Sony Vaio Z Has External Radeon Light Peak GPU
The best of both worlds for the roadwarrior and desktop replacement.

Sony has taken the wraps off its new high-end premium notebook, the new Vaio Z Series with some pretty interesting expansion options.
The Vaio Z is super-travel-ready with a weight of about 1.18 kg or 2.6 lbs and a thickness of 16.65 mm or just under 0.66 of an inch. Despite its small size, it is sturdy thanks to a carbon fibre composition.

The 13.1-inch screen has a 1600x900 resolution with an anti-reflective coating. Various configurations include Intel Core i7 processors and fast SSD storage as well as an optional secondary sheet battery gives up to 14 hours of use.
While roadwarriors will love the Vaio Z for portability and speed reason, this fancy notebook can shine with some added power thanks to a docking expansion called the Power Media Dock.
Notable about the Power Media Dock is that it contains an AMD Radeon HD 6650M with 1GB DDR3, which takes over the graphical duties from the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000. The discrete GPU can an additional three external displays with a maximum resolution of 1920x1200 through VGA and HDMI outputs.

Besides just packing a GPU, the Power Media Dock also sports an optical drive bay that can be specified with a Blu-ray Disc or SuperMulti combo drive.
The Power Media Dock obviously has big I/O requirements with the laptop, and that is all facilitated by the architecture codenamed 'Light Peak'. Apparently, it can't be called Thunderbolt because it uses a USB connector interface rather than the DisplayPort that Apple first implemented earlier this year. When the optical-based Sony proprietary cable isn't plugged into the notebook, the port can function as a regular USB 3.0/2.0 one.
As for pricing, the premium Vaio line has never been cheap. Expect prices starting in the $2000 range and into the $3000 range depending on configuration and Power Media Dock.

The whole point is to make it thin, then have GPU power back at home if you so choose.
The whole point is to make it thin, then have GPU power back at home if you so choose.
It would work for upgrades, temporary gaming and for desktops that lack the PSU.
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3233#kf
As for you whysobluepandabear, both this old model and it's succesor have desktop grade gpu's. Although neither are mind blowing for there times.
http://computingforever.com/archives/2634
Although i do like the idea of a docking station with a gpu in it for games and gpgpu intensive stuff while having IGP for battery life on the road.
But hey, this is a start.
It looks like Gigabyte has 3 US distributors, none of which I have heard of. Never even new they made laptops. Laptops have been offering graphics slots in docking stations for at least 10 years, not just 1.5. I worked with a Compaq that had a dock with multiple PCI slots that we put video cards in just fine.
You know, that's actually a pretty good idea. You may be onto something. Integrated solutions are good enough for desktop usage but for gaming you usually need to plug it in (meaning you're not mobile anymore). A good quad core should be enough for a couple of external GPU upgrades every year and half or so.
Problem 2: Upgrade) Ask yourself why people don't have combination TV/DVD or TV/BlueRay devices. They don't make sense because they tie one technology to another when the advances in each of these techs move at a different rate.
Problem 3: Repairs) Ask yourself why people don't have combination toaster/blenders. Because when one half of the unit breaks, you have to repair the whole thing, replace the whole thing, or just use the part that still works and replace the broken part with a stand alone unit, which you should have bought in the first place.
Future Laptops from ANY manufacturer that are 'Universal Laptop Docking Station Compatible' could be connected to any one of a wide range of Docking Station's from ANY manufacturer, with the possibility of boosting not only GPU performance but CPU / RAM etc etc.
And quite honestly, what is that thing than an over priced $3000 tablet, I can get a tablet for $499, and then transfer the files to my pc.
The IGP on Llano is nearly as powerful as that HD6650 (IGP HD6620G). Bothe of the have the same specs with the 400SP. This is total failure, Llano proved this intel setups are failure. You dont this bizarra patches.
The same notebook with Llano saves space with the same power. You just add the bd drive and make it a bit more ticker for it.
I agree with dash dot dash guy. Our economy depends on stuff breaking or having to be replaced / upgraded often.
13" is a very good size for ultra portable laptops. It's just a bit bigger than a paper document (A4 or US letter or whatever) and will fit perfectly into briefcases or bags big enough for documents/folders.
It's big enough to work on comfortably and small enough to be ultra portable.
btw: Just 2 grand starting price? Wasn't the last gen. Vaio Z the wrong side of 2.5grand?
Do they still offer "RAID"-0 SSDs? *drool*