HyperMyth

Thanks @bjorm. I'll change to Gen 2 as soon as I get the bios unlock from HP. Most of the benchmarks indicate my setup is now CPU limited (i5-2520M). Did your 8460p come with the i7-2630QM or did you do a CPU upgrade? Would you recommend a CPU upgrade as worth the boost in performance?

I successfully got my eGPU config up and running. HP 8460p w/ iGPU HD3000 PE4L-EC060A V2.1b MSI GTX 660 Ti Power Edition w/Twin Frozr cooler PC P&C Silencer 500w PSU (80 PLUS BRONZE) Everything worked just as the forum FAQs indicated. I have one glitch in that the bios is currently locked and I believe the PC card slot is running at PCIE 1 instead of 2.0. HP is sending me a boot USB to unlock the bios then I can verify and change it to 2.0. Does the Nvidia Optimus compression operate at both pcie 1.1 and 2.0? Or do I have to wait until I can set the slot to 2.0 to see that compression? I benchmarked as is and will run them again after I can get the slot configured for 2.0. Still a huge improvement over the internal HD3000. Cloud Gate| 3DMark Vantage | 3DMark11 with HD3000 2982 | P2112 | --------- with eGPU 9538 | P15791 | P5669

Thanks for the feedback @Tech Inferno Fan and @jacobsson. I've ordered the following items for my eGPU config: PE4L-EC060A V2.1b MSI GTX 660 Ti Power Edition w/Twin Frozr cooler PC P&C Silencer 500w PSU (80 PLUS BRONZE) Once I get it setup and running I'll benchmark it then I'll take a look at enclosure options. Maybe I'll steal @bjorm case mode idea.

Thanks for the quick response @Tech Inferno Fan! After a bit more research it looks like the PE4H-EC060A V3.2 (PCIe x16 Adapter) enclosure doesn't have clearance for the two 6-pin PCI power connectors on top of the MSI GTX660 Ti card. THe enclosure apparently only supports power connectors at the end of the card. I'm considering three options: Get the PE4H v3.2 w/enclosure anyway and try to mod the enclosure to accommodate the top facing power connectors on the GTX660Ti Go with the tried and true PE4L v2.1b and build my own enclosure. I ran across this PE4H v3.2 which appears to be the circuit board without the enclosure. The cable is soldered at both ends so I assume it is capable of the full PCIe 2.0, unlike the PE4H v2.4 with the detached cable. I had not seen this circuit board version offered separately before and it is not listed on the BPlus site. Does anyone have any experience with this board or has anyone dismantled a PE4H-EC060A V3.2 (PCIe x16 Adapter) from its enclosure and used the board separately?

Hey all. I'm new to the forum and just spent my afternoon reading the outstanding posts here. First, it is clear that @Tech Inferno Fan is a GOD. All hail nando. I also got a lot of good info from @bjorm posts since his rig is similar to mine. And I love his sweet eGPU enclosure. I'm not as creative as bjorm so I'll probably be going with the new PE4H V3.2 w/enclosure. Here's my rig: HP EliteBook 8460p, Core i5-2520M @ 2.5Ghz, 8GB RAM Windows 7 Pro 6 Intel HD Graphics 3000 (iGPU) 240GB SSD PCIE 2.0 Expresscard slot I am planning to get the following eGPU: PE4H-EC060A V3.2 (PCIe x16 Adapter) MSI GTX 660 Ti Power Edition Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 500w PSU Assumptions: I have not seen TOLUD problems mentioned with the 8460p so I don't think I'll need the DSDT override to avoid the Code 12 error. Gues I'll wait and see on that. As long as I have the latest NVIDIA drivers for the GTX660 Ti I should not have to do anything special to get the Optimus compression to kick in. I understand I will need to boot the laptop without the Expresscard plugged in and then I can hot plug the eGPU ExpressCard into the laptop. Anyone have any advice before I take the plunge into the eGPU waters with this setup? Thanks for maintaining such a great on-line community!