OTOY Forums

Hello

I just received my Alienware M17 R3 with GTX 460M graphic card. Can't wait to try out Octane this weekend!

I was wondering whether I'll be able to add further graphic cards to in the future (externally)?

Thank you!

I understand there is an e-SATA port on my laptot. Could I eventually use it for an expansion box?

Hi,

THere are no e-sata interfaces for GPUs.
The only ones i know of are ExpressCard slots (high speed PCMCIA).

Radiance

I do have one of those, an ExpressCard 54 port 2.0..

what is the architecture for an external gpu system?

I imagine a GPU cooler, a GPU mount and the additional GPUs plus some kind of cable to connect it to the ExpressCard?

I really have no clue about these things, just etered this new world a few weeks ago...

Thank you

there are quite a few ones on the market, just google for 'expresscard PCI express expansion'

for example: http://www.dynapowerusa.com/dyna/ASP/CP ... 1A-gpu.asp

definately contact them and ask for compatibility with the GPU you want to put in it, and if you're laptop's cardslot is the right one as there are different expresscard slot types...

Radiance

Saw a website (forget which - bit-tech, hothardware or some such) that someone's coming out with a method to connect USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) to PCIe (PCIe 2.0 is 500MB/s or 3.9 Gbps) - and there are already 'thunderdolt' expansion boxes (thunderbolt runs at 10 Gbps) http://www.fiercecio.com/techwatch/stor ... 2011-10-18. Not a techie tho' and doubt whether the connection between USB 3.0 and thunderbolt to the CPU (QPI?) is fast enough. Still we can hope! Would be nice to be finally able to upgrade our laptops' video...

Edit: PCIe 3.0 doubles the bandwidth to 32 GBps on a x16 connection. Don't know if that even matters when we're just using them for rendering as opposed to gaming.