Jump to content

US$189 AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe Box (16Gbps-TB2)


Recommended Posts

The AMD instability is related to low power consumption situations, such as using a browser or just opening windows.

Just for the record: This happened with my GTX 780, too. Sometimes I played a game and it didn't crash and afterwards when opening my browser it crashed upon loading my saved tabs.

Thank you for your effort regarding the try out of Tech Inferno Fan's suggestions and your previous investigations as well :)

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Would the 7970 work reasonably stable with a riser and ATX PSU, without any mods like soldering and stuff?

I guess so, it also works fine on OS X. Back-powering the Thunderbolt card may keep the system stable, but I would recommend the taping trick - it’s very easy to tape those 6 pins of the powered riser to achieve same results. In addition to this, you only need a molex-to-barrel adapter. My other mods were:

(1) a direct power for x16 slot via J6

(2) bypassing the barrel connector

(3) an additional C3 capacitor

Those separately or together didn’t improve significantly the physics part of the 3DMark11 with R9 280X. The taping trick showed a clear improvement in physics and in low power consuming situations.

Here the pics of my new configuration:

post-28870-1449499952067_thumb.jpg

I would like to get rid of the 4-pin cable, moving all the powering stuff on the rear side. Now there is a risk to melt that cable as it may touch the GPU.

post-28870-14494999520462_thumb.jpg

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Could you take a photo on your taping trick? Not familiar with the term.

Described a few posts earlier if you consider using just a powered riser + molex-to-barrel adapter:

http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7205-us%24189-akitio-thunder2-pcie-box-16gbps-tb2-99.html#post123086

Taping the TB card pins is not necessary then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, so what I need to do is:

1. Get the AKITIO box

2. Get a 300 W+ ATX PSU

3. Get a powered riser such as this one:

[PCIE] 16x - 16x PCI-Express POWERED Riser Flex

4. Get a molex-to-barrel adapter (where do I get one of those?)

5. Put some tape on the three pins on each side of the riser

6. Put it all together (do I need to do the paper clip thing as well?)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, so what I need to do is:

1. Get the AKITIO box

2. Get a 300 W+ ATX PSU

3. Get a powered riser such as this one:

[PCIE] 16x - 16x PCI-Express POWERED Riser Flex

4. Get a molex-to-barrel adapter (where do I get one of those?)

5. Put some tape on the three pins on each side of the riser

6. Put it all together (do I need to do the paper clip thing as well?)

The list looks good. Check the amps value in +12V rail of the PSU. I am using a small Silverstone’s SFX 450W PSU. It has a single 37A +12V rail (max 444W).

The instructions for the molex-to-barrel adapter are here: http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/8317-%5Bguide%5D-making-molex-barrel-adapter.html. I am not aware of the place where to get a ready made adapter. I did the adapter myself, soldering is not necessary if you choose the barrel with screws.

Paper clip trick for the ATX PSU is always compulsory, and preferably use electrical tape for those pins.

To easily power on eGPU system, I would recommend a quality power strip on the floor.

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not easy to find all these parts in Sweden.

Found this though: DC-kontakt terminalblock > DC-kontakter | Kjell.com

I'm probably going to go with the HD 7950, which is almost half the price of the 7970 for some reason. It's got 2 x 6pins PCIe. Would something like this work? http://www.inet.se/produkt/8905152/nzxt-6-pin-grafikkortsforlangningskabel-250mm-sleevad

Do I need two? And how do I make a molex to barrel adapter with 2 x 6pin? How do I know which of the wires to cut? The guide's cables look totally different.

Geez. Not sure I'm good enough with these things to pull this project off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess so, it also works fine on OS X. Back-powering the Thunderbolt card may keep the system stable, but I would recommend the taping trick - it’s very easy to tape those 6 pins of the powered riser to achieve same results. In addition to this, you only need a molex-to-barrel adapter. My other mods were:

(1) a direct power for x16 slot via J6

(2) bypassing the barrel connector

(3) an additional C3 capacitor

Those separately or together didn’t improve significantly the physics part of the 3DMark11 with R9 280X. The taping trick showed a clear improvement in physics and in low power consuming situations.

Here the pics of my new configuration:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14170[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]14171[/ATTACH]

I would like to get rid of the 4-pin cable, moving all the powering stuff on the rear side. Now there is a risk to melt that cable as it may touch the GPU.

Nicely done! Can you now detach your ATX power via the soldered molex lead and run via your barrel-to-molex instead to do your 3dmark11 physics test? If stable, that would confirm C3 cleaned up the barrel input signal. If still unstable then your barrel-to-molex adapter was not delivering reliable power.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nicely done! Can you now detach your ATX power via the soldered molex lead and run via your barrel-to-molex instead to do your 3dmark11 physics test? If stable, that would confirm C3 cleaned up the barrel input signal. If still unstable then your barrel-to-molex adapter was not delivering reliable power.

Thanks! It’s still possible to use the molex-to-barrel adapter instead of directly soldered lead. Passed the 3DMark11 test only once with the R9 280X, the second run of physics crashed. I tried again with the soldered molex, and made a new record: 3 sequential physics tests passed. But the bad news then… I couldn’t pass even the first run of physics after rebooting. Powering off the eGPU from the power strip did help to pass the physics again. Maybe the components of the AKiTiO became too hot after several 3DMark11 runs.

I know that my current molex-to-barrel adapter is not properly made. It has only one black and one yellow wire and the wires are too thin near the plug.

The 6-pin to 4-pin-molex cable included with the ATX PSU should have two yellow 12V wires, but it has only one. When I looked at closer the markings on the PSU, it says “IDE & SATA” for those two 6-pin connectors and “EPS8PIN/ATX4PIN” near the 8-pin connector. The soldered molex lead has two yellow wires. I am considering to get power from a free 8-pin connector to utilise two yellow and two black wires, and use that 6-pin “IDE & SATA” cable only for 12cm fan to cool AKiTiO. The blue colored 8-pin plug is for the GPU “PCIE8-PIN/6-PIN”.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not easy to find all these parts in Sweden.

Found this though: DC-kontakt terminalblock > DC-kontakter | Kjell.com

I'm probably going to go with the HD 7950, which is almost half the price of the 7970 for some reason. It's got 2 x 6pins PCIe. Would something like this work? http://www.inet.se/produkt/8905152/nzxt-6-pin-grafikkortsforlangningskabel-250mm-sleevad

Do I need two? And how do I make a molex to barrel adapter with 2 x 6pin? How do I know which of the wires to cut? The guide's cables look totally different.

Geez. Not sure I'm good enough with these things to pull this project off.

I remind that AMD stability problems what I have encountered concern Asus brand. We are not sure if it’s the same for all the R9 280X and 270X cards, maybe not. We have seen that the x16 slot power consumption varies depending on the GPU. Unfortunately it’s impossible to predict the adaptability in low power conditions by looking at the brand. The taping trick does improve it notably.

HD 7950 may be a good choice as it includes also Tahiti codenamed chip.

ATX PSU includes all the cables you need for the GPU, the GPU cable has often 6+2pin + 6pin plugs. But for the 4-pin molex it’s a different story as mentioned in my previous post. One thick yellow wire might be enough for 75W but two yellow from the beginning to the end would be much better. I don’t have a 8-pin to 4-pin molex cable at the moment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Right. So where does the 4-pin molex attach then? I need an 8-pin to 4-pin molex cable? Does this look right? Adapter 2xMolex till 8-pin PCI-e - Inet.se

Is it this 8-pin to 4-pin I'm going to make the molex-to-barrel adapter out of? Do I just use one of the 4-pin molex connectors, and throw away the 8-pin connector and the other 4-pin molex?

Sorry if all these questions seem stupid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[MENTION=32203]Oscar J[/MENTION]: Well you already mentioned that you need 2x6-Pin PCIe power connectors for your graphics card. Before you consider any adapter for that card, you should find your PSU... If the PSU doesn't provide any of the required connectors you can start looking for adapters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8-pin to 2 x 4-pin molex cable is just my idea. I don’t know if this kind of cable exist, but in theory it would be the best way to feed up to 75W for the x16 slot (two yellow wires + two black wires) and ~20W for the TB card & PCIe board combo via molex-to-barrel adapter (one yellow + one black). You should have a multimeter to confirm correct voltages and polarity of the barrel adapter. It’s always a good idea to also confirm the output voltages of the PSU so that you don’t accidentally use +5V. We only need yellow +12V and black GROUND.

This layout picture describes my current power configuration when using the powered riser + taping trick method. Feedback is welcome. R9 280X still has stability problems in 3DMark11 physics. I suspect that one yellow wire from the PSU’s 6-pin “IDE & SATA” connector is not enough. That’s why I suggested to use 8-pin output “EPS8-pin/ATX4PIN” but wonder where to get such a cable. Maybe I should make it myself.

post-28870-14494999523589_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a great and really helpful picture, but it leaves me with a few questions:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14181[/ATTACH]

By the way I just ordered the AKITIO Thunder2, so I guess it's happening!

Thanks in advance.

1) Yes, included with the PSU. The plug attached to the PSU is 6-pin but utilises only 4 pins (one yellow, two black, one red). At the other end it has two 4-pin peripheral connectors and one 4-pin floppy connector.

2) It’s the same cable as (1)

3) Yes, self-made. The wires near the barrel plug are too thin.

SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd.- INTRODUCTION?ST45SF-G

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey guys,

Just wanted to addf something.

For the last 2 nights I have played 1-3 hours of Far Cry 4 on my 2014 Mini with a Titan eGPU at 4K 60Hz.

No crashes during gameplay.

However, if I let Win 8.1 go to sleep, or even leave the thing sitting idle for awhile I come back and it is off.

My Akitio has no power mods of any sort, just have a PC PSU providing the 6 & 8 to Titan.

Pretty sure the crashing is a driver thing, at least in my instance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apple recommends to turn off sleep when using Thunderbolt hardware in Windows. Problem is that peripherals get disconnected in Windows, but TB Hardware has to stay connected as it directly connected to the PCIe bus.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have ordered that SilverStone PSU now. When you made the 4-pin-molex-to-barrel adapter, did you need to buy a 4pin molex extension like the one in the molex-to-barrel video guide, or was that also included with the PSU?

Great to hear! ST45SF-G is a very good PSU for DIY projects, the only drawback is the 8cm fan which might be the loudest component of your eGPU system. V2.0 has better fan speed curve.

I had some old molex extension cables laying around. A connector that has male pins and female housing isn’t included with the PSU, if I remember right. Pins can be removed easely by pushing in the side wings, you just need yellow +12V and black Ground.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great to hear! ST45SF-G is a very good PSU for DIY projects, the only drawback is the 8cm fan which might be the loudest component of your eGPU system. V2.0 has better fan speed curve..

I also have a V2.0 ST45SF-G. Supposedly the fan speed profile has been updated on v2.0 to be quieter but I still find it a bit too loud. There is a mod that replaces the stock fan with a quieter Noiseblocker one (see discussion here). PSU warranty will be void and one has to make sure the capacitors are fully discharged (>24h unplugged) before opening the PSU but the mod itself seems pretty straightforward.

V1.0 with stock fan

V1.0 with Noiseblocker fan

Parts needed for mod:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also have a V2.0 ST45SF-G. Supposedly the fan speed profile has been updated on v2.0 to be quieter but I still find it a bit too loud. There is a mod that replaces the stock fan with a quieter Noiseblocker one (see discussion here). PSU warranty will be void and one has to make sure the capacitors are fully discharged (>24h unplugged) before opening the PSU but the mod itself seems pretty straightforward.

Thanks for this. However, that’s too risky. I believe that SilverStone engineers have done the best in order that PSU can operate safely as they say “there is still inherent limitation with 80mm fan’s ability to dissipate heat at maximum loading conditions while maintaining satisfactory noise profile for users sensitive to higher-pitch sounds”.

SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd.- INTRODUCTION?SX500-LG

I would recommend to choose SFX-L size PSU such as Silverstone SX500-LG or Chieftec SFX-500GD-C with 120mm fan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bought mine in Malaysia and I was lucky they had this one in stock. No, I don't use windows and don't play. I want to use the eGPU for video editing. It's working!

My eGPU setup:

London 550W PSU (don't really know why I bought this one...) with the paperclip trick (the blue cable)

Asus Geforce GTX 780 Ti connected with the 8pin to 2x 6+2 pin cable that came with the PSU

I dismantled the Akitio chassis and connected the card directly to the PCIe slot without any riser.

I followed this guide with additional help for the kext modifiying with this and that guide.

Hi, Where did you buy the Akitio Thunder2 in Malaysia? Searched high and low but still couldn't find anyone selling it locally. Hoping to run 4k@60hz on my trusty quad 2012 mac mini. Thank you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.