Morv

@lordromanov01, @Dschijn: I've got the same issue when my Macbook boots up with the Intel GPU activated without any EFI mod. I always follow the same procedure: Power on, hold ALT, wait for the boot menu to appear, wait until the wifi networks are found, switch on the Akitio by powering the outlet and start a timer on my phone(I start the outlet with my foot). I then wait 1:30-2:00 min and boot. Sometimes, especially after being in OS X, I can see the boot circle of Windows on the internal screen and I then know I have to reboot once again because I've got a constant load on "System" every time then. I do not know why this is happening, though. I've never put anything into my EFI, I only made an image once because I wanted to do the Optimus mod but I never did.

I've already got a molex to barrel plug in use for 2-3 months. I had taped the riser power "pins" like it was mentioned by Tech Inferno Fan, so the slot was only powered by the barrel plug. I wanted to avoid stability problems beforehand. But at this time I was checking several times at several places that the cables were at the right place, although there are only 2 possibilities. I just didn't want to blow up my precious stuff I'll post pictures later on. It's a bit messy right now and I haven't got time. I'll also upgrade to a GTX 970 as my Gigabyte GTX 960 doesn't fit the outer shell of the Akitio case and I miss a bit of power so I won't buy another GTX 960. 2 free games, which I wanted buy anyway, are also nice.

@w4vz: Thanks again for showing up with your method, I've received my cables today and everything works fine. So I got 2 x 6 pin PCIe splitter(1x6 pin to 2x6(+2) pin), one plugged into the DA-2, one end of it is cut of to use the cables for the barrel plug(3 cables each for 12v and GND) and the other end extends and splits again with the 2nd cable. Paperclip to activate the DA-2 remote works fine, too. This is really easy, neat and nearly plug'n'play. The DA-2 plug needs a bit of force to fit into the 6 pin female part but it's really not much and there's no need for any modifications of the 6 pin female part. Guess you spared myself some time, using a 24 ATX with cables to attach by yourself would have been more trouble.

There are several GTX 960 that fit into the Akitio case. Length has to be < 220mm. If you want to keep the fan of the Akitio, it should be around 200mm I guess. Performance shouldn't be an issue, though. The R9 285 and GTX 960 are about the same performance: https://www.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/AMD+Radeon+R9+285/review https://www.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/NVIDIA+GeForce+GTX+960/review

The 500W refer to a whole desktop system including CPU, motherboard, RAM, HDD and so on. The 430W PSU on Amazon would be fine too and saves you some bucks. You could go even lower to 300-350W. The PSU only has to power the graphics card and the Akitio, which doesn't need much. The card you linked can only draw up to 225W, 75W from the slot and 150W from the 8 pin pcie.

Is that all you are able to do? Writing nonsense? You haven't got one normal answer to anything I wrote. You only come up with this stuff that no one ever mentioned.

You want a cookie? You're totally doing it for free, aren't you? You're not going to charge people for your EFI stuff, eh? You're such a pretentious guy, seriously. I'm not using this to accomplish anything but having a notebook with graphics power at home, btw. And guess what? That's what I've got for months now. Thanks to this community, for sure. Now move on and eat your cookie.

xD I was expecting this bullshit. You can do your work without being a prick, you know that? You can work on useful stuff for the public without degrading everybody new or uninformed by ranting and shouting in a forum post. Risers totally have anything to do with Nvidia cards being able to use on an external display in OS X, totally. 100%. You're so cool. That's what the latest rants by you were about and that's what others reacted to. Risers. Not your EFI stuff. Get your shit together, Einstein.

Move what forward? There is nothing to be moved forward or that is held back by risers. What is wrong with you?

@MVC: Nice how you're not going to respond. CAPSLOCK isn't making you right, btw. And there is no "whole eGPU thing" that is held back by stupid powered risers. One guy blows stuff up, maybe caused by the riser. You push this in a way like it's proven. People who want the eGPU get their eGPU, with or without risers. Most of them are neither electricians nor programmers and won't contribute to whatever the "whole eGPU thing" is, they just want a neat way to get graphics power. @ba10s118: Apparently he is.

Naw, I understand the reason you want a most compact solution perfectly. But like you said at last, you need to see the other people's needs, too That's why you can't say you could buy a gaming pc then instead of building a eGPU in a bigger case. I like the GPU in Akitio case idea too though and I'll switch to it in the next days as well. But it's just because I think it's nice and I've then got an easy way to carry it with me. Why so mad and shout stuff? What is it that needs to get done? Progress on what? And what part take risers in Macs getting trickier? Those Akitio eGPUs work, some with risers, some without. Some have problems with risers, some don't. Why should a riser burn your card if it's not faulty(which you may check upon first use)? There was one guy now who may have killed his cards with the riser. I'm still using a riser + 2 90° angle adapters(oh lord!) in my case because otherwise I wouldn't be able to put my card and the Akitio board in there. Yep, I had problems with a GTX 780 which was awful but switching to a GTX 960 got rid of it. No, that's not perfect at all but I've got what I need and it works. I'll board the train of GTX 970 in Akitio case soon, though. The only reason I do this is the compactness and because I like trying stuff + GTX 970 has more power + 2 games atm. Still, I don't see any reason for such a post like yours. You don't need to help people if you don't want to, you know.

So what's the purpose of an eGPU for you? In my opinion it perfectly fits the purpose: Have a gaming capable machine at home and unplug the graphics power if you need your book on the road. eGPU purpose to me isn't to have a most compact graphics solution. That's just a nice side effect that came up with the Akitio Thunder2 or other compact cases that are delivered with Thunderbolt adapters. Are you from the future? Will Apple release another MBPr 15" at the end of the year?

Whatever you've seen at the price of $50 wasn't even near the capability of Thunderbolt 2 or this thing which is equal or even better.

Exactly. You would use the cables directly und put them into the screw terminal. If you want to wait and see if everything is fine this way, I've ordered my stuff and expect it to be delivered in the next 2-3 days.

Get yourself one of these -> 1 Female Molex Connector Housing w 4 Pins | eBay Then cut off the third 6 pcie pin you don't need, twist the each 3 12v(yellow) and 3 ground(black) cables together(so you make 1 end out of 3) and put those twisted cables into one of the pins of the linked molex set each(1 pin yellow, 1 pin black, matching your molex-barrel plug). Another way would be to buy this -> Screw Terminal Coaxial Power Connectors 2 5mm x 5 5mm 28J212 Lot of 3 | eBay and just put in the cut off and twisted 12v and ground cables. If you don't mind the little cost, maybe it's easier. I've already got such a thing here though and don't need to buy it. They're really cheap here in Germany, too. Exactly. You would use the cables directly und put them into the screw terminal. If you want to wait and see if everything is fine this way, I've ordered my stuff and expect it to be delivered in the next 2-3 days.

I'm going to do the exact same as @w4vz now(it seems to be a really straightforward, no hassle way) and with 2 pcie splitters you've got 3 pcie plugs in the end. I'll cut one off as there is no need for 3 pcie plugs anyway and use it's cables to put into my screw terminal block. As my splitter is 6 pin to 2x 6(+2) pin I will also have got a free ground cable with plug from the +2 part(they're only 2 ground) which I can then plug into the remote part of the Dell DA-2.

Either you or I didn't understand Dschijn's comment correctly, I guess. He asked "Did you had to drill into the 8 pin to make it fit the DA-2?" which translates to me as "Did you have to modify the 8 pin female pcie extender so it would take the 8 pin DA-2 plug?". You answered with "No, it fits perfectly".But then I only saw a 6 pin extender and thus the confusion... Sure thing though, taking a 6 pin which takes the DA-2 plug's 12v and GND pins and extends to what is needed is near perfection.

I am about to do a similar thing but using a 24 pin ATX extender with pins to attach by yourself. I would have probably cut the parts of the 24 pin to the left and right I don't need. Using the free pins I could decide on my own where to put which cable of another plug(pcie, barrel plug). An 8 pin pcie extender with free pins to attach is available too, though. Maybe I'll get both and see what fits Your last picture shows that you're only using 6 pins and cut the other 2 which would block sense and remote? At least it looks like that. Why didn't you use a 6 pin pcie extender then? Still, good job

You're one lucky guy then. ~1133€ for such a beast, well done You're going to have much fun with it

I'd ask myself if I will take the device with me very very often and how important gaming is. If your carrying it around very much you may or may not notice it. I myself have got the 15" MBPr Mid 2014 because I'm using a backpack everytime anyway and I wanted to replace my desktop which I used for current games. If gaming is about playing things like LoL, CS GO, Minecraft or such stuff you'll probably be fine with the 13". If your serious about current games like GTA V, DayZ, Battlefield 4, Witcher 3 and such, take the 15". The CPU is more or less equal to Intel desktop CPUs when running on turbo clocks and even on base clock it's fine(I'm running it only on base clock so the fans will shut up and I'm really fine with it, playing said games except Witcher 3). With 4 real cores and HT you'll be fine for another few years regarding the CPU power. The 13" U-CPU may limit generally in near future and/or your graphics card. Force trackpad may be nice to have but you'll be fine with the usual trackpad as well, it's really great. I doubt you'll notice the speed increase of the SSD as they are already faster than usual SATA SSDs. Battery life is about 10 hours when typing stuff and browsing usual sites now and then...movies from storage about 5-6 hours. Avoid Flash at all cost as it sucks the battery like nothing else, horrible stuff.

Yes and yes. With TOLUD <= 3,25GB there should be enough memory allocation space for your eGPU.

No. What I linked works. I'm using it right here in the moment and I've bought it from the trader I've linked. I'm using this for months now. I taped my powered riser so it doesn't power the TB board anymore. If there was anything wrong it wouldn't work.

Get yourself one of these -> Delock Adapter DC 2,5 x 5,5 mm Stecker Terminalblock # 65487 | eBay And get yourself a 4 pin molex y splitter -> DeLock Y Kabel Stromversorgung 2x Molex 4 Pin 82100 | eBay You'd then cut off the 2 female molex connectors on the left and use the two resulting yellow and black cables wired up together to connect to your 2.5mmx5.5mm terminal block. You'd either remove the second black and the red bunch of cables or insulate their then open ends. You could also only cut the yellow and black cables you need but then you'd have the useless female connectors hanging around. The trader delivers to the EU and is delivering from Germany. I don't know where you live but this should do it. And it's cheap. I've got this working the way I described it. Only the 4 pin molex was already at hand from another powered riser.

So if I wanted to use apple_set_os.efi for Optimus purposes without altering my boot loader(no reFind etc.), would I have any chance to do so?

Alright, like I wrote I don't really have knowledge about electric stuff so that's why im asking so often. Apparently it seemed too good and easy to be usable Thanks for your explanation.