Mikhailovich

That's probably where it went wrong. Neither one of my gfx cards would work in the exp gdc unless both 6+8 or 8+8 were plugged in.

I was going to say take a closer picture of your connections but if the blue led is on then suggests the power should be feeding correctly. I get gfx fans on full speed with my Nvidia card if I plug in after boot - basically doesn't work unless it stays in at boot. Have you made sure the power from the atx psu is sufficient enough for the gfx card? Are all power ports on the gfx card plugged in? It could be under powered. Do you have another gfx card to try?

Fans at full speed sounds wrong. Is the EXP GDC plugged in when you switch it on? Does the blue led shine? Try using the supplied Dell power brick first and see if that works. Is the gfx hooked up to an external monitor? Try unplugging the cable between external monitor and egpu before you boot. Plug in after OS loads. Take a picture of your setup and post it here.

Hi Darkpower, I have the exact same Lenovo X230 laptop as you, same specs, I'm using the EXP GDC v6. I've successfully tried both an AMD and Nvidia graphics card with it. It's literally plug and play - both work like a dream. One word of note, and I don't know if this will help the other user here who had speed issues: with the Nvidia 780 (yes i know, completely over the top and obscene) I had to disconnect the hdmi cable from the gfx card to the monitor at boot, otherwise the laptop gets stuck on the boot screen and will not boot the OS. Once windows begins loading I plug the cable back in and all is good. I have no idea why this is. I've only had this issue on the Nvidia card, my AMD 7870 does not have this issue.

Hi Guys, first post here. I've been going through this thread awhile now and it's been tremendously helpful setting up my EXP GDC. Thanks for all the great info and pics. I want to follow up on the topic about using your own ATX PSU instead of using the provided Dell power brick. Coyote, you're a bloody genius. I can't believe you're the first to post this problem with the 4-pin on the ATX power adapter. It took me literally hours to figure out what the hell you were trying to say though, I was trying out all sorts of combinations until I finally realized what you meant. Anyway for those that are confused as I, here's what you should do if you want to use your own ATX PSU: - Buy the ATX adapter from Cloudhero - Plug the 8-pin end of the ATX adapter into the EXP GDC 8-pin port - Plug the 20-pin ATX power cable from your PSU to the 20-pin port in the ATX adapter - Whatever you do, do NOT plug anything into that square 4-pin on the ATX adapter, it'll either melt like Coyote's, or the EXP GDC will switch on and off immediately after boot / not switch on at all - depending which way you plugged the 4-pin in. Leave it unplugged. (And someone should really tell Cloudhero) - Connect a 6-pin PCIe power cable from your PSU into the 6-pin EXP GDC port, the one on the end. Yes normally you would use that port to plug in the 2-way 6-pin cable into your graphics card - Don't. - Now use another 2x PCIe power cables 6/8-pin (depending on your gfx card) from your PSU to plug into your graphics card. You may not have enough PCIe plugs here so you might have to be creative and use flat 4-pin power to PCIe adapters. Et voila. Took me ages to figure out what Coyote meant by that 6-pin, and yes I was mistakenly plugging all sorts of 6-pins into the 8-pin port on the EXP GDC... Thank god my PSU has some sort of short circuit fail-safe. I'll post some pictures soon, I think that will better explain what I'm trying to convey. The reason I'm using an ATX PSU is because, yes I'm going to plug a monstrously obscene graphics card in. But also because I too hear funny noises coming out of that Dell external PSU, especially when the gfx card is under strain. Run a 3DMark benchmark on it and you'll know what I mean. Also, if you can get a SFX (Small Form Factor) PSU and it has modular cabling, the solution is actually more elegant and lighter than the Dell power brick. I have a SIlverstone SFX 450W 80plus Gold I bought for 45 quid and it works like a charm, definitely looks more compact and lighter than the power brick.