Put a Desktop GPU in a LAPTOP… The CHEAP WAY!

[AlexTheGreatish]

Fans of the EXP GDC have been asking us to do a video on it for years. We hadn’t up until this point because the user experience was kind of terrible. It still is.

 

Buy a Gigabyte Gaming Box
On Amazon: http://geni.us/OHj0B
On Newegg: http://geni.us/vqL2B

 

 

[TheSLSAMG]

Cool to see that a video has been done on it finally, though I feel like it would've been interesting to focus on the ExpressCard and mPCIe versions as well. With an older Ivy Bridge based workstation laptop like an Elitebook 8470P, it would be easy to slot in an ExpressCard and go (though the 2.0 1x bandwidth is definitely a limiting factor). Then again, I can't imagine you guys have a lot of those older laptops sitting around.

[aiucaiu]

You could buy a wifi dongle and use the mini PCIe slot thingy for the external GPU.

[TheSLSAMG]

14 minutes ago, SpeedyDucky said:

You could buy a wifi dongle and use the mini PCIe slot thingy for the external GPU.

True. I did this with a Samsung NP550P5C that I have, though unfortunately it couldn't handle an i7 3610QM because of the cooling system.

[MadDuke]

Thanks for this video. You just gave me an idea.

 

I have a Phanteks Evolv Shift 

and I have a (more importantly) an   ROG STRIX B350-I GAMING  motherboard.

The motherboard has 

1x NVMe (PCIe Gen3 X4) on top and 

1x NVMe (PCIe Gen2 X4) on the back of the MBO.  (funny thing, this one "illogically" doesn't have a SATA compatibility)

 

Could hopefully hook up this to a 10GBe card and connect it to the back NVMe port.  Have plenty of space in the case for the card.  

[MrLama]

I can share some experience with similar kind of setup I was running since 2011 to 2013:

HP Compaq 6510b, eGPU pcie slot board v2.4a to ExpressCard, some old PSU and 8800GT. Laptop itself did not have ExpressCard slot, but luckily I had large docking station with it.

 

There were several limitations like:

1. BIOS could not handle eGPU during boot and card had to be hot-plugged 

2. It could not run on Vista 

3. There was special utility that implanted option into bootloader for unlocking full-duplex communication instead of half duplex.

4. Can't sleep PC with eGPU running.

5. Constant switching inputs on display between iGPU and eGPU

6. It looked horrendously on the table and took up so much space

7. Performance of 8800GT was cut by a large margin

 

But hey, everything is better than gaming on Intel iGPU. 

 

[Silentprototipe]

Once my Envy X360's Vega 8 graphics become too slow for anything im gonna try this . NVME FTW!  

[KaptainMajid]

I've been using the eGPU for a year now and I can say, it's worth it if you cant afford a new gaming pc
I'm using the Exp Gdc v8 with a EVGA GTX950 and a cheap power supply connected to a Lenovo Ideapad Z570 using mPCI-E
I was planning on using the GTX1050 at the beginning but it didn't work as he said in the video, it kept showing Error code 43 and I didn't want to go into installing modded BIOS or anything like that so I just sold it and bought the 950, its been working great for like 6 or 7 months then I started getting problems especially with the new drivers, blue screens here and there, freezing sometimes, it hurts lately but hey!! anything better than Intel Graphics lol

5 hours ago, SpeedyDucky said:

You could buy a wifi dongle and use the mini PCIe slot thingy for the external GPU.

I did this back in summer when I had to travel and I didn't have an Ethernet connection 

[Canada EH]

25 minutes ago, KaptainMajid said:

been using the eGPU

The way you did it is the ticket, looks cheap to do. Most everyones got a psu laying around, how much in total did it cost you?

[ahuckphin]

older revisions makes more sense. You won't be using the adapter outside of home and at home we can use Ethernet.  

[Skadaddy]

Can This work on The Dell N5010?

If it doesnt Can u plz suggest a way because my graphic card stopped functioning and constantly shows up with the 8 beep problem.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Canada EH]

1 hour ago, Skadaddy said:

Can This work on The Dell N5010?

If it doesnt Can u plz suggest a way because my graphic card stopped functioning and constantly shows up with the 8 beep problem.

Any help would be appreciated!

I dont know much about this, yet. But I think the key is for the laptop to have this

Quote

mPCI-E

 

I saw a video on a guy doing similar on YT, he opened up the laptop, took out the wifi connections, and did his thang. Its pretty hit and miss I think. I remember he T/S for a long time, and I cant remember if it worked for him and his laptop or not.

[KaptainMajid]

3 hours ago, Canada EH said:

How much in total did it cost you?

I got the Exp adapter for $32 on sale
Used EVGA GTX950 from Ebay $92
PowerSupply $12
+ Which video did you see? can you give the link or title of it, maybe its the one that I saw before I made my setup 

 

2 hours ago, Skadaddy said:

Can This work on The Dell N5010?

If it doesnt Can u plz suggest a way because my graphic card stopped functioning and constantly shows up with the 8 beep problem.

Any help would be appreciated!

I think most laptops has the mPCIe slot, if you have wifi in your laptop then I'm pretty sure its installed on the mPCIe Port and thats the one that you would be using for the external adapter.
I also looked up your graphics card problem and as far as I know your monitor is not working? if it's not then this method may not fix your issue and you'll have to add an external monitor to it to make it work
Check this: https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/154494/N5010+-+8+beeps.+Screen+won't+turn+on

[Canada EH]

11 minutes ago, KaptainMajid said:

Which video did you see? can you give the link or title of it, maybe its the one that I saw before I made my setup 

I have no clue which one I saw, it was quite awhile ago. I dont login to YT so cant find it through History. Thats only bit me once or twice I usually end up finding what I watched if I try long and hard enough. If I remember correctly the vlogger had an thick accent.

[iamdarkyoshi]

@AlexTheGreatish Didn't I already do this a couple years ago??

 

 

[KaptainMajid]

16 hours ago, Canada EH said:

I have no clue 

Oh okey no problem man

[Vigidis]

I'm actually looking into upgrading my laptop this year and am considering the new Ryzen U powered machines (as soon as more OEMs jump on board)...so my question is, does this work with the Ryzen U machines? I believe that would be a an appealing target since AMD laptops don't have Thunderbolt ports...no?

[Guest]

This is really cool but not the way to do it. 

[ha1o2surfer]

I tried this back in the mPCIe days ( you know the older PCIe slots on laptops) Basically got mixed results like Linus did. Each device needs a certain amount of reserved memory to run and laptop BIOS usually only accounts for wifi cards, which need a lot smaller caches then GPUs do, so they usually require DSDT overrides to get the space and chace they need. UEFI does a better job of this since it can allocate those resources on the fly. 

 

Fun experiment though, love the outside the box videos they have been doing lately! 

[CoalitionGaming]

Uh, the laptop that couldnt get the eGPU to work did not have an NVME enabled m.2 slot. That was a SATA m.2 slot, and thats why it didnt work. It likely would have worked utilizing the Mini PCI-E slot, though a bit more limited. However a comparison of GDC beast over ExpressCard (the last of ExpressCard laptops to be made were Haswell era), mPCI-E (every laptop, some have two but all use a mpci-E wifi card that can be removed to attach the eGPU into), and NGFF/M.2 that is VERIFIED NVME enabled.  

 

If going Mini PCI-E route in the retesting, you will want to double check that the laptop doesn't have a BIOS whitelist for that slot. I'm not sure if the "gaming version" laptops have whitelists but old workstations sure do but it depends on the brand.

[AlexTheGreatish]

54 minutes ago, CoalitionGaming said:

Uh, the laptop that couldnt get the eGPU to work did not have an NVME enabled m.2 slot. That was a SATA m.2 slot, and thats why it didnt work. It likely would have worked utilizing the Mini PCI-E slot, though a bit more limited. However a comparison of GDC beast over ExpressCard (the last of ExpressCard laptops to be made were Haswell era), mPCI-E (every laptop, some have two but all use a mpci-E wifi card that can be removed to attach the eGPU into), and NGFF/M.2 that is VERIFIED NVME enabled.  

 

If going Mini PCI-E route in the retesting, you will want to double check that the laptop doesn't have a BIOS whitelist for that slot. I'm not sure if the "gaming version" laptops have whitelists but old workstations sure do but it depends on the brand.

The slot in the MSI is both a SATA and PCIe M.2 slot so it should have worked fine with the BEAST.

[CoalitionGaming]

42 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

The slot in the MSI is both a SATA and PCIe M.2 slot so it should have worked fine with the BEAST.

Did you try Nando's egpu setup tool by any chance?

 

https://egpu.io/egpu-setup-13x/

[MusicHaven1990]

Mine's via a miniPCIe slot where the Wireless card normally occupies. This one is off a Clevo W110ER running 12GB RAM, Core i7 3630QM.

[servivigiledeus]

On 4/14/2018 at 1:05 PM, AlexTheGreatish said:

Fans of the EXP GDC have been asking us to do a video on it for years. We hadn’t up until this point because the user experience was kind of terrible. It still is.

 

Buy a Gigabyte Gaming Box
On Amazon: http://geni.us/OHj0B
On Newegg: http://geni.us/vqL2B

 

 

I actually did a thread on my Beast GDC project here> https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/569164-a-sleeves-up-approach-to-egpu-w-case/ . Very successful with the expresscard version on the Lenovo t410, with the gtx 960, makes for a capable modular setup.  

[servivigiledeus]

On 4/18/2018 at 2:32 PM, AlexTheGreatish said:

The slot in the MSI is both a SATA and PCIe M.2 slot so it should have worked fine with the BEAST.

Not necessarily, many pcie slots are whitelisted to only work with manufacturer intended parts, this was a common issue that came up when i was researching this option for a setup.

 The newest laptops with Expresscard are the most solid dependable option. 

I can confirm the Lenovo t410, with it's expresscard slot is a champion paired with the 960,

god knows what a more powerful pairing could accomplish.

But to the point. the other versions are a gamble, and not guaranteed to agree with consumer laptops.