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US$189 AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe Box (16Gbps-TB2)


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Hello,

 

Im new to the forum. I Just recently got interested in this diy eGPU stuff. Got a akitio thunder2 off ebay. Bought it as a non working item and i will give it a try to repair it.

Looks like its just some blown caps and passives, but also one IC, the guy probably got the polarities wrong. Can anyone help med identify the following components? they are all located on the main pcb, around the power cable that supplies the PCI-board.

 

C148

C162

R94

U13

C148

R96

C158

R97

R99

C155

/Jonas

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

i have 

macbook pro late 2014

w/ nvidia geforce gt 750m

and I'm going to order a akitio thunderbolt 2 box and a ZOTAC GeForce GTX 970 4GB ZT-90101-10P will this work as is or will i need any other parts and if so what should i do with them. I'm new to this stuff so any help would be great.

Edited by Tylah
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I'm trying to figure out the power supply and I have the understanding that to make it work you need to have a power switch to make it turn on my question is if you can just use a pc psu with a manual power switch

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So I'm trying to figure out a power supply for the akitio and a gtx970 I was wondering because you need a power switch to make it work, could u use a pc psu with a built in switch if not could someone help me out with some instructions on how to build the switch

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@Tylah Please read my basic guide: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/7947-the-basic-egpu-hardware-guide-for-macs/

Yes you can use a desktop PC PSU. Only use one PSU for the AKiTiO and the GPU in total. You only need to add the paperclip trick to the PSU to make it start and after that you can use the switch on the backside of the PC PSU to turn it on.

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Hi everyone, 

 

I have a few questions:

 

1. Is there any way to run a graphics card, as well as a few hard drives? (x3-4 3.5")

2. Has anyone successfully used an AMD graphics card? (I own an HD 7950)

 

Thanks!

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On 3/17/2016 at 8:01 PM, Tylah said:

I'm trying to figure out the power supply and I have the understanding that to make it work you need to have a power switch to make it turn on my question is if you can just use a pc psu with a manual power switch

 

@Tylah What kind of power switch? If you're referring to the standard PSU power switch on the back, that's pretty standard and is used to provide or cut off power to the PSU from the cable you have plugged in. It cannot be used to turn the PSU on. 

 

Don't worry, it should be pretty simple to get your PSU powered on. When you install a PSU, there is a main cable that gets plugged into the motherboard. The power button on your PC gets connected to the motherboard. Whenever you press the button, the connection is closed and it "jumps" the PSU. The idea behind the "paper clip trick" is to mimic that connection.

 

jump-start-2.jpg

 

From Google: Plug the AC power cord into the power supply. Have the AC coming directly from wall outlet without any filters or UPS. 5. Short between the green and black wires on the 24-pin connector (as show below), with a paper clip or piece of wire.

 

Here is a nice tutorial on the procedure: http://aphnetworks.com/tutorials/psu_paperclip_trick

 

I would say to be careful while doing this, especially if you don't have experience with power supplies. (I don't want you to get shocked.)

Edited by scuz
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  • 1 month later...

Hi guys,

New here and I have a lil' question : since I'm in Canada for now, would the price of "US$189+shipping" work ? If it's working, how much the shipping would cost ? I just need to send an email with my order and say that I'm from this forum ?
The currency would be either $CAD or € since I also have a french credit card.
I have a mid-2012 13" MacbookPro i7 2.9GHz with 8Go of RAM and a useless graphic card intel HD Graphics 4000.
I will next see which graphic card I will buy (I do not want something overpowered, just enough to play casual games without my computer becoming a burning man) and the power supply matching it (I know that a lot of graphic cards will need to mod the AKiTiO in order for them to fit in).


Thanks for your answers :)

Edited by Alloutt
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For the record, when I got my Thunder2 a couple of months ago, I mailed Akitio. The reply was that the promotion is long gone and the "special" price is no longer available.

 

I ended up buying it from another place instead.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi Guys,

 

Please find my work below.

 

Unexpected results with my setup:

- The card is being detected properly by Windows (without the warning insufficient ressources available within device manager) one in two.

- When properly detected, I can't start game with it as it will freeze and fan will try to turn but fail most of the time.

 

It looks like the GPU isn't receiving enough power. I'm using a 203W power supply from an XBOX 360 and followed the soldering patern attached. I checked and I have proper 12v flowing from the power supply to the barrel plug then to the 3 yellow pins.

 

Any idea ?

 

945879Cm7RVRtWAAEDnzTjpg32916bae7660edbb

949400IMG20160719154002.jpg

Edited by benjaminlsr
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Hey Guys,

 

I also tried the following using the same XBOX Power Supply (203W 12V) :

Power Supply -> External 6 Pin Molex -> GPU 8 Pin (or 6 pin if using my GT960) + 4 Pin Akitio Motherboard.

 

When using my Asus I can read ~20W from my Wattmeter.

When using my Radeon I can read ~40W from my Wattmeter.

 

On both case Windows report GPU is not getting enough resources and or crash when launching 3D apps.

 

What's wrong... ?

rps20160722_201645.jpgrps20160722_201631.jpg

Edited by benjaminlsr
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Few watts I received from the PSU was due to a low power mode inside the X-Box 360 PSU if you solder the thin yellow and black wires with the three other.

Also, let me tell you that the following, is working great. I built myself a X-Box 360 PSU to 6 Pin PCIE. I also built a 6 Pin PCIE to Barrel Plug.

 

It worked great with a EVGA GTX 960. Tomorrow I should be able to test it with a ZOTAC GTX 1060.

Anything with a power consumption greater than 140/150W will be too much for a 200+ W PSU.

 

Cm7RVRtWAAEDnzT.jpg

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Ok Guys I'm here to thank you all for such a huge work you all did so we can enjoy the freedom of Egpu !!!

 

BUT

 

I think most of you doing such unnecessary job as soldering forgetting the most important thing power distribution on GPU comes from AGPM!

If your AGPM is not configured right and most of the posts i see about AGPM are not enough ur GPU WILL NOT BE STABLE!!!!!

My setup :

 

Mac Mini (late 2012) TB1

Akittio box

450 PSU with Molex to Barel mod.

Zotac 750ti.

 

The box is closed and i had to drill like 15 holes for the airflow..

 

well, this setup will never work stable :( 

 

Unless you configure the AGPM right !!!!!!!!!!!

From what i understand no Maxwell card will be stable without correct AGPM.

 

I went thru 3 psu's with same results  crashing on a load or with random gpu access (open GL or OpenCl).

3 different  750ti's ( Zotac is the most stable out there without any AGPM mods).

 

Just to point out I'm not playing games !!!! i do some heavy video editing and graphics!!!!

 

I need my computer stable !!! this is why i use MACS!!

 

So after playing so much i came to the best AGPM setup and my card is stable !!!

 

I can run fur mark  for an hour or more without any crashes !!! Heaven don't touch the balls even !!!

 

What i did was : i found the closest card to mine in  Original Mac  and configured it !!!

I want to share it with you maybe this will help someone :

 

    <dict>    
                <key>GFX0</key>
 <dict>
 <key>Heuristic</key>
 <dict>
 <key>ID</key>
 <integer>4</integer>
 </dict>
 <key>control-id</key>
 <integer>17</integer>
 </dict>
 <key>Vendor10deDevice1380</key>
 <dict>
 <key>BoostPState</key>
 <array>
 <integer>0</integer>
 <integer>1</integer>
 <integer>2</integer>
 <integer>3</integer>
 </array>
 <key>BoostTime</key>
 <array>
 <integer>2</integer>
 <integer>2</integer>
 <integer>2</integer>
 <integer>2</integer>
 </array>
 <key>Heuristic</key>
 <dict>
 <key>EnableEnergyPstate</key>
 <integer>1</integer>
 <key>EnergyDOWNThreshold</key>
 <integer>20</integer>
 <key>EnergyPstate</key>
 <integer>1</integer>
 <key>EnergyUPThreshold</key>
 <integer>40</integer>
 <key>EngineDOWNThreshold</key>
 <integer>20</integer>
 <key>EngineUPThreshold</key>
 <integer>99</integer>
 <key>ID</key>
 <integer>4</integer>
 <key>MemDOWNThreshold</key>
 <integer>15</integer>
 <key>MemUPThreshold</key>
 <integer>99</integer>
 <key>MinP0P1</key>
 <integer>1</integer>
 <key>MinP5</key>
 <integer>5</integer>
 <key>MinP8</key>
 <integer>13</integer>
 <key>MinVP0</key>
 <integer>1</integer>
 <key>MinVP1</key>
 <integer>2</integer>
 <key>MinVP5</key>
 <integer>10</integer>
 <key>MinVP8</key>
 <integer>23</integer>
 <key>NumOfPstates</key>
 <integer>14</integer>
 <key>NumOfVPstates</key>
 <integer>28</integer>
 <key>P0Table</key>
 <array>
 <integer>0</integer>
 <integer>1</integer>
 <integer>2</integer>
 <integer>3</integer>
 <integer>4</integer>
 <integer>5</integer>
 <integer>6</integer>
 <integer>7</integer>
 <integer>21</integer>
 <integer>22</integer>
 <integer>23</integer>
 <integer>24</integer>
 <integer>25</integer>
 <integer>27</integer>
 </array>
 <key>P1Table</key>
 <array>
 <integer>8</integer>
 <integer>9</integer>
 <integer>10</integer>
 <integer>11</integer>
 <integer>12</integer>
 <integer>13</integer>
 <integer>14</integer>
 <integer>15</integer>
 <integer>21</integer>
 <integer>22</integer>
 <integer>23</integer>
 <integer>24</integer>
 <integer>25</integer>
 <integer>27</integer>
 </array>
 </dict>
 <key>control-id</key>
 <integer>17</integer>
 </dict>
                <key>IGPU</key>
                    <dict>
                        <key>Heuristic</key>
                        <dict>
                            <key>EnableOverride</key>
                            <integer>0</integer>
                            <key>ID</key>
                            <integer>2</integer>
                        </dict>
                        <key>control-id</key>
                        <integer>16</integer>
                    </dict>
                </dict>

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,

 

I have successfully built my egpu system with 2013 late 750m rmbp, a zotac 1070 card, akitio tb2 box and corsair VS 450 power. My system worked well for several hours last night. However, this morning, my enclosure did not work anymore. When I plug the barrel into the box, there is blue light flash. In a normal condition, the blue light should be on as long as there is power supply. And my system dose not work now.

Does anyone have any idea about my problem? 

Thanks a lot!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Is there some sort of conflict between a GTX 770 and a discrete GT 750M?  I'm on a MBP with the discrete card and I can't get the GTX 770 to work in either Mac or Windows.  Mac just reports the card as "NVIDIA Card" with way too little VRAM, and Windows recognizes the card but throws error 43.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been fiddling around with the Akitio Thunder 2 in combination with the R9 RX480 in the past couple of days. Getting everything to work on the software was relatively easy, however the hardware side seems to be the biggest concern for stability at the moment. The power draw over de PCIe port seems to big for the Akitio to handle, tried the soldering trick which gave more stability but it's yet far from stable. I'm not sure if it's still a power issue as it is much more stable then my unmodified Akitio box. I've ordered a high-quality PCIe riser as a second opinion and will still have to test Windows (maybe stability is also in de beta drivers in Mac OSX).

 

I've also heard reports of signal stability issues with the Akitio box? What does this mean and how is this caused/fixable?

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Does anyone worry about melting the 4-pin molex wires going between the two boards? Mine rests on the backplate of my 1070; the contact is unavoidable without getting a different connector with a hard 90-deg bend on the wires.

 

I assume that the backplate would never get hot enough to melt the insulation...

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IMG_1163.JPG

 

This is my setup mid 2012 mac pro running El Capitan 10.11.6 with all new updates. Everything has been working  great but now a new version of OS is coming named Sierra. Do you think we are still going to be able to run our egpu setups?

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  • 2 weeks later...

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