Mr Baccano

Hmm, I just got another crash and I think I've reached the point where it goes from "slightly instable" to "annoying". So I think I'll try it out. Although I think in my case I'll go the way as described in the post you linked and remove the front of the Akitio. Seems like a safer/easier way. How likely do you think this might be the issue? It can easily let it run all night, but it can also crash while loading a web page, playing a video, not actually that often mid-game. I mean, I assume that you can't be 100% sure that the riser is the problem, but is it either 75% or 25%? Edit: Well, front of the Akitio has been removed and the 970 is running again. I kept running into error 12, so I was worried something had changed, but eventually that fixed itself. Now it's waiting for a crash and if there is none I'll be happy about the stability and sad about a case I built that has probably become obsolete.

Oh, bit of a shame that wasn't known yet. I mean, I build a case around it. If I were to plug it in directly, I wouldn't have to change much (as the Akitio is already powered by the RM550 as it is), only remove the back of the Akitio. But it would mean I'd have to create a whole thing around it again to keep it stored in a somewhat decent way.

Wasn't there a problem that the Akitio couldn't provide enough power? And if that's the problem I'll just stick with the crashes.

I'm using a HP ZBook 15 (Thunderbolt version 1), with a GTX 970 connected via a powered riser to an AKiTiO Thunder2 and everything powered by a Corsair RM550. I never really used any software like Setup 1.30, since I generally was able to boot it up without errors. Sometimes it throws error 12, but I can generally get rid of that by disabling and enabling the 970, rebooting and then everything works. The only problem is that it occasionally locks up and the last week it's been happening a bit more recently that it has started to become somewhat annoying. An occasional crash is fine as far as I'm concerned, because I'm booted up fairly quickly, but now it's been happening a bit more often that I wanted to ask if there were any suggestions. It generally starts to display a black screen on my external monitor and my laptop's screen freezes, but the mouse will still be able to move. Other times it's an actual blue screen and if it's a particularly bad crash it sometimes can't boot Windows anymore (but that just fixes itself). So is this a common problem and can something be done for it?

Okay, so this was a week back and didn't have time to work on it this week. Today I fixed the problem by editing a text file that was in the driver called ListDevices.txt and removed K2100M from it. That worked, so I got the eGPU working. For benchmarks I only tried 3DMark 13: Fire Strike: 7884, graphics 9751 Sky Diver: 18424, graphics 28907 Cloud Gate: 16366, graphics 50770 Ice Storm: 90524, graphics 187331 Now my next steps are figuring out how to build a nice enclosure for it which isn't too large and finding a monitor. In other news, my Quadro K1100m kind of vanished from my system after successfully installing the driver for my 970 and I just figured out how to get it back by uninstalling the driver for "Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core processor PCI Express x 16 Controller - 0C01", which showed up with an error in Device Manager.

It does. Although it might be because I'm not entire sure what the proper booting procedure is, so I sometimes have to turn it on and off through the device manager to get it to show "This device is working properly." Also, I've found that the driver has some list with devices it works with, so I guess I should try taking out the K2100M in that list and see how that works. Not really keen on having to use setup 1.30.

Okay, so I posted a while back about my plan to get a eGPU and with the release of the 970 I went for it. My system: HP ZBook 15 - i7-4700 MQ, Quadro K2100M, TB1 GigaByte GTX 970 Akitio Thunder2 Corsair RM550 Powered 16x -> 16X riser A Molex powered plug for the Akitio (since an electrical engineer on here suggested that) So at this point Windows recognises a GTX 970 in Device Manager, GPUz can read information from it (like the manufacturer and BIOS), however, NVidia Control Panel, setting up an extra monitor and the GeForce software won't recognise it. I have an external monitor connected to the GPU. I've tried disabling the Intel HD4600, I've tried installing the drivers a couple of times, disabling the K2100M in the Device Manager (although I have not found an option to disable it entirely so it won't show up). Are there any suggestions, since I'm stuck at this point?

According to https://thunderbolttechnology.net/product/hp-zbook-15-mobile-workstation ZBook 15 (and 17) have a Thunderbolt 2 connection. I was interested in that myself, because I'm about to order one that has Thunderbolt 1, but I was looking into possibilities to upgrade it myself, because I was under the assumption that by default it came with 2. There is a separate Displayport and Expresscard assembly, but I assume that this will not contain the controller and ordering a new motherboard will most likely not be worth it.

It will come without an iGPU. As far as I understand this will only mean it lacks the option to use the internal monitor, but I doubt I would've used that anyway looking at how it affects the performance. Thanks for the reply, I'll go for the eGPU implementation as it seems to be the better option for me. Hopefully I'll be able to post the results when I do.

I somehow missed this guide while reading through as much of this forum as possible. Since your set-up seems the most similar to what I'd like to go for, could you perhaps comment on whether this would work? At least based on this post I will stick to Windows 8.1 instead of trying to use the Windows 7 version which is installed on my current laptop. (That was my plan, since I haven't heard many positive things about Windows 8.)

Been reading a lot on this forum and I've been thinking about using an external GPU project, although I think I still have some questions. First I want to know which parts I'd need in total. So far I know: EVGA GTX 770 2 GB (313 €) 350 Watt PSU (~35 €) ThunderTek/PX (~190 € with shipping) PCIe powered riser (~20 €) ZBook 15 (i7-4700MQ, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, 500 GB 7200 RPM HDD, K1100M, could be either Windows 7 or 8.1) for 1000 €. - I think I still don't entirely understand how and if it would work. So the idea would be that the GPU and the PCIe powered riser would both be powered by the PSU, since otherwise booting up would be a problem? - Furthermore, do I have to worry about TOLUD? Because this is still something I only have planned, so I don't actually own the laptop yet, but would that likely to be a problem or not? - Also, in this I exclude the monitor I'd have to buy, since having an extra monitor is pretty handy anyway. But if this would work, I assume I have to reboot to get back to using my dGPU (and therefore using my monitor as a second screen)? I hope I can be given some feedback on what I would be lacking and what the risks are, since from what I could see from the benchmarks this set-up could be in the range of what a gaming laptop with a 880m can achieve. Since this set-up would costs ~1560 € versus the ~2000 € which seems to be the costs of a laptop with a 880m, it would be a pretty good deal. However, if the risks are too large, I'd rather go for a mid-range gaming laptop at the same price.

I'll be looking forward to your benchmarks. I'm considering a GTX770 as an eGPU running over TB1 and I think your results will be the closest I can find on this forum.