Alienware Reveals External "Graphics Amplifier" For Alienware 13 Notebook

[N.Broekhuijsen]

You can add a desktop-class graphics card to your Alienware 13 gaming notebook.

Alienware Reveals External "Graphics Amplifier" For Alienware 13 Notebook : Read more

 

[Au_equus]

Those and most laptop CPUs will choke mid to high end GPUs

 

[game junky]

For anyone in the market for a gaming laptop, this probably is going to move some Alienware laptops. Dell used to have an business docking station with a PCI-slot for a video card which was convenient for designers - this is like that on steroids. I hope someone creates a universal version of this product or that order manufacturers join in while using a universal cable type (thunderbolt/mini-displayport, USB 3.0, whatevs).

Still, nice product for those that have that model of laptop

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Is it too much to ask how the Graphics Amplifier connects to the laptop?

 

[CheapFitness]

external PCI-Express interface

 

[Louis Singley]

I would love something like this for other laptops. I have 4 people in my house with laptops that struggle on games we all play together usually just in pairs at any one time. Even a single one of these would let me pass down my old cards that are collecting dust since I own the only desktop in the house and we could pass it around as needed, eventually getting enough for everyone to have one.

 

[USAFRet]

So turning a portable laptop into a non-portable, lower performing, desktop.

Where do I sign up ???

 

[drapacioli]

Yeah...not worth it with a U series CPU, you'll quickly hit a bottleneck there.

 

[alextheblue]

external PCI-Express interface

Which in my opinion should be available on a lot more laptops. A much cheaper version of this housing handling a 150W GPU would be more than adequate for most laptops.

 

[Christopher1]

a dock at 300$ plus if you buy a good graphics card for ~400$. Man not to mention that dock isnt really portable. You might as well just save 200 more and build a full fledged up-gradable home pc, than have your laptop on the go. If the dock was ~150$ it could be understandable but that is not the case.

Unless you are going between more than one home a lot (this is the situation for some people), then this makes sense.

 

[Samer1970]

I was waiting for this for long time since the external PCI Express ports and cables came out into the professional market.

Now Dell should make a PCI express external port card , so that we can share this station with our desktops. and it is about time motherboards have native external PCI express 16X ports .

Imagine a tiny Itx Machine connected with external native PCI express port ...

 

[Samer1970]

By the way , this is not a new concept ,

here is an example :

http://www.netstor.com.tw/_03/03_02.php?MTEx

 

[gggplaya]

By the looks of it, i think this only amplifies to an external monitor only.

If that's the case, you could build a gaming desktop PC without a video card for just a little more.

 

[nismoguy82]

Isn't this the same type of product that Silverstone announced at CES this year, the XG2? Theirs interfaces with the laptop via Thunderbolt 2.

 

[tigerwild]

These devices are already available, if you know where to look. I have one, and it really makes an older laptop feel like a desktop. Of course the system becomes the limiting factor at the point where you are using a high end desktop GPU on a laptop, and then there is the issue of carrying a case for the card, plus at a bare minimum a second 200 to 300 watt power suplly. Suddenly it isn't really a laptop anymore, instead more of a middle ground for desktop all in one PC's. But comare its performance versus other laptops and it is amazing performance by comparison!

see: http://www.banggood.com/EXP-GDC-Laptop-External-PCI-E-Graphics-Card-p-934367.html
or just google "micro pcie to pcie"

 

[Adea00]

u guys may also be interested in the performance of all these product.
just throw a simple example. As Micro PCI E 2.0 is equal to a PCI E 2.0 X1, thus the bandwidth would be 5Gbps, which is the key factor here to limit the performance. Comparing to a X16 interface, video card performance may drop nearly 30% under full load.
refer to more detail on PCI express or Thunderbolt interface: google: external graphic card
as for the performance test, sry that I didnt save that link, google something like: PCI E Graphic card test.

 

[shogunofharlom]

Look like the put a GTX 480 in that thing. lol

 

[gaborbarla]

Some people may remember tha Amilo SA3650 laptop from 2009 (which I still use for casual browsing).
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-FSC-Amilo-SA3650-Notebook-Amilo-Graphic-Booster.13484.0.html
It had an expernal graphics booster with a ATI 3870 which also had to be plugged in. It also had additional USB ports etc. The Amilo 3650 was hardly suitable as a mobile solution, as you had to plug both devices in (laptop and Booster). Initially it could only be used with an external display but later with a Alpha driver (that never got updated) enabled it to use the 13" laptop screen at a minor performance cost. The biggest problem was still the heat. Both the laptop and external booster generated a lot of heat and it was hard to use the keyboard and mouse while various fans are blowing hot air on your arms and hand. I used the booster about 5 times in 5 years but still use the laptop because it is small and still OK for having in my lounge.

Not sure if that 100% relates to this, because this thing seems much bigger and you would probably buy two and just carry your laptop around.

 

[Mike Capps]

It's best to wait for the Broadwell CPU iteration to come out. The haswell-based i5 is a good CPU, but isn't near good enough to drive a desktop GTX 970/980.

Wait for Broadwell.

 

[captaincharisma]

oh please any real gamer is going to want to get a high end desktop for gaming. if you are a gamer and want the top quality you will not care about lugging around a desktop computer because you know there is no laptop that will come close to playing games at max settings. and this is why they will take a gaming desktop for a lot less than getting this bulky laptop and external GPU

 

[Wardojack]

We've seen these before... and I wonder what bus it uses..?

 

[Wardojack]

oh please any real gamer is going to want to get a high end desktop for gaming. if you are a gamer and want the top quality you will not care about lugging around a desktop computer because you know there is no laptop that will come close to playing games at max settings. and this is why they will take a gaming desktop for a lot less than getting this bulky laptop and external GPU

So you're going to get a desktop PC, monitor, keyboard, mouse etc. and take it all on say, the train?

 

[captaincharisma]

oh please any real gamer is going to want to get a high end desktop for gaming. if you are a gamer and want the top quality you will not care about lugging around a desktop computer because you know there is no laptop that will come close to playing games at max settings. and this is why they will take a gaming desktop for a lot less than getting this bulky laptop and external GPU

So you're going to get a desktop PC, monitor, keyboard, mouse etc. and take it all on say, the train?

if you can afford a gaming pc you can afford to get a better form of transportation other than "the train"

 

[Samer1970]

oh please any real gamer is going to want to get a high end desktop for gaming. if you are a gamer and want the top quality you will not care about lugging around a desktop computer because you know there is no laptop that will come close to playing games at max settings. and this is why they will take a gaming desktop for a lot less than getting this bulky laptop and external GPU

nah , You can still get a SLI GTX980M gaming notebook , is good enough.

This External Box is a docking station nothing more.