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Hello everyone! I am currently working on an egpu/docking station project for my 2015 macbook pro, and I am having some issues mounting everything into the case I've chosen. So far, I have gotten it to work with my windows 10 installation (on an external samsung evo ssd inside the mini-itx case) with my gtx 970, but now I am trying to actually mount the akitio thunder2 board and the graphics card inside a mini itx enclosure. The power supply, hard drives, and usb hub are already mounted inside of the case with plenty of room left. The graphics card has to mount in the slot that it would use if there was a mini itx motherboard in the case, because it won't fit anywhere else. Here are my problems: If you look at the first attached image, this is the graphics card mounted where it would go normally. It is currently only being held in by the two screws holding the IO side of the card onto the case. As you can see in image 2, the pcie connector is underneath the card and very close to the bottom of the case. I bought a pcie riser, but having it being under the card and bent to the side put it under too much stress, and the cable tore. It also pushed the graphics card up so that it was just barely able to mount in place. What I decided I needed was a right-angle for the pcie connection, but every one I found online, and I mean EVERY ONE, went the wrong way (left instead of right) , which put the connecter against the wall of the case, making it worse. Can someone help me find a right angle adapter that bends the correct way, or find another solution? I accidentally bought this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007Q92R7M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 but it was not the pcie connector on my graphics card. It was a little different. Another problem is that the akitio thunder2 board has issues with facing the right way. If you look in picture 3, you can see the board in its enclosure. In order for the pcie connector to be oriented the same as the graphics card, the board has to be mounted so that the black plastic pcie connector is closest to the graphics card, and unfortunately, facing away. Also, the thunderbolt ports and power port end up smushed against the wall of the case, or close to it? Again, how can I fix this? I was so excited to get this project working and am now having a headache trying to make it all fit together! This community has been absolutely excellent in helping me get my egpu working, and I cannot thank those that have taken the time to make guides enough. Thanks in advance to anyone who has any ideas how to get this mess together. -Hunter

Hello, I am having an issue with connecting 2 or more GPUs to the mac pro 6,1 with 10.11.6. Essentially I have a MAC PRO 2013 — thunderbolt Akito — Amfetec PCI Host card — Amfeltec PCI backplane — (2) 980ti. When I plug in the first 980ti, works fine. Second 980ti, doesnt boot. I used the script from this site and it worked fine for a single card. Any thoughts? Been going nuts.

Hello all, I recently put together my egpu configuration using the video below down to a T. Every part of my set up is in this video and I've done exactly like this guy has said to make my set up. I've gotten my egpu to work finally by plugging in the thunderbolt2 cord when both the MacBook and egpu are powered down. Then I power on my back into the selection screen to choose windows or mac. Then I turn on my egpu and hope for the best. I've found this works about 30-40% of the time so if someone has a way to increase my chances feel free to comment. I'm using a MacbookPro 13in Retina with dual core processor and Intel Iris 6100 (Late 2015 MacBookPro 13in retina). Anyways once I am booted into windows (I'm using windows to use the egpu on the internal screen because this was meant as more of a mobile device) and I've checked the device manager to make sure the gtx960 is working properly (sometimes I get "no drivers are installed for this device and I have to reboot and try again) I try and run a game. I use WoW as a test for my graphics card. I have msi afterburner installed and I play WoW off an external HDD since I have the 128gb version of the MacBook pro. The graphics card fan never starts to spin. I monitor afterburner and at 50degrees celsius it still hasn't kicked on. I've only upped the graphics on WoW to about half 5/10 and after a few minutes of being on that setting the game crashes and I get a blue screen telling me there was a problem with windows. I'm at a loss and really upset since I've payed 400-500$ for this and it's not working and has given me a lot of trouble. There has to be someone out there who has this set up and dealt with this issue. I can't be the only one. I think the graphics card tends to crash around 60 degrees celsius and even using msi afterburner I've tried to increase the fan speed but even at 100% the fan just tilts a little bit when I look at it and never takes off. When the system first turns on though the fan seems to spin at 100% but after about 20 seconds the fan stops even though the graphics card is detected. So if anyone has dealt with this issue or knows how to overcome it please let me know. I shouldn't have to buy anything else to make this work since the guy in this video seems to have his set up working just fine. Thanks in advance everybody. Ps. Please help!

Hi, I have MBPr 2014 + Sonnet Echo TB Box + 450W PSU I was using with GTX770 and no problem I powered box card fan start spinning plug TB cable to MacBook and power Mac all fine I recently swap GTX770 to GTX980, but when i switch power to box (GTX980 do nothing) once I have plugged TB cable and power MAC Once I power MB - MB send signal to start box and card is alive (LED + FAN) but I see just black screen no boot screen no chine ( I try hold ALT nothing happen, reset PRAM etc etc.) If I will start to OSX with box switched OFF OSX will start fine, Power On and I use https://github.com/goalque/automate-eGPU script detect GTX980 make all mods, but with reboot card go for second off and start with MB but again just black screen no chime. I think so i need " start " card first same as started GTX770 but I dont know how If I remove card OSX start fine

Just a heads up for anyone with an older machine that only has TB1 and wants TB to PCIe capability: The Thundertek/PX enclosure is currently on sale for 139.95$. Price does not include shipping (+13.38$ for ground shipping in the US, no idea on international costs, but they do provide the option to ask for a shipping quote). Since the Akitio Thunder2 and the Rocketstor are 229$ and 234$ currently, this is significantly cheaper. The obvious drawbacks are: 1) Thunderbolt cable not included (can be bought for ~20$ on ebay). 2) Only TB1 speeds. 3) The PCIe x4 slot is not open-ended, so a riser is required, or the rear of the slot needs to be modded. 4) Needs to be modded for use with dual-slot cards (but the same is true for the Rocketstor, and the Akitio in the case of long cards). I am currently trying to resist buying one just to play around with it...

anyone seen this? http://www.netstor.com.tw/_03/03_02.php?MTE2# with 3 pcie slots it looks like it could fit a graphics card without having to bend the case or have another enclosure.... no word on pricing yet though..

Hello tech inferno! This is my first post here. This seems the place to be for info on setting up eGPUs. I've done some research, and I'm pretty sure I'm willing to take the plunge down the eGPU rabbit hole. Here's my idea: Since I love the idea of having all my stuff on one sleek, organized computer, I would like to have a 15 inch macbook pro (2015) with an external 'docking station' of sorts that houses hard-drives, a disk drive, and extra ports (usb, ethernet, ect.), and of course, a powerful gpu. I would have two thunderbolt cables: one for the graphics and one for everything else. I would like the external docking station to be housed entirely within a cooler master elite 120 white that I have laying around. The thing is really good looking and seems to be the perfect size. I have attached some pictures of the case for reference. I would like to put the power supply, the graphics card, the hard drives, and the disk drives in their natural places in the case, and I would also really, really like the egpu to work in both windows and mac. It would be cool to have the ports on the case work, but this is in no way necessary. Questions: Will this work? What is possible and what is not? Will the macbook retina with the AMD Radeon R9 M370X be ok for egpu, or should I stick with the iris-only? Any help would be appriciated, as I am eager to learn, but a total noob on egpus. thanks so much, Hunter

Ok so I do I lot of work on Rhino 3D, Sketchup and too Revit. I also use Maxwell and sometimes VRay for rendering. My current 15" Macbook pro with Iris pro graphics really sucks for this. When I move models around they get laggy and often freeze and crash. I do expect rendering to always take a while. Should I go with the Thunder2 and a GTX 970 with a PSU or would I be fine with the built in AMD R9 m370X of the higher priced macbook. The GTX kills it on benchmarks however the GTX requires a PSU and its hard to take around.... Thanks!

Do you plan to purchase a new gaming notebook in the next few months? If so, which brands are you considering and why? Additionally, with the release of Thunderbolt 3 and external enclosures like Razer Core coming to market, is this a contender for you vs a dedicated gaming notebook that is thicker and weighs more?

Here is what I get in the console : *** automate-eGPU.sh v0.9.8 - (c) 2015 by Goalque *** ------------------------------------------------------- Detected eGPU GM200 [GeForce GTX 980 Ti] Current OS X 10.11.5 15F18c Previous OS X 10.10.4 14E46 Latest installed Nvidia web driver Version: 346.03.10b01 Source: 3rd Party Install Date: 4/22/16, 5:03 PM Checking IOPCITunnelCompatible keys... Missing IOPCITunnelCompatible keys. Mac board-id not found. Searching for matching driver... No web driver yet available for build [15F18c]. This script can download and modify the older package [346.03.10b01] (y/n)? y No web driver found for OS X 10.11.5. Would you like search the latest available package for [10.10.4] (y/n)? y Operating system id not found. Nvidia may have changed their web driver search service. User-MacBook-Pro:Desktop user$ any help ?

One month ago, i've started my first eGPU project. I was looking for a solution to improve my render times. I've searched the web for possible solutions and i found this site. After two days reading a lot of articles in this forum, i've made my decision. So i started a new thread "eGPU with IMac 21" 4k (late 2015)" in the section "Apple eGPU discussion" and wrote down my questions. Within a few hours, I've got all the answers i needed (many thanks to @Dschijn! Without his recommendations, gain experiences and hints, i never would be able to build my egpu). When i finished my first part of my egpu project, Tech Inferno Fan asked me to post an implementation guide. So here is my implementation guide: Because i want to speed up my render times, i needed an GPU with a lot of CUDA cores. So i decided to built up my eGPU with a high performance GTX 980 TI. My Hardware: iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5", Late 2015) 3.3 GHz Intel Core i7 1TB Fusion Frive HDD 16GB 1867 MHz DDR3 RAM The components, I bought: Akitio Thunderbolt2 PCIe Expansion Box MP-TB-PCIE ( https://www.format.de/Products/5961/index.php?gclid=CPDWsYn2hsUCFUblwgodMa0AVA) ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Ti (http://www.hiq24.de/shop//GeForce-STRIX-GTX980TI-DC3-6GD5-GAMING,-Grafikkarte/170245/100/i.html?) PSU: Thermaltake Smart SE 630W (http://www.hiq24.de/shop/Hardware/Komponenten/Netzteile/ab-500-Watt/Smart-SE-630W,-PC-Netzteil/81758/9512/i.html?) 24-Pin ATX adapter (https://www.caseking.de/bitspower-24-pin-atx-ueberbrueckungsstecker-zuad-083.html) DC cable (http://www.reichelt.de/DC-AKS-7525/3/index.html?&ACTION=3&LA=446&ARTICLE=150126&artnr=DC+AKS+7525&SEARCH=niedervoltstecker+2.5mm) MOLEX adapter (http://www.reichelt.de/DELOCK-82315/3/index.html?&ACTION=3&LA=446&ARTICLE=143815&artnr=DELOCK+82315&SEARCH=6-pin+pcie+kabel) Within a few days, i have got everything, i need. I've opened the AKiTiO. I bend the back part of the case a bit because the GTX980TI is to long. I put the GPU into the PCIe slot I connected the two 6+2 power cables from the PSU to the GPU With the DC cable and the MOLEX adapter, i've built up a power connector for the AKiTiO (as described here in the forum) I prepared the ATX adapter for the paper clip trick After this steps, i connected everything together and so i've got my eGPU in the "ghetto-mod" version I connected the TB2 cable (included within the AKiTiO) and switched on power at the PSU Then i've turned on my iMac (now the blue LED at the AKiTiO lights) For the driver installation, i've downloaded the script: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/7989-script-automating-the-installation-of-egpu-on-os-x-inc-display-output/ I've followed the instructions in the thread. This script is doing the installation automatically (thanks to goalque for this amazing work) After the first try, I've got the message "nvram: Error getting variable - 'csr-active-config': (iokit/common) data was not found" To solve this, the SIP has to be switched off (csrutil disable) when using MAC OS X El Capitan (here is a link http://www.macworld.com/article/2986118/security/how-to-modify-system-integrity-protection-in-el-capitan.html) Then i boot up my system and installed the latest CUDA driver package from NVIDEA I started my 3D program and the external GPU was recognized directly. I did a few test render,, the performance was great :-) Then i connected an external monitor to the eGPU via a HDMI cable and after i made the external monitor to my primary monitor (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202351) everything works fine. Conclusion: The whole project has lasted one week. The system runs very stable and the fans are very quiet. Many thanks to this forum! The next steps will be: finding a suitable case for my PSU, AKiTiO and GTX upgrading to OS X 10.11.3 and the latest NVIDEA driver installing Windows 10 (via BootCamp) and make the eGPU running under Windows Update: I have just updated to MAC OS X 10.11.3 and NVIDEA Web Driver 346.03.05f01 (incl. CUDA Driver Version: 7.5.25). Everything works fine. Update: A few days ago, I also installed Windows 10 /with Bootcamp). I followed the instructions (and the power up sequence) by ZapCord and everything works fine. The eGPU will be recognized and i am able to do fast renders. On the external display, the eGPU works brilliant, only OPTIMUS will not work.

Hi guys, I am new to this forum, so forgive me if I posted this thread in the wrong place. I am a PhD Student in New Zealand. I want to build an eGPU setup to enable my Laptop to have stereo 3D via the external card. I will be testing it with quite a few cards GTX470, GTX570, GTX770(my current desktop driver) and a Quadro K5000 (which I need for my research). I wish to get the eGPU setup for my Stereo 3D research. I am planning on buying the AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe box and use my laptop's thunderbolt port to connect the eGPU. I will primarily be using the setup for research but also sometimes for gaming. What else other than a PSU and AKiTiO Thunder2 do I need to setup my eGPU? I live in New Zealand, can I ask AKiTiO to ship one here and still avail the 189$ discounted price our group gets? If I am successful I will definitely make a tutorial for the ASUS g501JW eGPU setup. Thanks a lot.

So Intel is denying there is any exclusivity with Apple with regards to releasing Lightpeak/Thunderbolt early. They claim that PC manufacturers can release it anytime but personally I think there's more to it than that. Given that the technology was a collaboration between Apple and Intel, I don't think it is too far fetched to assume that because of prior knowledge, Apple was able to push out the technology before anyone else. It may not be an exclusive deal but they definitely got a leg up on the competition because of this IMO. Here's our recent Thunderbolt article for reference: Intel's lightpeak now shipping as Thunderbolt in newest Macbook Pro. | Tech|Inferno