dagazette93

Oh no need to worry about the Xbox 360 mod. I found it earlier and had a glance at it. Would you happen to know about Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition OC 2GB PCI-E w/ DVI, HDMI, Dual DP at Memory Express vs MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC 2GB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort at Memory Express ? People say the 7870HD is better than the GTX660 OC. From this thread that Tech Inferno Fan linked, http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2747-12-5-dell-e6230-gtx660%40x1-2opt-hd7870%40x1-2-pe4l-ec060a-2-1b.html#post37197 , "the HD7870 mostly surpasses the 1.2Opt performance." I'm not sure how that relates because he compared the cards when GTX 660 used no pci-e compression. Under http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D.html#prepurchasefaq , #13 states the fastest 1.2Opt link is with a Nvidia Fermi or Keplar card. For internal display, I could use this method: Laptop Forums and Notebook Computer Discussion - View Single Post - DIY eGPU experiences Hahaha just have to wait till Thunderbolt hits the general market and maybe tests on eGPU will be more efficient... Maybe by that time, if I manage to learn enough, I might be able to help Oh so basically stick one of the pins there anyways. No need for 2 power sources. Yea so..the card works itself. The adapter + cord is a slight bottleneck but one card is better than the other. Whoa can't wait to see ~ Just wondering cause I don't have a cooling stand of any sort. If I were to put in a mHDMI cable, I was just thinking my laptop might have a bump created by the cable...and eventually the PM3N card will eventually snap or something. So I guess it's Nvidia/Optimus/iGPU that causes this. If it were a Radeon card, maybe it would be slightly different.. I'm not sure. I'm just trying to look for a good setup for my internal LCD screen. I'm thinking the memory interface (ie. 192bit,256bit) on a graphics card won't matter as much for PE4L/PE4H because of the transfer rate. Trying my best to save $$$ while wanting to find a good solution for a new graphics card on a laptop. I guess that's why this forum exists LOL

Ohh I was thinking that if you had a model that has Bluetooth, it would come with a slot with a TV tuner or something like that. I guess not lol. Ah I see.. I wouldn't mind cutting wires and attaching pins and plugs if I had proper tools. If there's already precedent where these things already work, I don't see why not try it. Hmm.. the day I get this all my pieces and parts, I'll most likely have the same problem as you and will probably be needing that "fix" as well. About the Thunderbolt eGPU, I read up a bit more and related the scenario of having internal display with Thunderbolt eGPU. I don't think it's possible because one person stated that Nvidia Optimus Technology only works on x1 setup. I don't think Thunderbolt is a x1 setup as it does transfer data faster than mini-PCI-e and express card slots. Maybe when Thunderbolt gets more generalized within the market, I think monitors with Thunderbolt will be more popular and by then..hopefully there will be another way to play on an interal LCD monitor. This. I probably gotta save this somewhere for absolute reference LOL. How did you power your PE4H adapter? Did you grab something like an old laptop charger to power it? I'm thinking the pin connector PSU would not power the adapter the same way because the PSU would be too powerful for the adapter. I'm pretty sure the adapter, itself, has limitations. Oh! About the PE4L board... Would connecting the smaller side of the card affect performance? I'm pretty sure the PE4L card works better than PE4H from reading more upon it. It just seems kinda weird with the logic that less physical connection to the card = better performance. If the PM3N is beneath your laptop, doesn't your laptop end up having a slight bump? Did you cut a hole for your cover? I'm going to start referring back to your first post of this thread as to the setup since... you already wrote it down and I probably got too excited and ran straight to replying. About your internal LCD test, "2Optimus tweak engages only when Intel 4500MHD/HD/HD3000/HD4000 primary graphics AND x1 link is detected, improving performance by 20-333%. Provides ability for the internal LCD to render games running on the external GPU." Source: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2109-diy-egpu-experiences-%5Bversion-2-0%5D.html#firststeps Shouldn't you have better performance on internal LCD?

Some people said the GTX670 would be a better bet but the 660Ti is a more cost efficient card. I wasn't planning on getting any eGPU stuff until I got a Thunderbolt ported laptop; however, in the other thread: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/2824-dell-xps-15-l502x-pe4h-pm3n-gtx-650-ti-%40-1-1opt-2.html daver160 says the bottleneck isn't that bad. I didn't consider eGPU because of the issue of bottlenecking. daver160 says he will be doing some video recording later on so maybe ask him or wait for his recording to see some results. He's using a GTX650Ti @1.1 Opt with PE4H adapter. Dell XPS 15 L502x is his laptop and he has a Sandy Bridge processor.

LOL HAHAHAHA yea have people looking at me all funny like O___o? Oh yeah um..does your laptop have Bluetooth? Maybe that's how you have a mini-PCI-e slot? And yea the PE4L and PE4H is only PCI-e 2.0 so yea... I was already thinking of getting a MSI GeForce GTX 660 Twin Frozr 2GB GDDR5. Compared to the Asus model using DirectCU II, this MSI one seems to be the better deal. Asus GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II OC 2GB GDDR5 Nvm about the question above this quote LOL ~ I'm reading and replying as I go along just cause it's efficient. I'm gonna open up my laptop.... Oh yep I'm just catching up from the things that I missed out on... (searching up things and finding dead ends) so I kinda know what's going on. Desktop graphics for your laptop using thunderbolt or expresscard Ah I see.. Well I was looking at um.. CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 500W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Newegg.com since I see all those wires with different pins. The GTX660 uses 2 6-pin connectors and from the details of that link, I'm just wondering what it's for. About the Xbox 360 power brick, I'll have a look at that too! I never actually thought of that. I thought, in order to power a graphics card, I would need the exact pin connectors to make it run. 2 6-pins are 150 watts together. The PE4H is 75 watts. Altogether that's 225 watts. Don't you need to plug-in both 6-pin connectors into the graphics card for it to run? So an Xbox Power brick can be plugged into one of the 6-pins to make the entire card run? Ah ~ yea have a look at that "Desktop graphics for your laptop using thunderbolt port". I believe it works and is very cost efficient assuming that we all already have the PE4H kits ready and running. Thanks for your post again ~ Pretty nice read. I'm getting excited just by reading all of this stuff LOL EDIT: Few things I almost forgot! Did you have to take any special steps to make your setup work or was it pretty much plug-in and TADA!!? I read something that Tech Inferno Fan posted in the previous forum DIY eGPU experiences - Page 894 where if you have too much RAM, you would have to go through this process. Also, did you have to go through something called "Chainload Windows"? (something along that line) Just wanting to make sure about the little details I don't know about yet and hoping you could hint me to the right direction. ie. Disabling GT540M, restarting windows and turning on eGPU to make it work (I think it's something like that just to get internal LCD working)

LOL Sweet ~ My home is in Vancouver but I'm in Alberta just for study purposes. I'm in Alberta more than half the time so I just put Alberta for the heck of it XD Omg seriously? You can run over 30fps for everything?!?! GT540M running things like Dead Space 3 can't get over 30FPS I think. I even OC'ed my GT540M LOL..it wasn't meant to be OC'ed but I didn't know about eGPU until 3 days ago. I had the thought of it years ago but it never existed back then. Oh yeah well... I was thinking of when this laptop dies, I would be able to get a laptop with Thunderbolt port. I'm not allowed to get a tower you see... so my only option is eGPU. I never thought that the bottleneck would be this small... I guess just calculating numbers isn't comparable to practical uses. Oh um.. is the mini-PCI-e on the L502x where the Wifi adapter is? I'm not too sure how to get to it.. and are you playing on internal LCD monitor? That's what I intend to do later on for my next laptop. I want Thunderbolt port + Internal LCD display. Oh yea I've seen it and understand the general gist of how it works. I was thinking that the adapter would need to have external supply cables attached to the pin-ports on the graphics card. I guess that isn't needed in this case. Last time I had a tower was probably till I was 12 years old and it wasn't a gaming tower or anything. I was just barely learning about the basics of a computer and such. I didn't have too much of an interest in anything like this. All I did was play games hahaha. Thanks for helping out! I appreciate all the answers and information that you've provided so far It really helps clear the confusing questions in my mind or logic that doesn't technically work out to be viable. About what you said for the PE4L kit and it allowing 1.2 Opt, if I were to buy a new laptop some other year where Thunderbolt ports would be more common, I would most likely have to change PE4L to PE4H right? I don't really know the difference between the two and such but I'm working on reading up on whatever I can find.

Interesting! I have a Dell XPS 15 (L502X) as well but my CPU is i7-2630QM instead. How does your eGPU perform? Is it bottlenecked a lot or does it run better than the dGPU GT540M? Also, another question is if I bought a graphics card like GTX690 or GTX680 (Just a question. Prob not going to do it), how would I power the card? I know GTX 680 needs 2 6-pin connectors and GTX690 needs 2-8pin connectors. Where would I find the plugs? (I'm thinking about the external supply cable instead of an actual power unit...how would it attach from the PE4H card to the graphics card if there's only 1 slot for the external supply cable?) Some of these are pretty noob questions ...I only found and started reading upon this stuff 3 days ago and so far I've gotten my most confusing questions out of the way. Thanks for reading!

Hey guys, I wanted to play on my internal monitor with an eGPU. So if I have the Lenovo ThinkPad S430 or any other laptop that has both Thunderbolt and Intel HD graphics, I should technically be able to run eGPU on my internal screen right? According to this Desktop graphics for your laptop using thunderbolt or expresscard - General-Laptops-Notebooks - Laptops-Notebooks (People didn't take him very seriously), you could use a PE4H-EC2C ver2.4 kit and spend an extra $20 for adapters. With this in mind, one would be able to run eGPU on an internal monitor I would think... I don't know what the difference between PE4H-EC2C and PE4H-EC060A...so whichever works better I'm not sure. I also don't know the difference between PE4H and PE4L...Is there some place where I can read up on this stuff? [The other forum is dead and no one answers. Since someone posted Tech Inferno Fan is here on this forum, I thought I might give this forum a try for some answers that I either can't find or need logical clarification in. Thanks! #firstpost]