Hello folks, it's about time I make a post about my setup.
- Original equipment
- Toshiba Satellite (L850)
- Core i7-3630QM
- 8GB RAM
- dGPU Radeon 7670m
- Win 10 Pro 64-bit
- Add-ons
- MSI Gtx 960 Gaming G2 (100€)
- Exp Gdc v8.4d (35$ on Aliexpress)
- Dell DA-2 (8€ on ebay + 4€ shipping)
I had this setup since a few weeks and it's been woring quite well. The setup was basically plug and play. The card got recognized immediately and all I had to do was to install the latest Nvidia drivers.
I had also flashed a modified Bios prior to that, but I think It would work even without it.
The only pain in the ass was the access to the mPcie port which is on de underside of the laptop and there is no way to access it without opening the case. I had to make a cutout on the case bottom and make a small door to close it while not in use.
To make up for the lost wifi card, I internally soldered a small usb hub and an Alfa network adapter with an external antenna plug between the DC in and a usb port. That way I have 2 aditional internal USB 3.0 ports and all external ports working.
So...for the card. I tried the 960, 970 an 980. All from MSI and settled for the 960 as overclocked gives me almost close results to the 970. The 970 was crashing under heavy load on the DA-2 so I had to underclock it. On a serious PSU, the 970 and 980 outperformed the 960 by light years, but I opted for a more simple setup with the DA-2.
AMD cards don't work well with the AMD dGpu --> driver conflicts.
Back to the 960...It runs stable on 1x 2.0 speeds. No hiccups at all. I also had a PE4C 3.0, but opted for the unsoldered BEAST, since it gave me the same performance.
Benchmark:
The mpcie cutout:
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Very nice setup. I love the cut-out for the cable. Very clean!
My eGPU Zoo - Link to my Implementations.
Want to output [email protected] out of an old system on the cheap? Read here.
"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it."- Robert A. Heinlein, "Time Enough for Love."
It was too lazy to open the case and make a clean cut, but I knew where approximately the slot is and just went on with a fine point soldering iron. It was done in a few minutes. And the cover was made from a dvd case .
When I'll have some time, I'll tidy it up and do some other mods. One of them is a dvi input. But fitting the new control board is a mess and there is still a lot of testing to be done.
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Hey,
Thinking about doing a similar setup.
Could someone explain me the difference between the Bandwidth (which in your case is 112.2 Gb/s) and the Exp Gdc v8.4d connection (which can only handle 4Gb/s). Would it mean it is not worth, or it is not related at all?
Thank you in advance.
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@mneto, bandwidth comparison of mPCIe2 versus higher bandwidth eGPU solutions and even a desktop x16 2.0 interface is at https://egpu.io/external-gpu-implementations-table/#perf .
Narrow mPCIe/EC links aer best used with an external LCD to maximise bandwidth for GPU traffic. Quite a few users pleased with the performance but just be aware that any heavily bandwidth dependent game will choke on these narrow links.
If you are looking for near-desktop performance on a budget then the closest solution is a x4 3.0 M.2 interface. As was used on a budget Dell Inspiron:
https://egpu.io/forums/builds/2017-15-dell-inspiron-7567-gtx980ti32gbps-m2-adt-r43sl-win10-hunew/
I tried with different wifi cards and some weren't recognized, so I flashed a modded bios just to avoid any problems. After that the thing was plug and play. No issues whatsoever.
When this setup was put together the 960 still held its ground at 1080 and the 970/80 didn't offer the expected boost to justify the price difference. But now, with the latest titles the 960 just isn't enough anymore.
I have upgraded to a MSI 980 4gb now. The link speed is still a limiting factor, but with the titles I play now it works better than expected.
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Hey Erikp-9, really like your post have a similar module of laptop so I'm following your work.
You changed the GPU to a MSI 980 4gb, but did you keep on using the DA-2?
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Yes the power supply is still the Dell one. Had to underclock the card just a little, because it crashed at full load with some games.
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Unfortunately it didnt work with me... looks like my bios doesnt boot when I connect the GPU...
I have a toshiba satellite C855D, I guess the problem is I didnt flash a modiffied/unlocked bios
How did you unlock your bios?
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Hmmm....weird, because last week I changed my whole motherboard due to a dGpu failure and the new motherboard from a c855 (75€ from ebay) was much cheaper than a gpu chip replacement. The c850/855 and l850/855 should have compatible motherboards since they are basically the same laptop. There are some differences in components arrangements, but it should still work. My external gpu still works like before without any bios mods this time. That said, the 855d has an AMD CPU and the motherboard is different from the Intel based ones so that may be the issue. But if you can upload or link the Toshiba latest bios version for your model, I will take a look at it.
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That’s what I thought, since they are so similar that it would work.
When you got the the new motherboard you didn’t change/update/modify the bios?
I can’t upload here the bios, so here is the link https://www.dropbox.com/s/6gzmbnr7mmrn1me/bios-20121211173533.zip?dl=0
Thank you so much for taking your time to help me!
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No, I did not need to mod the bios with the new mobo.
But just to make sure...have you followed the "how to" guide for the setup? You should open a new thread with all the details about your setup since there are many experts that can pitch in. I will look into the bios since it's an Insyde and I'm familiar with that, but I don't think it's a whitelist issue.
Anyway, better to try easier fixes before bios flashing, since a bad flash could render your laptop a brick without an eeprom programmer handy. Especially toshibas --> no recovery option.
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The only difference from what you did and I did was that I used a device like this https://egpu.io/forums/expresscard-mpcie-m-2-adapters/us7-50-generic-mpcie-egpu-adapter/ .
And now after some more reading I saw this in the same post :
"Cons:
- no delay circuit to bypass a black bootup screen..."
So either its because of this or the whitelisting I think. I'm gonna get a dock like yours and keep you updated
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The device manager detected the eGPU when I bootup the laptop with the wifi card, put it to sleep, switch the wifi card with the eGPU mpci-e connector.
According to https://egpu.io/forums/expresscard-mpcie-m-2-adapters/mpcieecngff-m2-resolving-detection-bootup-and-stability-problems/ , its a problem of whitelisting… 😥
And when it was detected I first got an error 12, which was fixed with this tutorial https://egpu.io/forums/pc-setup/fix-dsdt-override-to-correct-error-12/
And now I’m getting error 43 which I guess is from “ incorrect eGPU initialization due to PSU mistiming” and since I can’t bootup due to the whitelisting, I guess I can’t fix it without either a modded bios or maybe a proper dock like the one you are using
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Nice setup and cutout for cable !
The plug and play experience make me buy one for my laptop. Thx a lot
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@erikp_9
Good work with this. That door to the PCI-E slot is well made.
Did you get that screen input board wired up to it, so that you can run the video board on the built-in screen? I would like it a lot to see it with that all working.
WOW!! I was not aware that the L850 would be so open for a project like this. Your setup is awesome! Just unlocked the bios on my L850. Was trying to find overclock ways with an unlocked bios. Still finding new stuff every day on this old beast machine! Any suggestions what I can do to improve performance? Soldering, overclocking etc (not the upgrade RAM, go for SSD stuff, because I already max'd those 😆 ).
Cheers 😉
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To make up for the lost wifi card, I internally soldered a small usb hub and an Alfa network adapter with an external antenna plug between the DC in and a usb port. That way I have 2 aditional internal USB 3.0 ports and all external ports working.
Hi, I would like to know how to solder a usb hub internally like you did. Where do I connect the 4 pins of the hub on the motherboard?
Saw some tutorials where people tap onto the external port but that makes the external port unusable.
Hope you can help. Thanks!
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