Wes Crockett

Hey Nando4,

It has been a long time, but I'm about to build a new desk setup, and I wanted to revisit this. Would a switch like the one linked below work with the standard jumper slot on the SWEX without having to cut and splice my power supply?

Ce Rohs 2 Position Push Button Switch - Buy 2 Position Push Button Switch,16mm Push Button Switch,2a/36vdc Push Button Switches Product on Alibaba.com

I have never seen that card setup before, what is it? (referring to the non GPU components.)

For the power, I simply use PSU's on/off switch. No pins, hacks, etc

I don't think I did anything special... my PE4L came with something that the power supplies MAIN plug goes into that toggles the PSU on and off and it has a switch on it, I just use that...

I'm also unsure of why USB3 can't be utilized. I'm assuming there is something with the tech that makes this difficult. I'm working with a recent version of a Macbook that provides Thunderbolt 2. I had originally planned on using a Thunderbolt 1 adapter because of the price difference, but I'm hoping I can get full utilization out of this with the newly discovered adapter. What kind of performance hit did you take going with express card?

I never did run 3dBenchmarks on mine but here is the overall impression:

Prior to building this, i was running Star Wars, The Old Republic on medium settings and getting 30ish FPS that would degrade to 20ish during some more intense times. After, I bumped the settings all the way up and got 60fps and about 30 during the intense parts. The only issues i see are a bit of screen tearing, but it's not too bad.

Now, I play War Thunder and Star Conflict and have no issues other than screen tearing.

my machine had an Nvidia NVS graphics card that is a pile of junk, that is why I built the eGPU. I have a SSD and a secondary spinning drive in place of the CD drive. I have 16gb RAM and am running the internal LCD and 2 24" monitors (these 2 are run by the eGPU.)

All and all, it's a cool setup. I'd rather have a desktop though

I was afraid of that. Guess I'll stick to my original plan which isn't bad. If the AKiTiO ends up working, I'll just have to get a longer thunderbolt cable, possibly. Luckily I have a large area to put this stuff so spacing shouldn't be too much of an issue, but I don't want to have the enclosure right up against my laptop either. Since you're using express card at 5Gb/s, are you considering switching to the AKiTiO to see if it increases your performance?

My Lenovo W520 only has Express Card, no Thunderbolt. I am wondering why USB 3.0 can't be an option for something like this... It's throughput, if utilizing full duplex, is 10gbps and is much more flexible (in terms of options, lengths, connectivity) than Express Card.

Great minds think alike! I'm definitely looking for a more affordable graphics card around the GTX 660/760 area so I hopefully won't have problems with the side of the case. For that low price tag, this seems like the best, near universal solution to put an eGPU in a nice package! Out of curiosity, how do you get the setup to power on/off? Did you investigate using the case switch at all? I know it would need to be a specific type of switch to get it to work for power on AND power off, but I'd be interested in solution you may have other than my aforementioned paper clip and using a PSU with a switch plan.

I have the same case and wanted to get the power switch to work as well... When I tried, I could power it on as long as I held the power button but it would shut off as soon as I released it. My biggest problem with my setup is the length of the express card cable. I have to have it behind my monitors and it eats up a lot of desk depth.

I have completed assembling my eGPU setup comprising of [gtx680] + [PE4L] + [sonnet Echo Pro] + [2012 MBA] + [Windows 8.1]

The most beautiful thing is that it did not give any error (12/43,etc) on Win 8.1 (my initial attempt was on Win 8 which gave me error 12).

Also I've brought cooler master elite 120 case and modded it a bit to accomodate the bulging out of the GPU via cutting one side of the case and adding an acrylic sheet on it. Although its a full fledged case for mini ITX form factor, using it for just an eGPU is cool since its not that huge and also I am going to keep on my computer desk where space will not be an issue.

Let me know if some one wants detailed steps I followed. Special thanks to Tech Inferno Fan and all the other members of this community

Pics of Case:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9635[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]9633[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]9634[/ATTACH]

Benchmark results

I actually have the exact same case, but why did your GC bulge out the side? mine fit's nicely inside.

Did you get the power button to work with the PE4L switch? I tried hooking it up, but i would press the button, it would turn on, but then when I released the button, it would turn off. I would love to get the button to work. Also, I wish I had a longer cable to connect it to my laptop!

I set up my eGPU some time ago and had a maintenance question:

I haven't updated my display drivers since setting it up about a year or so ago. Are there any special procedures I should follow to upgraded the Nvidia drivers? Also, I have ignored all Intel drivers for the onboard display, should I update those too?

I have a GTX 650 Ti Boost (2gb model). I can't remember, off the top of my head, which Intel chipset I am at, but will update this when I get home and am at my PC.

Thank you,

Wes

Easy done. The anti-vandal switch has 2 posts. Just wire the ATX PSU's green (PS_ON) and black wires (COM/GND) to those posts. Though the illumination won't work since there isn't any power running through those two leads.

REF: How do I manually turn on an ATX power supply?

Could i not use the jumper slot that is on the SWEX board? Additionally, is there no way to send power to the LED's?

Hello all,

When I tried hooking up my PE4L's SWEX adapter to my cases power switch, I noticed that i would press the button, power would be received, and I would release it and it would turn off.. I think it has to do with the type of switch in the case. I want to add a switch like this:

PV6 anti-vandal switch | illuminated anti-vandal | water resistant anti-vandal

Does anyone know what I would need to do to get it to function with the light?

You should be good then, run 3DMark and see if your score is near those on the leaderboard (check to make sure they didn't OC or if your OC is the same as theirs). As for the Memory, I'm not sure, my GTX 660 Ti shows up three times in Memory as well - I have a Large Memory 'PCI Bus' as well (since I did a DSDT override).

From the sounds of it, you seem like you are good to go. Just run some benchmarks and compare.

Sweet. Thanks a ton man!

Get GPU-Z and run that. Look at the Bus Interface. See if it says:

PCI-E 2.0x16@x1 2.0

If it does not, try running a game/benchmark or something and see if changes. This would make sure you have Optimus working correctly.

You have no errors in the Properties window of your 650 Ti? no error 12 or something? If not, you should be fine.

GPU-z says as you noted and there were no errors in device manager. Also, does this tell us anything about compaction?

I looked into it... Can't be done in my bios... ::Stupid Lenovo!::

Sorry to spam. I looked deeper into my bios and thought about it... There are two options under display: 'Graphics'[integrated | dedicated | Optimus] as well as 'Let OS detect Optimus.' I had it set to Optimus and Enabled... I tried changing it to set as integrated only with Let OS detect enabled... this booted just fine and now I think it may be working.

Is the above image all I need to indicated that I am working at top ability? what other things do I need to look at to ensure I'm set up as well as I can be.

Thanks,

Wes

does the Setup 1.x deliver same performance as if I didn't need to use it? Additionally, any idea why I can't update my drivers and/or other windows updates for Intel chipset?

I will look into how to disable the dgpu in the bios.

I looked into it... Can't be done in my bios... ::Stupid Lenovo!::

To get the NVIdia eGPU to provide Optimus features (x1 pci-e compression AND internal LCD mode), the NVidia dGPU must not be on the pci-e bus. Disabling the NVidia dGPU in Device Manager doesn't do that. The dGPU must be disabled in the bios or if there is no option to do that, use Setup 1.x to do it. Pls contact me if you require Setup 1.x. Ensure you are running a MBR partitioning on your system to be able to use Setup 1.x (Device Manager->Disk Drives->[select]->Volumes->populate->Partition style=Master Boot Record).

does the Setup 1.x deliver same performance as if I didn't need to use it? Additionally, any idea why I can't update my drivers and/or other windows updates for Intel chipset?

I will look into how to disable the dgpu in the bios.

Hey guys! Thanks for the reply.

I see the HD3000 in device manager, and it is powering my laptop built in screen while the eGPU powers my 2 24" monitors. There is a third (dedicated) GPU that is an nVidia NVS2000m that I just disable in the device manager.

GOTHIC: dgpu was disabled in Device Manager (I didn't see any options in BIOS.) As far as Optimus in BIOS, set to OS detect and GC is set to nVidia Optimus.

My normal operation of starting the thing up is flip the switch on the PE4L, then hit my laptop power button.

This brings up a minor question I have... I put this all in a micro ATX case... I hooked up the jumpers for the cases power button and, when I press it, it comes on and when I release the button, it shuts off... What kind of switch do I need to purchase so i don't have to use the tiny one on the power panel that came with the PE4L?

Thanks guys.

About a year ago i used a W520 with eGPU and i didnt needed the eGPU Setup. I would try to get the PE4L + PSU + Titan or a good GTX780 (there are some good overclocked versions) and test it the normal way. If you get problems you can still buy the eGPU setup if needed.

I think dualGPU models like the GTX690 are more bottlenecked by bandwidth then the 1GPU models.

Hey Gothic,

I set up my W520 and have a few questions that maybe you have the answers for.

On your 520, did you actually see the Optimus settings in Nvidia control center? I see no mention of Optimus even though I have it set correctly in the BIOS. Additionally, I installed a (slightly) older version of the GC drivers from NVidia and, when I try to install newer drivers, it fails. I can't remember the exact error that is given, but it was pretty generic. Additionally, Windows updates for Intel devices now fail

Any thoughts?

FYI: Using a GTX 650ti Boost OC... I do get better performance overall than I did with the NVS2000m or W/E it is called.

I got my GTX 650ti Boost up an running a few weeks ago and it is certainly an improvement. That being said, am unable to play the laptop screen off of it. I have 2 24" monitors hooked up to the GC and the internal is being driven by the intel GPU. Also, when I try installing the newest NVidia drivers, it fails every time. Any ideas why?