euqlaog Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 @jacobsson So we have ~1mm space there to fit this card in theory And thanks for the instructions to make a lower profile 6pin cable, I already made one plug and now there is room to close the outer shell. Unfortunately with my 750Ti, the heat sink pipe is still there... 145W TDP theorically allows only one 6-pin header (75W from the x16 PCIe slot + 75W from the 6pin connector), but because AKiTiO only provides 25W from the PCIe slot, we need both. I still may wait for the other vendor's smaller size cards, and I am worried about the heat problem, because outer shell does not have any vents on the side where from the GPU cooler is getting air, and PCIe/TB-boards need some cooling as well. Drilling some holes and putting a fan in front of the case might help. But this is really interesting idea anyway! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacobsson Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Means? (stupid dumb lazy sleepy afternoon question LOL)Haha no problem, It's means that theoretically we have 1mm room for fitting this card =) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacobsson Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 @jacobssonSo we have ~1mm space there to fit this card in theory And thanks for the instructions to make a lower profile 6pin cable, I already made one plug and now there is room to close the outer shell. Unfortunately with my 750Ti, the heat sink pipe is still there... 145W TDP theorically allows only one 6-pin header (75W from the x16 PCIe slot + 75W from the 6pin connector), but because AKiTiO only provides 25W from the PCIe slot, we need both. I still may wait for the other vendor's smaller size cards, and I am worried about the heat problem, because outer shell does not have any vents on the side where from the GPU cooler is getting air, and PCIe/TB-boards need some cooling as well. Drilling some holes and putting a fan in front of the case might help. But this is really interesting idea anyway! Cool, so you did one cable already? That's crafty! Yeah the heat might be a problem. My plan is more of a 'warranty voiding' nature =) * Making vent holes on the sides * Solder the 5.5/2.5mm jack to be directly connected to the PCIe x16 slot * Split this rail to 2 x 6-pin PCIe power for the GPU Since my Thundertek board have no problem providing a GTX660/GTX670 via x16 slot (plus the PCIe 8-pin for GPU of course), I think the Akitio board would too. The 25W fuse limitation is probably a design restriction in order to have the enclosure licensed (for low end GPU purposes?), but this is of course only speculations from part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcagara08 Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Haha no problem, It's means that theoretically we have 1mm room for fitting this card =)oh alright thanks! But how is the cooling going to be implemented? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacobsson Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 oh alright thanks! But how is the cooling going to be implemented?With a drill and a grid with holes =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euqlaog Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Cool, so you did one cable already? That's crafty!Yeah the heat might be a problem. My plan is more of a 'warranty voiding' nature =) * Making vent holes on the sides * Solder the 5.5/2.5mm jack to be directly connected to the PCIe x16 slot * Split this rail to 2 x 6-pin PCIe power for the GPU Since my Thundertek board have no problem providing a GTX660/GTX670 via x16 slot (plus the PCIe 8-pin for GPU of course), I think the Akitio board would too. The 25W fuse limitation is probably a design restriction in order to have the enclosure licensed (for low end GPU purposes?), but this is of course only speculations from part. I did the 6pin header only, its height is now 14.7mm (I may shorten it a bit more). Have to get shrink tubes and then just put the cables back. The idea of utilising inner chassis would mean that I had to get rid of my current GTX 780 Very tempting to use an external PSU as those new cards are not so power hungry anymore. For now, I think to keep my current setup and the plan to make a bigger enclosure supporting full length cards and PSU inside. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcagara08 Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 With a drill and a grid with holes =) Oh alright yes - - - Updated - - - I did the 6pin header only, its height is now 14.7mm (I may shorten it a bit more). Have to get shrink tubes and then just put the cables back. The idea of utilising inner chassis would mean that I had to get rid of my current GTX 780 Very tempting to use an external PSU as those new cards are not so power hungry anymore. For now, I think to keep my current setup and the plan to make a bigger enclosure supporting full length cards and PSU inside. If you are going to give it away for free, i will PM you my address and will pay for shipping! =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euqlaog Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 @jcagara08: Well I think there are more sensible ways to get rid of it =) Hard to make a decision to sell as it's so stable card and no guarantee that Zotac would work with AKiTiO.By the way, I found another small GTX970 (not sure if bracket length is included, maybe not)Inno3D (215mm) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacobsson Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 @jcagara08: Well I think there are more sensible ways to get rid of it =) Hard to make a decision to sell as it's so stable card and no guarantee that Zotac would work with AKiTiO.By the way, I found another small GTX970 (not sure if bracket length is included, maybe not)Inno3D (215mm)I think the best way is to keep the 780 till you know for sure that the Zotac will work.Regarding the Inno 3D, I think that measurement is w/o bracket included, I've spent some time looking at the images and 215mm + 12mm makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euqlaog Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 I think the best way is to keep the 780 till you know for sure that the Zotac will work.Regarding the Inno 3D, I think that measurement is w/o bracket included, I've spent some time looking at the images and 215mm + 12mm makes sense. Yep, maybe you are the first one here who confirms that I noticed that some of those cards support HDMI 2.0, which means 4K@60FPS (of course the display and the computer has to support as well). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcagara08 Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Yep, maybe you are the first one here who confirms that I noticed that some of those cards support HDMI 2.0, which means 4K@60FPS (of course the display and the computer has to support as well). Does that mean we have to buy new types of HDMI ot DVI cables? Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euqlaog Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Does that mean we have to buy new types of HDMI ot DVI cables?Sent from my SM-N9005 using TapatalkAccording to this, existing high speed cables should work:HDMI :: Manufacturer :: HDMI 2.0 :: FAQ for HDMI 2.0This is quite a new information for me too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimJ740 Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Some comments regarding my implementation....I am running the Akitio with an external PC power supply, PCIe riser with power tap, and an AMD R9 290X under OS X 10.10 DP 7. I use this system for OpenCL applications and am quite happy so far with results and stability.With a 2012 mac-mini (ThunderBolt 1) I get a LuxMark sala score of 2450.I do have an EE degree, and in reading through the thread there are a lot of troublesome assumptions that I see...First the disclaimer: I do not have access to schematics for the Akitio, nor do I have the time/desire to reverse engineer it, so I took the simplest/safest route.1) I use a single 600watt PC power supply. I cut the supplied Akitio power cable and mated it to a Molex 4 pin connector. The PC power supply powers the board, the PC riser, and the aux PCIe connectors on the video card. Using multiple power supplies carries the risk of ground loops that I wanted to avoid.2) Anyone who knows what a diode is and how it works would be aghast at the suggestions to backpower the Akitio logic board from the PCIe riser. I have no idea if there are any diodes used in the power circuitry or not - but why risk this?3) Power is not "shared" from the multiple sources on the video card. Specific parts are wired to specific power connectors. Often the engineer does not do this assignment at all; rather the design tools used to lay out the board can make these decisions. Make NO assumptions on where power is drawn from. Any card is free to draw up to 75 watts from the PCIe slot, up to 75 watts from a 6 pin PCIe aux connector, and up to 150 watts from a 8 pin PCIe connector. Do not think that just because you have a huge power supply on the PCIe aux connectors that you can get by with the puny 25 watts that the Akitio circuitry will deliver to the PCIe slot. For safety and stability additional power should be supplied to the PCIe slot.Note also that the modifications needed to the drivers to tunnel over ThunderBolt to PCIe will not work when kext signing is enabled in 10.10 DP 4 and above. There is a nvram option to disable kext signature checks.Good luck,-JimJ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entzoe Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Jim can you please post an photo of your setup and connections please? Is this how you implemented your AkiTio? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimJ740 Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Jim can you please post an photo of your setup and connections please?Is this how you implemented your AkiTio?[ATTACH=CONFIG]12602[/ATTACH]Yes, that is basically it. There are some case fans and other items hooked to the power supply too. I will take some photos this afternoon and post them. The main reason I wanted to post was to publish a successful/stable R9 290X setup, since most of what I read was about Nvidia and people having problems with AMD.-JimJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimJ740 Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Jim can you please post an photo of your setup and connections please? If you look closely, you can see I kept the Akitio inner chassis largly intact - I cut a bit of a notch for the PCIe riser cables so that I could use the shortest possible riser. I mounted the Akitio inner chassis to the case with a couple small machine screws. You can also see the "loop back" of the original power cable. This is actually a solderless implementation since the molex connector crimps on to the power cable wires... Akitio - $225 Power supply - $55 Case - $49 Molex connector and screws < $4 PCIe powered riser (20cm) - $12 Used R9 290X from ebay - $275 Performance benefits for rendering on a mac mini - priceless. The R9 290X is a bit noisy when the fans ramp... but I do not power it on unless I am doing jobs. -JimJ 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entzoe Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Awesome! I'm going to try this the mini itx you have (Cooler Master) ? --> Amazon.com: Cooler Master Elite 130 - Mini-ITX Computer Case with Mesh Front Panel and Water Cooling Support: Computers & AccessoriesCan you also share the KEXT files changes you made for AMD Cards? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimJ740 Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Awesome! I'm going to try this the mini itx you have (Cooler Master) ? --> Amazon.com: Cooler Master Elite 130 - Mini-ITX Computer Case with Mesh Front Panel and Water Cooling Support: Computers & AccessoriesCan you also share the KEXT files changes you made for AMD Cards?Yes, that is the exact case.As for the kexts, I will do a bit more experimenting - I currently modify the plist.info sections of 4 kexts, I want to test to see if I really need to modify all 4 or not. When I am done I will post the minimal set of modifications necessary. Note that I probably will not post the actual kexts, since I have no way of testing compatibility with other versions of the operating system... best to edit part of a complete set. The modifications are simple for anyone who can use a text editor.-JimJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entzoe Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 sure you can just post what are the files you modified and which section you made on them... just similar to the previous post I made on the other thread; /System/Library/Extensions/NVDAStartup.kext /System/Library/Extensions/IONDRVSupport.kext /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleHDAController.kext and issue the following sudo kextcache -system-caches [ATTACH=CONFIG]12618[/ATTACH] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entzoe Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Yes, that is basically it. There are some case fans and other items hooked to the power supply too. I will take some photos this afternoon and post them. The main reason I wanted to post was to publish a successful/stable R9 290X setup, since most of what I read was about Nvidia and people having problems with AMD.-JimJWhy do you have to power both the board and the riser at the same time? Isn't powering the riser is enough to supply the 16x slot?Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entzoe Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Yes, that is basically it. There are some case fans and other items hooked to the power supply too. I will take some photos this afternoon and post them. The main reason I wanted to post was to publish a successful/stable R9 290X setup, since most of what I read was about Nvidia and people having problems with AMD.-JimJ Hi @JimJ740 Can you please help me which wires to connect together? I found an extra wire exactly the same with AkiTio My molex has a red (12v) and black wire (ground) which one to connect from the ac cable? It has a white cover and the bare one.,, thanks! Sorry not an electrician here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzinz Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Hey all -Just read through the last 20 pages or so. Is there any solution using the Akitio box that doesn't require soldering/heavy modding? Even with a mid-range GPU? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dschijn Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 @JimJ740: Which riser did you use? I have read that some are not "good" or stable… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entzoe Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 He could be using the sintech version based on the his photos similar to the one posted by Tech Inferno Fan on the first page of this thread.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimJ740 Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Why do you have to power both the board and the riser at the same time? Isn't powering the riser is enough to supply the 16x slot?Thanks! The board power is for the ThunderBolt chip as well as the support circuitry (clocks, etc) for the PCIe bus. As mentioned previously, any diodes in this power circuitry will prevent current back-flow and some components may not receive proper power. Or put another way: yes, the PCIe riser power is sufficient for the slot, just not a guarantee that the other circuits get proper power. -JimJ - - - Updated - - - Hi @JimJ740 Can you please help me which wires to connect together? I found an extra wire exactly the same with AkiTioMy molex has a red (12v) and black wire (ground) which one to connect from the ac cable? It has a white cover and the bare one.,, [ATTACH=CONFIG]12619[/ATTACH] thanks! Sorry not an electrician here WARNING: the color coding convention for the Molex connector is that 12 volts is yellow and 5 volts is red. Are you sure that is wired correctly??? If in fact it is wired correctly, the bare wire is ground and connects to the black wire. The white center wire is 12 volts. To check the wiring of your molex, plug it into your power supply (with the power supply turned off) The connector is keyed and will only go in one way. Your connector should plug into a yellow wire from the power supply - they are color coded to the standard. -JimJ - - - Updated - - - @JimJ740: Which riser did you use? I have read that some are not "good" or stable… This is the exact one I used: http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-E-Express-X16-Riser-Extension-Single-Slot-High-Speed-Cable-with-Power-/261459534757?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ce033e3a5 -JimJ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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