Using an internal graphics card externally.

April 29, 2015

I have an older motherboard that works just fine as a desktop, but since I have been doing a bit more cad design, I needed better graphics. The built-in graphics sucks and since I had bought this low profile graphics card and was using it on the bigger case, it was working great. I updated that with a new motherboard and put the old board in the smaller case where my card now did not fit. So I went to work on case for the graphics card so that I could use it externally. The main purpose of the case is just to make sure I don't short since it will just sit on top of the case. The only other part I needed was a pci1 extension cable.

I ordered this one, but unfortunately one side of the black connector was not even soldered on. If you get this cable, take off the blue tape and check all the pins and to make sure there are no shorts.

Here's the first test case I printed. It needed more work because the fit was a bit tight and off.

The second looked a bit better but still needed more adjustments.

Things were beginning to fit much better.

Here's  what it started as.

This print had a weird gcode which kind of missed the middle.

Bottom test piece for initial fit. It took a few hours to print which is the reason I was not printing the whole piece at first.

My new cable finally arrived. The first vendor refunded my money when I asked if they had any longer cables instead. I ordered the same thing from a different vendor on ebay and although the soldered wasn't a clean it was all soldered and worked fine. As you can see these are pretty short, so I would rather have a longer one to make it easier to move the card around and place it better on the top of the case.

Here's what my final case looks like. It's not quite perfect but it works fine.

Here's what the connector side looks like.

A comparison of the first cable on the right and the second on the left. I like how the first one was, but they also forgot to cut the two middle pins to prevent shorting. I didn't use it anyway but still.

The other side.

My final assembly.

Making the connection.

All plugged in, but you can see why the cable needs to be longer. Twice of what it is now would be good.

And it finally got detected. It was a pain getting this to work as my cpu would not turn on, but eventually it did. I think it was the kvm switch screwing things up.

And this is the box it came in. So you can use an internal card externally, but it will take some work and definitely a longer cable so that you don't move it. If you move it the wrong way the card can actually become unplugged since it doesn't click on the motherboard which will not be a good thing.

And finally, here is the video of it working...