External Graphics. ASUS does it!

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12760_7-9676696-5.html


There's the link to the article. I'll copy paste it for those who don't want to read the link.

"Looking to upgrade the weak graphics of your otherwise rockin' laptop? Before you rip apart the machine to get to its innards in what will most likely result in a failed attempt for more frames per second, take a peek at the Asus XG Station. That's X for external, and G for graphics--the world's first external graphics-card solution for laptops. The XG Station connects via an ExpressCard slot and houses a x16 PCI Express graphics card and a sound card that supplies 5.1 Dolby audio. Asus will ship the XG Station with a GeForce 7900GS card, and there's no reason why you couldn't swap in an 8800 GTS. An 8800 GTX card, however, is too long to fit inside the unit.

The XG Station's control panel provides a variety of system information, from GPU clockspeed, fan speed, and temperature to volume and frames per second. The large dial to the left of the display lets you adjust the settings, including cranking up the GPU's clock speed. With a couple of USB 2.0 ports onboard, you can leave your game keyboard and mouse connected to the XG Station for an instant game docking station--just add laptop.

Asus gave a quick demo of the XG Station, which we mentioned briefly over the weekend. While a laptop without an XG Station chugged through a game, the same laptop connected to an XG Station provided very smooth gameplay on a huge LCD hooked up to the GeForce card's DVI port. Asus told us it's still working out the pricing details, but expects a 7900GS-equipped XG Station to go for roughly $599 when it's released in April. "

 

lol i just did a search and found out this is a already covered topic. sry guys.

 

In this wealth of info it happens to us all from time to time

 

Price is absolutely ridiculous.

 

It's the first time I've seen a price, so this is still a good post

 

I hope they don't do a straight conversion to £ otherwise you're better off saving a little more for a laptop with x amazing card inside it in the first place

So its express card only? May have to get a dock for my laptop if I want this. And can you use it with your laptop's screen or is it external monitor only?

 

very good when you don't want a 17'' laptop.

 

the price might be the cost of a whole new laptop, but at least if you want to crank up the graphics on a laptop over 2k, it might be worth it! Plus I am sure it will come down after competitions follows example...

 

I think any laptop with an express card slot.

But $500? Forget that.

 

I believe the price Cnet posted is pure speculative, especially considering how old the article is. The general consensus from another thread on NBR reasoned the price to be more around 300~400 dollars.

 

$500? thats absurd!!

 

500$ I prefer to buy an desktop or a laptop 17" anyway the part look big to travel with it.

 

$599?......For that much I think I'd rather buy a brand new desktop with a 8800GTX. Too bad you can't run the XG Station on your laptop's monitor.

 

Closing thread.

Continue discussion here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=96263&highlight=xg+station