MSI-Cubi006+EVGA GTX 960 SC (M.2 E + GDC BEAST 8.3) PCIe 2.0 x1

[igel]

Succeeded in running EVGA GTX 960 SC 4GB (1962 model) on MSI Cubi 006 (Celeron 3205U, 16GB RAM, 128GB SSD), using GDC beast V8.3 connected over M.2 E slot with Windows 10 Pro in legacy boot. Power to the eGPU is provided by EVGA supernova G2 550. 

 

The connection of the M.2 cable (A/E combined) is straightforward - goes into the M.2 E slot of the Cubi (instead of the wireless card).

 

Some minor issues:

* The card has UEFI capable bios which causes conflicts when the Cubi has UEFI enabled in bios. The card will actually force the Cubi to legacy mode on each boot. In order to avoid this the Cubi needs to stay in legacy mode. (This for example prevents me from trying SteamOS)

* The beast doesn't turn the PSU with the M.2 connector so the 24pin connector needs to be shorted (I used the test tool provided with the PSU) before turning on the Cubi. If you don't power the eGPU before powering the Cubi, the Cubi will appear to have hanged (no logo, no post), if you power the eGPU after the Cubi, it will take another about 30-40 seconds for the Cubi to complete post. 

* The nvidia drivers need to be installed with the eGPU plugged in, powered on and a display connected to it. The iGPU also needs to be connected at this point - different port on the same monitor (projector in my case) was ok.

* The bios/boot screens of the Cubi will only display via the iGPU, but it can boot fine without DP/HDMI cable in the iGPU. Once Windows loads, the login screen will display on the eGPU. There is no need to disable the iGPU in device manager. As soon as there isn't a cable connected to it, it won't be powered as Intel Power Gadget shows. 

* The TD switch on the beast needs to be set to the 3rd position (had no success in other positions, and in the first position it conflicts with the sata controller).

* The eGPU runs in x1 2.0 configuration only, even though the M.2 E slot should be an x2 slot per NGFF spec. The CPU however has 4 x1 and 2 x4 lanes, and I haven't had the time to trace the slot to the CPU and compare diagrams, may be there is really only an x1 connected to the slot.

* The other slot - labeled MINI_PCIE1 on the PCB does seem to act only as mSATA. Tried with an old mPCIe wifi card and with the mPCIe cable to the beast - no devices are showing in Device Manager.  Haven't tried hotswapping and such. 

* GPU-Z gets confused about the GPU subvendor, reads the one of the motherboard. 

*  Unigine Heaven and Valley don't seem to read the card clocks correctly - they show in excess of 1400Mhz, and according to manufacturer spec this card should not clock nearly that high. 

* Will need to cut a small portion of the plastic case - either under the RJ-45 Jack on the back or under the stereo jack in the front to be able to close the case with the eGPU cable connected. The metal frame is already cut below those sockets from the factory.  

* Performance seems to be a bit on the low side of expected.

 

link speed in GPU-Z (x1 2.0)

Valley Extreme HD (1233)

Heaven Extreme (935)

All connections

Cubi (detached bottom plate)

GPU (and power cables)

 

Edited July 17, 2016 by igel

[Aleksei]

Hi, thanks for posting.

 

On 17/07/2016 at 2:39 AM, igel said:

* The card has UEFI capable bios which causes conflicts when the Cubi has UEFI enabled in bios. The card will actually force the Cubi to legacy mode on each boot. In order to avoid this the Cubi needs to stay in legacy mode. (This for example prevents me from trying SteamOS)

 

Are you sure there are no typos here? If not - could you describe the boot process in UEFI case (what kind of conflicts, which errors are occuring and when)?

It just sounds strange that UEFI capable GPU would force a PC to boot in BIOS (Legacy) mode.