Tl;dr kinda guy? Here's it short: I have an Alienware 14 laptop that has a mini Displayport, mSata/mPCI-e port, and another mPCI-e port for the WiFi card. I do not want to build a desktop, I want to have an external GPU that can be attached to my laptop. Is this possible? Thanks.
Background:
Last year I bought an Alienware 14 laptop. For sure, I knew a lot about computers then, but not as much as I do now, and if I had, I would have gone with a different one for a couple reasons. The hardware inside the laptop is actually quite good. It has a quad core i7 that is more than enough for the games I play (no, not Minecraft or LoL. My phone could handle that 😛). The 16 gigabytes of RAM is usually only used halfway in the most intensive games, and I usually deleted and redownload my games so my 7200RPM 750gb Seagate drive isn't a problem. However, my Nvidia GT 750M with 1gb of VRAM is starting to be. It can play most games at medium-high settings, but recently I've been getting into games that require a much better graphics card. Games that aren't heavily optimized such as Reign of Kings, which is also an early-access game, don't run that great even at the lowest settings. 1080p is a must, and so is 40FPS or above. I'd be fine with replacing the graphics card with something that would last a year or two more, but it's soldered on. I actually don't find that to be too much a problem either (I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron), but that's getting into some sketchy stuff that probably has a 10% chance of working and a 90% chance of ruining my $1000+ machine.
Obviously the best thing to do would be to build a gaming PC. Problem is, my current situation doesn't allow me to be at one place for more than 2 days a week and carrying a full-on PC, keyboard, mouse, and monitor + other accessories back and forth every 2 days isn't something that sounds too appealing for me. On top of that, I don't want to spend a bunch of money on great parts I already have when all I need is a graphics upgrade. Thus, this thread.
So what I need is the ability to use an external desktop GPU with my mid-2013 edition Alienware 14 laptop. I am open to modding the computer and any components I may need to get this up and running. From what I've read, I can use the WiFi slot on my laptop as a mini PCI express port that won't be as fast a full one on a desktop computer, but will still work. (Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this)
Will any of this actually work? Again, I'm open to basically whatever it takes to do this. I'd like to keep it as cheap as possible but I know I'll be able to upgrade my GPU in the future too so it's worth it. If you know anything about this, how about I can do this, or a guide that explains this, that would be great. If any of these questions or statements I've made are incorrect or sound "newb-ish", please correct me and help me learn! Thanks in advance.
Update: Just remembered something about laptop SSD drives using mini PCI-e ports or something... This may be wrong, but my laptop does have a port for laptop-sized SSDs and it is not in use.
Update 2: My laptop also has a miniDisplayport, if that makes a difference. I don't know much about displayport ports but I'll look into it.
Update 3: I was looking at my 2005 Dell D610 and realized it has an ExpressCard lot. -_- I'm sure it's impossible, but can I use that in the Alienware? Why the heck doesn't my Alienware have one if my $200 Dell did?!
Update 4: I was looking through Device Manager and found some things under the System Devices tab. There are 4 "Intel 8 Series/C220 Series PCI Express Root Port", labeled #1 - 8C10, #3 8C14, #4 - 8C16, and #5 8C18. I also see "Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core processor PCI Express x16 Controller - 0C01 (those are zeros), and a device with the name of "PCI bus". If any other details are needed please ask!
Edit: Sorry I made this post as a question, this is my first post here. I'll make it a discussion next time
Background:
Last year I bought an Alienware 14 laptop. For sure, I knew a lot about computers then, but not as much as I do now, and if I had, I would have gone with a different one for a couple reasons. The hardware inside the laptop is actually quite good. It has a quad core i7 that is more than enough for the games I play (no, not Minecraft or LoL. My phone could handle that 😛). The 16 gigabytes of RAM is usually only used halfway in the most intensive games, and I usually deleted and redownload my games so my 7200RPM 750gb Seagate drive isn't a problem. However, my Nvidia GT 750M with 1gb of VRAM is starting to be. It can play most games at medium-high settings, but recently I've been getting into games that require a much better graphics card. Games that aren't heavily optimized such as Reign of Kings, which is also an early-access game, don't run that great even at the lowest settings. 1080p is a must, and so is 40FPS or above. I'd be fine with replacing the graphics card with something that would last a year or two more, but it's soldered on. I actually don't find that to be too much a problem either (I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron), but that's getting into some sketchy stuff that probably has a 10% chance of working and a 90% chance of ruining my $1000+ machine.
Obviously the best thing to do would be to build a gaming PC. Problem is, my current situation doesn't allow me to be at one place for more than 2 days a week and carrying a full-on PC, keyboard, mouse, and monitor + other accessories back and forth every 2 days isn't something that sounds too appealing for me. On top of that, I don't want to spend a bunch of money on great parts I already have when all I need is a graphics upgrade. Thus, this thread.
So what I need is the ability to use an external desktop GPU with my mid-2013 edition Alienware 14 laptop. I am open to modding the computer and any components I may need to get this up and running. From what I've read, I can use the WiFi slot on my laptop as a mini PCI express port that won't be as fast a full one on a desktop computer, but will still work. (Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this)
Will any of this actually work? Again, I'm open to basically whatever it takes to do this. I'd like to keep it as cheap as possible but I know I'll be able to upgrade my GPU in the future too so it's worth it. If you know anything about this, how about I can do this, or a guide that explains this, that would be great. If any of these questions or statements I've made are incorrect or sound "newb-ish", please correct me and help me learn! Thanks in advance.
Update: Just remembered something about laptop SSD drives using mini PCI-e ports or something... This may be wrong, but my laptop does have a port for laptop-sized SSDs and it is not in use.
Update 2: My laptop also has a miniDisplayport, if that makes a difference. I don't know much about displayport ports but I'll look into it.
Update 3: I was looking at my 2005 Dell D610 and realized it has an ExpressCard lot. -_- I'm sure it's impossible, but can I use that in the Alienware? Why the heck doesn't my Alienware have one if my $200 Dell did?!
Update 4: I was looking through Device Manager and found some things under the System Devices tab. There are 4 "Intel 8 Series/C220 Series PCI Express Root Port", labeled #1 - 8C10, #3 8C14, #4 - 8C16, and #5 8C18. I also see "Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core processor PCI Express x16 Controller - 0C01 (those are zeros), and a device with the name of "PCI bus". If any other details are needed please ask!
Edit: Sorry I made this post as a question, this is my first post here. I'll make it a discussion next time
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