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Help request for adding PCIex16 port on laptop (soldering)


AGmR

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It's funny that I stumbled into this thread today.... I've been playing with the same idea for awhile, and I literally just bought a replacement motherboard with no dGPU to try ;P

But I can top all of you. My replacement motherboard was $15 with free shipping. (Crappy, i3 version vs. my nice i5, which costs $50...)

I'll watch this thread, and post any results I get. But I probably won't have significant time to work on this for awhile :(

Umm, for $15 I'll buy several motherboard's just to practice! Seriously. Then when I feel like I can do it, I'll do it for my actual motherboard.

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Umm, for $15 I'll buy several motherboard's just to practice! Seriously. Then when I feel like I can do it, I'll do it for my actual motherboard.

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That was more or less my exact thought. For $15, what's the worst that can happen?

My other goal with this motherboard is to see if I can drop off the BGA CPU and upgrade the same with a i7 in the same package/footprint. Then I'll have an i7 + the best eGPU :D. Rumour has it that there's a nice BGA rework machine at my university, but I'm damned if I can find it.

Either way, dropping the CPU off the motherboard may be necessary to trace the PCI lanes if I can't find a schematic. After which I can try my upgrade, and buy another cheapo motherboard if it doesn't work, but this time I know the GPU pinout.

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That was more or less my exact thought. For $15, what's the worst that can happen?

My other goal with this motherboard is to see if I can drop off the BGA CPU and upgrade the same with a i7 in the same package/footprint. Then I'll have an i7 + the best eGPU :D. Rumour has it that there's a nice BGA rework machine at my university, but I'm damned if I can find it.

Either way, dropping the CPU off the motherboard may be necessary to trace the PCI lanes if I can't find a schematic. After which I can try my upgrade, and buy another cheapo motherboard if it doesn't work, but this time I know the GPU pinout.

Damn, you're lucky! I'm transferring to a primarily engineering university next year, so they might have something like that, but I'm limited to my soldering skills at the moment. Do you mind telling me the model number of that motherboard?

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Damn, you're lucky! I'm transferring to a primarily engineering university next year, so they might have something like that, but I'm limited to my soldering skills at the moment. Do you mind telling me the model number of that motherboard?

Like I said, the BGA rework machine may be a ghost story; I've not tracked it down yet!

The laptop I have is the HP TM2-2151nr -- That's the one with the i5 470um and ATI 5450m dGPU. The replacement motherboard at that spec is >$50. The cheap-o motherboard is HP Part Number 611488-001. I don't know the model name of the laptop that shipped with it. TM2-something

If you're looking for an affordable, convertible laptop with a Wacom touchscreen for handwriting lecture notes, I think this is the best on the market even considering newer ones.

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Like I said, the BGA rework machine may be a ghost story; I've not tracked it down yet!

The laptop I have is the HP TM2-2151nr -- That's the one with the i5 470um and ATI 5450m dGPU. The replacement motherboard at that spec is >$50. The cheap-o motherboard is HP Part Number 611488-001. I don't know the model name of the laptop that shipped with it. TM2-something

If you're looking for an affordable, convertible laptop with a Wacom touchscreen for handwriting lecture notes, I think this is the best on the market even considering newer ones.

That's interesting. Thanks for the info, although I don't really take notes in lectures. I've always hated how companies find give you model numbers, but give you their part numbers. I don't even think they manufactured it the piece. Although I could be wrong. Anyway, I'll think about contacting then about that motherboard, it really seems interesting! Shame I don't have a lot of time to play around with it.

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Anyway, I'll think about contacting then about that motherboard, it really seems interesting! Shame I don't have a lot of time to play around with it.

Ah. I don't know if HP sells these motheboards any more; the computer I have is 5 years old and is the second or third refresh in the series... The place to get cheap motherboards to mess around with is, of course, eBay ;)

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Ah. I don't know if HP sells these motheboards any more; the computer I have is 5 years old and is the second or third refresh in the series... The place to get cheap motherboards to mess around with is, of course, eBay ;)

Whatever works. Apparently, however, my laptop's CPU has a BGA socket, so I'm going to have to find one that is the same. The one you were using is also BGA, but I want able to find it. Time to eBay

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I hope most laptop in the future already have x8 or x16 pcie slot just like msi gs30 gaming dock, TB is more comfortable but expensive :))

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15666[/ATTACH]

Yes, that would be amazing, but very unlikely to happen because most consumers don't even know what PCIe even is [emoji14]

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Great news! I found a company that sells CPU Interposers, problem is I don't think they sell individually, only in bulk. I emailed them, and I was told that the email could not be delivered. Anyway, without further ado, here's the website:

www.eztest.com.tw/page1.aspx?no=100101026141909919

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I feel it's extremely hard to solder PCIe wires, although I had a lot of soldering experiences.

The mean problem is that, the PCIe rx/tx channels are working at very high frequency, and there're a pair of wire for each channel (differential pair), you have to make the length of two wires in one pair exactly the same, and put them as closer as possible.

I have tried a 50cm FFC cable for PCIe signals and it not stable, but 20cm FFC seems fine. (I think because the ffc cable doesn't have a shield like HDMI or SATA cables)

Another thing that may be helpful is that, the length of two channels don't have to match, the PCIe controller is able to handle this.

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I feel it's extremely hard to solder PCIe wires, although I had a lot of soldering experiences.

The mean problem is that, the PCIe rx/tx channels are working at very high frequency, and there're a pair of wire for each channel (differential pair), you have to make the length of two wires in one pair exactly the same, and put them as closer as possible.

I have tried a 50cm FFC cable for PCIe signals and it not stable, but 20cm FFC seems fine. (I think because the ffc cable doesn't have a shield like HDMI or SATA cables)

Another thing that may be helpful is that, the length of two channels don't have to match, the PCIe controller is able to handle this.

If you're able to get it to work anytime soon, or if you just work on it, keep us updated!

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