Feed: Tutorial: How to make an external laptop graphics adaptor - AggScore: 27.5
Summary: Tutorial: How to make an external laptop graphics adaptor
Laptop graphics have always been something of a joke performance wise. Nvidia and AMD do try, but cramming all those millions of transistors into a low-power, compact package just leads to massive expense and an inability to upgrade. Wouldn’t it be perfect if you could simply use a standard external graphics card to power your [...]
Tutorial: How to make an external laptop graphics adaptor
img srchttpcdn.mos.techradar.comReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.megamake1200200.jpgpLaptop graphics have always been something of a joke performance wise. Nvidia and AMD do try, but cramming all those millions of transistors into a lowpower, compact package just leads to massive expense and an inability to upgrade. pppWouldnt it be perfect if you could simply use a standard external graphics card to power your laptops 3D graphics ppThe good news is that you can. The suitably technicalsounding PE4H is just that a passive PCIe x16 to x1 adaptor, which enables you to plug an external graphics card into a laptops ExpressCard slot. Currently were only aware of it being available from the Taiwanese firm www.hwtools.net for around 100 including shipping. ppWed like to say its as simple as that, but this project does have a few sticking points. The first weve already mentioned a laptop with an ExpressCard slot. ppThe second is Windows 7, as it handles multiple display drivers far more adeptly than anything else. Were told Windows XP is next best with Vista being least desirable. ppAlso if your laptop has more than 2GB of memory a 64bit installation is also required, as otherwise youll hit the 4GB address space limit hard. The big issue here is that itll cause the allocation of memory for the graphics card to fail. ppEven though the card has its own memory the processor still needs to be able to address it, this address space is added on top of any existing system memory plus any other hardware resources, including the integrated graphics memory space. ppThe final sticking point is that there are certain laptop models that this simply wont work with or have some serious documented issues. Some of these can be worked around and others cannot, but before you run off and spend your money its best to check if people have reported issues with your model. ppThe best two sources for compatibility can be found on the Notebook Review forum and Village Tronic. The former is the best, offering detailed system configuration and how many issues are solved. ppThe PE4H comes with the adaptor itself, an ExpressCard, data cable, Molex power cable and ATX power switch. Alongside this youll need a suitable power supply, the adaptor can take a 12 to 15v supply but for higherend cards youll need a desktop PSU anyway. Plus for neatness were going to house it all inside a minibarebones case. ppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.expresscard142090.jpg altPE4H width420imgppThe walkthrough below details putting together a system. The main thing to be aware of is before plugging the ExpressCard into the laptop, you will need to have Windows fully booted and to have the graphics card powered up. Its important to do this so Windows can recognise and install the correct drivers. If everything goes smoothly youll have multicard, multimonitor system, where there was none before. ppThis might not be evident but it has happened, check the Display Properties Control Panel to see if the new display is detected and active. ppstrongTroubleshootingstrongpp In our case we encountered a couple of issues on our Lenovo X200 at this stage, which we can see other people encountering. If the card isnt detected reboot and see how the BIOS handles the new device. ppFor us booting produced a stream of POST errors complaining about PCI resource allocation problems. A BIOS update later and we had a booting system but one that was running incredibly slowly. ppOur next step was to try inserting the card immediately after pressing the power button and that seemed to sort this out. Similarly another trick is to put the laptop to sleep insert the card and power back up. Whatever voodoo cured the problem, once it was up and running we didnt have any further problems and the device could be happily hot swapped. All of these issues are connected to allocation of the PCI address space for the card. ppOnce its up and running it just works, albeit within the limitations of a x1 PCIe system. You may have spotted that the adaptor card offers four PCIe connections, the obvious question is how do you connect those additional PCIe lanes ppMost laptops use a miniPCIe addin card for its wireless adaptor, other laptops actually have spare miniPCIe ports for 3G modems and the like. If you can locate one of these and addin one of the HWTool PM3N miniPCIe adaptors, then its possible to upgrade to an x2 system where the performance hit narrows to around 75 percent of the graphic cards full performance. ppThis, of course, requires a second cable to be trailed from the laptop to the adaptor, as it turns out these are mini HDMI TypeC cables, so can be picked up from various sources such as www.lindy.com. ppUse something like SiSoft Sandra to see what chipset your laptop has and what devices are attached to them, the Hardware Buses report tool is best. The older ICH67M Southbridge can provide up to four PCIe ports. The newer ICH89M and HM55 chipsets can go to six, with the latest HMQMQS57 range providing up to eight. You need to use the ports in matched pairs for it to work, so ports one and two or three and four.pp strongDIY desktop graphics for your notebook strongppWe remember getting excited about an Asus prototype called the XG Station a few years back at Computex in Taipei. That device promised to do something similar to this project. It never made it to the UK though, but did pop up in Australia in 2008 before promptly disappearing within a year. ppNo matter, well show you how to hook up your own spare PCIe graphics card to your laptop. It just takes the right bits of hardware and an ExpressCard equipped laptop. Were even going to look at an easy way to package the whole lot into an external case. ppstrong1. The kit you will need to make your adaptor strongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step0142090.jpg altstep 1 width420imgppThe catchy named PE4H from www.hwtools.net comes with a x16 PCIe adaptor, the ExpressCard interface, an ATX power switch, plus the necessary Molex power cable and PCI Express data cable. ppstrong2. Grab a passive PCI Express adaptor strongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step0242090.jpg altstep 2 width420imgppThe adaptor that takes the PCI Express graphics card is called a passive adaptor, which is actually not doing any processing or routing, its simply connecting two buses together. ppstrong3. Connect the GPU to the ExpressCard strongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step0342090.jpg altstep 3 width420imgppGetting started is easy enough, plug the graphics card into the adaptor and connect the data cable to the first PCIe port and to the ExpressCard, not forgetting the power cable. ppstrong4. Get a PSU powering your graphics card strongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step0442090.jpg altstep 4 width420imgppSo you can use a standard PC system power supply for your graphics card an ATX power adaptor is supplied, which will attach to the 2024pin power cable of the PSU. ppstrong5. Everything hooked up and ready to go strongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step0542090.jpg altstep 5 width420imgppWith a basic PCI Express graphics card the setup looks a little like this with or without a loop in the cable. At this point you dont want to connect the ExpressCard but you can boot your laptop. ppstrong6. Now, power up the pixel pusher strongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step0642090.jpg altstep 6 width420imgppBefore you go ahead and connect the ExpressCard to your laptop, you must make sure that the graphics card is powered up, so turn on the ATX switch and power up the PSU. ppstrong7. Get in on some ExpressCard action strongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step0742090.jpg altstep 7 width420imgppWith your Windows OS laptop up and running along with external graphics card, you can now safely push the ExpressCard into its slot, being careful not to knock over the graphics card in the process! ppstrong8. Displays ahoy, as far as the eye can seestrongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step0842090.jpg altstep 8 width420imgppIf you have a compatible laptop, then after a flicker or two and perhaps a reboot, the laptop should detect the new graphics card and automatically start installing the driver.pp strong9. Control, multimonitor is a go strongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step0942090.jpg altstep 9 width420imgppIf everything has worked correctly then you will now have a multimonitor system that you can configure from the Windows Display Control Panel. ppstrong10. Put her safe n sound in the mini strongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step1042090.jpg altstep 10 width420imgppTo create a neat external box, were going to cheat a little and just shanghai this rather nice mini barebones box. We wont need the original mobo though we might be able to use the PSU. ppstrong11. Compact and decidely bijou strongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step1142090.jpg altstep 11 width420imgppThis box has space for two PCI cards, so even a doublewidth graphics card should easily fit inside the chassis and the PCIe adaptor sits nicely, where the mobo used to be. ppstrong12. Get the power that you really needstrongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step1242090.jpg altstep 12 width420imgppIts important to make sure the power supply units 12v rail will meet the power supply needs of the card. Check the Wikipedia entry to look up the TDP of your chipset if youre unsure. ppstrong13. Get a cable, that is Type C strongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step1342090.jpg altstep 13 width420imgppWere going to route the connecting cable out of the side of the case. To make life easier itd be best to pick up a longer mini HDMI TypeC cable, which is actually what the cable is. ppstrong14. Connect up the power button strongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step1442090.jpg altstep 14 width420imgppThe ATX PSU is activated by connecting pins 14 and 15 20pin or 16 and 17 24pin together. Its the green wire and any black wire, so you could connect up the cases power switch instead. ppstrong15. And this is one I made earlierstrongppimg srchttpmos.futurenet.comtechradarReview20imagesPC20FormatPCF20247PCF247.make.step1542090.jpg altstep 15 width420imgppAnd here she is, our neatly finished solution for getting desktop graphics on your weedy laptop. The minicase, as it turns out, makes quite a handy monitor stand. Or you can just hide it away.ppimg width1 height1 srchttprss.feedsportal.comc669f415081s11346cafmf.gif border0div classmfrelatedpRelated StoriespulliARMs latest Mali GPU announcedliuldivdiv classmfviraltable border0trtd valignmiddleimg srchttpres3.feedsportal.comimagesemailthis2.gif border0 tdtd valignmiddleimg srchttpres3.feedsportal.comimagesbookmark.gif border0 tdtrtabledivbrbrimg srchttpda.feedsportal.comr90662351237u49f415081c669s11346cafkg2540436568141168194201a2.img border0img srchttpfeeds.feedburner.comrtechradarmobilecomputingnews4Ug7Zt53To8 height1 width1a targetblank relnofollow hrefhttpfeedproxy.google.comrtechradarmobilecomputingnews3Ug7Zt53To8story01.htmTechRadar Mobile computing newsa
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