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Lenovo Ideacentre 200 + EVGA GTX 960 + GDC Beast V8.3 M.2 E @ PCIe 2.0 x1


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Quite an easy setup for eGPU on Lenovo Ideacente 200.

 

* Lenovo Ideacentre 200 - Intel Celeron 3215U, 16GB ram, 500GB HDD, Windows 10 with original powerbrick

* EVGA Supernova G2 550 

* EVGA GTX 960 SC 4GB single fan (1962 model) powered by 6pin from the PSU

* GDC Beast 8.3 with M.2 A/E cable , powered by the PSU

 

There are connectors on the back side of the Lenovo, I bent the the metal plate covering the place of  DB-9 or DB-15 connector just enough to pass the M.2 A/E board with the connector cable to the GDC beast. I recommend that this is done only once the cover is off , the HDD plate is removed (two black screws towards the side of the case), and the WiFi card residing originally in the M.2 E slot under the plate is removed. Under the HDD plate is also one M.2 M slot (more on it later). Run the cable, fasten the bolt of the M.2 E slot, re-seat the HDD plate, bolt it down, reconnect SATA cable, make sure the antenna connectors aren't touching the mobo anywhere, reinstall case cover (if the cover is not closed the Intel CPU isn't cooled at all, as the fan is on the side of the heatsink) and tape around the signal cable to the beast as you want air to come into the Lenovo only though the front plate. You will lose the WiFi capability, so you need to install another WiFi Card either in the M.2 M slot,  a USB based one or just use the wired RJ-45 Ethernet port. 

 

* When the V8 GDC beast is used with M.2 the power on doesn't work, so the power supply needs to be turned on (pin shorted) BEFORE the computer is turned on. 

* Delay switch on the beast should be in position 2 or 3

* Post and bios screens are displayed on the eGPU, no need to connect HDMI/DP cable to the iGPU at all. If the Lenovo triple beeps on startup - it didn't properly negotiate with the card, shut it down, shut the card down, power in reverse.  

* UEFI boot works just fine

* Once Windows boots, installing the drivers is simple (Windows 10 x64 package from Nvidia) - the bios of the Lenovo has already completely disabled the iGPU, so it won't show in Device Manager  

* Performance (framerate) in 1920x1080 and 1920x1200 is 10-12 times better than the iGPU for same settings. In 1280x720 though, it is only 3-4 times better the iGPU as the CPU isn't fast enough to feed 180+ fps to the eGPU. 

* Enjoy - e.g. Minecraft at 1920x1200 with resource packs and shaders keeps the FPS between 40 and 80.

* Once you shut down the computer, power off the PSU to the card.  

 

As mentioned there is a M.2 M slot on the Lenovo. I was very excited as the M slots are supposed to have x4 PCIe in them. Alas, with the same card and PSU and PE4C-M4060A V4.1 (PE4C with M.2 M) I was never able to boot to a situation where Device Manager will at all see the card. Either the M.2 M slot is only wired for SATA and the PCIe x4 lanes are missing, it is whitelisted, or there was no good contact - the M.2 M slot on the Lenovo board is 2242 but the cable from the PE4C is 2262, even though I believe I set it up without moving and under the appropriate angle. Since a 2242 SSD works just fine in the slot, my current thinking is that for whatever reason the PCIe lanes are not connected on the slot, but I don't have a WWAN card to test it. The M.2 M slot is also printed as "sata" on the mobo. 

 

 

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