Jaster

Yes, that's my current plan. @daver160 - Is there a PE4H 2.4 with a hardwired cable? Any board with a detachable cable isn't going to work for for PCI-2.0. If you don't like the format of the PE4H 3.2 then I would have thought that the PE4L 2.1b would be ideal.

Ivxy I like what you've done with your enclosure, particularly how you've made use of the USB port for an extra HDD! What kind of power supply are you using? I ask as I'm pretty sure my ATX unit that I pulled out of a cupboard is responsible for frying my 560ti so I want to replace it with something else before buying a new card.

A new problem - has anyone encountered this before? (For reference I'm using an X220 with a PE4l 2.1b and a GTX 560ti) I haven't used my eGPU for about a week. I plugged it in about an hour ago to get some CUDA stuff going (using the sleep mode -> power on eGPU -> resume method) and the system wouldn't wake up. I then restarted with the eGPU attached and it wouldn't boot. Finally I booted up without the eGPU (no problems) and then switched it on while the computer was running and all four CPU cores went to maximum and the whole system felt like it was running at about 0.0001 frames per second. Managed (rather painfully) to get the device manager open and no sign of the eGPU. The only change I have made is installing a DisplayLink driver to wirelessly stream a powerpoint presentation the other day. It broke Chrome so I uninstalled it, but I fear it may have damaged my eGPU set up. (Or worse still my PE4L might have died). Any ideas? EDIT: Just tested the card in a desktop and it appears to be dead. Very frustrating, and I don't want to take the card from my desktop and use it on my PE4L for fear of killing it as well! Looks like I will be without an eGPU for a while...

I use CUDA for computer vision purposes, mainly using OpenCV and EmguCV, so I'm not really familiar with the Mercury engine (the last time I used Premiere for anything serious was about 2003!!), but my experiences so far have been very positive - when compared with the workstations I use in the lab (i7 machines with Quadro cards, admittedly a couple of years old) my system will usually take just a little bit longer to compile the code (my system is an X220 i5 with 8GB RAM) but once that's done the proram will run just as fast, if not faster in some cases. I put that down to these modern cards having far greater numbers of CUDA cores than most cards did just a few years ago. In summary I would imagine an eGPU would be able to handle this Mercury engine quite easily. I had a quick read about it on the Adobe site and it looks like it does similar things at the algorithm level to what I'm doing with robots but on video instead, so you should be good to go.

I use my eGPU mainly for CUDA development and I don't really play many games, certainly none of the ones you mentioned, however I am partial to the occasional game of Red Orchestra 2, which I can run with a GTX 560ti on 1.2opt with all the video settings on ultra at 1920x1080 resolution and get completely smooth gameplay. It's so good that I don't even bother to plug the monitor into the card itself, I just keep the monitor plugged into my laptop and use it as a conventional external display.

PE4L 2.1B is indeed gen 2 compatible. I've got one plugged into my laptop as I type! It's also a lot cheaper than the PE4H 3.2 and you can make your own (probably smaller) enclosure as well, should that idea excite you. What I can't tell you is how easy the setup will be on your particular machine. Worth searching through this thread and the old one on NBR to see if anyone has done an installation on your model of laptop/something similar.

Are the nvam.inf files available anywhere these days? The links on NBR are all dead now. EDIT: Looks like desktop 295.xx and up should work without them. Onward! EDIT 2: Just finished my reinstall - I can confirm that the most recent desktop drivers (310.90) work excellently for plug-and-play Optimus. Just had the CUDA SDK for my software development running fine and played a quick round of Red Orchestra 2 on ultra settings, all on the internal display!

On paper that should work. Pair it with a suitable AC adapter such as the one below and you should be good to go. 192W 12V AC DC Adapter with Mini DIN and Mini Fit Jr PicoPSU | eBay It looks like PSU you've linked has a male P4 connector, as does the cable from the mini DIN on the AC adapter cable, so you'd need a gender bender to link them or alternatively you could cut and solder them. Or alternatively this complete kit has both items and presumably the appropriate connectors, although the PSU is only rated to 160w: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Premium-picoPSU-160-XT-w-AC-DC-12V-192W-16A-switching-adapter-/121047286357?pt=PCA_UPS&hash=item1c2efb0255&_uhb=1

Pico PSUs can be had rated up to 200w which should be fine unless you're using something really cutting-edge, which would be in all likelihood wasted on the expresscard bottleneck anyway. I posted a link to a 200w model on at some point in the last two pages. EDIT: Here it is: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200W-DC-DC-12v-Mini-Power-Supply-PW-200V-Mini-ITX-PSU-/260379034980?pt=UK_Computing_PowerSupplies_EH&hash=item3c9fccc564 The next thing to check is whether it will fit on the PE4H as the 24-pin connector is actually mounted to the PCB.

Let's investigate this idea. Here is a pinout of a 24-pin ATX connector: Credit: Pinout cable and connector diagrams-usb, serial rs232,rj45 ethernet, vga, parallel, atx, dvi... You can see the basic Xbox pinout in my post above, based on work done by Elmopol on NBR. First impressions are that this would be rather complicated, particularly without knowing which pins the PE4H actually uses. For example if it requires the 3.3v or 5v supply on the ATX connector you'd need to do a lot of extra wiring, which would IMO negate the benefits of the Xbox PSU in terms of price and compactness. You'd probably be better of using a pico psu as discussed on the previous page as they provide a 24-pin ATX connector as standard in a very small package.

It does say that it supports PCI Gen2 on the website does it not? Anyway water under the bridge! Further to the discussion about power supplies I've been having more thoughts. I'm still moving towards the Xbox PSU route purely because it's a third of the price of the pico PSU adapter. From this diagram: And Elmopol's description of the wires coming form the PSU, viz: -One red +5VSB -One Blue POWER_ENABLE -Three thick yellow +12V -Three thick black GROUND -One thin yellow +12V -One thin black GROUND (original post here: DIY eGPU experiences - Page 1073) I have constructed this diagram: The idea being to bridge the +ve and ground wires to enable the use of a tough 4-pin connector such as this: (ignore the 5th pin in the photo!) The question is whether this would work with all the wires bridged, or whether something would burst into flames. Does anyone have any opinions?

Kallogan's setup skips the PSU completely, leaving just the AC adapter which is presumably on whenever it is connected to the mains, therefore no need for the SWEX connector. You can get AC adapters designed for pico PSUs rated up to 200w so there shouldn't be much in it between it and an Xbox PSU, other than the price. (In the UK an Xbox PSU can be had for >£20, a 200w pico PSU AC adapter is more in the region of £60. I'd imagine the translation to dollars is roughly the same.) The main difference is the complexity of the wiring, basically +ve and ground on the pico AC adapter and 10 individual wires coming out of the Xbox PSU. 1. Looks like all the current-generation adapters originating from HWTools are using non-detachable cables. I wouldn't be surprised if they're trying to go more legit after the problem with the TH05. HDMI isn't specced to carry PCI-E signals and it's incredibly expensive to license, so using a non-detachable cable circumvents that issue. 2. I don't know the details of the wiring in the enclosure but I would imagine it would be possible to power the whole thing from one PSU with some creative wiring.

I'm using the PE4L 2.1b, I couldn't quite stretch to the PE4H 3.2 plus I wanted to build my own enclosure. Kallogen's post was very enlightening - it hadn't even occurred to me to skip the PSU completely and just use the AC adapter!

So would it simply be a case of hacking off the molex/SATA/P4 connectors and replacing them with a floppy molex for the board and two 6-pin PCI-E connectors for the GPU? (Obviously after having prodded it with a multimeter to make sure that the relevant wires will supply the necessary power.) I actually spotted a shop selling the full range of pico PSUs on eBay and considered buying one as I'm currently using a spare ATX PSU with the whole setup in a cardboard box and I feel like putting together a proper enclosure. I was actually going to go for an Xbox PSU just because it's a tried and tested option but this would be preferable size-wise if it works. EDIT: Here's the one I was looking at - it already has a floppy molex so that's one less hack job to worry about! 200W DC-DC 12v Mini Power Supply PW-200V Mini ITX PSU | eBay