nissefar

They recommend 500W because 1. it needs to power CPU/Mobo too, and 2. because people buy shitty PSUs that are rated higher than what they can actually perform.

That card will maximally draw 300W alone, but probably even less than that.

Is this specifically the enclosure? The link on the first post only leads to their front page:

ThunderTek/PX: PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis for Macintosh

Then I'd add this:

PCI Express PCI-e 4X TO 16X Riser Card Extender Ribbon Cable with w/ Molex Connector, View PCI-e card, ulanson Product Details from Shenzhen Ulanson Electronic Co., Ltd. on Alibaba.com

and just need an external PSU to run it.

If one were to replace the power adapter included with the ThunderTek with something like this:

https://www.fasttech.com/products/1288100

Would you be able to avoid needing the riser? Or did you attempt something like that and were still unsuccessful?

The thundertek input is only made for 30-40w? Not sure if it would handle a bigger power brick... The safest bet is probably going with some other PSU, especially if you want to use a graphics card that require more than 75w. Maybe it's possible to run a GTX 750 in the enclosure with no modifications, it shouldn't draw that much power, but anything bigger than that, you surely need a bigger PSU.

I don't have a custom one. All I do is do PCI compacting while ignoring the dGPU, then turn the dGPU off and Initialize the iGPU and eGPU. (in Windows 8) In Windows 8.1, I don't do anything, Just plug and play.

So to understand this correctly, if you use Windows 8.1, you don't need any egpu setup software?

I was under the impression that there was no problems with errors such as 12/43, TOLUD, UEFI/MBR mode, PCI Reset Delay from reading this guide: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6723-%5Bguide%5D-14-asus-g46vw-gtx780ti%4010gbps-tb1-thundertek-win8-1-a.html

It is however quite short on details.

And what problem are you referring to? You asked how to switch on power when plugging in a THunderbolt cable and two solutions were provide, with the 10second solution being paperclip the green and black wire and use the ATX PSU switch. If you had the bits already and were attaching it then would have spent much less time implementing it than writing the 3 posts analysing this non-problem.

Sorry for not making this clear. I was talking about the problems you brought up such as error 12/43, TOLUD, UEFI/MBR mode, PCI Reset Delay and performance.

A picture isn't going to tell me if there is a point that switches from high-Z to ground when you plug the THunderbolt cable in. It's a low agenda item. Just use an ATX PSU with a power switch on the back and paperclip the ATX plug green-black as shown in my previous reply. Then take 1 second to switch it on before plugging in the Thunderbolt cable. There done, now you have power. Then deal with other issues that may be problematic : error 12/43, TOLUD, UEFI/MBR mode, PCI Reset Delay and any performance issues. Once it's all working can use a multimeter to find the GND point to give (now) working eGPU implementation it's final touch.

Didn't this guy basically have no trouble with any of this?

http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6723-%5Bguide%5D-14-asus-g46vw-gtx780ti%4010gbps-tb1-thundertek-win8-1-a.html

Sorry for perhaps being clueless, but I'm quite new with eGPUs, but am considering getting a thundertek.

If you can find a point of the Thundertek that changes from high-Z (open circuit) to ground when plugged into the THunderbolt port, then can route that point to the active-LOW green wire on the ATX PSU. Upon detecting the GND transition, the ATX PSU will power on.

Unfortunately I am not sure how to figure out where such a point would be on the board.

But a picture of it got posted here, maybe some of the unused connectors can be used for this?

http://forum.techinferno.com/attachments/diy-e-gpu-projects/11586d1399813091-thunderboltadapter1.jpg

Also to "paper-clip" Green (PS-on) wire with the Black (Ground) is not so elegant solution.

Much better is to use SSR (solid-state-relay) to control Green-Black connection and power the relay from USB, so when the cable is plugged, the SLAVE power supply switches ON automatically and when the MASTER computer is turned OFF ( or cable disconnected ) the SLAVE power will go instantly OFF.

Could you give some more details on how to make this work?

If you read the instructions from the Thundertek, it says it powers on itself when it is attached to a thunderbolt port. Could this be used to power on the ATX PSU?