Best way to move GPU between PCs?

[OrangeLeaf]

The question that I have / discussion that I would like to start is the following: What is the best way to move one GPU between two PCs?

 

The goal would be to make the dis- reconnecting as fast as possible, without wearing down components that are not meant to be used this way. 

 

My current idea is to use a GPU riser to move the GPU away from the motherboard and to protect the motherboard connectors. Using some spare PSU connectors and a little bit of soldering/crafting I'd then create a separate connector for power (to protect the GPU power-connector from wear).

 

Are there any better methods? Maybe some drive bay-hotswappable style connectors that I'm not aware of?

 

 

 

For those wo wonder why you would want to do that, currently I regularly move between two places where in each I have a PC, one is for gaming one is for productivity, moving one single whole PC would be way too much effort, and I'm using public transport to get around which would make this very awkward. As the GPU could be used in both builds (although being bottlenecked in the productivity PC) and is for both PCs the single most expensive item I thought "hey if I can't move the whole PC how about just the GPU?", which brought me to reddit, various other forums and now this place, the GPU easily fits in a protective bag and can be transported in my backpack.

[jaslion]

13 minutes ago, OrangeLeaf said:

The question that I have / discussion that I would like to start is the following: What is the best way to move one GPU between two PCs?

 

The goal would be to make the dis- reconnecting as fast as possible, without wearing down components that are not meant to be used this way. 

 

My current idea is to use a GPU riser to move the GPU away from the motherboard and to protect the motherboard connectors. Using some spare PSU connectors and a little bit of soldering/crafting I'd then create a separate connector for power (to protect the GPU power-connector from wear).

 

Are there any better methods? Maybe some drive bay-hotswappable style connectors that I'm not aware of?

 

 

 

For those wo wonder why you would want to do that, currently I regularly move between two places where in each I have a PC, one is for gaming one is for productivity, moving one single whole PC would be way too much effort, and I'm using public transport to get around which would make this very awkward. As the GPU could be used in both builds (although being bottlenecked in the productivity PC) and is for both PCs the single most expensive item I thought "hey if I can't move the whole PC how about just the GPU?", which brought me to reddit, various other forums and now this place, the GPU easily fits in a protective bag and can be transported in my backpack.

Your gpu's pcie bracket is gonna suffer. I mean even if you did this it would still break far sooner:

Pcie riser on gpu

Pcie riser on motherboard

Pcie power extension

 

This would mean that technically the gpu is never going to be unplugged in a way as all cables to it stay in place.

 

But anyways don't this will kill your card sooner due to all the handling and either get a nice small mini-itx system or a laptop.

 

Or get a used cheap card as one is just a productivity machine.

[19_blackie_73]

Or get something like the gt1030 on the used market if you dont need the gpu horsepower for the productivity pc or the intel hd graphics

[OrangeLeaf]

30 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Your gpu's pcie bracket is gonna suffer. I mean even if you did this it would still break far sooner:

Pcie riser on gpu

Pcie riser on motherboard

Pcie power extension

 

This would mean that technically the gpu is never going to be unplugged in a way as all cables to it stay in place.

 

But anyways don't this will kill your card sooner due to all the handling and either get a nice small mini-itx system or a laptop.

 

Or get a used cheap card as one is just a productivity machine.

So you are saying that it would in general not really be a good idea to move the card? 

Well, I'm not too surprised. It would get moved twice a week, I'd really like to find some experiments in that direction.

 

Thanks for the (fast) response  

[jaslion]

4 minutes ago, OrangeLeaf said:

So you are saying that it would in general not really be a good idea to move the card? 

Well, I'm not too surprised. It would get moved twice a week, I'd really like to find some experiments in that direction.

 

Thanks for the (fast) response  

For sure not a good idea. Since your other machine is just for production purposes why not get a cheap used card? What even is this card?

[OrangeLeaf]

31 minutes ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

Or get something like the gt1030 on the used market if you dont need the gpu horsepower for the productivity pc or the intel hd graphics

I didn't want to go into too much detail on the rest of the hardware, it's a ryzen 5 3600 build, it still can game (currently runs a really old GPU which is just there to get a screen output), I'm currently rocking a 1080 TI in the gaming PC and plan to (WHEN WE FINALLY CAN GET THEM) upgrade to a rtx3080.

Maybe I'm using the term 'productivity' wrong...

[OrangeLeaf]

6 minutes ago, jaslion said:

For sure not a good idea. Since your other machine is just for production purposes why not get a cheap used card? What even is this card?

Currently a 1080TI, will be a RTX 3080 when I can get my hands on one, the 'productivity' PC runs a Ryzen 5 3600, just for working, programming etc. could still game, which is why I came up with the idea. Would not be the ideal setup but could still use a high power GPU, currently I'm using an used GPU (can't really tell you from the top of my head to be honest but is a gt500 or gt550, its in the mini format and is just there to get a display output. 

 

edit: spelling (at least what I could find :P)

[Cmcnair1991]

On 10/26/2020 at 9:16 AM, OrangeLeaf said:

Currently a 1080TI, will be a RTX 3080 when I can get my hands on one, the 'productivity' PC runs a Ryzen 5 3600, just for working, programming etc. could still game, which is why I came up with the idea. Would not be the ideal setup but could still use a high power GPU, currently I'm using an used GPU (can't really tell you from the top of my head to be honest but is a gt500 or gt550, its in the mini format and is just there to get a display output. 

 

edit: spelling (at least what I could find :P)

I think if you did this the right way it would be bad for the card at all. Like if you made a box to where it could breathe and be mounted then use a riser cable and power extensions from the card to the outside of the box, try finding a way to mount/store them then as long as stated above as long as you're not actually using the Mobo or PSU connections directly those won't be damaged and then you always won't be handling the card because it will be mounted in the box. I'm sure if you think on it for a while you can find some sort of box to it in. What size is the card?