DIY EGPU

[firefithe]

Hi

I have a Yoga 6 laptop that has an integrated GPU that is not the best (to say the least....).

I also have an unused 1070 and an old PSU.

Considering the fact that my laptop doesn't have a TB connector at all, only USB 3.1 I decided to do an experiment and buy a R43SG adapter alongside some M.2 to USB adapters.

Once everything arrived, I tried to connect everything but I cant seem to make the driver recognize that its not a storage device but an external GPU....

All the adapters I have are being recognized by the PC as some kind of a storage device controller only, I cant seem to be able to change that, is it on the adapter side?

 

My question, does anyone have a better idea?, maybe a specific adapter from M.2 to USB?

I don't want to start disassembling my laptop and buying a new one is outside the scope of this experiment...

[Agall]

1 minute ago, firefithe said:

Hi

I have a Yoga 6 laptop that has an integrated GPU that is not the best (to say the least....).

I also have an unused 1070 and an old PSU.

Considering the fact that my laptop doesn't have a TB connector at all, only USB 3.1 I decided to do an experiment and buy a R43SG adapter alongside some M.2 to USB adapters.

Once everything arrived, I tried to connect everything but I cant seem to make the driver recognize that its not a storage device but an external GPU....

All the adapters I have are being recognized by the PC as some kind of a storage device controller only, I cant seem to be able to change that, is it on the adapter side?

 

My question, does anyone have a better idea?, maybe a specific adapter from M.2 to USB?

I don't want to start disassembling my laptop and buying a new one is outside the scope of this experiment...

How exactly does the 1070 show up in Device Manager? 

[firefithe]

15 minutes ago, Agall said:

How exactly does the 1070 show up in Device Manager? 

It depends on the adapter used, most of them appear as "USB Mass Storage Device" under the USB controllers section.

One of them appears as "USB Attached SCSI (UAS) Mass Storage Device" under the Storage controllers section.

[Agall]

5 minutes ago, firefithe said:

It depends on the adapter used, most of them appear as "USB Mass Storage Device" under the USB controllers section.

One of them appears as "USB Attached SCSI (UAS) Mass Storage Device? under the Storage controllers section.

What's the model number of the device? I wouldn't be surprised if that M.2 slot isn't PCIe and is SATA or only 2x. 

[firefithe]

3 minutes ago, Agall said:

What's the model number of the device? I wouldn't be surprised if that M.2 slot isn't PCIe and is SATA or only 2x. 

I orderd a bunch of them:

1. Ugreen CM559

2. Aliexpress with RTL9210B and PH882RS (2 of these)

3. Aliexpress with ASW2364

4. ALiexpress with JMS583

[Agall]

Just now, firefithe said:

I orderd a bunch of them:

1. Ugreen CM559

2. Aliexpress with RTL9210B and PH882RS (2 of these)

3. Aliexpress with ASW2364

4. ALiexpress with JMS583

I meant the laptop, earlier laptops with M.2 drives commonly only had SATA M.2 or PCIe 3.0 2x slots instead of proper PCIe 3.0 4x M.2 slots.

[firefithe]

4 minutes ago, Agall said:

I meant the laptop, earlier laptops with M.2 drives commonly only had SATA M.2 or PCIe 3.0 2x slots instead of proper PCIe 3.0 4x M.2 slots.

Yoga 6 13ABR8

[Agall]

5 minutes ago, firefithe said:

Yoga 6 13ABR8

Yoga 6 13ABR8

 

It looks like it only has one proper M.2 slot, are you using USB storage or are you trying to use a secondary M.2 slot that the WLAN/bluetooth module might've been in?

 

[firefithe]

1 minute ago, Agall said:

Yoga 6 13ABR8

 

It looks like it only has one proper M.2 slot, are you using USB storage or are you trying to use a secondary M.2 slot that the WLAN/bluetooth module might've been in?

 

Actually, I'm just trying to connect the entire thing to the external USB C header....

I really don't want to disassemble the laptop just for some light gaming from time to time...

I realize the speed and latency issues, that is why this whole thing is an experiment.

[Agall]

2 minutes ago, firefithe said:

Actually, I'm just trying to connect the entire thing to the external USB C header....

I really don't want to disassemble the laptop just for some light gaming from time to time...

I realize the speed and latency issues, that is why this whole thing is an experiment.

Yeah that's not going to work. USB-c on that device has no provision for PCIe communication without thunderbolt/USB4. The most reasonable way to get that to work the best is to use one of the internal M.2 slots.

[firefithe]

Just now, Agall said:

Yeah that's not going to work. USB-c on that device has no provision for PCIe communication without thunderbolt/USB4. The most reasonable way to get that to work the best is to use one of the internal M.2 slots.

Cant the adapter be used as an intermediary for that?

It does "translate" the NVME which is basically an PCIE communication based device to USB....

[Agall]

4 minutes ago, firefithe said:

Cant the adapter be used as an intermediary for that?

It does "translate" the NVME which is basically an PCIE communication based device to USB....

Graphics cards are different, you might be able to get it to work with a PCIe NIC or other random PCIe device, but I don't see how using any version of actual USB would support a dGPU properly to successfully detect and install a driver. USB4 does this by using thunderbolt and not USB protocol.

 

eGPU to USB-C 3.1 | What gear should I buy?

[Salted Spinach]

On 1/24/2025 at 11:01 PM, firefithe said:

...my laptop doesn't have a TB connector at all, only USB 3.1...

Forget about it