Comments on: Adding a desktop graphics card to a laptop

By: Niclas

Niclas — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:59:30 +0000

Hi,
nice article!
Can you remove the ViDock while the machine is running?
That would be very interesting for me because I want to be able to remove my T400 from the dock without shuting it down.

By: N.J.

N.J. — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:32:32 +0000

Yes, you need to provide the PE4H power. Either via a suitable laptop DC adapter (that I had no luck finding, at least not one that provided stable power) or by pc power suppy. It is critical that the power supply be of good quality. I had so many issues that turned out to be due to the cheap power supply units I used. This cannot be understated – get a good power supply, I had good luck w/Crucial.

The other problem with a laptop power adapter is that it limits the graphics card you can use to one that consumes 75watts MAX. The PE4H can supply it that much via the PCI-E slot. If the card needs more than that, it’ll have an additional power plug and you’ll need a pc power supply for that.

By: Bri

Bri — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 23:27:43 +0000

Hi,
This is great!
Im just curious?
I looked at the HWtools website and it supplies a “power supply cable and power supply switch” with the package.
Do i need to buy a power supply to use a desktop graphics card?
I cant just attach the G card to the PE4H and the PE4H to the expresscard and use it?
I noticed you have a large power supply below your laptop. Is that for the PE4H?

By: rr14

rr14 — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:50:47 +0000

What a great post you have. I have found you site to be very interesting.

By: nick

nick — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:59:13 +0000

it would be easier to simply by a gaming laptop such as an asus g53jw or an alienware m15x but nice job aniway

By: N.J.

N.J. — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 03:03:06 +0000

Forests, currently I’m running a x1. x1e is not supported due to the express slot occupying port 4. In theory, x2 is possible but will take a fairly substantial amount of work to attain with no guarantees as of yet (haven’t seen any success stories…)

By: forests

forests — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:08:28 +0000

Post owner:
Does your X200 able to do x1E or x2 PCIe connect?

By: N.J.

N.J. — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:21:21 +0000

Hey Felix, I run at medium-high settings. It’s very smooth… I could probably pump it up but there’s some funkyness going on with the power current going PE4H. When it ramps up the card stops running and the machine freezes. See that rubber band? it’s *mostly* fixed the problem. Fortunately hwtools is sending me a replacement.

As for your setup, I think you’d easily be able to run SC2 on high setting – possibly ultra though wouldn’t count on it – as long as you have a higher end ATI card – a 5750 and greater ought to do it w/plenty of GDDR5 memory (2GB is ideal).

By: Felix

Felix — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 16:22:21 +0000

Sweet! … I’m thinking about doing my own Vidock as well. What resolution, and settings were you able to get on SC2 Beta ? If it’s below high or ultra, I might just consider building a cheap desktop instead.

HP dv6835nr
Intel Core2Duo
GPU: Intel chip
RAM: 4gb

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 23 May 2010 16:47:01 +0000

Whoa.