Mad idea - external PCI Express port

[Casper8r]

Hi guys, I'm new here and pretty sure this idea must have been around for a while but I couldn't find anything in Google or forumz so here goes.

:idea: WHAT IF - we could take PCI Express slot on motherboard and relocate it outside of the box? I mean instead of putting card in PC case we could have some sort of low profile connector+cable leading outside of case and ending with PCI Express port? The external port could then be put into a separate enclosure for PCI Express card.

I read about the small miniPC's in latest THG review and thought what a pity, these have everything except graphics power. I'm sure relocating graphics card outside of the case using inexpensive (if that can be done) extension and putting it into some sort of custom enclosure might help improve cooling, reduce noise and improve compatibility? So what if we end up with two boxes instead of one, but at least we could upgrade the enclosure with any card without worries that it won't fit into existing case or be hard to cool.

Am I just talking out of my you-know-what here :roll: or does this make sense?

 

[brian93]

It exists, man Expensive though

http://www.magma.com/products/pciexpress/expressbox1/

 

[Bluescreendeath]

You could always get an open air case...they usually come with giant fans on top and provide fairly decent cooling.

 

[Wolfshadw]

The problem with these type of solutions (also google ASUS XG Station) is that you're limited to the bandwidth of whatever port you connect the external graphics solution to. In the case of the ASUS XG Station (and the Magma Express Box) which both connect via the ExpressCard slot, you're limited to PCI-Ex1 bandwidth.

Tom's review on PCI Express Scaling Analysis shows just how poorly running high-end cards on a limited bandwidth is.

-Wolf sends

 

[psywarrior_84]

You guys are exactly what I've been looking for, at least I'm not the only one who's had this sort of idea. Has anybody thought of using eSATA? That should give it a higher transfer rate than the ExpressCard slot.

 

[arterius2]

You guys are exactly what I've been looking for, at least I'm not the only one who's had this sort of idea. Has anybody thought of using eSATA? That should give it a higher transfer rate than the ExpressCard slot.

LOL thats rubbish, eSATA does not connect to the north bridge and its transfer rate is only 300MB/s

 

[Guest]

LOL thats rubbish, eSATA does not connect to the north bridge and its transfer rate is only 300MB/s

psywarrior - thanks for asking the question - I was wondering the same thing (although for different purposes - trying to connect a RAID PCI Express card to a asus revo, which has a miniPCIe and an eSATA). Sounds like it doesn't make sense...

 

[Guest]

There is an $85 ExpressCard-to-16xPCIe solution available out there by Harmonic Inversion: http://tinyurl.com/39m8kuq

Also, see http://www.techsupplyshop.com
-geek

 

[Andon48]

Wow, I just had a conversation with somebody about the exact same thing last week. You could build a plexiglass box and turn it into a wind tunnel lol

 

[plznote]

What a nice thread resurrection beginning with second post :lol:

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey