How to Upgrade Your Notebook Graphics Card Using DIY ViDOCK Discussion

[dietcokefiend]

From almost as soon as you purchase your new notebook, it is generally doomed to a life of obsolescence. Unlike desktop computers, laptops have certain components that can't be upgraded or replaced. On most laptops this includes the motherboard, graphics card, display, and sometimes even the processor. In this review we take a look at an external graphics card solution for notebooks called the DIY ViDock that promises to allow users to add a high performance graphics card to their system.

Read the full content of this Article: How to Upgrade Your Notebook Graphics Card Using DIY ViDOCK

[Greg]

Why only test at 1280x1024? Most decent external screens have higher resolutions than that and it would be nice to test this little guy at various resolutions to give people an idea of when that PCIe-x1 interface is going to not work so well.

This might be NBR, but it is a desktop part and I think establishing a baseline performance measurement for the GPU would be a good idea. Not everyone is going to use a 4890 and some kind of measurement indicating what kind of performance loss you might be looking at if I bought say a 5870 for a laptop...

[CrysDark]

Everything but where to buy?

[DigiDoc]

Ok article, but it would help if there was some links to the vendors of the parts.

I went out and found the manufacturer's order page for the PCIe to Expresscard adapter though. It can be bought here:

PE4H (PCIe passive adapter ver2.0a)

Additionally, instead of using a huge desktop power supply, something like this would make it smaller:

Newegg.com - FSP Group Booster X5 450W Independent/Supplementary SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Dedicated Multi.GPU Power

[dietcokefiend]

Added the product purchase page link into the spec area of the review.

The small power supply is pretty nice but still pricey. It would rank up there with the other modular units that would cut down on wires/bulk but add a good chunk of change to the build.

[User Retired 2]

There's well over 1 year of existing discussion on the DIY ViDock in the threads below. The DIY concept extended to making enclosures as well:

Details/discussion: Enclosures:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gami...periences.html http://forum.notebookreview.com/gami...ml#post6109661

Also, I had expected a NVidia GTX460 in an Optimus setup for the review as indicated earlier. That would have changed benchmark results considerably. Consider a An i7-620M Lenovo_X201 GTX460 DIY ViDocked here obtained 3dmark06=14530 and 3dmarkvantage.gpu=10503. That's faster than the current gaming systems like the G73JH. I guess that could be a major buying deterrent of bulky gaming notebooks, perhaps a good reason to benchmark the substantially slower HD4890. The HD4890 is NOT recommended as a choice for a performance DIY ViDock setup.

Consider too that pci-e 3.0 (8Gbps) with the Sandy Bridge platform scheduled for Q1 2011 will provide 4 times as much bandwidth as current x1 1.0 (2.5Gbps - 2Gbps after overhead) setups. Now that will be sufficient bandwidth to provide near-desktop performance levels.

[invisible]

I can imagine with the right enclosure setup, someone could make a lot of money off this, selling pre-built video docks.
External video cards in the past were abandoned. I think Asus did one if memory serves. It goes to show how truly inexpensive this could be. I can't help but wonder if companies may pick up on this, considering the homework has already been done for them (thanks to the contributors at NBR).

[dietcokefiend]

There's well over 1 year of existing discussion on the DIY ViDock in the threads below. The DIY concept extended to making enclosures as well:

Details/discussion: Enclosures:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gami...periences.html http://forum.notebookreview.com/gami...ml#post6109661

Also, I had expected a NVidia GTX460 in an Optimus setup for the review as indicated earlier. That would have changed benchmark results considerably. Consider a An i7-620M Lenovo_X201 GTX460 DIY ViDocked here obtained 3dmark06=14530 and 3dmarkvantage.gpu=10503. That's faster than the current gaming systems like the G73JH. I guess that could be a major buying deterrent of bulky gaming notebooks, perhaps a good reason to benchmark the substantially slower HD4890. The HD4890 is NOT recommended as a choice for a performance DIY ViDock setup.

Consider too that pci-e 3.0 (8Gbps) with the Sandy Bridge platform scheduled for Q1 2011 will provide 4 times as much bandwidth as current x1 1.0 (2.5Gbps - 2Gbps after overhead) setups. Now that will be sufficient bandwidth to provide near-desktop performance levels.

We have a GTX 470 in the office (originally thought it was the 460) we were initially planning on using for the review until we started reading about the mods required to the power regulators to prevent black screens of death with the card consuming too much from the adapter slot. The 4890 was a fall back option and kind of played into the "building a gaming rig from parts around the office".

The end result is the same overall, highly recommended if you want huge gains from an otherwise "slow" notebook. Going with the faster card just means even higher performance

[User Retired 2]

We have a GTX 470 in the office (originally thought it was the 460) we were initially planning on using for the review until we started reading about the mods required to the power regulators to prevent black screens of death with the card consuming too much from the adapter slot.

GF100 based cards like the GTX465/GTX470/GTX480 require Panzer's fuse bypass mod. The GF104 GTX460 requires far less power so does not require that mod. Furthermore, PE4L is not affected and PE4H 2.1 scheduled for release this month will correct the need for the fuse bypass.

I'd highly recommend doing a GTX460 review in the Optimus setup as I'm sure many of the DIY ViDock folks were waiting for that. I know I was. Or do the very simple fuse bypass mod and use your GTX470 with your PE4H 2.0a.

[dietcokefiend]

Yup, which is why when I realized it was the 470 and not the 460 I realized I was kind of screwed.

The ViDock will be around the office for a while, so if in the next few weeks one of us gets our hands on a GTX 460 we will update the review or post in the forums our new results.