Kytael

I ended up getting the EXP GDC 6.0, since the PE4C v2 wasn't available, I made a post in the main thread subject to moderator approval, but no problems that can be traced to the EXP GDC to report. I would have preferred the PEAC had it been available. my only gripe is that the hdmi connector is upside down, requiring at least one twist to plug into my W520, and that the expresscard on my laptop isn't in a great place if I want to use a mouse beside it, but that's not due to the EXP GDC. something to be aware of though, I didn't think to check that beforehand.

Thanks jacobsson for the guide! the coolermaster 6pin cable was a great find, looks a lot nicer than the standard cable, if a bit long. I was a bit confused though, I thought the normal 6pin cable would come with the EXP GDC, but only the ATX connector did.

of note: I tried powering it with an old ATX PSU while I waited for my DA-2 PSU, which worked fine. you have to use the 4-pin CPU connector! not the +4 pin on the 20+4 pin cable. most PSU's these days have a 8 pin cpu cable that is actually a 4+4 pin cable. the card uses 12V and as you can see here the pinout is totally different from 12V/GND/12V/GND that you want.

here's my current setup just for testing, definitely not how I would actually use it

eGPU Implementation

Lenovo Thinkpad W520

i7-2720QM

16GB RAM (2x8GB)

Quadro 2000M (disabled in bios)

Bios 1.42 without whitelist

Win8.1+Ubuntu 14.04+Linux Mint 17

eGPU:

Asus GTX 670 DirectCUII / Gigabyte GTX 560

EXP GDC 6.0

220W DA-2 PSU from ebay

coolermaster PCIE 6pin to 2x6+2pin

1.2Opt

Updated Benchmarks

all performed under Win 8.1, except where noted

Benchmark External LCD/Internal LCD

3Dmark11 8507 GPU / 7237 GPU

Fire Strike 6597 GPU / 4959 GPU

Sky Diver 20272 GPU / 10327 GPU (50% performance hit!)

Cloud Gate 38794 GPU / 11069 GPU (71% performance hit!)

with a GTX 560:

3DMark11 3827 GPU / fail (would not start on internal screen for reasons unknown, everything else worked fine)

Fire Strike 2577 GPU / 2367 GPU

Sky Diver 8285 GPU / 6257 GPU

Cloud Gate 21451 GPU / 8482 GPU

Desktop (with the 670, win 7) for comparison:

3DMark11 9750 GPU

just dGPU (Quadro 2000M): (you can see I was using 24GB/Win 7 here before this fiasco)

3DMark11: 1838 GPU

while trying to get the eGPU to work I also tested the GTX 560 on my old laptop, a Dell 1520, I think this was using a 1.1 link, no optimus

3DMark11: 2317 GPU

Benchmark notes

The internal display performance hit was more than I was expected. looks like cloud gate is the new 3dmark06? is it possible that optimus compression isn't set up properly on my laptop? I do have the optimus indicator

Experience

I expected it to be plug and play given all the other thinkpad experiences, but I experienced a huge slowdown when I booted up with my eGPU attached. it was the 100% CPU usage issue people with the x230 had when they tried to boot in 16GB. turns out having 24GB of RAM was a problem (2x4GB+2x8GB) and no one had that much RAM in the charts, but16GB works fine with most thinkpads as everyone else reported. I didn't try setup 1.x to fix it, but I tried about everything else, including upgrading from windows 7 to 8, and different versions of linux. it seems to be an OS- independent issue.

as soon as I reverted to 16GB it was plug and play.

it even works in linux as you'd expect, even with the dGPU turned on at the same time, but no optimus compression as far as I can tell. I haven't tried too hard to get that to work with nvidia's PRIME, but it might be possible.

I would have used the PE4C v2, but it wasn't in stock, so I ordered the EXP GDC.

Pics

Current setup:

Internal display works, must be using optimus, no?

old laptop with GTX 560:

this seems like a big deal, why isn't there more discussion about this like the EXP GDC? (1 page vs 18?)

naively this looks a lot better than the EXP GDC, more stable video card due to posts, included power, and cheaper

the EXP GDC has a nice cover and will let you use your own PSU, but that's about it as far as I can tell