Anyone ever used a VIdock with their lappy?

[fuzzybabybunny]

http://www.villagetronic.com/vidock/

There are also DIY solutions.

I love my laptop. Core i5, 256GB SSD, portable, and an awesome work computer. The only downside is that the video card isn't that great (Radeon HD5650) and the screen has a native res of 1920x1080.

I want to go as portable and light as I can. I don't like having a desktop since it hardly ever gets used except for gaming, and my laptop has all the things I want on it anyway.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

I have a Radeon 6870 laying around that I can take out of my desktop system. I can reuse my desktop monitors. Will I be able to run games at 1920x1080 with everything on full over a PCI Express Revision 2.0 bus that the HD5650 is hooked up to?

 

[imported_browsing]

I'm really interested in this as well. Hoping someone has some experience.

 

[paperwastage]

better thread over at forums.notebookreview.com... over 9000 posts + info/benchmarks of how a PCIe x1 bottleneck can be

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-egpu-experiences.html

originally in 2009-2010, wanted to make a DIY Vidock for my dell m1330... instead decided to build a phenom ii x2 system (was more cost effective overall then... maybe worth it now with better expresscard/mPCIe/thunderbolt versions [for more PCIe lanes] and good mobile CPUs that can be as fast as the desktop counterparts)

I calculated the cost before...

custom-build desktop(if you have time and access to microcenter etc) vs DIY ViDock

common parts: GPU, PSU, monitor

DIY ViDock: $78 (PCIe x1 only) to $150 (PCIe x2), $ for case???

Desktop: (assuming you have access to microcenter). $120 i3 2100+mobo combo, $30 2x4GB ram, get a cheap $40 case+PSU, $50 <500GB HDD-ish, $100 for windows 7....

$240-$350 that uses all the GPU power