tamer1009

Anyone seen this?

http://www.inxtron.com/products/thunderbolt3-hdk

It's a hardware development kit for developers, you can use it to test the TB3 technology. The price is $280.

I'm wondering if this would work as an eGPU

Anyone interested in buying my Akitio setup? I have implemented the box into the Cooler Master 110 Elite case. Bought in February 2015.

- AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe Box (247 euro paid, bought on 12-02-2015 invoice included, original packaging included, bought from format.de)

- Cooler Master Elite 110 Case (40 euro paid, new, modded.)

- Seasonic M12II Evo 520W PSU (65 euro paid, invoice included, motherboard cable not included, original packaging included.)

- Revoltec 80MM Blue Led fan (15 euro paid)

Everything is complete. I have sold my Macbook, so I don't have any use for this.

See pictures:

Postimage.org / gallery - image1, image2, image3

rMBP 2013L with Akitio on Windows 8.1. I boot into a black screen a lot. I am even thinking about to sell the whole crap due this.

After trying the whole day I got it working, don't ask me. The issue is still NOT resolved though. So we can conclude that the complete set is still working.

I was on 10.10 when it didn't worked. Then I updated to 10.10.2, and it still didn't worked.

EDIT: Still wondering why the fuck my topics are getting merged into this topic. Every topic is a new discussion, this makes it all unclear.

Yes everything is still working

and no burned spots.

Yes, I use the Akitio PSU to power the Akitio. And I use a PC PSU for the GPU.

Hey,

I was using my eGPU for a while now with a black screen some times. Now I can't even use it anymore, I can't get into Windows with the eGPU. Everytime I get the black screen.

- rMBP 2013L GT750.

- AKiTIO Thunder2.

- GALAX GTX 970.

- Windows 8.1 64-bit.

- Without molex powered, without riser. Should work perfectly though.

(I always booted successfully into Windows by hotplugging the TB cable right after the Apple startup sound, right before Windows starts loading.)

Is there any advice?

Thank you!

Ah yes. I forgot to mention this.

Hey,

I was wondering if it's possible to sleep my Macbook with the Akitio? As soon as I run using the eGPU the Sleep option disappears on Windows. The eGPU is preventing this, is there any hack for this?

Regards

It looks like an 107C SMD Tantalum capacitor. You can get a replacement part from here. It's a polarized capacitor so make sure it's soldered in the same orientation as the original part (see pictures here). Like I mentioned before, it's likely that this is not the only damaged component on your AKiTiO boards. It's worth taking a closer look at both boards and checking for burned tracks or other damaged components. Some you can check with a multimeter, others (such as the ICs) won't be easy to check without more sophisticated equipment.

Thanks, I already ordered a new 107C to fix this. Only this component was damaged, everything else is OK.

Ouch!

Looks like one of the condensers on the TB card is fried but there's probably more damage elsewhere. I hope your GPU is still OK.

Yes, do you have any idea what type of chip/condenser this was? I can't read it anymore, I might try to solder a new component on it.

That's the reason I wouldn't touch this thing in such a way without a detailed super dummie guide

Sorry for your loss, though =/

Thanks!

While everything was taken apart, I hardwired the 12V connection to the circuit board to get rid of that ugly barrel connector at the front. I ran the cable through the inside and out the back along with the PCIe cables.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13883[/ATTACH]

Phantron, could you tell me which one of these cables must be connected to a yellow molex cable? I think I confused them, now my Akitio is burned and damaged

However, I still want it this way.

Thanks

Sorry no clue… some people have that problems (sometimes it works vs. sometimes it doesn't work).

But when you boot with it, it works and you can play games? Have you tried to improve stability by testing using the powered riser?

I never had that problems. My eGPU etup boots flawless everytime with full performance!

I got it working now, I went from 100 to 1222 with Unigine benchmarks.

Still wondering about nvidia settings, what should I do with CUDA? I can select both the 750M and 970. Also Physx? Any idea?

Thanks!

Update: After soldering two cables on the jackplug rearside I connected it wrong on the 12V molex, I confused the + and -. Look what happened:

That's the end of the story lol...

No offence, but that seems to be a very old PSU?! Try to get another one, please.

I have tried it today with a new Corsair PSU. Everything works fine. But randomly when I start my macbook I get a blackscreen (and no startup sound).

So conclusion; sometimes it works and sometimes not. I also tried to start using alt and then plug in the TB cable, wait for a few minutes and select Windows, then the boot selection menu freezes.

Anything I missed so far?

I really like this product and the combination of a 14 inch notebook. The cheapest 14 inch comes with a dissapointing i5 U processor which would be the bottleneck.

No offence, but that seems to be a very old PSU?! Try to get another one, please.

No offense taken, the PSU came from a working system, that's why I used it.

In a few days I will get the Seasonic M12II Evo 520W, I will get back to you and report here.

What PSU is it? Did you double check the Paperclip trick?

It's a Cooler Master RS-450. The paperclip thing is working correctly, I can confirm that.

It's the latest nVidia drivers from their website: 347.25. I tried rebooting using Akitio without the dual 6 pins connectors connected, and the 970 showed up in devices, but not working. When I plug in the pin connectors the 970 is gone again.

I am getting another PSU in a few days, and will try that. If that doesn't work, I am forced to sell everything

Have you installed the latest Bootcamp driver package? Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5640

Can you see the AKiTiO in OSX in the system report?

Yes the latest Bootcamp software is installed, under Windows I normally saw my previous card GTX 650 (for testing) even if I didnt install the drivers. This new 970 is just not detected in Windows.

On OSX the Akitio is detected:

AKiTiO Thunder 2 Box:

Vendor Name: inXtron

Device Name: AKiTiO Thunder 2 Box

Vendor ID: 0x41

Device ID: 0x236

Device Revision: 0x1

UID: 0x0041023614800070

Route String: 1

Firmware Version: 24,1

Port (Upstream):

Status: Device connected

Link Status: 0x2

Speed: Up to 20 Gb/s x1

Current Link Width: 0x2

Cable Firmware Version: 0.1.23

Link Controller Firmware Version: 0.14.0

Port:

Status: No device connected

Link Status: 0x7

Speed: Up to 20 Gb/s x1

Current Link Width: 0x1

Link Controller Firmware Version: 0.14.0

UPDATE: I have removed all gpu drivers, and reinstalled the drivers. The 970 pops up in Device manager, but it gives an error "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)".

Can you boot into Windows without the eGPU, connect the eGPU once Windows is running and install the Geforce driver?

UEFI Windows is with or without the general Bootcamp?

Thanks for your fast replies.

I tried that too, but the nVidia drivers (from nVidia website) fail and say that there is no nVidia gpu found. Then I also tried the nVidia drivers from Bootcamp and they installed successfully, but still no GTX 970 found.

Yes, it's with bootcamp.

EDIT: The gpu is also never found in Device manager.

Did you apply the Paperclip trick to start the PSU?

Are you using a powered riser?

Is the AKiTiO PSU plugged in?

Did you follow this Guide? http://forum.techinferno.com/implementation-guides/8558-%5Bguide%5D-macbook-enabling-optimus-internal-lcd-mode.html#post110757

Yes I have my PSU enabled with the paperclip trick. I have tried it with and without a powered riser. I have the Akitio powered by the default adapter.

I have found a strange thing, when I start the PSU and use the powered riser method, the whole setup shuts down when I plug in the TB cable into my Macbook.

Anyway it should just work with the default adapter, and additional PSU for the gpu, but as I said black screens.

Sorry I forgot to mention that I have the dGPU macbook. So that guide isn't relevant.

Thanks!

Hey everyone, today I received my brand new GALAX KFA2 GTX 970 gpu. It fits perfectly in the Akitio box.

I have the following hardware:

- rMBP15 late 2013.

- Akitio Thunder2.

- GTX 970.

Issue: the GPU is not detected, sometimes Windows does not boot / blackscreen. I am running Windows 8.1 x64 using UEFI.

I already tried to plug in the thunderbolt cable in the bootmenu, and waited for 5 minutes to initialize the akitio but that didn't work. I'm losing my hope now, I already invested a lot of euros into this solution; 240 for akitio, 350 for gpu, 50 for psu etc...

Any ideas or solutions for this?

Help is appreciated.

Thanks

I tested it with the MSi GTX 650. Windows 8.1 x64. And just the latest drivers from nVidia.

My Macbook had the GT 750M. I do both.

Did you try everything? Change video card, change PSU, try a differnet power socket in case have dirty power, plug the video card into the AKiTiO and use a barrel-to-molex adapter to power the unit from the ATX PSU? Perusing the Implementation Guides you'll see users trying various different power configurations.

I'll mention too that in the expresscard side of things we have seen variation of Gen2 tolerance amongst vendors cards. On the very same system, some video cards can run Gen2 (PCIe 2.0), whereas a small number will BSOD out unless run at Gen1 (PCIe 1.x). Affected users seeing a video card swapout resolving the problem.

I believe the same issue will cause problems with Thunderbolt systems.

w4vz is one of the rare users who hasn't had a straight forward successful implementation. Hardly a reason to forego the AKiTiO given the large number of users who've had a successful eGPU implementation with one. http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/6578-implementations-hub-tb-ec-mpcie.html#Thunderbolt

Yeah, but the number of people who have tried Akitio + AMD graphics seems to be countable on the fingers of one hand. And I've heard at least two complaining about stability issues.

I have the rMBP 2013 late with nVidia. Using the AKiTiO I was not able to eGPU any AMD GPU. So far only nVidia GPU's worked.

That's a great job! Would it be possible to automate this? Patch the bootloader without installing Linux?

It would be great to develop a tray icon for Windows, so we can switch between nVidia and Intel gpu.