EXP GDC Beast/Ares-V7/V6 discussion

[Weezar]

Hello!

My specs:

Toshiba Satellite R850

EXP GDC Beast with mini PCI-E cable

GeForce GTX 960

ATX PSU

eGPU is detected and worked, drivers loaded, Windows worked properly but laptop fan worked on extremely high speed.

It starts immediately before loading Windows.

And I can't access BIOS settings when eGPU is connected. When I try to do it, I see a black screen.

I disconnected eGPU, entered the BIOS and changed fun speed to low. Then connected eGPU and started notebook again but problem still exists.

Can anyone help me?

Your specs are very similar to mine, but for me I always got black screen and eGPU never detected. Would you mind walking me through what you did/do to see if I'm doing something different?

Thank you.

[esarintul]

Your specs are very similar to mine, but for me I always got black screen and eGPU never detected. Would you mind walking me through what you did/do to see if I'm doing something different?

Thank you.

At first my card not detected too. I returned Wi-Fi card and turned Wi-Fi on. After that I connected eGPU again and it worked after rebooting.

[Weezar]

So, you just got everything working as normal, then you shutdown computer, remove pci-e wifi card and plug in Beast dock pci-e cable instead right?

Or you have 2 pci-e slots?

I will try the first option and if it works I'll be forever grateful.

[esarintul]

Yes, that's right. I have only one pci-e slot.

[indykpol]

Hi All,

Today I found out about the eGPU setup and became immediately thrilled about the possibilites. I was actually thinking of getting a gaming PC to supplement my trusty Lenovo W520, but then I found about EXP GDC with expresscard connector. I considered other options for eGPU setup but decided to get the EXP GDC due to availability in EU: the PE4C v3.0 would likely end up costing me 2-3x more than the EXP GDC shipped from UK: EXP GDC Beast Laptop External Independent Video Card Dock - US$49.99 . I also got the GTX 970 Extreme Core from Zotac, and a 650W fully modular PSU from be quiet! (power zone). This will gear me towards future gaming PC build, should I choose to go that way.

I'll update you once I pull this off. Hopefully it will work out. What do you think?

[TheDeathEffect]

Sounds interesting. Keep us posted.

[creepytacoman]

I'm going to hook this up to a gtx 980 using the mini-pcie option, and the package that I recieved did not have a power adapter in it, just the device itself, mini-pcie to hdmi cable, and a couple power cables for connecting the additional power requirements of the card. Is this normal? Can I contact someone to get one, or can I purchase one elsewhere? What are my options?

[TheDeathEffect]

I believe the product page mentions that including the Dell DA-2 PSU is not feasible because of shipping costs. You should be able to procure one from an online vendor, such as Genuine Dell Da 2 AC Power Supply Optiplex USFF 745 755 760 DA2 | eBay or http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0035H7MV0/ref=sr_1_2_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1438756849&sr=8-2&keywords=dell+da-2&condition=used

If you have an ATX PSU laying around, that will also be suitable for powering your eGPU setup, assuming it has at least a 250W rating.

[creepytacoman]

Ok, one more thing. the gtx 980 that I'm trying to connect this to has dual 6-pin connectors, while the connector supplied is a 6-pin and an 8-pin so that it can support cards with either. The 8-pin connector already has just 6 cables going into it, with a couple looping back into the remaining slots. Can I just get a 6-pin connector on it's own somewhere and solder the ends into it? Are there any issues with doing that, or would it even work at all?

Also, do you think that power supply would work with such a power hungry card? It's only rated for 220W, while you said elsewhere 250W.

[yoeyoex]

Hello..

I bought this product few week a go, i tested on my laptop is perfectly work ( Vaio VGN-CS16G n Gigabyte 6670 ). Then try to my friend laptop n another vga ( Lenovo series n His Turbo 7790 ) n it's work.

Until i use my laptop ( Vaio VGN-CS16G ) n ( His Turbo 7790 ) at the first time it can't detect this product. Then i Unplug the express card several time without shutdown my laptop n stiil won't work.

Then I try my first configuration but my VGA fan won't move either and my laptop not detect the hardware, no like my first try.

My Question is, did Unplug Express Card without shutdown the laptop will couse hardware malfunction?

And my EXP GDC Express Card series can't boot my VGA but if i use usb drive in this product it work, Any clue or Solution ?

[Jarpy]

Hello there,

I also bought GDC Beast from this link : EXP GDC Beast Laptop External Independent Video Card Dock - US$49.99

A cable is included to plug on the ATX PSU to force the PSU to work. In my case it seems to doesn't work because I have to use a paperclip between 2 pins to boot up the PSU.

Does anyone else have the issue ?

[vang]

Hi,

I recently ordered EXP GDC eGPU (BEAST V 7.0) adapter from Banggood. This thread helped me a lot in getting eGPU working with my laptop. I tried setting up with both AMD and NVIDIA EGPU and here is my experience:

Configuration 1:

Laptop: Dell Precision M4600

DGPU: AMD FirePro M5950

CPU: Intel Sandybridge

OS: Windows 10 with UEFI enabled

EGPU: Sapphire 270X Dual

550W ATX PSU

Everything worked like a charm without any issues with default settings. Had to disable DGPU in device Manager. 3D Mark 11 score was 6196 and First Strike score was around 4100. The card was giving satisfactory performance in DirectX 9 but had very poor performance in DirectX 11, it was only giving 10-12 frames even after overclocking. Therefore I decided to return it and bought ZOTAC GTX 970 instead. Here is the experience with GTX 970.

Configuration 2:

Laptop: Dell Precision M4600

DGPU: AMD FirePro M5950

CPU: Intel Sandybridge

OS: Windows 10 with UEFI enabled

EGPU: Zotac GTX 970

550W ATX PSU

The system started but gave me a blank screen. I was quite surprised with this therefore I read this whole thread and then decided to play with delay settings. I used both PTD and CTD and then suddenly I got the display with 7s for PTD and CTD switched to ON. I got into Windows, uninstalled AMD drivers and installed Geforce drivers and rebooted the system. It gave me black screen again. I find out that Laptop was not able to reboot successfully when EGPU is connected. So I have to start after disconnecting the EGPU and properly shutdown the system. I connected EGPU again and when I booted into windows and looked in device manager, I got code 12 not enough resources error. I couldn't use Setup 1.x because UEFI was enabled in my BIOS therefore I decided to give DSDT override method a try. After enabling DSDT override GTX 970 worked with my laptop and I can get around 50-60 fps in DirectX 11 in games I played.

I also ram 3D Mark 11 and First Strike benchmarks and score was impressive

3dMark11 - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor,Dell Inc. 08YFGW,

First Strike - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor,Dell Inc. 08YFGW.

But this configuration started giving me a lot of laptop starting issues, sometimes system boots with 7s delay and sometimes 7s + CTD and sometimes blank screen. There is no fixed setting on which it always worked plus it always gives blank screen on reboot.

After facing these problem for 2 days I decided to take out my oldest laptop Dell E6510 and decided to give it a try because It has NVIDIA DGPU. Here is the experience of setting up GTX 970 on it:

Configuration 3:

Laptop: Dell E6510

DGPU: NVIDIA NVS 3100

CPU: Intel 1st Gen

OS: Windows 10 MBR mode

EGPU: Zotac GTX 970

550W ATX PSU

Laptop and GPU worked like a charm with everything on default setting, had to disable DGPU. No start or restart issues. Here are the benchmark scores:

3D Mark 11 score - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-640M Processor,Dell Inc. 0N5KHN First Strike score - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-640M Processor,Dell Inc. 0N5KHN

Not sure why Physics was performing so badly even after I selected GTX 970 as Physx processor in NVIDIA control pannel. Physics test seem to be highly dependent on CPU.

Conclusion: If you want to avoid any trouble with EXP GDC then you have to buy the same make EGPU as your DGPU e.g. if your DGPU is AMD then get only AMD EGPU for your laptop otherwise you have to work with DSDT override/Setup 1.X etc and GPU detect and startup issues. Also you would need latest Intel CPU to get better Physics score and benchmark results.

[dreadfury]

hi,

i had my EXP GDC eGPU (BEAST V 7.0) a few days ago but my egpu kept giving the "egpu not detected" in diy 1,30 as well as not showing up in windows device manager.

I've read through many threads and tried many different ways( except DSDT override) to solve it myself to no avail ..

My laptop :

Alienware m17x R4

ram 8g

Igpu: intel hd 4000, dGpu Nvidia GTX 680m, eGPU is Nvidia GTX780 Ti

both jumper set to off, i tried with PTD set to 7 and 14 but it didn't work either

i tried it all,hotplug,disabled dGpu in diy 1.30, pretty much all steps from 1.30 guide, my egpu is powered on,fan spins normally ..

Please help ...

[Tech Inferno Fan]

hi,

i had my EXP GDC eGPU (BEAST V 7.0) a few days ago but my egpu kept giving the "egpu not detected" in diy 1,30 as well as not showing up in windows device manager.

I've read through many threads and tried many different ways( except DSDT override) to solve it myself to no avail ..

My laptop :

Alienware m17x R4

ram 8g

Igpu: intel hd 4000, dGpu Nvidia GTX 680m, eGPU is Nvidia GTX780 Ti

both jumper set to off, i tried with PTD set to 7 and 14 but it didn't work either

i tried it all,hotplug,disabled dGpu in diy 1.30, pretty much all steps from 1.30 guide, my egpu is powered on,fan spins normally ..

Please help ...

Boot with wifi card in mPCIe slot, sleep system, swap eGPU adapter in place of wifi, resume system. Is the eGPU detected?

Can do similar in Setup 1.30 though can't sleep the system there. Instead, *very carefully* hotplug the eGPU adapter in place of the wifi card and hit F5 to rescan the PCIe bus.

If still can't get detection then investigate hardware fault somewhere, eg: eGPU adapter, video card, PSU.

[dreadfury]

Boot with wifi card in mPCIe slot, sleep system, swap eGPU adapter in place of wifi, resume system. Is the eGPU detected?

Can do similar in Setup 1.30 though can't sleep the system there. Instead, *very carefully* hotplug the eGPU adapter in place of the wifi card and hit F5 to rescan the PCIe bus.

If still can't get detection then investigate hardware fault somewhere, eg: eGPU adapter, video card, PSU.

Thanks nando for help,sadly i tried that following your guide in whitelist section,but again "not detected" T.T. in case of hotplugging,it gave me a black/green screen after plugging in,few times it did not but f5 not detected yet again.

I tested the kit on another laptop and hardware worked fine,deteted and working as it should,no case of faulty hardwares here.

Im using windows 10.

[Tech Inferno Fan]

Thanks nando for help,sadly i tried that following your guide in whitelist section,but again "not detected" T.T. in case of hotplugging,it gave me a black/green screen after plugging in,few times it did not but f5 not detected yet again.

I tested the kit on another laptop and hardware worked fine,deteted and working as it should,no case of faulty hardwares here.

Im using windows 10.

You may have a slightly different mPCIe slot implementation. Please refer to http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/10812-pe4x-series-understanding-clkreq-perst-delay.html .

[dreadfury]

You may have a slightly different mPCIe slot implementation. Please refer to http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/10812-pe4x-series-understanding-clkreq-perst-delay.html .

i followed your linked guide to cover the pin 23 bottom side, plugged in and the fan spins real fast as in max power state but egpu still not found -.-

thanks for your helps,it's driving me insane lol

[sangemaru]

Trying to boot my exp gdc beast on an e6430 results in bsod in win10 before login screen, with system_service_exception in atikmpag.sys. Anyone have any suggestions?

EDIT: Hotplugging it gives me Kernel_security_check_failure BSOD.

EDIT2: Managed to boot it up properly using Leshcat drivers, after uninstalling VIRTU MVP. Virtu MVP software makes the gpu unusable. Which sucks, since apparently VIRTU MVP works on Windows 7 only, but I'd have liked to get internal display functionality on windows 10, dx12 on AMD eGPU. Now that's not possible. Unless, maybe we can mod the Alienware Graphics Amplifier driver?

[linhtranle89]

hi,

i had my EXP GDC eGPU (BEAST V 7.0) a few days ago but my egpu kept giving the "egpu not detected" in diy 1,30 as well as not showing up in windows device manager.

I've read through many threads and tried many different ways( except DSDT override) to solve it myself to no avail ..

My laptop :

Alienware m17x R4

ram 8g

Igpu: intel hd 4000, dGpu Nvidia GTX 680m, eGPU is Nvidia GTX780 Ti

both jumper set to off, i tried with PTD set to 7 and 14 but it didn't work either

i tried it all,hotplug,disabled dGpu in diy 1.30, pretty much all steps from 1.30 guide, my egpu is powered on,fan spins normally ..

Please help ...

i have same problem like you....

my system:

Dell Vostro 5460

dGPU Nvidia 630m

iGPU Intel HD 4000

eGPU Nvidia GTX 750 Ti

constantly receiving BSOD whenever plugging in the eGPU.zzz

[sangemaru]

So, update of my situation.

On a e6430 machine with Windows 10 and 3740QM CPU, my EXP GDC Beast works ONLY if:

- I boot from the eGPU directly (booting from iGPU will either stall my boot, bsod, or make it to windows only for the driver to start crashing constantly once I connect the external monitor).

- I use Gen1 Expresscard (Gen2 will do all of the above, regardless from which device I boot).

So, the very thing I was dreading has come to pass. My EXP GDC only works at gen 1 speed. I'll be trying to return it and get a PE4C v3.0. This is definitely not improving my already abysmal financial situation any. The performance is actually not terrible (maybe dx12 at play?). I get fairly decent performance in 3Dmark (pretty much at the level of a non-overclocked 7970m) as well as gaming, though it's definitely not up to what the card can push out (Sapphire Vapor-X R9-270x).

One of the painful consequences is that, due to the fact that I can't boot from iGPU, booting from the eGPU means I can't use my internal LCD, so I'm limited only to an external display while I use eGPU (can't even make use of 2 screens). This was not what I was hoping to achieve. Are there any ways I might improve signal stability?

[dreadfury]

EXP GDC Beast is quite unstable as Tech Inferno Fan mentioned, so i bought a new pe4c v3 instead, everything works out as it should be

however there's a problem with a spare power supply (480w) that gave me the "egpu not detected" again,switched out for a 730w and things go smoothly ,no idea if insufficient power or not ....

[co11ider]

Need help. A total noobie.

Bought EXP GDC from banggood to use with a GTX 560Ti. The doubt is about power.

How should I connect power to the GPU?

Should I connect it directly from the PSU or connect the psu to the EXP GDC and use the cable which is included to connect from EXP GDC to GPU?

Also, if the second way is possible, Can I use cheap PSUs like this then?

(Zebronics ZEB 450W Computer Power Supply Economy Series SMPS 2 YRS Waranty | eBay)

Somebody please reply fast, I can't wait to try this but at the same time don't want to fry the GPU and adapter.

[sangemaru]

EXP GDC Beast is quite unstable as Tech Inferno Fan mentioned, so i bought a new pe4c v3 instead, everything works out as it should be

however there's a problem with a spare power supply (480w) that gave me the "egpu not detected" again,switched out for a 730w and things go smoothly ,no idea if insufficient power or not ....

I'm curious how much power the spare PSU is rated to provide over 12V rails, especially considering co11ider's situation.

Need help. A total noobie.

Bought EXP GDC from banggood to use with a GTX 560Ti. The doubt is about power.

How should I connect power to the GPU?

Should I connect it directly from the PSU or connect the psu to the EXP GDC and use the cable which is included to connect from EXP GDC to GPU?

Also, if the second way is possible, Can I use cheap PSUs like this then?

(Zebronics ZEB 450W Computer Power Supply Economy Series SMPS 2 YRS Waranty | eBay)

Somebody please reply fast, I can't wait to try this but at the same time don't want to fry the GPU and adapter.

Connect PSU to EXP GDC, use EXP GDC power cable to feed the GPU. Cheap PSU's should be avoided. That particular PSU is rated to delver 10A over 12V rails, resulting in a Maximum of 220W (like the DA-2 PSU). However, with it being cheap, there's no guarantee it can even fulfill that requirement. Make sure you match an appropriate PSU to the GPU you'll be using. For example, the GTX-560ti can pull up to 285W (let's say 300W) during gaming load (even though the average is lower, you need to be able to compensate for the spikes). This will require a PSU delivering about 25A over 12V rails.

[co11ider]

I'm curious how much power the spare PSU is rated to provide over 12V rails, especially considering co11ider's situation.

Connect PSU to EXP GDC, use EXP GDC power cable to feed the GPU. Cheap PSU's should be avoided. That particular PSU is rated to delver 10A over 12V rails, resulting in a Maximum of 220W (like the DA-2 PSU). However, with it being cheap, there's no guarantee it can even fulfill that requirement. Make sure you match an appropriate PSU to the GPU you'll be using. For example, the GTX-560ti can pull up to 285W (let's say 300W) during gaming load (even though the average is lower, you need to be able to compensate for the spikes). This will require a PSU delivering about 25A over 12V rails.

Thanks for the reply, Helped me out a lot. So will probably wait to buy a better PSU. But, wanted to say that Nvidia says 560Ti consumes only 170 watts maximum. GeForce GTX 560 Ti | Specifications | GeForce

I accidently blew my CM500 watts yesterday by setting it to 115V in a 220V country. Have some budget problem, thats why I asked about going for cheap PSUs.

[co11ider]

Also, one more thing about power consumption. Mine is a MSI TWIN FOZR 560ti. According to reviews, it uses only 222W maximum (Which is still higher than what that cheap PSU can provide).

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_560_Twin_Frozr_II/21.html