Shuttle Ultra Compact ION2 Nettop and External Graphic Card

[Darksaber]

Shuttle caught our eye with their external graphics card system called the i-Power GXT Mini, which routes the PCIe slot (as x1) to an external enclosure in which you can put any single slot GPU with a power draw of up to 90W. The system currently only works with two Shuttle notebooks, but the company will expand the range of notebooks in the future. They are also showing off their extremely compact and fanless HTPC based on ION2. It is a bit larger than a 3.5 inch hard drive enclosure, but packs all the components. A quick look at the rear shows four USB 2.0 ports and HDMI along with the the rest of usual connectivity.

[Arrakis+9]

for a second there i thought to myself video card with computer attached not the other way around

[Fitseries3]

crossfire support ?

lol

[Baum]

before everyone post here it is cool
it was called vidock just google for it, if its expensive for you just use:
PE4L from www.hwtools.net and build your own Expresscard x1 to HDMI to custom PCB with x16 which is in reality a x1 link.....

that runs with any Notebook and is faster than most IGP's but because of massive bandwith prob. won't perform too god

it is nice to see some one else with the solution but credits should go to the engeneers for that crazy baby, and btw. take out the GPU and swap in what ever you like...good Soundcard ^^

EDIT:
http://hwtools.net/Adapter/PE4H.html
notice the two HDMI Slots on the PCB it supports even x4 link if you are willing to kill your internal mini pci-e wifi! :-)

support is tested for some 8 and 9x00 low end Nvidia GPU and most ATI adapters as they are more bandwith sayviour than NVs

[wiak]

they should have use x16 PCI Express External Cabling not some crappy homemade cabling at x1 dooh

[Sasqui]

Originally Posted by Fitseries3

crossfire support ?

lol

Hahahaaa...

So what is the connectivity, GB Lan or proprietary?

[Mussels]

should run something like a 9600GT at ok speeds.





as w1zzy has proven, 1x aint so useless

[RejZoR]

For some reason i prefer the cube cases for nettops. They just look better than these thingies with stand that look like some cheap chinese gizmo.

[Frick]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

For some reason i prefer the cube cases for nettops. They just look better than these thingies with stand that look like some cheap chinese gizmo.

Totally depends. This is the size of a book, you can just shove it on some shelves and then it's gone. I think these things are kinda sexy. ^^

[TIGR]

Originally Posted by Frick

Totally depends. This is the size of a book, you can just shove it on some shelves and then it's gone. I think these things are kinda sexy. ^^

Methinks shoving this between some books might impact cooling a bit.

[RejZoR]

I think having a nice cube on a desk is better. I have one and it's not exactly a small even though it's a uATX form case. But it looks nice and clean on a desk, far better than ANY tower.
Same goes too these cute nettop cubes.

[Kantastic]

Originally Posted by TIGR

Methinks shoving this between some books might impact cooling a bit.

I don't think he meant shoving it in a bookshelf while using it rather storing it in a bookshelf until you need it.

[Frick]

Originally Posted by Kantastic

I don't think he meant shoving it in a bookshelf while using it rather storing it in a bookshelf until you need it.

I actually meant shoving it a shelf between books, but that cooling bit didn't occur to me.

[TIGR]

I'm actually very interested not so much in this specifically, but in the concept of connecting to an external video card. A good enclosure that could hold a couple double-width cards, with support for up to 32-lane PCI Express connectivity. I'd like to see omething like ATI's XGP but non-proprietary, and usable with laptops (ExpressCard and XGP I suppose) as well as desktops (via PCI Express x1/x4/x8/x16 risers-to-cables). Power cable to connect with PSU as well. Lots of options depending on your interface, etc. This would be nice to move some GPU power—and space, and heat—out of cramped cases. Or just to make it accessible to laptop owners. For the right price, I would actually buy it for my laptop.

[Esse]

Originally Posted by TIGR

I'm actually very interested not so much in this specifically, but in the concept of connecting to an external video card. A good enclosure that could hold a couple double-width cards, with support for up to 32-lane PCI Express connectivity. I'd like to see omething like ATI's XGP but non-proprietary, and usable with laptops (ExpressCard and XGP I suppose) as well as desktops (via PCI Express x1/x4/x8/x16 risers-to-cables). Power cable to connect with PSU as well. Lots of options depending on your interface, etc. This would be nice to move some GPU power—and space, and heat—out of cramped cases. Or just to make it accessible to laptop owners. For the right price, I would actually buy it for my laptop.

I've been waiting for this for years but its not going to happen anytime soon.

Not until a new PCI-e standard is built for laptops that will allow speeds faster than x1 (currently mPCI-e). It would be great to have a low powered laptop by day and then hooking it up to a DAC and External GPU at home

[Jizzler]

Docking ports could provide more, and I've seen some papers from PLX on how their switch chips could be used in docking ports. But docking stations don't seem to be all that popular anymore, and manufacturers would need to design their laptops with a decent amount of lanes - a feature I believe would go unused by a majority of the people.

On the desktop side, we just need it to get cheaper

[InnocentCriminal]

If Shuttle can bring external (upgradable) GFX cards to the mainstream a lot of portable users will be happy. Especially if they can increase the PCIe bandwidth.