# Project GPUBox: External GPU case.



## Yukikaze (Jan 5, 2011)

A common problem with modern-day high-end systems is the lack of space. I have six slots in my system, but with two GPUs in it I only have two slots left (one PCI and one PCIe). If I want to add another GTX470 for 3SLI (with some amazing scaling due to the 5760x1080 resolution) I will lose all my remaining slots while only using half of them. I don't think I have to mention the overheating issues caused by stacking three powerful GPUs one on top of the other and then clocking them to heck.

I don't like that, and I want to fix that. At work I commonly work with PCIe extender cables of nearly all shapes and sizes, so this got me thinking: Why not do something like this at home?

Thus the GPUBox concept was born. I plan on building an external box which will be able to accommodate four GPUs and an additional power supply unit to feed them with power. The GPUs will be well-spaced and the box will be well-ventilated to keep them cool. Since it is not constrained as a regular computer case is I can push air from nearly any imaginable direction.

Currently I am researching my options. I can start off from a regular computer case and mod it - This has the advantage of looking better than probably anything I can do myself and being water cooling ready due to having ready radiator mounts. Alternatively, I can build a completely custom case which will lend me full flexibility, but I only have experience with wood working, and no experience or tools in order to work with metal.

Gonna have to think which route I'll take - But I want my third GTX470, and I want my expansion slots back!


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## wolf (Jan 5, 2011)

subbed! this reminds me of the early lucid hydra concept which was an external box and board to seat the GPU's.

I can't wait to see how it works out!

I'd suggest a ready made box, as you can pop in a PSU easily, fan mounts etc for w/c if you choose, or just fans. the hard part sounds like the pci-e extenders sitting properly in the case and being fed out of the master rig.


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## overclocking101 (Jan 5, 2011)

what do you need the slots for?? it sounds like a nice idea.


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 5, 2011)

Interesting. i have a few ideas if you want to discuss them via PM. **Subscribed**


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## Yukikaze (Jan 5, 2011)

overclocking101 said:


> what do you need the slots for?? it sounds like a nice idea.



USB3.0 expansion card, another GPU to output to my TV, god knows what else might come up and I wanna mod something.


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## Yukikaze (Jan 5, 2011)

jrracinfan said:


> interesting. I have a few ideas if you want to discuss them via pm. **subscribed**



ygpm.


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## Yukikaze (Jan 5, 2011)

Okay. It seems that getting PCIe extender cables can be a little expensive. I never knew a piece of cable can be this expensive (granted, the signaling rate of PCIe is very high, but still). The ones I am seeing can cost up to 100$ for a single 12" length adapter. There is a ton of cheap ones on ebay, but I am pretty sure that they will not work properly at full bus speeds.

I need to do some research about ordering them through work (I doubt our labs pay this much for one cable).

Anyone has a source for such extenders for less money?


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## pantherx12 (Jan 5, 2011)

Subbed to see end results and to chip in with development if I can : ]


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## (FIH) The Don (Jan 6, 2011)

sub'd


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## Yukikaze (Jan 6, 2011)

Okay, currently checking with our electronics guys at work what is the longest full-rate, x16 lane, gen 2.0 PCIe extension cable they can build for me (or order for me). Still no idea on the costs, but at least it looks like I might have a source handy.


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## scaminatrix (Jan 6, 2011)

I always wanted to do this, but to mount a rig on my wall
Subbed


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## gumpty (Jan 11, 2011)

Rub a dub subd.


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## silkstone (Jan 11, 2011)

Count me in.. you might wanna patent the idea if it works well, i can imagine a lot of people would be very interested in this.


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## (FIH) The Don (Jan 11, 2011)

take a look here they might have something

http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/PE4H.html


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## Yukikaze (Jan 11, 2011)

silkstone said:


> Count me in.. you might wanna patent the idea if it works well, i can imagine a lot of people would be very interested in this.



There is nothing patentable here, really. It has been done dozens of times before in HW development environments.



(FIH) The Don said:


> take a look here they might have something
> 
> http://www.hwtools.net/Adapter/PE4H.html



Thanks, but I cannot find a PCIe x16 extender there unfortunately, just x1 and x4 from what I see.


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## HybridChiller (Jan 14, 2011)

PciE slot you can only enlarge it for 6cm, further then that it will give faults.

there is an existing external PciE for vga's solution from asus rog


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## Yukikaze (Jan 14, 2011)

HybridChiller said:


> PciE slot you can only enlarge it for 6cm, further then that it will give faults.



We use longer extenders at work, so I would say you're not quite correct. Still trying to find out who makes them, though (went through four people so far and have a fifth name on the list. This one is actually supposed to be the one in charge of the orders).



HybridChiller said:


> there is an existing external PciE for vga's solution from asus rog



The XG Station? That's for laptops, and isn't 16 lanes.


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## HybridChiller (Jan 14, 2011)

Yukikaze said:


> We use longer extenders at work, so I would say you're not quite correct.



what i ment was the internal pciE can not be longer as a specified lenght,






The extenders you use will be different


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## Yukikaze (Jan 23, 2011)

Okay. Update at last. I tracked down the company we order the cables from. They are www.samtec.com and I plan to order cables from them this week. They allow you to customize cable lengths and lanes, so I should be able to get exactly what I need from them. I plan on a 500mm extender (cable) length at the moment.

Price is still up the air.


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## roast (Jan 23, 2011)

Subbed. Looks interesting!


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## Yukikaze (Jan 23, 2011)

Borrowed a PCIe extender from work to test whether the concept is sound prior to making the actual orders. This is a PCIe X4 -> X16 extender so I'll only have four lanes, but this will be good enough to test whether a GPU works properly across this. Gonna be a PITA to take down my tri-monitor setup and then bring it up again when I am done.

But hey, no effort, no glory.


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## Swamp Monster (Jan 23, 2011)

Nice Idea, i am only concerned about signal interference. PCI-E runs @ 100MHz, I think because of that mobile solutions transfers data via USB. I am curious if this would work.  
Subbed!

*edit* How long is that extender?


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## MilkyWay (Jan 23, 2011)

Nice idea! Let us all know if the test run works out properly.
So you wanted to make a box for the gpu to sit in?


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## Frick (Jan 23, 2011)

It would be interesting to see how cable lenght affects performance!


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## Yukikaze (Jan 23, 2011)

Swamp Monster said:


> Nice Idea, i am only concerned about signal interference. PCI-E runs @ 100MHz, I think because of that mobile solutions transfers data via USB. I am curious if this would work.
> Subbed!
> 
> *edit* How long is that extender?



The extender is 50cm in length from what I am guessing (no way to measure it here at the moment, but it looks about 50cm). We use these extenders at work, and there are no problems with signal interference, so I think this should work.


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## Yukikaze (Jan 23, 2011)

Frick said:


> It would be interesting to see how cable lenght affects performance!



It really shouldn't. PCIe has a very high latency as it is (compared to RAM), so the cable length will not add anything measurable. Assuming no loss of signal and no interference (and we do not suffer anything measurable here at work, even with massive amounts of electronics around our testbeds in the lab) the actual effect should be nothing a human will care about.


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## Swamp Monster (Jan 23, 2011)

Wow, 50cm is really long! I would be happy if there is no interference, because it means that I can make similar cable and box myself. I like the idea of GPU outside of a case in a box. I hope it works. It would be good for OC'ing too, because you can add any extra cooling you want!


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## Yukikaze (Jan 23, 2011)

Well folks, it works! Typing with one of my GTX470s running off the PCIe extender!

Gonna run some 3D benchmarks to load up the card and check how the performance is looking like. Pics will be uploaded when I am done!

Here's a GPU-Z for now:


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## [Ion] (Jan 23, 2011)

This is a very cool concept, subbed!!


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## Yukikaze (Jan 23, 2011)

And here are the promised pics. From what I can tell, the card is working just fine. The one thing that looks strange to me is the fact that the card reports x4 Gen1 lanes rather than x4 Gen2 lanes in GPU-Z, but I'll inquire with customer service about the possible cable lengths for PCIe Gen2 traffic.

Concept proven, time to order cables!

The PCIe extender connected to my rig:





Here it works:





Here's the card humming along on the extender:





And here's some Mass Effect 2 goodness. Card load at 98 or so percent can be viewed on the left monitor:


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## wolf (Jan 23, 2011)

that extender is awesome! I wonder how 4x will affect the performance of the card overall.


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## Yukikaze (Jan 23, 2011)

wolf said:


> that extender is awesome! I wonder how 4x will affect the performance of the card overall.



There is a PCIe scaling article here on TPU. However, the end product will be running x16 extenders, so that won't be an issue. I just couldn't find a x16/x16 extender at work to drag home for testing.

EDIT: Samtec has been e-mailed about their longest PCIe x16 Gen2 extenders. As soon as they send me a catalog number I'll order the extenders!


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## wolf (Jan 23, 2011)

Yukikaze said:


> There is a PCIe scaling article here on TPU. However, the end product will be running x16 extenders, so that won't be an issue. I just couldn't find a x16/x16 extender at work to drag home for testing.



yeah the article was on the 5870 and pci-e sacling, as i remember it was able to deliver 75% of its 16x performance at 1x, so 4x should be plenty, but GTX400/500 series cards might be different.

good to know the end product will be 16x links, I am very interested in this project and want to do it myself sometime in H2 of this year


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## blu3flannel (Jan 23, 2011)

This is totally awesome! Have you decided what type of enclosure you will be working with yet?


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## Yukikaze (Jan 23, 2011)

blu3flannel said:


> This is totally awesome! Have you decided what type of enclosure you will be working with yet?



Not yet. Still waiting to see what length of cables I will end up with. Once I know that, I'll be able to design the enclosure properly. If the cables will be short, I will have to build an enclosure myself: In this case the cards will be vertical with the exhaust ports on the top and the base slots of the extenders aligned so that they face the rear of my main case to make the best use of the short length of the extender. If I can get 500mm cables, then I might use a regular case because the length will allow me to place the case back-to-back with my case and still reach the side where the motherboard tray is.

I am leaning towards the first option in either case, though, because it will be more compact and my desk is full of stuff.


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## Swamp Monster (Jan 23, 2011)

I have no idea why it reports only PCI-E gen1. Has this extender a electronic circuit on it? Maybe GPU-Z just looks at avaliable brandwidth? Just guessing. I think W1zzard should know that. An I still think - shorter is better ,regarding to cables.


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## Yukikaze (Jan 23, 2011)

Swamp Monster said:


> I have no idea why it reports only PCI-E gen1. Has this extender a electronic circuit on it? Maybe GPU-Z just looks at avaliable brandwidth? Just guessing. I think W1zzard should know that. An I still think - shorter is better ,regarding to cables.



No, the extender is completely passive. GPU-Z reports the actual link width as well as generation, so unless there's a bug in it, it reports the right thing. I can think of two reasons why this might happen, though:
1) Link establishment failed at Gen2 signaling rates due to cable length and it fell back to Gen1 and worked.
2) My motherboard decided to only establish a Gen1 link because it detected than not all 16 lanes were connected (For some weird reason or other).

You are quite right that shorter is better, too, but I need some length to play with to make this viable.


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## Swamp Monster (Jan 23, 2011)

Yes, it could be reasons you mentioned. I guess we will find out when you get the right cables(x16 to x16). Waiting for that. You will need to think of longer PSU cables or maybe you will put another PSU in "GPU box"?


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## Yukikaze (Jan 23, 2011)

Swamp Monster said:


> Yes, it could be reasons you mentioned. I guess we will find out when you get the right cables(x16 to x16). Waiting for that. You will need to think of longer PSU cables or maybe you will put another PSU in "GPU box"?



I already said before that I'm planning on a second PSU in the GPUBox itself. I have a Hiper Type-R II 880W PSU on standby.


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## Swamp Monster (Jan 23, 2011)

Good thing you have spare PSU to throw in there. I am waiting to see the end product. Think of how good it would look in plexiglass box!


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## (FIH) The Don (Jan 23, 2011)

fucking awesome


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## Yukikaze (Jan 24, 2011)

A setback has occurred. This morning my 3SLI eVGA X58 motherboard died. It will POST and immediately lock up. I have replaced it with my older DFI LP DK X58-T3eH6 and I was back and running pretty quick (with the added bonus of having cleaned my rig from any dust with an air compressor), but my older board, while supporting 3SLI, only supports it in x16/x16/x4 mode (all slots 2.0, at least).

This makes me a bit wary of trying a 3SLI arrangement on it (and I won't be be buying a new X58 motherboard for this rig - I am saving up for a megarig based on LGA2011 to be purchased in early 2012). That said, I'll still build the GPUBox, but I am not sure you'll see it in its entire 3SLI glory anytime soon.


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## heky (Jan 24, 2011)

Why did it die? Any chance to just rma the motherboard and continue like planned?


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## Yukikaze (Jan 24, 2011)

heky said:


> Why did it die? Any chance to just rma the motherboard and continue like planned?



The motherboard is out of warranty and I have no idea why it died. I noticed one of my HDDs went MIA and decided to reboot the system to see if it will fix it. When it powered back up it wouldn't work. I tried without HDDs, with every stick of RAM individually, all the usual troubleshooting and nothing worked. I decided to replace the motherboard and voila, everything works now. No idea why it died.

The project will continue as planned anyway - The GPUBox will have room for three GPUs in it, just not sure I'll fill all three slots right away.


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## [Ion] (Jan 24, 2011)

I think it'll still be a cool project, so I'm interested in seeing the result


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## xbonez (Jan 24, 2011)

Sounds great. Definitely awaiting to see the end project. It is slightly expensive to make it a viable solution for most though, considering the price of the extender cables and the requirement of an added PSU.

Btw, you can pick up an EVGA E758 3x SLI motherboard recertified on newegg for 80 bucks, which isn't that much really.


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## Yukikaze (Jan 24, 2011)

xbonez said:


> Sounds great. Definitely awaiting to see the end project. It is slightly expensive to make it a viable solution for most though, considering the price of the extender cables and the requirement of an added PSU.



You don't need a second PSU - Extender cables for the one you already have will also work. The PCIe cables are quite expensive yes, but this isn't supposed to be a solution for everyone. "Everyone" does not usually run SLI or 3SLI configs 



xbonez said:


> Btw, you can pick up an EVGA E758 3x SLI motherboard recertified on newegg for 80 bucks, which isn't that much really.



If I were in the USA (or anywhere where newegg ships to), I would've grabbed that board in a heartbeat. But alas, I am not


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## xbonez (Jan 24, 2011)

Yukikaze said:


> If I were in the USA (or anywhere where newegg ships to), I would've grabbed that board in a heartbeat. But alas, I am not



Ah, yeah...missed seeing your location.


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## PopcornMachine (Jan 24, 2011)

Very interesting stuff.  Was looking at PCI-E extenders a while back as I thought they could be used in some crazy case mods.

Hope you resolve your motherboard and other issues.


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## mATrIxLord (Jan 25, 2011)

this looks really cool! sub'ed to see the outcome of this!


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## Yukikaze (Feb 17, 2011)

Samtec never replied to my e-mail. I guess I am not important enough to be dignified with any type of response. I am feeling adventurous, I have recently received a bonus at work, and thus:

Cart Items	                                                                                Qty	Item Price	Item Total
PCI Express X16 G2 Flexible Extender Riser Card                                  3	 $93.00	$279.00
Female Male (3"-12") 
(Length: 12") 
Subtotal:	                                                                                                        $279.00
Shipping (FedEx Air):	                                                                                        $48.00
Grand Total:	                                                                                                $327.00

I bit the bullet and ordered these from RiserCards. Damn these things are expensive, and I have no real idea whether they'll work (but for that price, I tend to think they should). 

Keep your fingers crossed fellas, because there is a shitload of money on the line here! 

Cables lengths are 30.5cm, which is less than I would have liked, but it seems PCIe Gen2 can only reach a 12" extender reliably (15" and a bit higher is possible for Gen1).

Now awaiting the shipment.


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## The Von Matrices (Feb 17, 2011)

12 inches seems too short to move cards that far away from the case.  I'm curious to see how creative you can be with cables that short.  I've used a 15" PCIe x1 flexible extender to extend a slot that was covered up by a dual-GPU heatsink, and it works well (even though it is not shielded like the cables on that site).  

Since you have 3 cards, do you have a really long sli/crossfire bridge as well?


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## Yukikaze (Feb 17, 2011)

The Von Matrices said:


> 12 inches seems too short to move cards that far away from the case.  I'm curious to see how creative you can be with cables that short.  I've used a 15" PCIe x1 flexible extender to extend a slot that was covered up by a dual-GPU heatsink, and it works well (even though it is not shielded like the cables on that site).
> 
> Since you have 3 cards, do you have a really long sli/crossfire bridge as well?



I currently have two cards, and I have a single long SLI bridge. I'll get long flexible ones off ebay later on. I curently plan for the extenders to go right out of the back of the expansion slots. I'll probably have 10cm of distance left, which leads me to expect that I'll be using an open vertical tech-station style GPU mount with the GPUs horizontal, one above the other, spaced out to allow them to breathe.


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## huguberhart (Feb 17, 2011)

Sort of out of a box soution if you can afford it:
Expansion system


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## pantherx12 (Feb 17, 2011)

Does anyone know why riser cards are so expensive?

As from a materials perspective, they really shouldn;t be.


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## Yukikaze (Feb 17, 2011)

pantherx12 said:


> Does anyone know why riser cards are so expensive?
> 
> As from a materials perspective, they really shouldn;t be.



You can get one of these for 5$ on ebay. The problem is they use IDE cables, which are not nearly shielded enough to sustain the signalling rates used in PCIe, so they won't work reliably. The problem with PCIe is that it really isn't designed to be sent over a cable, and requires heavily shielded high quality cabling to make it transmittable over a distance. Add to that the fact that not many companies make cables which are guaranteed to provide fault-less links, and you get the high price. Think of it this way: On a motherboard, the PCIe lanes typically do not have to send information over 20cm in distance, and this is what the interconnect is designed for. When you add another 30cm on top of that, there can be all sorts of issues.


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## NAVI_Z (Feb 17, 2011)

interesting indeed. i just for the life of me can't wrap my head around what the benefits are

of having the grfx card outside the case.asthetics? better cooling?


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## Yukikaze (Feb 17, 2011)

NAVI_Z said:


> interesting indeed. i just for the life of me can't wrap my head around what the benefits are
> 
> of having the grfx card outside the case.asthetics? better cooling?



1) The ability to use all six/seven motherboard expansion slots regardless of video card size (2 slots, 3 slots, who cares, they've got spacing).
2) Much better cooling in 3SLI/4SLI configurations.
3) Why not ?


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## Yukikaze (Feb 20, 2011)

Okay, small update: The PCIe extenders have arrived via FedEx this morning, but I am not going to have any time to spend on testing them in the next few days. I am under insane pressure at work and at the university to finish a lot of work before I leave for a week long vacation (skiing!) next week.

Likely the next update will only be in two weeks time.


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## (FIH) The Don (Mar 13, 2011)

sooooo any updates?


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## DeadlyDNA (Mar 14, 2011)

Wow, i have been racking my brain on a project im working on. 

My current dilemma is trying to get decent 3 slot air coolers on my 470gtx's and im out of space on mobo and case. I am working on a custom mod to accommodate but i ran into a big hitch.

SLI bridges, apparently longest one i can find is 12CM and its to short for my use.

I am hoping for some updates here as well because this is close to what i am working on.

So updates!!!! 

I am almost to the point of finding  a way to make a custom SLI bridge thats longer than 4.5inches


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## Yukikaze (Mar 14, 2011)

This has not been abandoned. I got the extenders, but they are as flexible as I would have liked, so I'll need to spend some time with them and the case to see what can be done. I am also swamped with work and studies, so this has to go on-hold for a bit due to real-life being a bitch.


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## DeadlyDNA (Mar 14, 2011)

Yukikaze said:


> This has not been abandoned. I got the extenders, but they are as flexible as I would have liked, so I'll need to spend some time with them and the case to see what can be done. I am also swamped with work and studies, so this has to go on-hold for a bit due to real-life being a bitch.



I totally understand, i myself have been having issues of life interfering with my hobby 


My project has been very close to yours, except i have not made a separate box for VGA cards as of yet. I currently emailed a supplier for pricing of the cables. The biggest hurdle right now though is the SLI bridges. 

I know this is more of a for fun style project. Video cards have some of the coolest looks to them aside from all components. Also, they are usually in a multi gpu setup where most of your money in the machine is. why not show em off!  Why hide them in a case 

Ideas i have flowing in my head are, 

Vga box with opposing mounting slots. To allow the cards SLI connectors to be close
|~~~~~~~|
video --- video
video --- video
|~~~~~~~|            --- SLI CABLE


Or create a Video card display rack where the cards are in a complete circle SLI connectors point inward. 

Sure i could just go water cooled and get single slot or dual slot setup but i personally don't want to setup water cooling at this time on this project.

I bought some 34$ coolers from a local retailer and customized them to fit my cards(they didnt officially support them). My current temps went from 90-95+C load @ stock in 3 way SLI to 63C Load. Although i cannot get all 3 cards hooked together due to SLI bridge length.
The cards take up 3 slots a piece. I only have a classified 760 mobo on this project.
I do have a 1090T 890fx-ud9 mobo with plenty of slots. SLI hack is giving me issues though.

Anyways, i don't want to hijack this thread with my post. However if your project is on hold indefintely i would be glad to post a few things here an there as i progress on mine.

Best wishes!


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## DeadlyDNA (Mar 14, 2011)

Well i got a reply back




> Hello Harvey,
> Yes, we are the actual manufacturer but we also sell directly to customers.  Therefore, I'll be happy to assist you with processing an order.
> The price on (4) PE-FLEX16-G2-12" boards is, $75.00 each (total = $300).  Our default cable length on this board is 3 inches at a cost of $48.00.  For each
> inch longer you need the cable to be, there is an additional cost of $3.00 per inch.
> ...



www.adexelec.com is who i emailed.

Looks like the price is around what you paid. I'm going to think about it.
My idea is if i build this CPU box, i can set it up for any GPUs and even watercool or not.
Then if i have a leak or something it could be confined to one card hopefully. And worst case i won't have to worry about it getting al on my mobo etc...I am also thinking hard about a water chiller system later on.

Anyways i have a pic of my modified card and one of the PE-FLex16-G2-3inch







here is 2 of the cards in my system im mesing with


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## Yukikaze (Mar 24, 2011)

Okay. Tested the extenders with my GPUs and they seem to work. I'll upload pictures (from my phone, I forgot my camera at my parents' place) later today.

In related news: My dead eVGA X58 was RMA'ed as the original owner was simply awesome and helped me out with it. So huge thanks go out to mlee49 (he's here on TPU) for being a huge help and for saving my dead board!

In unrelated news, I've sold my Q9650 system and ordered a Core i7 990X CPU. My 975 and DFI X58 will be relegated to my second box, and the 990X and the eVGA X58 will form the core of my upgrade! There's also a good WC loop coming for the 975 in its new home.


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## DeadlyDNA (Mar 24, 2011)

Yukikaze said:


> Okay. Tested the extenders with my GPUs and they seem to work. I'll upload pictures (from my phone, I forgot my camera at my parents' place) later today.
> 
> In related news: My dead eVGA X58 was RMA'ed as the original owner was simply awesome and helped me out with it. So huge thanks go out to mlee49 (he's here on TPU) for being a huge help and for saving my dead board!
> 
> In unrelated news, I've sold my Q9650 system and ordered a Core i7 990X CPU. My 975 and DFI X58 will be relegated to my second box, and the 990X and the eVGA X58 will form the core of my upgrade! There's also a good WC loop coming for the 975 in its new home.



Can you explain or show how your using the SLI connectors in your build? This is severely limiting me on what i would like to do...


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## Yukikaze (Mar 24, 2011)

DeadlyDNA said:


> Can you explain or show how your using the SLI connectors in your build? This is severely limiting me on what i would like to do...



The current answer is no idea...

I am yet to plan the actual layout, as I am still deciding between mounting the GPUs in a case behind the main case, or in a case to the side of the main case...


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## DeadlyDNA (Mar 24, 2011)

Are you planning on watercooling them? If so I would imagine your problem with SLI connectors are non existent.

I am not so lucky yet I am aftermarket air cooled....


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## Yukikaze (Mar 24, 2011)

DeadlyDNA said:


> Are you planning on watercooling them? If so I would imagine your problem with SLI connectors are non existent.
> 
> I am not so lucky yet I am aftermarket air cooled....



Nope, no water cooling. I switch GPUs too frequently.


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## DeadlyDNA (Mar 24, 2011)

Well we might be in the same boat in a sense...(stock cooling vs aftermarket cooling)

The more i think about these extenders the more i am inclined to get them.



Reason: I'm looking at a variety of mainboards all of which support 3 way SLI or even 4 way.
They all have the same damned issues... Pci-e slots stacked on top of each other...

Something has to give in the long run if people begin to use multi gpu solutions more often.


I'm feeling the same way you are about watercooling the cards, i swap them to often also.
Kinda hard to justify spending 100+$ on gpu waterblocks that are only made for that card. only never to be re-used again on another card.Where as the pci-e extenders are re-usable until maybe pci0e 3.0?

Both roads cost quite a coin and time investment but one seems to have a longer life span to me. 

The only possiblity i have considered on the water cooled front is the swiftech MCPw80 gpu block or a gpu block similar in design. where it can be moved to my next gpu.. but i am still not thrilled about having to stuff a watercooled system into my case....

i will be glues to this thread for information and hopefully can contribute. 
Later!


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## Yukikaze (Mar 24, 2011)

DeadlyDNA said:


> Well we might be in the same boat in a sense...(stock cooling vs aftermarket cooling)
> 
> The more i think about these extenders the more i am inclined to get them.
> 
> ...



The extenders will be usable with PCIe Gen3 as well, they'll just establish a Gen2 link, just like the extender I grabbed from work only did Gen1.


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## DeadlyDNA (Mar 29, 2011)

Yukikaze said:


> The extenders will be usable with PCIe Gen3 as well, they'll just establish a Gen2 link, just like the extender I grabbed from work only did Gen1.



I had a different experience with my PCIE gen 1 extenders. When plugged into a 2.0 slot with an ATI card i got a blue screen when windows initialized the card. Also both my 2.0 gen an 1.0 gen extenders have a very annoying side effect....They jam my Wireless N/G router and disconnect all my wireless devices. I suspect this to be radio leakage from the cables. However even when i shielded one with aluminum foil, it did not slow or stop its effect.

Either way my 2.0 gen extender i do have still interferes with my wireless even today.
They might just be very cheap or require some very good shielding.

Any idea on what type of shielding would work best if i were to attempt to stop the interference?

P.S. could you attempt recreating this effect if you have some spare time. It's not a big deal to me but i would like to know if its because mine is low grade quality. I do keep my router near my work bench with extender. So it may only be a close proximity issue.


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## HammerON (Mar 29, 2011)

Interesting thread!
Sub'd


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## Necrofire (Mar 29, 2011)

I've tested some things with high frequency shielding, and unfortunately, aluminum foil won't cut it at all.

Since you're already testing it, try to find some actual tin (not aluminum) foil, or some other metal besides aluminum. Also, it'll need to be grounded to case or mobo ground (not sure if it matters which).

Not sure if these work, just giving ideas as alternatives to a non-working solution I've tried in a similar mod.


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## DeadlyDNA (Mar 29, 2011)

Necrofire said:


> I've tested some things with high frequency shielding, and unfortunately, aluminum foil won't cut it at all.
> 
> Since you're already testing it, try to find some actual tin (not aluminum) foil, or some other metal besides aluminum. Also, it'll need to be grounded to case or mobo ground (not sure if it matters which).
> 
> Not sure if these work, just giving ideas as alternatives to a non-working solution I've tried in a similar mod.



hahahahah! i feel like a dunce... now that i think about it, i didn't even ground the shield foil...

Excellent suggestion i will see what i can find.


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## Necrofire (Mar 29, 2011)

Also, I may be talking lots of lies, as I'm not expert in shielding of pcie wires (however i do know that pcie extenders are pretty leaky due to the signaling.

This may or may not help you:
http://www.radiansa.com/electromagnetic/antennae/shielding.htm


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## Akumos (Mar 29, 2011)

Great thread, disapointed I saw it soooo late! Up to date, looking forward to the results.


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## D4S4 (Apr 18, 2011)

any updates? i'd really like to see this.


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