Want to upgrade your notebook video card? look here

[Mr Buckshot]

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2079899,00.asp

It's not as fast as PCI-express 2.0, but certainly quite impressive.

Not very surprising, since these days you can literally run an entire OS off a USB 2.0 hard drive with no lag, but still a must-have for any gamers who are tethered to laptops (e.g. college students who move about a lot).

Anyway, this allows you to slap in a desktop PCI-e video card and connect it to a laptop's ExpressCard slot, and use it for superior gaming. So far, it's been used with a Geforce 7900 GS (desktop speeds). It'll inevitably be slower than sticking it inside a real desktop PCI-e slot, but hey, who are we to complain about for getting this ability in the first place?

edit: Pictures!
http://news.ferra.ru/images/122/122531.jpg

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/cimg0307.jpg

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/cimg0311.jpg

[legionaire45]

Saw this a little while ago and it looks pretty cool. Looks like an upgrade for my mom's macbook pro is in order....

[Mr Buckshot]

Macbooks lack an ExpressCard slot. Sorry, legionaire. The ExpressCard slot on Windows laptops looks like this:

http://asia.cnet.com/i/r/2005/dt/39225580/expresscard_2a_200.jpg

Owners of older laptops without built-in 802.11g LAN usually use the ExpressCard slot for a wireless network adapter.

The XG station requires that slot, as it is the fastest external port on a laptop.

[legionaire45]

Please do read before you post =P (http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/)

http://images.apple.com/macbookpro/gallery/images/macbookpro01_20061024.jpg

I am worried about it not working with ExpressCard34 though =/.

[Mr Buckshot]

Hmm, I guess it looks different but should function the same way. When I was 10, I thought iBooks had no built-in optical drive because the cover had no button on the side like on PCs >.< and then I saw the eject key on the keyboard.

I think the XG station uses all of the expresscard slot. See the pics.

[legionaire45]

I really can't see from the pics, but I think I see a little bit of slot left. Hope so, this thing would be the only way I could play Halo on my mom's Cinema HD display (30's of awesome) and have playable framerates xD.

[Leiukemia]

Sweet. I might read about it more later to see if my laptop could do it, but if it can I'd seriously consider it.

[Cortexian]

Desktops are for gaming, Laptops/Notebooks are for actual work... At least thats how I see it, unless you buy a "Gaming Laptop" with like a Nvidia 7800 Go or w/e...

[legionaire45]

Desktops are for gaming, Laptops/Notebooks are for actual work... At least thats how I see it, unless you buy a "Gaming Laptop" with like a Nvidia 7800 Go or w/e...

with 5 minutes of battery life?

[Mr Buckshot]

The Dell Inspiron e1705 has a Geforce Go 7900 GS (inside, not external) and gets over 1 hour of battery life.

If you want to see a notebook with really low battery life, look at Alienware or Voodoo - those have SLI'ed 512 MB Geforce 7950's and dual 100 GB 7200 rpm HDDs.

My 80 GB 7200rpm HDD does strain my notebook's battery a bit.

[Cortexian]

Isn't Alienware just a spin-off of DELL? Like Acura is of Honda? It's a different name for selling more expensive stuff...

[Mr Buckshot]

All I can say is, I'm buying this device when I go to college. It probably won't be the Asus XG station, since by 2009 other companies will follow suit. The ability to "upgrade" laptop graphics (look at Nvidia's MXM standard) is not new, but this is the first easy way to do it. Hopefully, competitors will release a similar device that supports the laptop's internal LCD display. I confirmed that the Asus XG needs an extra monitor, which isn't a bright idea.

See, when I go to college, I don't wish to mess around with too many long cables in an already small dormitory. Plus, I don't want to use up too many outlets. Therefore I plan to sell my desktop computer when I go to college, and stick with a powerful laptop for ease of use. And hauling a desktop computer to the toilet or to the cafe is a little silly.

In my opinion, the Asus XG station is an excellent device, and a must-buy for gamers who don't use desktop computers. However, I wouldn't recommend buying this exact model for now, since it does not support the internal LCD display on the laptop. I like my 15.4" WXGA very much, thank you.

[legionaire45]

http://www.satelliteav.com/mmatv/Images/AC%20SURGE%20STRIP.JPG
http://www.wfp76364.w1.com/1000%20FLOURESCENT%20CABLE%20TIES%20%232%20B2.jpg

And unplug it when you are going to be surfing the interwebs at a cafe. I really wouldn't recommend going to the bathroom...with..your...notebook....*fap fap*.

j/k xD. I do agree with your stance on the lack of support for the internal LCD. They really need to start making industry standards for laptops that actually are standard. External PCI-Express (forgot its technical name) looks promising but then again it is basically ExpressCard with higher bandwidth...