GDC Beast on Thinkpad T430

[Dijon]

3Hiya all so a quick question.

Recently I have gone to Sixth form (Highschool) and I needed a laptop to get with me as I am doing Computer Science and need a powerful computer for it. So I did research and found the legendary Lenovo Thinkpad T430 (which I am using on to type this up!). Anyways I got myself a weekend job and bought it for £147 ($188) refurbished in mint condition.

I love it! It's dead quite (unless In gaming) battery isn't amazing but decent and its very powerful for the price. It might be a bit on the heavy side especially since i carry it around campus but I dont mind since it has so many Pros. Anyways This winter during my holidays I'm gonna have the house to myself and I wanna play some games since before I limited myself so I could concentrate on getting high grades to get into my preferred sixth form. Now I know Think pads are not meant for gaming but let me state some facts. First I downloaded GTA V on this thing and on default settings 720p Im getting 20-25 FPS, not amazing but lets remember this was £147. So I want to upgrade it, but not internally, more like externally. First let me state the specs on this specific model

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

Intel core i5-3230m 2.6GHz

8GB RAM DDR3 1066MHz

256GB SSD

and Intel HD graphics 4000

 

Now from my research if I want to stay on a budget the only problem for this machine is the iGPU. That's whats letting it down. So I did some research and found out about the GDC Beast external GPU. Aparently I could buy the "GDC beast" put a GPU in it, connect a PSU to it, connect to this laptop and this thing turns into a gaming beast (kinda lol)

Anyways I calculated the GDC Beast is £40 from Amazon, the PSU EVGA 500 WATT is also £40 and the GPU from CEX a ie: GTX 750 TI is £50. Now in total thats £130 which is a big expense for me since I am also saving up for a driving license. So my question is, how do you connect it? I've never done this type of stuff before so If I mess up I lose alot (alot to me anyways) money which is not good. If possible could someone run me through the process would much appreciated, anyways thanks for listening to my rambling and many thanks in advance.

 

[SupaKomputa]

The laptop would need a mini PCI-e slots (usually it is occupied by the wifi module).

[Dijon]

 

51 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

The laptop would need a mini PCI-e slots (usually it is occupied by the wifi module).

Is this found on the side of the laptop usually?

 

[SupaKomputa]

No. it is inside the motherboard, you should open it up.

The process of having an external GPU is not a good one, and may not work.

You should google tutorials for the exact machine if you're not ready for a trial and failure.

[Dijon]

17 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

No. it is inside the motherboard, you should open it up.

The process of having an external GPU is not a good one, and may not work.

You should google tutorials for the exact machine if you're not ready for a trial and failure.

hmm I’ll see what I can find but I did find a video showing the GDC beast connecting to the T430 through the SD card slot? 

[SupaKomputa]

SD CARD slot? No way, maybe it's just using the slot for the ribbon cable.

Or maybe the sdcard module is attached to the pci-e. So you need to pull the module out to use it.

[Dijon]

31 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

SD CARD slot? No way, maybe it's just using the slot for the ribbon cable.

Or maybe the sdcard module is attached to the pci-e. So you need to pull the module out to use it.

Here down below, this is the GDC beast and that thing I believe you connect it to the laptop and it should be done? I mean personally I don’t want to open my thinkpad because I think I might mess it up and break it

 

[SupaKomputa]

Ah an expresscard. Yes, i forgot laptop had one of those. haha.

Yeah that can work too. 

[Dijon]

1 hour ago, SupaKomputa said:

Ah an expresscard. Yes, i forgot laptop had one of those. haha.

Yeah that can work too. 

so i just put that in the SD slot and i dont have to open my laptop at all to make it into a gaming machine??

[SupaKomputa]

26 minutes ago, Dijon said:

so i just put that in the SD slot and i dont have to open my laptop at all to make it into a gaming machine??

It's not an SD slot is a Express card, the one above the SD slot.

Yes, if they made it, i think it will work, i don't know about the performance since it's only PCI-E 1x speed.

Don't hope too much.

[Dijon]

1 hour ago, SupaKomputa said:

It's not an SD slot is a Express card, the one above the SD slot.

Yes, if they made it, i think it will work, i don't know about the performance since it's only PCI-E 1x speed.

Don't hope too much.

Ok good thanks alot, I am not expecting muchonly 1080p medium setting at least 30fps in GTA V with this laptop paired with the GTX 750 Ti, you think maybe it would work? With that amount of fps I mean.

[Dijon]

30 minutes ago, aljw515 said:

As a disclaimer, i have never tried an expresscard egpu as well, but i wish to and am currently waiting for a good deal on a T420.

 

I have read abit online and i believe it might work to your expectations. Check out these sites for additional help:

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/4fgl1y/my_thinkpad_t430_exp_gdc_v8_experience/ (check the comments, i believe someone mentioned GTA V w T430 & GTX 750ti)

https://egpu.io/forums/expresscard-mpcie-m-2-adapters/us7-50-generic-mpcie-egpu-adapter/ (pros & cons for the various types of adapters available)

 

If you need more technical help on an egpu setup, you can visit the forums on epgu.io site. Also, the thinkpad reddit provides alot of information other than egpu.

 

On a side note, if you are getting a new battery for your T430, you will need to whitelist your bios. And as for the case of genuine or oem batteries, i have been using an oem one on my X240 and it is working perfectly fine. It is a hit and miss kind of thing, similar to buying other products.

 

Hope it helps!

Hi there just visited the sites you linked and they did help a lot! For now the battery is good lasts for about 1 hour when heavy gaming and for moderate use lasts about 3-4 hours for me that’s fine. But yes maybe in the future I will but thanks for the advice I can’t wait to get this setup in 2 months, if you would like I could make a video on what FPS I’m getting to show u if you don’t get it before me! 
anyways thanks a lot:)

[DrMilkCow]

On 10/16/2019 at 1:26 PM, Dijon said:

3Hiya all so a quick question.

Recently I have gone to Sixth form (Highschool) and I needed a laptop to get with me as I am doing Computer Science and need a powerful computer for it. So I did research and found the legendary Lenovo Thinkpad T430 (which I am using on to type this up!). Anyways I got myself a weekend job and bought it for £147 ($188) refurbished in mint condition.

I love it! It's dead quite (unless In gaming) battery isn't amazing but decent and its very powerful for the price. It might be a bit on the heavy side especially since i carry it around campus but I dont mind since it has so many Pros. Anyways This winter during my holidays I'm gonna have the house to myself and I wanna play some games since before I limited myself so I could concentrate on getting high grades to get into my preferred sixth form. Now I know Think pads are not meant for gaming but let me state some facts. First I downloaded GTA V on this thing and on default settings 720p Im getting 20-25 FPS, not amazing but lets remember this was £147. So I want to upgrade it, but not internally, more like externally. First let me state the specs on this specific model

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

Intel core i5-3230m 2.6GHz

8GB RAM DDR3 1066MHz

256GB SSD

and Intel HD graphics 4000

 

Now from my research if I want to stay on a budget the only problem for this machine is the iGPU. That's whats letting it down. So I did some research and found out about the GDC Beast external GPU. Aparently I could buy the "GDC beast" put a GPU in it, connect a PSU to it, connect to this laptop and this thing turns into a gaming beast (kinda lol)

Anyways I calculated the GDC Beast is £40 from Amazon, the PSU EVGA 500 WATT is also £40 and the GPU from CEX a ie: GTX 750 TI is £50. Now in total thats £130 which is a big expense for me since I am also saving up for a driving license. So my question is, how do you connect it? I've never done this type of stuff before so If I mess up I lose alot (alot to me anyways) money which is not good. If possible could someone run me through the process would much appreciated, anyways thanks for listening to my rambling and many thanks in advance.

On 10/16/2019 at 1:26 PM, Dijon said:

3Hiya all so a quick question.

Recently I have gone to Sixth form (Highschool) and I needed a laptop to get with me as I am doing Computer Science and need a powerful computer for it. So I did research and found the legendary Lenovo Thinkpad T430 (which I am using on to type this up!). Anyways I got myself a weekend job and bought it for £147 ($188) refurbished in mint condition.

I love it! It's dead quite (unless In gaming) battery isn't amazing but decent and its very powerful for the price. It might be a bit on the heavy side especially since i carry it around campus but I dont mind since it has so many Pros. Anyways This winter during my holidays I'm gonna have the house to myself and I wanna play some games since before I limited myself so I could concentrate on getting high grades to get into my preferred sixth form. Now I know Think pads are not meant for gaming but let me state some facts. First I downloaded GTA V on this thing and on default settings 720p Im getting 20-25 FPS, not amazing but lets remember this was £147. So I want to upgrade it, but not internally, more like externally. First let me state the specs on this specific model

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

Intel core i5-3230m 2.6GHz

8GB RAM DDR3 1066MHz

256GB SSD

and Intel HD graphics 4000

 

Now from my research if I want to stay on a budget the only problem for this machine is the iGPU. That's whats letting it down. So I did some research and found out about the GDC Beast external GPU. Aparently I could buy the "GDC beast" put a GPU in it, connect a PSU to it, connect to this laptop and this thing turns into a gaming beast (kinda lol)

Anyways I calculated the GDC Beast is £40 from Amazon, the PSU EVGA 500 WATT is also £40 and the GPU from CEX a ie: GTX 750 TI is £50. Now in total thats £130 which is a big expense for me since I am also saving up for a driving license. So my question is, how do you connect it? I've never done this type of stuff before so If I mess up I lose alot (alot to me anyways) money which is not good. If possible could someone run me through the process would much appreciated, anyways thanks for listening to my rambling and many thanks in advance.

 

I'm actually thinking about doing the exact same thing with the Thinkpad 440. So if you try this mind telling me how it goes? 

The intel graphics cards are very bad and can barely run a simple game like Terraria. But its weird BC the think pad 440 comes with an Intel i7 and 8gb ram but such a bad GPU

 

[Dijon]

On 10/19/2019 at 6:58 AM, DrMilkCow said:

 

Yes indeed though after all these were meant too be purely business computers which were fast and accurate at what they were made, however yes the HD gpu is crap but if this solution works I will post videos and photos of it working as well as all links to what I bought, but again remember I will be doing this in December so unfortunately its a long wait!

Thanks for the interest, but I will definitely keep you updated.

[liza.de]

Hi, so how did it go? I want to do the same now, and feel very much like a n00b.. I don't know what's what, what goes in which slot, is there only one possible combination of things that will work, or variations.. pliizz help <3  I have a T430s Lenovo thinkpad