Any experience with external PCI-e Adapters?

[wilschroter]

Does anyone have any experience with external PCI-e adapters? I'm seeing one from Magma that's incredibly expensive, but I'm OK with the spend if there isn't a very obvious shortfall.

http://www.magma.com/expressbox2.asp

I'd like to use a high end graphics and sound card to attach to my new Dell M6600 laptop to do gaming. My goal is simple - I want to use my gaming and work laptop on one machine and get out of my traditional desktop altogether.

My only concern is that the external PCI-e adapter will have some serious limitation I'm not aware of. Any thoughts?

 

[Wolfshadw]

It looks like that setup requires an available PCI-Ex8/16 slot in a desktop/workstation for the host card. The cable then runs from the host card to the expansion chassis. Doesn't look like it would work with a laptop (no PCI-E slot for the host card).

There have been external enclosures for the set up you're looking for, like the ASUS XG Station, but the problem with this is the connection to the laptop. It connects through the ExpressCard slot which is limited to PCI-Ex1 throughput.

-Wolf sends

 

[wilschroter]

It looks like that setup requires an available PCI-Ex8/16 slot in a desktop/workstation for the host card. The cable then runs from the host card to the expansion chassis. Doesn't look like it would work with a laptop (no PCI-E slot for the host card).

There have been external enclosures for the set up you're looking for, like the ASUS XG Station, but the problem with this is the connection to the laptop. It connects through the ExpressCard slot which is limited to PCI-Ex1 throughput.

-Wolf sends

WS - Funny how dated those solutions get. 256mb graphics memory and "Built for Windows Vista" as a big deal at the time!

I love my Asus sound card which incidentally is what started me down this path.

So it looks like the big issue is the connectivity out of my Dell m6600 laptop. I'm now wondering if there is a USB 3.0 compatible solution. Does the USB 3.0 option provide enough "bandwidth" to support a PCI-e style interface?

 

[Wolfshadw]

While USB 3.0 should provide enough bandwidth, you now have to figure out how to get your laptop to recognize it's USB port as a valid Audio/Video port.

-Wolf sends