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


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I have a ASUS GTX 970 MINI, corsair rm 450, akitio thunder 2 and an external monitor. I plugged the card into the akitiobox directly and powered the card with the corsair power supply. Then I connect the card to an external monitor using hdmi cables and applied paperclip trick. When i start in windows, both the fan of the power supply and the card runs, but the card does not get recognized under device manager. The only thing under graphic adapter is the gt750m from my mbp.

I tried infall driver but the card still can't get recognized.

Any help plz?

Please try the "plug-unplug-method" like this:

1.) Boot w/o eGPU attached (*)

2.) Connect eGPU TB-cable (with external monitor attached) -> GPU fan spins up and then settles -> If no output to external monitor, continue to 3.)

3.) Use Safe removal method (just like thumb drive removal) and disconnect the TB-cable from the system, wait 3 seconds.

4.) Re-connect eGPU/TB-cable, GPU fans spins up again and settles, any external screen output? If not redo 3.) + 4.) one more time. Any difference?

* Regarding 1.) is it mandatory to boot w/ eGPU attached when using MAC? If so do that,

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@nicktheduke

Can you monitor the CPU usage when the eGPU is active in OSX?

Is the CPU fan running harder than w/o eGPU attached?

Thanks so much for your reply! I checked without eGPU attached and it does run faster. I can't tell if this is a Yosemite problem or what... The kernel_task is running all over the place. At certain points, it's going at 200+%... Any suggestions as to why this happened?

Also, why is it that I can get sound through HDMI running Windows but no sound in OS X?

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I checked without eGPU attached and it does run faster. I can't tell if this is a Yosemite problem tho... Any suggestions as to why this happened?

Also, why is it that I can get sound through HDMI running Windows but no sound in OS X?

OK, That is interesting, I can't really say why it stresses your CPU that much, I could be due to a bad link between the eGPU and your system, you don't perhaps have a secondary TB-cable to test with?

Regarding the sound issue, often you don't want to transfer the sound through the HDMI of the eGPU since it occupies bandwidth of your graphical performance. I always use my internal headphone jack to ensure highest eGPU performance (I even disable the HDMI sound completely to ensure this).

I'm not very familiar with the OSX environment so I can't really help you there, but you could check if you have secondary sound card (probably named High definition audio or similar) showing up in your hardware settings of OSX? If so, you might have to manually set that one as your default sound card in order to have sound via eGPU.

You might get a better answer here;

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/7910-diy-egpu-macbook-experiences.html

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After several attempt with my set up, I still couldn't get my my egpu to work. The card can not get recognized. I tried it on both of my macbook pro(late 2013 with dgpu) and mac air (with intel graphics only) both under win 8.1. The fan on the card spins but can not see under device manager. Also i can not install nvidia driver it says"the driver can not find compatible hardware". Any suggestions to how to get the card detected?

I tried restart several times it did not work.

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Yes, there is one GTX750Ti implementation running purely off the 60W AKiTiO Thunder2 AC adapter without any riser. See [GUIDE] 2011 11" Macbook Air + GTX750Ti@10Gbps-TB1 (AKiTiO Thunder2) + OSX10.10

@VladoKc, @Tech Inferno Fan is referring to a build I did, and I feel I should caution you - running the 750ti on the AKiTiO's power alone did work for me, but it wasn't very stable, I suspect because the AKiTiO's could supply 60W but not 100% reliably or consistently. For a more stable solution, I recommend using a powered riser or using a GPU that has 6-pin or 8-pin connectors for additional power.

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After several attempt with my set up, I still couldn't get my my egpu to work. The card can not get recognized. I tried it on both of my macbook pro(late 2013 with dgpu) and mac air (with intel graphics only) both under win 8.1. The fan on the card spins but can not see under device manager. Also i can not install nvidia driver it says"the driver can not find compatible hardware". Any suggestions to how to get the card detected?

I tried restart several times it did not work.

Could you please open a new thread? It is quiet hard to follow / help you if we need to search for your informations (setup) everytime.

Please try:

- powering the Mac without the eGPU connected

- Hold Alt and wait for boot selection

- power the eGPU and connect to the Mac (wait 5sec)

- boot into Windows

- try to install driver

or

- powering the Mac without the eGPU connected

- boot into Windows

- power the eGPU and connect to the Mac (wait 5sec)

- try to install driver

Additionally please try this in OSX: http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides/8558-%5Bguide%5D-macbook-enabling-optimus-internal-lcd-mode.html#post110757

Sorry if you have already done some of this steps, but I don't want to browse the last couple pages of the thread to follow you in every step.

Regards

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Yes there is a Dell DA-2: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/8304-gtx970-dell-da-2-test-results.html

But keep in mind that you might need to rearrange the wires.

Thank you for advice

I will buy a ATX PSU,that is best solution. i wanna safe some space on my desk with ac adapter. but easiest way is buy atx i think,and have no problem with wires

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Thank you for advice

I will buy a ATX PSU,that is best solution. i wanna safe some space on my desk with ac adapter. but easiest way is buy atx i think,and have no problem with wires

Sure :)

If your concern is about the PSU size, you can check out SFX PSUs. But keep in mind that this smaller PSUs need a louder cooling. The best balance between size and noise are the new SFX-L PSUs offered by Silverstone and Chieftec.

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Is it 300w sfx enough?

Well… kind of. You need to keep in mind that you might need 6 or 8-pin connectors for the GPU. If you just want to power a GTX 750Ti by a powered riser any SFX will be fine.

To get an idea about the possible PSUs, here is a list from a german search page: Netzteile mit Hersteller: be quiet!/Chieftec/SilverStone, Formfaktor: SFX Preisvergleich | Geizhals Deutschland

I am using the Chieftec SFX-500GD-C because it has a quiet 120mm fan and two 6/8-Pin PCIe connectors.

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This may be true. Proper powering would probably be done by soldering the molex connector directly on the Akitio's pcie slot, as shown by nando in the Akitio Thunder2 thread(photos in first thread, he shows the area with a red marker). Problem is that I would need a detailed description so I'd know where to solder which cable as I don't have knowledge of the connection.

Still, thank you for your effort.

Yes, I have followed the AKiTiO discussion from the beginning and most of those closer AKiTiO PCIe board pictures are taken by me, as I played with a multimeter. I would like to see the first post showing how to accomplish the proper soldering. I remember @jacobsson was about to do that. I prefer non-warranty voiding mods... I have been also wondering if a single 4pin molex is enough to feed stable 75W even if having two 12V wires, or would we need 2 x 4pin molex from a 6pin. Just throwing some thoughts.

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I thought the same and already have purchased the second riser(which didn't change a thing, btw). I'm not using the Boot Camp drivers, I'm using the usual AMD drivers, 14.12 Omega Catalyst. Same for the GTX 780, usual Nvidia drivers.

This may be true. Proper powering would probably be done by soldering the molex connector directly on the Akitio's pcie slot, as shown by nando in the Akitio Thunder2 thread(photos in first thread, he shows the area with a red marker). Problem is that I would need a detailed description so I'd know where to solder which cable as I don't have knowledge of the connection.

Still, thank you for your effort.

It's actually more straight forward than you might think. Just connect a powered riser, measure the solder points of the riser (behind the often blue tape) and trace them to the solder points of the Akitio x16 slot. In this way you know exactly how the capacitor (you should use capacitors for stability) and wires should connect and be soldered.

Sent from my iPhone

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My set up:

MBP retina late 2013 with gt750m dgpu /macbook air 2012

Akitio Thunder 2 Box

Asus GTX 970 MINI OC

Corsair RM 450 ATX PSU

external monitor

I connected the card directly into the akitio box, plugged the 8 pin power supply to the gpu and connected the akitio box to a my macbook pro via thunderbolt. I also applied the paperclip trick and connected an external monitor to the card using hdmi.

Problem: I tried this set up with both of my rmbp and mba, i can boot win 8.1 with the egpu card running. The fans on the egpu runs but it is not detected. I also can not install nvidia drivers since it says "the driver could not find compatible hardware".

I tried restarting several times, the card is not detected but the gpu fan is spinning. This is really frustrating its been 2 days and no progresses have been made.

Appreciate any help thx!

post-32287-14494999137386_thumb.jpg

post-32287-14494999135971_thumb.jpg

post-32287-14494999136677_thumb.jpg

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The AKiTiO PSU was connected?

Have you tried the following steps?

Please try:

- powering the Mac without the eGPU connected

- Hold Alt and wait for boot selection

- power the eGPU and connect to the Mac (wait 5sec)

- boot into Windows

- try to install driver

or

- powering the Mac without the eGPU connected

- boot into Windows

- power the eGPU and connect to the Mac (wait 5sec)

- try to install driver

Additionally please try this in OSX: [GUIDE] Macbook: enabling Optimus internal LCD mode

Maybe you really need a powered riser? :(

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The AKiTiO PSU was connected?

Have you tried the following steps?

Please try:

- powering the Mac without the eGPU connected

- Hold Alt and wait for boot selection

- power the eGPU and connect to the Mac (wait 5sec)

- boot into Windows

- try to install driver

or

- powering the Mac without the eGPU connected

- boot into Windows

- power the eGPU and connect to the Mac (wait 5sec)

- try to install driver

Additionally please try this in OSX: [GUIDE] Macbook: enabling Optimus internal LCD mode

Maybe you really need a powered riser? :(

yes i tried ur steps, still didn't get the card recognized. Sometimes the fans on the card suddenly stops spinning i have to unplug and replug. However, it has never got detected by windows. Im thinking maybe i have a bad thunderbolt line or my windows edition have problems. I don't know if the windows I'm using is the pure version from microsoft. I downloaded it from dreamspark. Thx for the help anyway.

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Well… kind of. You need to keep in mind that you might need 6 or 8-pin connectors for the GPU. If you just want to power a GTX 750Ti by a powered riser any SFX will be fine.

To get an idea about the possible PSUs, here is a list from a german search page: Netzteile mit Hersteller: be quiet!/Chieftec/SilverStone, Formfaktor: SFX Preisvergleich | Geizhals Deutschland

I am using the Chieftec SFX-500GD-C because it has a quiet 120mm fan and two 6/8-Pin PCIe connectors.

Thank you on answer. I will see what can get of this from link in Croatia

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Can't remember, have any on tried Dell XM3C3 with the Akitio?

Amazon.com: Genuine Dell XM3C3, ADP-330AB B, DA330PM111, 330 Watt Power Adapter PA Charger with 6ft Power Cable/Cord For Alienware M18X Systems, 100-240V, Connector Size 7.4mm5.0mm, Dell Compatible Part Numbers: XM3C3, ADP-330AB B, DA330PM111: Comput

I'm curious since this guy seems to use it to power his project:

A4: The smallest gaming case series in the world - [H]ard|Forum

Ultimately I'd wanna build a similar box as he's doing, but with only room for a GPU. Since like this PSU would do the trick, no?

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