Adding an external video card... hehe

[gongo2k1]

I'm thinking about getting one of these Mini PCI-E to PCI-E 1x adapters and sticking a Geforce 8600 GT in it (using an external power supply, of course) to add a little more grunt to my trusty X61. I know that it'll be somewhat crippled on the 1x bus and I know that I'll have to use an external monitor since it won't drive the LCD. The idea is to get the same effect as can be had using a T60 with the Advanced Dock, only I'm abusing the spare Mini PCI-E slot rather than using a docking station.

Has anyone tried anything like this before? Does anyone know where I can get this adapter for cheaper? Any idea if the BIOS white list will interfere (I'll probably flash with Zender's BIOS anyway for good measure)?

I'd really like to not have to build a desktop just get some light gaming every now and again, but the X3100 video just doesn't cut it and the performance in Linux is dreadful at the moment...

EDIT:
I also found this PCI-E 16x to Express Card adapter that can also connect to Mini PCI-E. Looks interesting and seems to be the same thing that Shuttle and ASUS are doing as far as external video for laptops, and internally this is what the docking station is doing too. Hmm....

[gongo2k1]

UPDATE:
I found a developer's log posted to the NotebookReview forums and it looks like they're adding a slight delay on initialization to avoid problems with the BIOS white list. The thread is 150+ pages!

Here's another thread outlining some performance numbers and caveats. It's 125 pages... there's apparently a lot of interest in this, I'm just late to the party.

People seem to be recommending using a Geforce GTX 460 (yikes!) though there are results posted with a "lowly" GTX 260 as well. It looks like older and less power-hungry cards will work pretty well and it's even possible to double the bandwidth to PCI-E 2x using adjacent Mini PCI-E slots (as long as they're also adjacent on the PCI device list).

Interesting stuff! I'm trying to find a distributor in the USA so I don't have to pay for shipping from China/Taiwan (and I also don't want to wait 3 weeks for shipping... ) but it looks like there's no stock outside of Asia at the moment. Oh well.

[fasteez]

aww thanks for bringing up the idea here, I too was interested in the subject but I forgot about it.

250 pages to read .. goody

[gongo2k1]

Here are some YouTube videos I found of people who have successfully pulled this off:
StarCraft 2 with external Nvidia Geforce GTX 460
Mass Effect 2 with external ATI Radeon HD 5770

It's really quite impressive to see that kind of performance out of a PCI-E 1x link.
My main problem right now is that my X61 is my only computer at the moment, so I can't really afford to hose it if things go south. I think I may hold off on this for a month until I can get my hands on another machine so I have a backup just in case.

[jazzaddict]

this is really messy, considering having to rip the x61 apart for access to the PCIe slot. It would be great if someone can make a custom dock connector for access to the PCIe interface? Where can one find the dock connector documentation?

[james2008]

Did any of you guys pull this off with a T60? I'd love to be able to play SC2 on mine for < $200.

Edit - just noticed this is in the wrong forum, sorry about that.

[AMATX]

ViDock2 is a much easier solution, I believe...~$200 + video card = success.

[claimui]

I was interested in doing this with my X61s, primarily to get DVI output. But I don't see how it would be practical.

The mini-PCIe slot faces the inside of the case. It is covered by part of the upper chassis and the keyboard. So you would need to remove something or make a hole, and there would be a cable running out from somewhere around your keyboard.

Assuming you'd still want it to be portable, you'd probably want a way to be able to disconnect the PCIe adapter -- so maybe you widen up the hole in your chassis even more.

There's no ExpressCard support on the X61/X61s, so ExpressCard solutions (including the ViDock) will not work.

Am I missing something that would make this work?

[claimui]

Old thread, but has anybody given this a try in the meantime? I am thinking of giving it a shot, but I need some ideas about where to run the cable so it won't get in the way, and just generally other ideas to make this more practical. Any thoughts and especially pictures would be appreciated. Thanks.