linh1987

Yep, to each his own. For me it's a blessing to come home and just plug in the VGA and have a good gaming experience. I don't care about the performance penalty that much because whatever it is, it's still way way better than my laptop VGA, and I can also work at the same time when I don't want to play, which is also a plus. What I'm trying to say is, some people value absolute performance, but some people also value convenient, and fortunately there're now enough options to satisfy both groups, which is a godsend if you ask me

The point is, at the end, you only have 1 computer to manage. 1 OS, 1 setup. You don't need like "oh shit, the game is on my other computer", something like that .

In fact I was playing Diablo 3 and having 3D Mark running since this morning without problem. I had the same issue where the VGA is fine for non-gaming loading but will crash randomly even with a game running in the background, but it haven't been like that for today, which is why I posted.

Yep, it's just an example of what's available out there. And it's 4 set of 3 cables, which can be... handy

or a premade one like these which you should be able to plug directly to a PCIe connector Rockminer R Box Power Cable 4 PK 12V PCI E to 3X 5 5mm x 2 5mm DC Barrel Plugs | eBay

Actually it's a very simple mod. I have a barrel plug handy so what I did is cut it out, separate the outer and inner wire, twist outer wire with molex's black ground and the inner wire with molex's 12v yellow and that's it. The other 2 wires of (red and black) are unused. In use the barrel plug is connected to Akitio board, the riser is UNPOWERED. I'm not sure it we should also power the riser but I have it running fine for me up til now (9 hours without any crash). My barrel plug has a very clear outer/inner wiring so it's a piece of cake. If it's 2 wires setup like above then I recommend you carefully do testing before wire them together

Actually it's a very simple mod. I have a barrel plug handy so what I did is cut it out, separate the outer and inner wire, twist outer wire with molex's black ground and the inner wire with molex's 12v yellow and that's it. The other 2 wires of (red and black) are unused. In use the barrel plug is connected to Akitio board, the riser is UNPOWERED. I'm not sure it we should also power the riser but I have it running fine for me up til now (9 hours without any crash).

I think I found the problem, probably is because of my powered riser. I finished the molex to barrel mod and now running with Akitio and VGA being powered by the barrel connector (and a 6 pin pcie). The voltage is much more stable than using the powered riser (although I replaced it with another one before). With the powered riser and Furmark, the voltage and power consumption fluctuate a lot between 80-100%, but with barrel connector, the power consumption stays flat at 100%. I will get back to you guys if I get any problem.

I use a powered riser which power both the akitio board and my 660 (plus a 6-pin PCIe plug) from the same ATX power. I was thinking that it could be my PSU is old (only 5 years and it's a highend thermaltake 850W) but since there're people who are also having the same issue, the chance that all of our PSUs defected are very small.

I'm in fact using 340.52 but still no dice. The stuttering and crashing still happen a lot.

I'm also having the exact same issue. I've tried to use different VGAs, replace the TB cable, replace the riser but the same issue still happens. The exact same configuration was running without error with my old eGPU of Sonnet Echo ExpressCard and PE4L. There're a few solutions left that I've yet to try: replace the PSU (it has something todo with the voltage), replace the akitio (unlikely) or modding a molex to barrel to supply power to TB board directly, left full 75W for the PCIe slot.

From my point of view this whole package is not that much a failure, I mean it's a tested package, guaranteed to work with any VGA out there. Yes something can be said about that CPU but then Apple is even more expensive with the same configuration (but with better build) ?. People can make the own DIY solution but all of them are either cheap and hackey (powered riser anyone?) or expensive (Sonnet III-D)? For me I've already spent 260$+ for the akitio + 50$ for the 2m thunderbolt cable + 40$ for casing + 20-30$ for the riser, which at this point way more expensive and bulkier than what Alienware offers. I do have the luxury of more compatibility with Thunderbolt 2 but then it's half the bandwidth? I'm not a frequent laptop changer so I'm fine with the fact that the Amplifier only work with Alienware laptop. I'm looking at it not from a power user point of view, but as a guy with a laptop and want to do some serious (well, as serious as it get for one with a wife and a kid could get) gaming when he's at home, and for that Alienware solution crossed all of my checklists.

I will try it tomorrow, but provide that I had a rock solid setup with the PE4L + Sonnet Echo ExpressCard, I still don't understand why I have issue with this setup.

Mine seem to be crashing at complete random time, but mostly under load. I had it crashed under 3dmark but no more, but mostly between game session. I'm asking my friend to borrow his 770 to see if it make any difference.

and not a single one of them has a GPU-Z screenshot?

It's funny that I also have a lot of problem with 660 series (in my case, GTX 660). I have a lot of stuttering and and sometime can be recovered (with 2 different cards: Asus GTX 660 with 1x6-pin and MSI Hawk GTX 660 with 2x6-pin). Did you try your exact config with a different Nvidia card? Thanks, Linh

Alienware 13 Review: The First Futureproof Gaming Laptop There's a review on gizmodo, too

I have a lot of freezes with my current setup. It is probably because my GTX 660 is only running on a single 6-pin PCIe power connector plus powered riser so the power supply (I assume) is pretty tight (75W 6-pin + 75W which share power between PCIe and thunderbolt board). I will try to borrow a 660 with 2 PCIe power connectors to see if it helps. Does anyone think replacing the included TB cable will help? with normal TB cable it will provide around 10W to connected device but the TB cable included in the box is much thinner than normal cable so I think it doesn't provide any power at all because Akitio think it will get power from the PSU.

One question, does anyone know what will happen if I config the Akitio as follow: - Use included PSU for Akitio board - Have the yellow black cable between 2 akitio boards disconnected - Power the VGA using riser with molex connected. The idea is Akitio TB board is powered by PSU, so it can be powered on first before the PCI board be powered which simulate the PCI reset delay, but I don't know if it cause any problem with power short or anything like that. Thanks,

That would be the way to go but unfortunately I put everything in the case and manually doing this would be too troublesome, so I guess I will skip it for now. In some near future I will tru to make an on/off switch with the power cable between 2 boards to simulate pci reset delay, hopefully it will work.

Just finished my transition from PE4L to Akitio TB2 implementations, everything is pretty much plug and play but internal LCD is not working no matter how I tried (had it working with PE4L + Sonnet Echo ExpressCard). Setup: rMBP13" 2013 Asus GTX 660 Riser with powered molex. Benchmark comparision: PE4L (x1.1): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-4288U,Apple Inc. Mac-189A3D4F975D5FFC Akitio (x4 2.0): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-4288U,Apple Inc. Mac-189A3D4F975D5FFC

That's so unfortunate that I've just bought it from an eBay store a little more than a week ago. If this discount came sooner, I could have it shipped directly to Vietnam

Hi Arclord, can I ask how long is the included TB cable? probably 0.5m?

Both have TB2's 16Gbps bandwidth so it should be the same.

Just one quick question, as far as I understand, as long as I use my external monitor with 3D application, it doesn't matter if I have Optimus enabled or not? My current setup is Macbook Pro Retina 13" => Sonnet Echo Expresscard (non-pro) => PE4L 2.1b => GTX 660 with Setup 1.30, I have both external and internal monitor work but I only use external monitor for gaming. The reason why I asked is I mistakenly buy the Sonnet Echo Expresscard which only run at PCIE 1.0, but I think upgrading to Sonnet Echo Expresscard Pro / Thundertek should help only when playing game on internal LCD so I would rather wait until Thundertek release their TB2.0 version instead of cashing out 200bucks for a TB1.0 version.