jacobsson

Thanks thats just what I needed! So Ill probably end up buying the PE4L-PM060A V2.1b?

@jacobsson: I will try to quickly explain my "curious" consumer habits trying not to get boring. I'll do my best.

First, it all started when I bought my dual core laptop, later bought another one with a higher clock speed, then jumped to a i5 with hyperthreading which I enjoyed extremely and now I just want to try a quad core with hyperthreading.

Also, over time I just realized I want to get more and more RAM memory, feel like 8GB like I currently work with are not enough so jumping to 16 and maybe later upgrading at 32 would be just perfect.

So far few notebooks met my criteria: Quad core i7, 16GB RAM, iluminated keyboard, good keyboard with wide keys not crammed in a tiny space. Also on 15 inches my eyes decided I need exactly 1600x900 while on 17 inch a full HD would be just fine.

On the above mentioned specs, adding eGPU compatibility is a complicated issue.

So far, Asus, strangely, have 2 notebooks that meets my requirements.

G750 - No optimus, no upgradable CPU, 4 memory banks, non upgradable custom form factor MXM GTX 770m, 1 mPCIe half slot occupied by wifi, thunderbolt, good cooling

N750 - Optimus, no upgradable CPU, 2 memory banks, soldered GTX 750m, 2 mPCIe half slot, probably having problems with cooling

While here, in the local market N750 would be $300 cheaper than G750, I feel that the costs of adding external GPU would not make it worth right now. Because GTX770m from the Asus G series is a decent card.

I just feel is not the "skyrocket" time for an eGPU. Mobile graphics card became faster and faster, while the desktop cards are more and more bottlenecked by the slow 1x pci express interface. Thunderbolt is not cheap and next gen thunderbolt coming in 2014 could be actually coming in 2015, and the early adoption prices would be higher anyway. So I'm kinda stuck right now, don't know what to do, and I just know I need a powerful laptop.

Either choice, I could try to implement an eGPU just for fun (I'm a curious creature by nature) and see how it goes.

Thoughts, comments?

I feel you dude, I read every word you just wrote and I also see your point.

Tell me your budget and do my best to help you find something that fulfill your needs!

I think I've already asked this but still don't get a couple of things...

Admitting that I buy an Asus G750, and it won't have the iGPU active/enabled only the Nvidia dGPU, if I add an eGPU how do I know which video card will be the active one, I mean how can I select the output to go to the external one instead of the dGPU?

Thanks!

First I have to flag that this system is not very suitable for eGPU of the reason you just mentioned, no iGPU!

I think you have to get the eGPU recognized by bios during boot in order to have it set as primary gpu, or you might use setup 1.x by @Tech Inferno Fan to set this as primary gpu.

Again I must advice you to buy another system with active iGPU since you'll be limited to 1x 2.0 at best.

May I ask if there a particular reason you want to use the G750?

My advice is to at least check eGPU candidate system list [thin-and-light] for a suitable system.

EDIT: Asus claims that certain G750 models might have thunderbolt (TB) but I have not seen proof of this yet. Also TB is very expensive at this point since Bplus TH05 adapter is discontinued.

Okay thanks so much for the info, Ill look into that. Ill link a post in a forum I saw of a guy with a dv7 series, would you think that would be basically the same thing for my laptop as well? I would check, but I dont know how to find the TOLUD and stuff. I do know that HP whitelists their mPCIe slots, so that doesnt help me out at all. I also would like to know whether or not I should get a PE4L or PE4H? whats the difference? Any additional help and information would be great I really want to learn more about eGPU's and what not. Thank so much

The 'TOLUD fix' aka DSDT override instructions can be found on the first page of this thread. Whitelist problems are not an issue for HP when using the setup 1.x ($25 donation) I've even did it for my E530, which now accepts the earlier mentioned wifi-card. Ask @Tech Inferno Fan how to donate for the setup 1.x software.

These steps are commonly needed for eGPU mPCIe implementations which make these systems a little more 'tricky' to run.

Thanks @bjorm. I'll change to Gen 2 as soon as I get the bios unlock from HP.

Most of the benchmarks indicate my setup is now CPU limited (i5-2520M). Did your 8460p come with the i7-2630QM or did you do a CPU upgrade? Would you recommend a CPU upgrade as worth the boost in performance?

I you're planing do a lot of gaming (which is my guess) and don't mind spending ~$120 it is certainly worth upgrading.

According to this you'll have a 50% boost in 3Dmark11 physics and that 3MB vs 6MB L3 cache wont hurt at all =)

Hey guys, well Im thinking about buying an egpu setup for my hp pavilion dv7-6b77dx. I dont have an express card, so I think im stuck on taking out my wifi adapter. One problem Im having though, is im not sure if the PM3N will fit. Even if it does, I dont know if the cable (what is it just a mini HDMI?) will fit either. I will put a picture of what Im saying, if you do not fully understand. I dont want to spend all of this money just to have an adapter not fit haha. Please go easy on me, I dont normally post on forums and Im kind of a noob when it comes to this stuff. Thanks

**Here is the picture compared to my thumb.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8424[/ATTACH]

Hi dude.

No problem, we are a friendly bunch of people over here!

I can see that you wont be able to close your bottom cover for sure (I have the same situation going on with my E530).

I kind of force it to a "almost closed" state by securing the screws as much as I can, don't worry the cable is robust.

You will probably have to give up your wifi-slot for eGPU since it's usually the only fully functional mPCIe-port.

I bought this $6 usb-based mPCIe card and it works great for my wwan/msata slot, you should try it!

Thanks for your answer, I'll get the PE4L v2.1 for more performance since I've a i3 3120m Ivy Bridge. The ExpressCard slot is 34, would the PE4L fit? And how to fix the TOLUD?

Oh and another thing, I live in France, from where can I buy it?

The ExpressCard slot is 34, would the PE4L fit?

-Yes no problem, it's 34mm sized.

And how to fix the TOLUD?

- Check out @Tech Inferno Fan 's post: "Win8: Perform a DSDT substitution within Setup 1.1x to overcome TOLUD issues"

Oh and another thing, I live in France, from where can I buy it?

- You, can always check ebay for a deal or just buy one from here (the main supplier: Bplus in Taiwan).

Good luck to you sir!

This x230 1080p screen might be interesting?

EDIT 1: I ran a couple of price requests, let's hope for some luck!

EDIT 2: Same answer every time, "We don't sell less than 10/order"

...

So, he failed despite that he disassempled the screen totally. If you have the knowledge, you could give it a try and displace the wiring. Or maybe you will find other screens. Maybe 1080p xps12 screen could fit, but I wouldn't even try to work on so small, high res screen.

Dam**t, that sounds tricky. My soldering skills are unfortunately not that great (yet). I guess the XPS 12 option (If it would even work) would be very expensive.

How much did that IPS screen cost? It's maybe worth a shot if it's not a +$100 screen.

Well according to Bplus the PCIEMM-060B seems to have combined wires at some lanes which makes it hard to handle, I guess you could try the PCIEMM-060A but it has super tiny cables (http://oi44.tinypic.com/s3ptv9.jpg).

Please tell me how it goes!

Hi Aikimox, I can answer both of your questions I've tried to upgrade the CPU and LCD screen with an user bjorm. And we wrote a topic on our Polish forum nhl.pl. Here is the link: Rne mody z Lenovo X220 i HP 2570p. - Forum Notebookcheck.pl, and here bjorm tried a more complicated way of upgrading the screen in 2560p: HP 2560p i prba instalacji matrycy IPS. - Forum Notebookcheck.pl. In short:

1) switching CPU to Sandy Bridge i7-2630qm gave us some nice performance gain, and the temps were not bad. Totally idle after booting up the system were smaller than 40 degrees. Maximum temp was 85 after the 3dmark06 test, which is very CPU-demanding. In Crysis 3, combined with eGPU gtx660 OC, CPU never reached 80 degrees. Of course, using iGPU only in 3dm11 or some Prime95 benchmarks may get the CPU to higher values, maybe over 95 degrees.

BUT switching to Sandy CPU f*cked up my motherboard! I don't know, maybe it was faulty.I needed to use my awesome warranty. I think that using i7 Ivy CPU should cause no problems. So, I rather don't recommend Sandy CPU for 2570p.

2) We failed to switch LCD to x220 IPS. It has got the incompatible wiring and screws placed somewhere else. You may find a way to make it more compatible, but we failed for sure.

Hi Jot & @bjorm.

I read about your screen hacking adventure, sooo close guys!

Did you try with any other screen after the first attempts?

By looking at the pictures of the bezel, could the bezel it self be modded to make the screen fit (if you willing to hack and remove material) or would it still be problems closing the lid?

If this could be done we clearly have the most awesome 12.5" laptop ever =)

I'll be sure to do that.

On the same subject: Are there any benchmarks done on the MacBook Air 11" mid 2012 (using the 1,7GHz i5 CPU)? I'm guessing no since it's not mentioned in the first post of this thread.

I didn't find anything either, but you should ask @google_peace, according to his thread he has a Macbook Air 2012 - 8Gb + TH05 + gtx560 + eGPU Setup 1.x.

Hope you find something!

Guess I'll wait then, doesn't sound too tempting to fork out that much + the cost of a enclosure right now. I'll go ahead and upgrade the small 64GB SSD instead.

I'm sorry dude, but keep an eye out for used TH05's on eBay!

You can buy on ebay/amazon original apple cable for 20-25$ and belkin at around 45$.

Alright, so let's add up the total:

Echo SE: ~$235 (incl. shipping) + PE4L2.1B: ~$90 (incl. shipping) + TB-cable: $20 = $345 <- And all this for the graphics adapter only, no enclosure, no power supply.

Too bad is so expensive for TB users

Any Thunderbolt news on the horizon? I've just bought a MacBook Air and the iGPU is obviously far from decent desktop cards.

I have a GTX 560Ti I can use, but from what I've collected there aren't really any good solutions available since the TH05 were recalled?

Yes sir you are correct. The ($70-90) TH05 was discontinued and yet no replacement

Their are other TB-solutions with very limited enclosures (both in size and power) that costs $400-1000.

If you are very lucky you might find a good deal of a used TH05 on ebay, although the ones I've seen has been around ~$400.

I wish you good luck and I hope you find one!

Best regards,

Niclas

EDIT: @Frula I forgot about the sonnet echo! But aren't the TB cables CRAZY expensive?

Pardon my slow reply, but there is an option for it!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8198[/ATTACH]

It sadly doesn't show WHICH GPU is doing PhysX, but it does show if a GPU or CPU is doing PhysX. This is saddening for people like me who have iGPU+dGPU+eGPU. But at least it tells you something.

Oh I missed that one, thanks!

I'll test this next time i run BL2 or Chivalry

- - - Updated - - -

No one able to help me with this error ?

[PCI BUS section NOT found. If you are using a non-English language, than please edit the v:\config\devcon.txt file and remove the "PCI BUS" section. Otherwise that *whole* section will be excluded from allocation when performing compaction and compaction will fail.]

As far as I can tell, there's no "PCI BUS" section in my txt file.

I think this might be a @Tech Inferno Fan related question, sorry that I can't help you!

Thanks for the quick response @Tech Inferno Fan!

After a bit more research it looks like the PE4H-EC060A V3.2 (PCIe x16 Adapter) enclosure doesn't have clearance for the two 6-pin PCI power connectors on top of the MSI GTX660 Ti card. THe enclosure apparently only supports power connectors at the end of the card.

I'm considering three options:

1. Get the PE4H v3.2 w/enclosure anyway and try to mod the enclosure to accommodate the top facing power connectors on the GTX660Ti
   
2. Go with the tried and true PE4L v2.1b and build my own enclosure.
   
3. I ran across this PE4H v3.2 which appears to be the circuit board without the enclosure. The cable is soldered at both ends so I assume it is capable of the full PCIe 2.0, unlike the PE4H v2.4 with the detached cable. I had not seen this circuit board version offered separately before and it is not listed on the BPlus site. Does anyone have any experience with this board or has anyone dismantled a PE4H-EC060A V3.2 (PCIe x16 Adapter) from its enclosure and used the board separately?
   

Bplus gives you the option of just buying the PE4H-EC060A V3.2 for $110 (excl. shipping), I don't see any advantages over the $70 PE4L-EC060A though.

For the PE4H 3.2 enclosure it will require some hacking and modding in order to have the PCIe-power sticking out on the side.

You will also have get another power adapter (BPLUS only have 120w) with 5.5/2.5mm like this 150w maybe?

What do you think @Tech Inferno Fan?

Short answer, yes.

Long answer, yes, because it will give you full 1.2Opt compression so you'll get better performance from your GPU, and its also much cheaper than the PE4H 3.2. Also, assuming that BPlus is correct about compatibility, the PE4L v2.1 is supposed to support PCI 3.0 (Gen 3), so you could potentially use it on future laptops that support PCI 3.0 over ExpressCard or mPCI-E.

Sorry for being "finical" (haven't really used that word before) but PLus seems to make their tests on desktop systems rather than notebook systems.

According to their tests made on the PCIEMM-060B (that was suppose to be GEN2) they told me that they had been done on a desktop.

Since these tests results doesn't apply to our notebooks it seems like it could make a difference.

I would be nice if they would make proper notebook tests for now on so these things can be prevented.

I'm looking into buying one of the new Asus G750 which should in theory support thunderbolt, but the Intel integrated graphics card is disabled (not available in BIOS, or Device Manager) and only Nvidia 765m is the active card.

Considering this, could you guys see a potential issue with an eGPU connected on some thunderbolt adapter?

I understand clearly that Optimus link is possible only in presence of Intel GPU (which is not the case right now) and only on 1x link (again not the case, I understand that TB gives 2x, unless I use the tape hack to isolate a lane).

I just want to know if I'm able to render the eGPU on the internal screen which is connected to the dGPU 765m without issues, or there are any problem that I should foresee and take into account.

Thanks.

Well TB systems are very very expensive since TH05 got discontinued! If you find one (usually ~$400 on ebay) you won't gain much performance over 1.2opt.

SInce you are limited to x1 2.0 with the mentioned system, or the crazy expensive x2 2.0 via TB, I must recommend you to look at other systems. I can see your point of having a TB ready system, if that is important to you?

If so you might want to look at the finding a good deal for the T430s which have both EC and TB (on i7-versions only).

Regarding TB on internal screen<strike>, it seems like it should work without iGPU (look at page 1 for posted TB implementations, I could be wrong).</strike>

I hope this gave you some help.

Nando4 comment>> TB eGPU on internal screen via either NVidia Optimus (NVidia) or LucidLogix Virtu (AMD) requires an iGPU. Only workaround is using the Ultramon/Chung-gun method via a VGA dummy plug where you can drag a game started in *WINDOWED* mode over to the internal LCD. See first post for more details on that if interested.

The x1 pci-e compression (x1.2Opt) provided by NVidia drivers will also only activate if there is a primary iGPU video adapter. No workaround there as much as it would be desirable to have one.

Hi,

thank you

I have some things in mind to "boost" the signal quality a bit.

I noticed that the femare hdmi ports are poorly soldered and I want to buy a ferrit core.

If this all fails I'll come back to your offer, since I also thought about soldering one end of

the new cable directly to the adapter.

Although I would solder one end to the PM3N or EC2C rather than to the PE4L.

Coolt, you provide great contributions to the community!

Let me know if my offer is needed (if I haven't return the stuff by then of course).

Good luck and keep us updated!

Also I had a question, do you guys have ever managed to get PhysX working ?

I haven't have been able to, it is always handled by the CPU whatever I do. I had one of the latest driver (314.22 + the physx one in the driver package) installed and PhysX set to my GTX 670.

But every games or benchmarks with PhysX were handled by the CPU. I wanted to play again Mirror's Edge, the FPS is very good easily 100+ maxed out, but whenever it involves too much of physX --> 8 FPS

I have made clean uninstall with driver sweeper, then reinstalled without success, I also tried older physX driver but it is the same every time...

Well I have no idea why is that, and I don't remenber if PhysX was active on my previous laptop...

May be it has something to do with how I set up, DiY eGPU Setup 1.X ? lol that is a bit random... but I do a PCI compaction, 32/64 bit method, but I only do compaction on eGPU. I prefer mention it eventhough it probably have nothing to do with it lol

Hi MikjoA, welcome back!

I just recently started to think of that when I ran borderlands 2 for the first time on eGPU (It ran like crap if physx were higher than low). How do I check whether physx is handled by CPU or GPU? (except for the obvious: 'set GPU/CPU in Nvidia Control Panel').

@Splitframe

Hi dude!

By this time I'm sure you are aware of that the new cable (PCIEMM-060B) is not GEN2, with that I just want to say that your work is still very important so please don't give up.

I have issued a complaint against their advertisement regarding this cable and asked them to make me a sample of this proposed setup.

Is that something you (that seems to have greater soldering skills than me) would like to approach?

I could send you a PCIEMM-060B cable if you would like to? (ordered 2x of those and that's pretty wasted money anyway).

Where do you buy one of those kits from?

Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk 2

Yep.. based on my testing that configuration has the best chance of holding a Gen2 link while still giving the convenience of one socketted EC/mPCIe mHDMI end. If that still fails then we know for sure that even a single mHDMI connector+socket pair introduce signal problems that BPlus need to investigate further. .

PE4H 2.4a + EC2C/PM3N + PCIEMM-060B are not Gen2 compatible

...

1. BPlus should investigate further why the Gen2 link is failing when using a socketted cable paying more attention to the mHDMI connectors.

2. BPlus could at least solder that new flexible cable onto the unsocketted PE4L 2.1 in their next revision to give us a product that's easier to work with. Given the PM3N showed some positive signs of initiating a Gen2 link, it may be enough then to just have the one free socketted end that plugs into the EC2C/PM3N.

3. Anybody who acquired this PCIEMM-060B for Gen2 use should seek a refund as it's not Gen2 compliant as advertised.

I've advised BPlus of my findings further confirmed by T|I user Splitframe's test here.