Project GPUBox: External GPU case.

[Yukikaze]

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.

 

[The Von Matrices]

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?

 

[Yukikaze]

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.

 

[huguberhart]

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

 

[pantherx12]

Does anyone know why riser cards are so expensive?

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

 

[Yukikaze]

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.

 

[NAVI_Z]

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?

 

[Yukikaze]

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 ?

 

[Yukikaze]

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.

 

[(FIH) The Don]

sooooo any updates?

 

[DeadlyDNA]

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

 

[Yukikaze]

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.

 

[DeadlyDNA]

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!

 

[DeadlyDNA]

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.
We can accept payment by Visa, Mastercard and American Express credit cards for your purchase. Shipping is not included and can be added based on the
Fedex shipping method you choose.
The lead time for us to build and ship you four of these boards would be about 3-4 days from when we receive your confirmed shipping details and credit card
information (card holder's name, card number and expiration date).

--
Please let me know if you have any questions or need additional assistance. Thank you!
Best regards,

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

 

[Yukikaze]

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.

 

[DeadlyDNA]

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...

 

[Yukikaze]

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...

 

[DeadlyDNA]

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....

 

[Yukikaze]

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.

 

[DeadlyDNA]

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!

 

[Yukikaze]

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!

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.

 

[DeadlyDNA]

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.

 

[HammerON]

Interesting thread!
Sub'd

 

[Necrofire]

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.

 

[DeadlyDNA]

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.