Building an eGPU on an old Macbook pro(2014 15" MacBook Pro (GT750M) [4th,4C,H] + GTX 1050 Ti @ 16Gbps-TB2 (AKiTiO Thunder2) + macOS 10.12 & Win7 )

Oh boy~ this is long overdue...I realised that it has took me awhile to post computer builds. And to be honest, I have been rather busy and so caught up with life that it's eating up a lot of my time. That's no excuse nonetheless. I love to tinker and I'm sure those who read my posts share my enthusiasm.

In this post, I want to talk about a build, that, although its not a "monster" build, is a sustainable one. A build that lets you 'upgrade-your-system-while-you-age'. I'm talking about an eGPU system on a MacBook Pro. 

Yes! I did trade-in my ROG laptop for a MacBook Pro. I wanted the flexibility of having both systems. While I really really really like the Windows 8.1 system, I did expect it to be short-lived because I knew it would be unpopular. "Finally, the Windows 8.1 could beat the Mac OS": I thought. But oh well. It is what it is. 

Anyways, I figured I could use Mac OS also running a smooth windows experience through bootcamp instead of running a clunky hackintosh OS on a windows machine. Hence the decision. Without further ado, here's a picture of my setup.

As you can see my Macbook Pro was hooked up to an akitio egpu box powered by a corsair MX650.

My suggestion: do bit of research on this before you sink in close to $1k on an egpu and whatever accessories it needs to work. You can use this link here to help you get started: https://egpu.io/builds/ . They have an amazing community and will work with you while you build. They also reply fast. Kudos to them.

Here's my system: 

My macbook specs:

Macbook pro retina 15" Mid 2014 16gb ram gt750m(discrete) with intel iris pro 
Running macOS Sierra(at that time) and Windows 7 Home Edition

My egpu items:

- AKiTiO Thunder2 enclosure

-650w Corsair Mx650(PSU)

-Zotac GT1050Ti 4gb

-Paperclip(hold on to your socks!)

-Thunderbolt 2 cable

-hdmi cable

-LG IPS monitor

-2pin adapterhead(to connect the PSU to the Akitio)

-Unigine Heaven Benchmark(software to test fps for your egpu)

- A eGPU setup software: Here's the link

Disclaimer: Please consult the seller first because there are different software configurations depending on your system and brand.

Also, I viewing this video helped me a lot. So to recap, I had an online community: https://egpu.io to guide me as well as my own research. I had a fair share of hiccups too, like initially using a 'Dell Da-22' power brick to power my egpu. During my benchmark tests, my machine just shut down and after isolating the problem, I realised the power brick just didn't give enough power to the eGPU. That's when I doubled down and got myself a Corsair mx650 Power supply unit. Now it works like a charm.

Here's the video that helped me a lot: 

It's also worth noting that the egpu community has grown considerably since then and now, you have more powerful builds like this recent RTX2080 macbook egpu build . So lets begin our project.

Firstly, The paperclip needs to go in pin 20 & 21. Make sure the PSU is unpowered and you're grounded. We want to avoid freak accidents here. 

I added a black tape on the pin monstrosity so that it doesn't pop out or something.

This 2 pin adapter is connected from the other end of the psu to power the  akitio thunder 2 pcie box

Make sure to test your psu is working and that the fan spins. Once plugged into the egpu box, make sure there's light in the egpu box

1. I started to install windows 7(again) on my bootcamp. There's different version drivers for different windows version on different macbooks. Please see this site: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205016 

I was using a cd, so I had to first make it into an iso for usb(yeah all my stuff happens to be legacy items). Once done, go to bootcamp and make a bootable usb stick and use the bootcamp drivers as recommended by apple support. In bootcamp also installed windows(as per normal).

2. Once on windows, I inserted my tb devices to let it detect and update. I refrained from installing any updates from windows updater. So as not to detect my gt750m. At this point my display was the standard vga one.. I shutdown and boot into windows(my mbpr goes straight into windows) this time with my egpu plugged in from start. After a few tries, I got it to detect my 1050ti, I updated it through device manager. On next boot, it popped up a code 12 error. Somehow windows sucessfully updates itself after trying to block it and the 750m pops up. So now I have 1050ti(code 12) and 750m.

Before you try my method below, at this point perhaps you can do some other workarounds. see this: https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/2016-macbook-pro-solving-egpu-error-12-in-windows-10/#post-709 

3. Tried everything except 1,2,6,8. So, I Installed DIY egpu setup 1.35 and after some advice, got pass my code 12 through the aforementioned software. My steps are:

• Plug egpu into MBPr( if it doesnt work, plug into the other tb port and try again)
• Boot into windows and install the GT750M MBP configuration steps to eGPU Setup 1.35 (nando4 will help you with this;))
• Restart
• At Windows boot menu choose DIY egpu setup 1.35 >> DIY eGPU Setup 1.35 -> automated startup via startup.bat (default option 2). 
• Then on second appearance of Windows boot menu, choose Windows
• It will boot into windows and both egpus will be detected

4. Just go to nvidia control panel> Configure surround, physx> Change to gt1050ti.

Done, you can play titles which used to be non-accessible to you. Enjoy the freedom!:)

I bought the Zotac 1050ti as well as thunderbolt cable. Patch everything up and watch the 1050ti fan spin!

My suggestion: Most GPUs are bigger than this box, so beware before you buy them. And even some mini GPUs might require you to saw off some parts of the box so that it can fit. All this can be avoided if you buy a bigger egpu casing but it may cost you though.

Once everything is setup, You'd need to setup the software and your good to go!

© 2019 Fadly.M.H.Wychowvski