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


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@Jakob

I have a similar setup to yours; except I haz Lenovo T430s and Zotac 660Ti. Also, getting weird issues like the TDR_FAILURE. I got that BSOD once. The other times have been stuttering and slowdowns, then I get "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered."

Funny enough, if I switch to the PE4L, I do not have the problems above.

I am curious, what PCIE riser are you using? Here's mine: Sintech PCI E Express 16x Riser Extender Card 10 30cm FPC Cable Molex Power | eBay

It's funny that I also have a lot of problem with 660 series (in my case, GTX 660). I have a lot of stuttering and and sometime can be recovered (with 2 different cards: Asus GTX 660 with 1x6-pin and MSI Hawk GTX 660 with 2x6-pin). Did you try your exact config with a different Nvidia card?

Thanks,

Linh

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Got my GTX 970 EVGA SC today, will test and if everything run flawlessly on OSX I might sell my Sonnet III-D

has anyone saw the Alienware's 300$ dock eGPU? It's in engadget website 16mins ago.

Here's the link by the way. Alienware Graphics Amplifier hands-on

I wonder what type of cable you can use for this or is this only for alienware laptops?

It is probably a proprietary PCIe x4 connector. See also this discussion on the forum. It would be nice to use a PCIe cable with a standard PCIe x16 connector at one end and a Dell compatible connector at the other end. This way you could use two enclosures: one for PCIe to Thunderbolt (e.g. AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe Box) one for the graphics card.

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It's funny that I also have a lot of problem with 660 series (in my case, GTX 660). I have a lot of stuttering and and sometime can be recovered (with 2 different cards: Asus GTX 660 with 1x6-pin and MSI Hawk GTX 660 with 2x6-pin). Did you try your exact config with a different Nvidia card?

Thanks,

Linh

Very interesting. Looking at pics of your setup, seems like we have almost an identical setup. Very interesting that you managed to get 3dmark to finish. Whenever I put load on the GPU, the stuttering starts and then the driver crashes.

Unfortunately, I do not have another video card to test. Mine has the 2x6pin connectors. Would definitely like to figure

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Very interesting. Looking at pics of your setup, seems like we have almost an identical setup. Very interesting that you managed to get 3dmark to finish. Whenever I put load on the GPU, the stuttering starts and then the driver crashes.

Unfortunately, I do not have another video card to test. Mine has the 2x6pin connectors. Would definitely like to figure

Mine seem to be crashing at complete random time, but mostly under load. I had it crashed under 3dmark but no more, but mostly between game session. I'm asking my friend to borrow his 770 to see if it make any difference.

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@jacobsson

Yes i did indeed. 340.52 were the drivers I had on my setup before i started with the egpu.

Because i cant run lumion on my gt750m anymore after tweaking the registers TDR i'm thinking of doing a clean install of windows all over again. (I did install lumion a few times) Do you have any tips in witch order i have to install windows and (video) drivers? Do i need to install the drivers with the egpu connected for exemple?

Tnx! :)

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@entzoe: So how is it working for you with the EVGA? OSX, Win 8.1? Can you hear a coil noise from the GPU?

Also consider to grab a free GTX 970 backplate from EVGA: EVGA - Articles - EVGA's Got Your Back!

Hey, everything is working fine! been running this card for 2 days already... 16hours a day. 60% gaming and the rest video editing, programming and browsing, almost flawless except that I randomly getting some hiccups on safari 'page' on youtube website that would crash (not the whole page, not freezing, but just the page with youtube). I haven't tried this on Windows.

I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this or I will get the 980. I only tested this if it will be stable with OSX, which is very stable.

I can't hear any coil noise with EVGA with my gaming. I only heard this when heaven benchmark is loaded but after that no such kind of noise except for the fan. I think I had this similar sound with my 780 Ti.

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@Jakob

I would install the 340.52 driver only for dGPU, then connect the eGPU and use the device manager method, pointing out the c:\nvidia\ ... \340.52.

Tnx, I did a clean windows 8.1 install yesterday. I did install the drivers in the way you mentiond above. But it will still give an BSOD when starting up Lumion.

On the other side, the program did work for the dGPU again untill i did some tweaking in the Nvidia control panel.

Maybe some other suggestions?

Tnx! :)

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... another update... got a GTX 980...... and it doesn't work with AkiTio. LED lights on the GTX won't turn on..... weird. but GTX 970 does work.....

however, GTX 980 does work with Sonnet III-D

and GTX 980 made my display sharpened a bit!

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I mean, being able to run a GTX970 the cleanest way possible, I guess a PSU is needed, but don't want to lug around a full ATX one, a laptop brick would be better.

I'm wondering the same. I've already purchased an Akitio box, but I'm still trying to figure out the cleanest way to set it up.

My goal is to have everything set up without having exposed boards/wiring/etc. Can anyone suggest a mid/mid-high range GPU and power supply that can accomplish this?

Much appreciated - love this thread. Thanks all.

Edit: The reason I mention mid/mid-high is that I'm concerned with the way the box looks in addition to the way it performs. I'm using a Macbook Air and would like to use this setup for photo/video editing and gaming, but would happily use a mid-range instead of high-end if it made the setup more tidy. Thanks again.

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hi all

I would buy the LG 34UM95 . I have a mac mini late 2012 as with the HD4000 graphics card .

The LG's resolution is 3440x1440. Do you think buying the box Akitio and a good graphics card I could use this screen in its full resolution and 60 hz with Display Port ?

thx

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Hi, just a quick question. Would something like this work? A 4pin molex power supply similar to this one: Amazon.com: 110v AC to DC 12v Power Supply with 4pin Molex (5000mA): Electronics + 16x to 16x powered riser like this one: Amazon.com: PCIe 16x to 16x Powered Flexible Riser Extender Cable with Molex (Bitcoin Mining / Gaming): Electronics + Graphics card that wouldn't need any external power like this one: Amazon.com: EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti Superclock w/G-SYNC Support 2GB GDDR5 128bit, Dual-Link DVI-I, HDMI, DP 1.2 Graphics Card (02G-P4-3753-KR): Computers & Accessories + Akitio. I am looking for as compact implementation as possible.

I'm curious about a setup like this as well.

Would I be able to keep the enclosure closed (cover on) using the following parts:

Akitio2

EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti

Dell DA/2 power brick

16x to 16x Riser w/ Molex

Should that setup work? Is there anything else I'm missing?

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Can you please describe it more in detail?

Which GTX 980? 6/8-Pin connectors? Powered riser?

This is the ACX 2.0 version with 2 6pin connectors.

I'm not sure if this is a defective unit, it is only working randomly! Now it's not working with Sonnet III-D!.

I had no issues with GTX970. Dang, I already returned my 780Ti in exchange for 980 (for a replacement plan). Thinking of just staying with 970,

Does the fan in ACX technology only spins up when there's heavey GPU activity? Here's what I noticed on this 980, when you power up my machine, fan spins up, after the login-in screen, fans stops spinning......fans spins up again during gaming or bench mark.... is this how ACX works?

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I'm curious about a setup like this as well.

Would I be able to keep the enclosure closed (cover on) using the following parts:

Akitio2

EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti

Dell DA/2 power brick

16x to 16x Riser w/ Molex

Should that setup work? Is there anything else I'm missing?

Sorry to double post - but can anyone point out if this setup looks okay? I'm ready to order but want to make sure I'm not missing something.

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Sorry to double post - but can anyone point out if this setup looks okay? I'm ready to order but want to make sure I'm not missing something.

i could only confirm the 750 Ti FTW version(with 6pin) to be working even without the riser..

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Hi,

So I've been reading and reading and reading and I've decided it seems fairly safe to create an order for this stuff, but I have a few questions that I haven't been able to find an answer to (which in the end is based of off simply not having enough knowledge about this stuff in general).

My setup is very similar to that of Evo*, although I have the fully maxed Macbook Pro 13" from late 2013. I'm thinking of moving forward with the same setup as him, but probably going with a ZOTAC GeForce GTX 970 instead.

-- In terms of performance, will I notice a huge difference should I choose 970 instead of any of the 760 cards listed in the beginning of this thread?

-- Could you link the Powered x16 to x16 Riser/Extender Cable with Molex from eg. amazon or ebay so that I don't end up buying the wrong thing?

-- Molex to DC Barrel Plug. Same applies to this, not sure what I'm looking for.

-- I doesn't look like he has specified any instructions for Yosemite (except mentioning in the title), but does it fully work there as well? I'm mainly in this for the internal display.

I assume an apple TB2 cable will work in the end. I've had bad luck with third party cables.

Thank you in advance, and sorry if I ask stuff that has been answered before. I'm just not getting any wiser by searching at this point.

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-- In terms of performance, will I notice a huge difference should I choose 970 instead of any of the 760 cards listed in the beginning of this thread?

A GTX 970 will be much faster! A 760 is in general a rebranded 670. I assume a performane boost of at least 50% over the 760!

-- Could you link the Powered x16 to x16 Riser/Extender Cable with Molex from eg. amazon or ebay so that I don't end up buying the wrong thing?

This is the riser I bought (in germany): [PCIE] 16x - 16x PCI-Express POWERED Riser Flex

-- I doesn't look like he has specified any instructions for Yosemite (except mentioning in the title), but does it fully work there as well? I'm mainly in this for the internal display.

I had it working but some trouble later. Will do further testing when my EVGA GTX 970 arrives. I would recommend you to get a EVGA as well, because most people have the best eGPU results with that brand. My MSI GTX 970 was working in OSX 10.10 but was quite bitchy later.

I assume an apple TB2 cable will work in the end. I've had bad luck with third party cables.

The AKiTiO cable is just 0.5m which is very short and a Apple TB cable will "guarantee" a more flawless setup. I'm very pleased with the Apple 2.0m black TB cable.

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