Current Products On The Market
So having said all the above what are the current solutions to the external graphics market. Well there are a few, but the problem we see is that all of them are quite distant from being ‘mainstream’, meaning they require quite obscure hardware configurations and the software can often be quite pedantic.
ViDock
The most ‘mainstream’ product we could find is one made by Village Instruments, going by the name ViDock or ViExpress Box depending on the model, this product consists of a steel box which has a PCI-E 2.0 16X lane inside it, this lane is powered externally and features connection to the laptop or PC via an expresscard slot, as we mentioned earlier this functions as a PCI-E 2.0 1X slot, providing 5Gb/s of bandwidth. These are available in models supporting up to 225W of power draw. Although we would recommend sticking with ‘lower end’ cards anyway since the PCI-E 2.0 1X bandwidth ‘cap’ means high end cards will be severely throttled. Something like a HD 6670 would be ideal for this kind of external docking.
This product is compatible and optimised for Windows 7 so we would recommend using it with Windows 7 since these kinds of products have ‘tricky’ software installations to say the least. Although it will also work with Vista, XP and Mac OS. One thing we found slightly annoying about this product was the fact once you have connected your external graphics card, such as a HD 6670, you cannot run those graphics on the laptop screen, they must be run off an external monitor. This can be useful if you enjoy 1080p gaming but if you only own a laptop then this could be quite frustrating.
This Solution: Will cost you around $220 excluding a graphics card but gives relatively simple installation.
Other Solutions
As far as other solutions go we couldn’t really find any big brands like Village Instruments offering products which are simple are require only simple installation. We came across lots of hardware solutions similar to ViDock but not as simple (although a lot cheaper). For example, for $91 you could pick up this kit which offers a PCI-E 16X 2.0 lane, express card adapter and the required circuity for powering the product on, although it does not come with a direct power supply. You can also see a similar kit here, which does the same thing for the same price.
This Solution: Will cost you around $130 (including cost of a power supply if you already have a spare it will only cost $91) but requires a quite good understanding of computer hardware to get up and running.
Sounds good but still a bit of work, seems to defeat the object of a laptop if you then need an external graphics and monitor, the sony may be better if you can run it of USB3 no doubt USB4 could even follow in the future exciting though but any thing can happen I suppose. Will need it's own power supply.
"which only has good battery life due to the admission of any high end graphics hardware"
I think you mean omission…
Thank you!
where can buy it?
Very well written, and easily understandable by even those not very knowledgeable about computer hardware. Thankyou!
Or you can just get a gaming laptop that isn’t a piece of shit.
Why is nobody making a docking station that you can put a normal card in? I remember many years ago, before HP bought Compaq, they had a docking station that would fit PCI cards. Why don’t manufacturers use their docking station ports on the motherboard to pipe PCIe x16 slot to a large docking station solution that you can install a graphics card in. It’s been over 10 years since I saw these drop out of use but they were very good, and have been much missed by those that used to have twin displays they could game on with their work laptops.
Coz they’re idiots. I’ve always wondered why they never did too