Morv

What kind of failure do you mean? Loss of power? Unstable behaviour under load? What exactly might happen or be a problem? I understand your point of people already owning the DA-2 instead of buying it for the mod. To this point I didn't know about those transformers but those models are more or less exact available on german ebay so I could give that a shot. The nice thing about the DA-2 was the casing though. Those transformers don't look good the way they are although they're handy to use.

Thanks for your reply. I just looked what the price was for the SWEX including shipping but $28? Nope. Still I stumbled upon this -> 12V AC Adapter (2nd tab MK394) It's a Dell DA-2 with a barrel plug 2.5mm x 5.5mm which fits the Akitio Thunder2(a mod by Bplus? Can't find it anywhere else even if searching for MK394, everytime it's 8 Pin output). Not really useful as 220W are way too much for the 75W the barrel plug can provide to the graphics card via PCIe slot but, and that's the point, isn't it way easier to mod? If I'd buy a 2.5mm x 5.5mm terminal block with a jack(like this) fitting the plug of the PSU would it be safe to put in cables of a PCIe 6 pin adapter? I'd only need to power one 6 pin for now and the barrel plug I'm using already(2 12V yellow, 2 GND black coming from 2 Pins of a 4 Pin molex). So it'd be like: Dell DA-2 barrel plug -> terminal block jack (here we split) -> cables of 6 pin PCIe adapter into their according places in the green thingy* -> 6 pin to graphics card -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> cables of my terminal block plug into their according places in the green thingy* -> barrel jack of Thunder2. *idk the name but apparently it's 2 pin terminal strip, it's Lüsterklemme in german Using 2 or more(?) thick cables that would come from the green thingy, would I be able to split them afterwards safely as another way instead of directly putting the cables into the green thingy? They'd need to be able to carry the max. 220W safely without melting(that's my only concern for now, the rest seems to fit for me). Is this possible? I'm not knowing too much of this and the most I've got from this board while reading the Thunder2 discussion I'd be willing to order one although it's somewhat more expensive than a 8 pin Dell DA-2 and the Antminer board. As always, thanks for your help.

Every GPU draws up to 75W through the PCIe slot. Those 6 and 8 pin connectors only came up when the cards became more power hungry and the 75W became insufficient around a decade ago. Look for old high end cards and you won't find them or anything else giving additionally power other than the slot it sat in. With the molex->barrel you overcome the 60W the Thunder2 PSU offers and you offer the card all the power it may possibly need through the PCIe slot(as Tech Inferno Fan stated, it doesn't have to be using all of the 75W). Also you power the Thunder2 itself through the molex->barrel. So with using the molex->barrel you only have one PSU that power everything -> less trouble.

@Tech Inferno Fan: This thing will work as a substitution for a SWEX, won't it? Antminer Netzteil Schalter Bitmain Bitcoins | eBay The SWEX is rather expensive in comparison and needs some time to get delivered. The Antminer switch is available directly from Germany. Looking at the fourth picture flipping it vertically should give the other side of the first picture and I should be able to follow your cable arrangement for the SWEX. The part that differs is the blue cable that is placed at JP1. This jumper isn't available. Where'd I put this one? Really looking forward to do this mod. I've got some people to check the work, so I won't blow myself up

This one over here by Tech Inferno Fan -> http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/9426-220w-dell-da-2-ac-adapter-discussion.html This makes the Dell DA-2 PSU together with a barrel plug mod(4 Pin molex and cables to 5.5mm dc terminal block) applicable for use with the Akitio Thunder2 .

The EVGA GTX 960 should be indeed fine as I am owning a Gigabyte GTX 960 OC which is by far the only model which doesn't fit into the Thunder2. Still the part of which is too much is really really short and measures only few mm. All the other models which fit into the Thunder2 by length are also thin or small enough. With the described Dell DA-2 mod I'll possibly try another GTX 960 together with the Dell PSU. This is still by far the most comfortable solution.

You'll be fine with the GTX 960. scan.co.uk seems to be the best choice, it's even a few bucks cheaper there compared to german stores if you only take the price itself(idk about shipping from or to germany, for example).

This is about what you need to have a working TB eGPU, yes. I was playing Far Cry 4 maxed out but resolution at 1366x768. FullHD maxed out didn't produce stable 60 FPS and was dropping to 30-40 but I was too lazy and simply reduced the resolution. Furthermore I'm playing Project Cars, Battlefield 4(Ultra, FHD) and some other shooters. Dying Light needs some effect settings tweaking and/or reduced resolution to produce 60 FPS. Note that the GTX 960 is easily overclockable and produces around 800 additional points in 3DMark11 which also leads to more FPS in games. Regarding your points: 1. HDMI output works at a TV. I'm having my monitor connected via DVI-DVI and my TV is even connected via DVI - HDMI with sound on TV. 2. No eGPU powered, no eGPU present and everything is as if there was never a eGPU connected. I'm using one of these in my power strip, so I can only power on/off my eGPU but don't need to power off the whole strip. All together you will be fine with this setup and you'll always the possibility to upgrade your graphics card.

You don't have any other choice than buying either PE4C/PE4L with mPCIe or EXP GDC with mPCIe. If you want to use an eGPU then you'll have to remove your wifi card no matter what to get access to that slot. You don't have a Thunderbolt port. Don't buy the Akitio Thunder2 then. You may buy the PE4C/PE4L or EXP GDC with ExpressCard though as your notebook is advertised to have a ExpressCard 34 slot. GT 740 isn't a good card for gaming. Purchase at least something like GTX 750 Ti.

Are you sure your own Thunderbolt cable actually is a Thunderbolt cable? It may be a mini-Displayport cable. They have the same connector and thus look the same, yet they aren't the same inside.

Read post #2 in this thread. I already wrote it has three different modes including a PCIe compatible one.

You mean something like USB-C which is just coming to users? It supports USB, Displayport and PCIe modes in one port. The different modes have to be enabled by the manufacturer, though. So not every device will necessarily support the PCIe mode. Apart from this the speed isn't the same as Thunderbolt 2 yet. The theoretical speed is 10 Gbit/s as far as I know, so it would be like Thunderbolt 1. My guess is that Thunderbolt will die. At last if Apple decides to only use USB-C in future.

That's because it's a Mac Mini 2012 and not a MBPr 15" 2014... The hardware used is important, it's not about the OS version or anything software related. MVC already gave you a hint to this, though.

MBPr 15" 2014 doens't provide external screen support in OS X with an Nvidia eGPU, you can only use it for CUDA/OpenCL. AMD cards work though. At least for now it's this way, read this as reference -> http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/8507-no-kext-loaded-gtx-970-akitio2.html

Just for the record: This happened with my GTX 780, too. Sometimes I played a game and it didn't crash and afterwards when opening my browser it crashed upon loading my saved tabs. Thank you for your effort regarding the try out of Tech Inferno Fan's suggestions and your previous investigations as well

Yes, under full load...? You either don't read what I write or you don't want to understand what I write, I don't know. 75W by 6 pin + 45W(if 120W would be the maximum need) provided by the slot of the Akitio. The Akitio PSU provides 60W and although the slot is labeled as "25W only" it provides more than this.

How that? Like I told you I've got the same components and it worked. The 6 pin provides 75W. The remaining power comes from the slot even though it's labeled as 25W only.

You may also want to only use one PSU(the ATX or whatever one), so you'd need a barrel plug. I bought such a thing -> 2.5mm DC Power Socket with Screw Terminal Block (5pcs) and removed the molex connector from my old powered riser, so I could connect the cables with the block. You may take any other cheap molex-to-xyz adapter, This way you can power the board itself and your gpu with the ATX PSU.

No one will know unless someone tries it. You'd still need an ATX PSU(or any other compatible kind of external PSU), though. Helios provides 120W and you obviously can't run a 170W+ card with it while expecting it to be stable. Be the first to try Helios with AMD card and tell us if it works. No risk, no experience

I'm using the same card with an Akitio, only difference is that I've got a MBPr 15" 2014 model and another PSU(which shouldn't be the bad guy here). I've used the card both the way you try to do and it worked as well as the known powered riser way which I currently use so I could put it in a case. I boot the following way: - Power up the Macbook, hold Alt so the boot choice appears. - Wait for the wifi networks to be found, then I power up my PSU(you need to power up both your PSU then, nothing regarding the eGPU is powered up to this point) - Wait 30s or more - Start Windows. How did you install Windows? With bootcamp? Drivers are properly installed, especially the Thunderbolt drivers? Check in device manager if you've got an entry "Thunderbolt" under System devices. If nothing helps, do a SMC reset and a NVRAM reset. I've had it too, that my eGPU wouldn't boot up properly and this fixed it because something was weirdly stuck in the system.

What? You don't need to do anything but follow the instructions Boot Camp gives you. No Alt key holding, nothing, it will boot itself into Windows installation after preparing the usb drive.

Just install via Bootcamp...works fine for me, never tried a manual installation. You're probably missing the drivers which Bootcamp loads onto a USB stick together with the Windows ISO. Try external mouse and keyboard and see if you come further with this. If you can log in you install the Boot Camp Support Software from here -> Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621 Load it in OS X because you most probably won't have wifi in Windows without drivers.

Thank you @Tech Inferno Fan. It's too bad I've already sold my GTX 780, I'd probably have tried the mod. I hope someone else can try that and hopefully it really fixes the issue because otherwise the AKiTiO is awesome Also, if Akitio knows about us using their box as an eGPU adapter they hopefully address this issue by themselves for the next generation with Thunderbolt 3, once it's released. Do you think they'd react to our needs as far as possible?

Thanks and yes, it was thought to fit in the Akitio case but it's to tall for it and I didn't want to end up searching for another stable graphics card when the struggle with stability was finally over Edit 18.2: After several days of testing I can now tell that a wait of 30s, after waiting for the networks to be found and turning the eGPU on then, gives a 100% chance to boot properly into Windows. No falsely activated iGPU, no undesired load on System task and available CPU power settings in your energy plan. Seems like it simply needs some time to configure stuff.

Nope.