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March 8th, 2009 14:00
ExpressCard/PCI Express
Hi, I own an Inspiron 1520 notebook. I know for the most part, notebook hardware isn't upgradeable (aside from RAM and HDD). However, I know there is some development being done lately in the PCI Express video card area. Namely, Nvidia has a few cards and so do ATI. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#External_PCIe_Video_Cards)
My question is this: I have what's called an ExpressCard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard) on my notebook, which from what I've read doubles as a PCI Express (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express) slot.
I'm thinking something along the lines of : http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_8800_gt_us.html however, I'm guessing there'd have to be some sort of cable relay between the card and the slot. (My slot is hollow - see page 27 and 87 of http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1520/en/om_en/pdf/UX8623D.pdf ).
Would it be possible to succesfully install one of these cards on my laptop? If I did, would it be a worthwhile investment? I use my computer for gaming a lot... I'd rather not buy a whole new desktop though seeing as how this could potentially be a pretty sick (and HIGHLY portable) LAN machine.
Thanks in advance for the replies!
husky0894
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March 8th, 2009 15:00
The answer is no - no one has released an exteral upgrade video card. Even were one to be released, you'd have to use it with an external monitor - not with the internal display panel.
TheRealFireblad
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March 9th, 2009 12:00
You have an ExpressCard slot, but it does NOT double as a PCI-E slot.
PCI-E slots are internal only, and only available on desktop motherboards.
An ExpressCard is simply an external/slot-in device, which you plug into an ExpressCard slot.
They provide a number of different options to laptops, which they often don't have as standard - i.e. additional USB 2.0/Firewire ports, eSATA ports, hardware audio, TV Tuner cards, mobile broadband, etc etc.
But as Husky suggests... the one thing not available via ExpressCard, is a graphics upgrade.
husky0894
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March 11th, 2009 16:00
If you produce one yourself, maybe. ASUS, which is probably the single best computer engineering company in the world, announced but never shipped on - meaning that even it gave up on the idea.
Dugrok
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March 11th, 2009 16:00
Ah ok, thanks for clearing that up.
However, I know that external video cards DO in fact exist via PCI-E cards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#External_PCIe_Video_Cards
Quoted from the article:
"Theoretically, External PCIe could give a notebook the graphic power of a desktop, by connecting a notebook with any PCIe desktop video card (enclosed in its own external housing), however, only one finalized product and two concept products exist. All three deliver the power of the video card to external displays only, and all connect to a notebook through anExpressCard interface which limits the bandwidth from an inserted x16 video card (4 GB/s in each direction), to just x1 (250 MB/s in each direction)."
This is what had me going. Then again it IS wikipedia... not that I've ever run into any false info on there... Even if it was to power an external display, that would be interesting. Would that be possible via my ExpressCard? There's not much info on the web, that's why I came here. Perhaps the gaming forum would know about something like this?
Dugrok
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March 11th, 2009 18:00
Apperantly it reached some state of production in Australia Husky. It's engineered by Asus but has an Nvidia card in it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XG_Station
I found a few other cards/portable GPUs but most of them are for industrial graphics and are just overkill for gaming right now (both in price - around 18000$ and power of the unit)
husky0894
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March 11th, 2009 20:00
No, the XG Station has never been introduced commercially. ASUS announced it but never released it.
TheRealFireblad
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March 12th, 2009 15:00
Yeah... sadly, 'coz I liked the idea of the XG Station so much, I was seriously considering getting one myself - if they were ever released :emotion-6:
@ Dugrok: Believe us. There is currently NO external graphics card option for consumer systems/laptops.
If there were... we'd have heard about them soon enough, and they'd be being sold/bought in their millions, to/by those with laptops which have low-end graphics cards in them.
You can still post a query in the gaming section, by all means.
But I'll give you very long (virtual) odds, that the answers you get, will be exactly the same :emotion-55: