the purchase. Would be great to get another x2 setup going. You'd need to know what port2 is. Is it an expresscard slot or another mPCIe slot, or has the bios just decided to enable all ports even if they are not electrically connected? (ICH8M has 6 ports).

First thing I'd suggest is boot Setup 1.x with the wifi card, then hotplug the PM3N in place of the wifi card, hit F5 to see if the video card is detected. If it is, then the bios is applying some sort of whitelisting.

If the HD5850 isn't detected, put a blob of solder on PM3N's TP5 (hot plug detect). Also make sure the jumper is not on the PM3N 1.1 which appears to be the case anyway.

 

Thanks for that nando. I tried the hot plugging on the wifi slot and it worked. I decided to try it on the Robson slot and it worked as well. It was able to be detected in slot 1 at both Setup 1.x and Everest. Even with 4GB RAM.

Although, I have a new problem now and the card doesn't want to seem to stay recognised everytime I reboot/shutdown. I always have to hotplug each time. I have followed the steps in the Setup 1.x. As you can see here, after I do the 36 bit allocation compaction I get the follow picture. Even after I do the bridge compaction, i get the same picture.



When I chainload, win7 orig, it goes to these settings. As well as after I do that Apply bat.



Again, I'm not sure where I am going wrong.

I think you're right about slot 5 & 6, I don't think they're electronically connected. Plus I can't seem to find the ports anywhere.

I tested the expresscard and unfortunately it's in port 2 So I guess that removes the possibility of x2 setup, unless would it possible to use the EC2C in slot 2 and enable x2 using both PM3N in slot 1 and Ec2C in slot 2?

 

Use the antiwhitelisting 'Save port' feature with wifi attached. Then reboot 'restore port'. Hit F5. Does you HD5850 now appear? If so, then your port needs anti-whitelisting, 'iport restore' in your startup.bat, to activate it.

If not, then you are seeing the same issue I discovered with the CQ41: the CLKRUN signal is set by the PM3N, with or without the video card attached. I needed it to set it *only* after the video card is attached. The not convenient way is to hotplug the PM3N on every reboot. I didn't like that solution so instead rewired the PM3N jumper to patch CLKRUN to GND when the jumper is set. I've let hwtools know this and hopefully they'll add some logic to set CLKRUN=GND *only* when the hdmi cable is connected.

Yes, you'd need a EC2C to do a port1+port2 x2 link. You'd even be able to do x2E (x4 using only lane1+lane2) to get another 15-30% performance with your ICH8M chipset.

EDIT: I'd advise you ask hwtools about a solution to the requirement to have CLKRUN set to GND when the video card is powered/attached, nor prior.

 

Thanks again nando, I don't have time to do that now but will try over the next few days and post an update.

Good to hear x2 or even x4 is possible, will definitely purchase the EC2C.

 

Sorry nando, but I am not sure if I am following your steps correctly.

1. Wifi attached to port 1 then use "Save Port" feature on port 1.
2. I then reboot
3. Back to the Setup menu, I removed the wifi card from port 1 and replaced it with the PM3N + Video card turned on
3. I then select "Restore Port"
4. The GPU shows up on port 1
5. I then went to edit startup.bat and removed the "REM" before the "Iport Restore"
6. I then chose apply startup.bat
7. it loaded windows 7

Please correct me if any part of what did is wrong. But I doubt I did it correctly, since when I rebooted again, port 1 shows up as empty on the Setup menu.

 

Actually, disregard my previous post, I was too tired last night and did not follow the steps properly. I finally got it to work. Apparently it was whitelisted.

I was able to boot the bios and windows, although everything is running slow, so have to figure out the problem.

Now to wait for my EC2C to arrive Thanks again

 

Sorry to post such a noob question, but I want to be sure before I spend my money on this.
So I need: PE4H-EC2C, 500 or 250 Watt PSU, a graphic card (480GTX), and an external monitor.
And it should work, right? Considering my laptop has i7 820QM, 4gb ram, 230M geforce...

But there was this warning in the site:
PE4H is PCIe 1x bandwidth limit passive adapter in compliance with Expresscard and mPCIe specification.
PE4H design for engineering test. NOT for home or office use.
Basically, PCIe add-on card designed for desktop. We can’t guarantee it compatibility with your laptop. Depends on OS version, notebook’s BIOS, device driver,
Almost PCIe 16x video card can’t get enough memory resource are allocated. Can’t work in your laptop.

So, since GTX 480 geforce has PCI-E 2.0 x 16 , then will it work?

 

Also, do I really need a secondary monitor for this to work? I'm assuming, when you connect the video card, it will show up as a secondary display device, needing an external monitor to work.

 

There is a software solution called ultramon I believe.

You can also use NJYtouch products to directly convert DVI output to your native LCD input depending on the model.

I'd love to help you with that considering its never been done with a vidock setup

 

From what I've read the ThinkPad T410 & 510 are the easiest laptops to work with? (in terms of the least amount of needed mods)

 

If anyone wants a fully working and operative PE4H+EC2C 2.0 I am selling mine. I also has the wires soldered to bipass the two fuses allowing for a fully-stable OC.

I've build a full desktop rig and no longer need the good ol PE4H x16. PM me if interested.

 

PanzerHauptmann,
I'm interested buy I can't PM for some reason. Can you send me details at [email protected]?

 

1: Thanks again nando for the dos cod under the diy loader helped me with the pcie compaction, now I'm just waiting on my external monitor setup

2: My first PE4H v1.0 15-20volt dc/dc converter burnt out, under a 19v 4.2amp psu and no (computer induced) load on the graphics card. The converter chip (big black rectangle next to the psu input jack) overheated began hissing like a cricket after about 15min, which was frustrating but HWtools (ie BPlus) was super nice and sent me a PE4H v2.0 for free. I set it up and voila after about 10min the DC/DC converter starts getting hot. I set up a 12v case fan to blow over it but it still got hot after about 15min.

Here's my Solution: $1.00 eeprom aluminum heat sink from radioshack, thermal paste and a dot of glue (on the side) and no more overheating
Hope this helps, has anyone else had this problem?

PS:I did voltage check the psu and it gives a steady 19v

 

So, when making the vidock, do you have to disassemble the video card and remove the enclosure around it?

Also, what would be a good portable computer to do this? A computer that is under $1000, 14 inches or smaller, and can use the vidock x2 thing? (I don't completely understand all this vidock stuff, but from what I understand, computers with certain express card slots work 60% better)

I think it would be pretty cool to have a portable computer that you could use for MS Office and web browsing at school/work, then as a gaming machine at home

 

Any system with Intel HD graphics and an expresscard slot will let you do US$155/$220/280 GT430/GTS450/GTX460 x1 1.0 Optimus setup. The GTX460 with a i5+GTX460 will get you >10k 3dmarkvantage.gpu and > 14,000K 3dmark06.

If want x2 1.0 Optimus, which would get faster results again, consider a 14" E6410 or 14" HP DV4i (DV4-2xxx). Dell E4310 might be able to do x2 1.0 as well, but would need to double-check the port layout.

 

damn i think i did i HUGE mistake by giving my m1330(i heard this is the easiest and most efficient setup ever if m not wrong) to dell for replacement.Though I did not get the replacement system(xps 1645) bcoz dell told me that they are launching a new laptop(xps 15 maybe) and i will have to wait for it.I pray god to have express card 2 with usb 3(to run it on laptop lcd itself) in it!
and """nando4""" you are my god.I have read most of your prompt replies and honestly I think you are a genius and a helpful person.Hope you will help me for my diy project with my new laptop

God bless you

 

Update: Dell 1521's can run 1x vidock via express card with zero modification. Bios recognized it and booted up as primary display under vista x64 yay! Also new PE4H lasted about 30min even with heat sink until the dc/dc burnt out, in the middle of 3dmark06 AGGGH!

 

Hi does the kit use pci-e 2.0 x1/x2 yet?

 

Hi i have a problem, so i have a the pe4h and pm3n and its all hooked up and i have a MSI R4850- 2D1G-OC ATI 1GB PCI EXPRESS VIDEO CARD VGA graphics card and a ATI RADENON HD 4850 512 DDR3 graphics card as well and i have it all hook up to my toshiba satellite laptop, and im getting a blue screen and then it boots up but then gos to a black screen and my computer ask if i want to start windows normally or try to repair the problem.

I have all the drivers downloaded and installed for the card. Im not sure want to do nothing is working, can you please help me.

 

Hello

I'm also in need of some help. I have a Latitude e6410 with integrated intel HD graphics. Sometimes I need more graphic power when I do CAD or some gaming therefore I plan on using an external graphics card. I need the system to work without an external monitor so am I correct that I need a Nvidia GTS4-- or GTX4-- card ? Which would be the best option on parts concerning price and which would be the best composition concerning performance?

 

Update from Gerry/hwtools in progress link, copied below:

2010/10/31

PM3N v1.2 will following your idea. Change PERST# to CLKRUN# delay time. Engineering schedule about Nov/15

PE4H v2.4 add more FUSE (add a FUSE for DC jack, and add a FUSE for USB port) to protect board. V2.4 ETA/schematic about Nov/20

PE4H Ver24_dimension.pdf
PE4H_VER24_schematic.pdf
PM3Nv12_schematic.pdf​

 

Ok so since the 15~19v to 12v converter burned out on my PE4H v. 2.0, I switched to 12v floppy molex and and played bioshock 2 all night
No problems for about 6 hours, until suddenly the screen lost signal and went black, and the LED's on the PE4H started flashing on/off. I noticed the capacitor closest to the DC/DC jack was really hot, and the fan on my graphics card stopped for a second then started jerking about 1/8th of a turn every LED Flash.
Any Ideas on what's going on? Is the capacitor shorting? I tried a second PSU and it did the same thing.
Thanks,
Brett

 

Unusual. I've had my PE4H 2.0 running a GTX470 overclocked for 8hrs straight doing 3dmarkvantage testing. The GTX470 pulls a lot of power, generates a stack of heat and was rock stable. Maybe can organise a PE4H 2.4 with hwtools in case you have something odd with your setup/board?

Below is the latest update from Gerry/hwtools as shown in the progress link:

2010/11/2

PE4H 1.0, 2.0 19V DC input design for light-duty 12V/1.5A video card.
Need choose PSU for heavy-duty.
PE4H v2.0 add 2 PCS fuse to only protect PCIe 12V
PE4H v2.4 add 5 PCS fuse to portect PCIe 12V, DC19V, USB5V, PCIe3.3V all power

PE4H ver2.0 12V/5V/3.3V power current limit (PCIe 12V protect)
	DC15~20V input	Floppy 12V/5V input	ExCard 3.3V input
PCIe 12V	12V/1.5A (Max)	12V/6A (Max)	12V/0A
USB 5V	5V/1.0A (Max)	5V/3A (Max)	3.0V/1A (Max)
PCIe 3.3V	3.3V/1.5A (Max)	3.3V/3A (Max)	3.3V/1.3A (Max)

PE4H ver2.4 12V/5V/3.3V power current limit (PCIe3.3V, USB5V, PCIe12V, DC19V protect)
	DC15~20V input	Floppy 12V/5V input	ExCard 3.3V input
PCIe 12V	12V/3A (Max)	12V/6A (Max)	12V/0A
USB 5V	5V/1.5A (Max)	5V/1.5A (Max)	5V/1A (Max)
PCIe 3.3V	3.3V/3A (Max)	3.3V/3A (Max)	3.3V/1.3A (Max)

​

 

does it work with acer aspire 4540 ?

 

my laptop broken after test mine with PCI To USB

 

Does anyone have done with this ?
Please tell me or send to my email.

[email protected]

 

PE4H 2.4 and HP4A engineering samples


PE4H 2.4 and HP4A samples

Got my hands on them. PE4H's 2.4's new features of the PERST# delay switch to pass bios without on/offing unit, and fuse bypass jumper, highlighted in red, worth waiting for if contemplating buying now or later in the month. There's a nice row of LEDs too on the top left to show what's going on.

HP4A also shown with the supplied 4 mini HDMI cables. This allows a desktop card mounted in a PE4H to be shared between a desktop system and a notebook. A half-height backplate was also supplied (not shown), which can replace the full height plate main board is on. Presumably for low profile applications. I don't have a desktop to test it but will take hwtool's word that it works.

 

Hi!

I'm planning to buy PE4H + EC2C ExpressCard to PCI-E Adapter Ver 2.0a + a PSU + heatsinks + fan for the PE4H + GTX460

My notebook is Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pi 3560 and I have a secondary monitor
(C2D 2.2GHz, 3GB ram, x64 W7)

Question :

Will it be rock solid? Any driver issues with x64 w7?

What PCI-e speed will I get with the PE4H? 1x? 2x? 16x?

Is there warranty on the PE4H (if it burns for example)?

Thanks in advance

 

Since you are going with Nvidia, you can obtain 1x or 2x PCI-e speed, but this is going to be determined by what chipset you have and what ports can be accessed by PE4H, note that for x2 speed you would probably need a mPCI-e + expresscard or mPCI-e + mPCI-e method.

Try to post a screenshot of Everest to find out what ports are being used on your laptop to finally determine if you can go 1x or 2x (may need to order more parts, like a PM3N + mini hdmi to mini hdmi cable)

It has been posted that using Nvidia Optimus Drivers, boosts whatever the performance this setup gives by either 20% to 333%.

Check http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences.html for further references.

 

According to Everest, I have port 1-2-3 empty. Next step?

 

Read FAQ item 5. (Performance) Can my system do a PE4H x2 or x4 link as shown in PCI-E Scaling Analysis? in http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-vidock-experiences.html. Explained there is how to probe your ports to figure out if have a x2 capable port layout.

 

It looks like tha following :

port 1 empty, port 2 express card, port 3 empty, port 4 wifi, port 5 hidden, port 6 lan

This is not good I think...

 

What system do you have? You may have another mPCIe WWAN or turbo memory slot as is the case on Lenovo/Dell systems. Swapping over your wifi card into it will reveal if it has pci-e pins active and could be used for a x2 link.

Otherwise your port1-port6 being enabled (ALL ports) is indicative of a bios developer who hasn't bothered to switch off unused ports.

 

Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pi3560

My problem is that it still has warranty and I don't want to do anything that destroys my warranty.

 

I heard of some laptop manufacturers voiding warranties for opening laptops, but I don't know if that's true. The majority, if not all manufacturers do not void warranties for opening them up. Even if Fujitsu did there's no way they'd know.

All you'll be doing is moving a card around. Don't worry about having the antennas connected, all you need to see is if the wireless card is listed in the device manager or everest. With only port 5 hidden and no devices fixed to 1-4, there is actually a chance that you could do not only x2 mode, but x4 which no one has done yet, however, some ports may be unwired like 5 even though they are enabled. I am very suspect of port 1 not being wired in your case since port 1 must always be enabled and port 1 is usually expresscard.

 

Ok so if anyone has seen my posts I've beed having some massive trouble with the PE4H boards. The 15~19.5v adapter fried on both PE4H 1.0 and 2.0 within minutes and the floppy mollex shorted to ground on my PE4H 2.0 after 8 hours.

My question is, are there any ways to bypass the capaciter/mosfets (i'm not sure which they are) or replace them on the PE4H 2.0? From pictures it seems the PE4L doesn't have them. Based on this I'm guessing they are not necessary, in the PE4H for 12v floppy but are more of a design convenience for routing both the stepping 19v -> 12v from a PSU and 12v floppy power through the same final circuit.

Any help you guys could give would be great, I've contacted bplus and hwtools but it's been a week and they haven't contacted me back. I'm losing hope

 

The floppy molex powers the 12V rail directly. If using the DC jack then there is a downstep, 19V->12V in your case.

PE4H 1.0 had some users reporting burnt out regulator chips. Your report is the first of problems when running via the 12V floppy molex directly, a result I cannot confirm. My Panzer-fuse bypassed PE4H 2.0a + power-hungry GTX470 has ran this configuration for many hours with no such results.

I advise contact hwtools to voice your symptoms and ask for corrective action. This and the experiences thread has had a few users report getting newer PE4H boards when they encountered issues such as this with PE4H 1.0. (search for ithildin's post, he had one). I recall ithildin saw very fast turnaround time.

 

Oh also here is the results of my 3DMark06 based on a 1x link with a Radeon HD 5670 vs my Dell 1521's Radeon x1270 IGP.

1x Link hd 5670 6521 3DMarks
vs
Integrated x1270 449 3DMarks
(yes I didn't leave out a number really, 449)

 

Thanks Nando, I'm going to try that fuze bypass that Panzer posted about, I'll get back to the form to tell everyone how that worked out.
Also I agree with you about the turnaround for Bplus, I bought the PE4H 1.0 first but when the voltage regulator fried they send me a 2.0 as a replacement and had me send back the old one. It was pleasant and quick, but this time they haven't responded to either of my emails, I just sent them another round, so hopefully I hear something back.

 

Hey nando I tried bypassing the fuze' to no avail. I do believe either the 12v power from the floppy mollex is going through here
Picasa Web Albums - 11501567940799281...
Or the 12v line on the PE4H has burned a bridge on the PCB to make it so. When I turn on the power supply that part starts to get really hot really quick (about 10 seconds). I'm guessing its shorting to ground by the amount of heat its producing and not even making it to the fuze's. Is there anyway to bypass or replace it. I looked up the manufacturer but they don't have that component listed anymore.

 

Sorry to flood the forum, Bplus just contacted me and they're sending a PE4H 2.4 as a replacement, and where really nice in their email

 

From what I've been reading, driver issues haven't been a problem, just pcie memory allocation, which in windows 7 i believe can be be solved by starting up normally then placing the computer on standby before plugging in your PE4H. Or if your lucky like me it just starts right up as primary display. Drivers installed on mine just like installing a graphics card in a desktop.

As for speed scaling, I believe nando has a link showing the pcie scaling on his gtx470 as part of the links on the bottom of all his posts. Otherwise here's a tomshardware article I picked up today for PCIE 2.0 scaling on some older cards, PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Cards Tested : How Does PCI Express 2.0 Scale?

There's no Warranty on the product, technical support is done through their partner/owner/regional distributor (not really sure which one) Bplus. The email address for technical support is on the hwtools website under support. In my experience, they have been really polite and both times I had a problem they sent me a upgraded replacement. So you really don't have to worry about being left out in the cold.

Hope this helped

 

Hey everyone, I'm new to these forums and hoping you can provide some insight and help!

I have a Dell Latitude e6410 and I'm looking to get a DIY ViDock setup running with NO hardware mods. I will not use it with the internal monitor, as I connect it to an external monitor when I am at my desk. It's a Core i-5 520m with 3GB RAM and 32MB Intel HD Graphics. According to Everest, I have 4 PCI-E 2.0 ports. #1 is Empty, #2 is In Use (Intel Centrino (R) Advanced-N 6200 AGN), #3 is In Use (FireWire Controller), #4 is Empty.

From my understanding, I should get a 1GB GTX-460 to take advantage of NVidia's Optimus? Also, without a hardware mod, I have to run it in 1x because ports 2 and 3 are in use?

My goal is to be able to run StarCraft 2 on Medium settings and be able to micro units in a 3v3. Currently I can barely micro effectively on Low settings in a 1v1 battle. Would this achieve that goal?

Also, can you please confirm that these are the parts that I need: GTX-460, PE4H 2.4, a 400W PSU (preferably modular). Anything else?

Thank you for your help!

 

***SOLD***
Hey everyone, I don't know if this is the right place to post this. If not, I apologize

Because I just got a new gaming laptop, I am selling my Vidock setup:
- PE4L with original box and contents such as the adapters and cables.
- 72W brick power supply (a compact power solution). You can use this for any video card that has 72W power ceiling.
- All parts are three months old and are in perfect working order. No overclocking has been done.

I am willing to sell everything (with FREE shipping to U.S.) for $60 USD. That's a $20 discount on what I paid for the parts.

EDIT***SOLD***

 

WOW, thats a great deal. If I wasn't looking for a 2x link I would snap that up.

Actually I'm thinking about it anyways

 

I am interested in buying from you, but I don't have privileges to send PM's. Maybe you can send me a pm?

 

Thanks everyone, it has been sold.

 

Hi Nando, I wanted to let you know that I did succeed in getting the Macbook Pro 3,1 working with more then 2gb of ram. Using 1.0e5 of your software and performing a 32 bit compaction on vid 1 (Geforce 8600GTm) I can use both graphics cards simultaneously. I am not sure if it makes any difference, but I upgraded my ram to 6gb. I read somewhere that if you have more than 4294967295 bytes of ram (4gb) windows will automatically allocate devices in a 36 bit address space. If its lower it will only allocate in a 32 bit space because that is all that is necessary with less ram. I have no idea if this is true or not. Any thoughts?