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Graphics External PCI-E Card housing: POSSIBLE?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by TheMusician, 21 Sep 2011.

  1. TheMusician

    TheMusician Audio/Tech Enthusiast/Historian

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    I was just wondering if this was possible at all. Pre-existing solutions are ridiculously expensive it seems.

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  2. microsoftPerson

    microsoftPerson What's a Dremel?

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    It's very possible to do this sort of thing. Some people even do this type of mod with laptops that don't have the option for dedicated graphics. Why are you planning on doing it out of curiosity?
     
  3. TheMusician

    TheMusician Audio/Tech Enthusiast/Historian

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    So that I could swap out (to test/etc) graphics cards easily, and for enhanced cooling of the cards. I would imagine a dedicated housing would allow for far better cooling solutions than when the card is sitting inside the my tiny mini-tower, crammed in there next to other cards and parts that give off heat.

    I've heard it's possible to transport PCI-E data via LAN cable, but I've heard it's expensive. I'm currently researching other methods if they're cheaper.
     
  4. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    PCI-E spec has a maximum signal distance of 30cm afaik - that's from the controller, not the socket, so you have to count trace routing. PCI-E 3 reduces it to 20cm I heard, but cannot confirm it.

    Hence why Thunderbolt requires its own controllers and signal control along the wires.

    MSI and ASUS made external PCI-E graphics cards for laptops before, but the effective bandwidth becomes tiny.
     
  5. Elton

    Elton Officially a Whisky Nerd

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    Well couldn't you hypothetically lengthen the PCI-E lane by just using a full x16 slot. Bandwidth would deteriorate, but it wouldn't be as noticeable.

    Riser cables seem to be a potential solution, but you're going to need to have a customized case.
     
  6. TheMusician

    TheMusician Audio/Tech Enthusiast/Historian

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    I'm guessing this is why external enclosures like this go for >$800 typically. (a lot of amplification and whatnot?) And regarding Thunderbolt.... man I wish I could afford Apple stuff.
     
  7. microsoftPerson

    microsoftPerson What's a Dremel?

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    Thunderbolt is Intel stuff fyi. It will be available in the future in the Windows environment. Also, it will be faster when combined with optical cables instead of copper, the tech is still in its infancy.
     
  8. dark_avenger

    dark_avenger Minimodder

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    You may be able to run longer than 30cm with shielded cables, would be a lot of work with soldering/etc though...
     
  9. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Yea, you can get repeaters and special cabling - there are companies that do this but it costs $$$$
     
  10. VictorianBloke

    VictorianBloke Man in a box

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    seems pretty much the same as the eGPU mods on laptops. There's a detailed overview here including discussions on performance reduction due to the express port cards etc.
     
  11. TheMusician

    TheMusician Audio/Tech Enthusiast/Historian

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    Theoretically wouldn't the performance be the same, so long as you're using a 2.0/2.1 spec x16 port? When I read about that, the performance reduction was always because ExpressPort runs at like 1.1 speeds in x8 or something.
     

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