Madshrimps Forum Madness - Nvidia: External Graphics Accelerators for Notebooks Is a Big Opportunity

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that's great if your laptop has a dock connector, if it doesn't have one, you'll still need to connect everything between the dock and the laptop.

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if you're a deskop user, what is keeping you from switching a laptop,

- an universal docking station interface on all laptops :)

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Originally Posted by jmke (Post 253858)

you can have a laptop with 8gb ram, quad core CPU and two SSDs as in RAID0 as storage
now add external GFX ala HD5870 or something, using same keyb/mouse/screen through docking as desktop and extra storage HDDs, optical drives etc through USB 3.0 / eSATA 6gbps etc... closing in on a very fast alternative to the desktop PC

True, but I could also buy a new car for that much. :D

I tried switching to a laptop a few years ago, never again. It was a waste of money for a gaming laptop that quickly couldn't play games at native resolutions, and still required a separate keyboard/mouse for comfortable use. It could not be upgraded because the chipset did not support Core Duo or Core 2 Duo processors, and the space/cooling constraints meant the GPU could not be upgraded either. Laptops also have shorter lifespans, already replaced the mainboard, GPU, and CDROM drive during the warranty period, despite buying a laptop cooler for the thing and keeping the fans clean. (As opposed to my first self-built desktop, the motherboard, GPU, and RAM all still work perfectly despite being 7 years old)

As the question of why was specifically directed at desktop users... I don't do professional rendering or anything or that nature, but I well and do "max out" a 4.3Ghz Core i7 920. 6GB of RAM is no longer enough, I actually can run out if I don't close down programs while running F@H.

I'm not totally unique... I'm seeing several users already asking if their Core i7 laptops are fast enough to run Bigadv work units in the Stanford forums...:D

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True, but I could also buy a new car for that much.

why would you want to drive with a

anyway; you bring up several points which can be addressed while remaining in the price constraints of being "cheaper than the cheapest car"

the only downside might be upgrade limits of the CPU and max memory support of the chipset; with external GPU, that upgrade path is open, with eSATA, storage / DVD etc is no issue;

Theoretically yes, if one bought a laptop that could accept external GPU's with a full speed port and was willing to buy all the rest. Only thing you couldn't upgrade would be the motherboard, which tend to offer about 1-2 years of CPU upgrades before new sockets/CPUs come along that aren't compatible.

I'd rather build a SFF desktop rather than a desk full of stuff if given a choice. The only laptop I would buy would be a ~10 hour netbook, or a CULV laptop with integrated graphics that's close, that offers a decent keyboard.