Laptop and an expansion box questions??????
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From: PeoplesChoice on 7 Jul 2010 14:19 I live in two locations: Rhode Island & Texas. I intend to buy a high powered laptop (probably Lenovo) so that all my apps are on one computer. That way, I'll have the laptop at whichever location I'm at. My problem is that I would like something like an expansion box so that I can use and/or change some hardware (like a graphics card) when I choose. The laptop is not conducive to this. If I did this, I'd have a duplicate expansion box in both locations. I'm thinking: the best of both worlds: I can have my PC while traveling - and not have to travel with a desktop. Overall, I'm thinking this would be both practical and cheaper than a desktop. Lenovo doesn't have what I want. Does my idea have merit? If so, are there any limitations to what I can put in the expansion box and be able to connect to it? Please give me some ideas. Thanks......
From: Al Dykes on 7 Jul 2010 14:46 In article <3sg936lvtqhqab2m2b40h185o5aqdffldr(a)4ax.com>, <PeoplesChoice(a)Chicago.net> wrote: >I live in two locations: Rhode Island & Texas. I intend to buy a high >powered laptop (probably Lenovo) so that all my apps are on one computer. >That way, I'll have the laptop at whichever location I'm at. My problem >is that I would like something like an expansion box so that I can use >and/or change some hardware (like a graphics card) when I choose. The >laptop is not conducive to this. If I did this, I'd have a duplicate >expansion box in both locations. I'm thinking: the best of both worlds: >I can have my PC while traveling - and not have to travel with a desktop. >Overall, I'm thinking this would be both practical and cheaper than a >desktop. Lenovo doesn't have what I want. Does my idea have merit? If >so, are there any limitations to what I can put in the expansion box and >be able to connect to it? Please give me some ideas. Thanks...... The best you can do is get s high-end laptop that has a docking station as an option. Buy one for each location. These used to be available with a slot for a card but it's been a long time since I've shopped for a dock. -- Al Dykes News is something someone wants to suppress, everything else is advertising. - Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail
From: Mike Easter on 7 Jul 2010 15:02 PeoplesChoice(a)Chicago.net wrote: > I live in two locations: Rhode Island & Texas. Desktops are so cheap and flexible and so much better ergonomically, that I would buy a desktop for each 'living' place and I would have my laptop be relatively small. It is a PITA paininthe*ss to lug around a big highpowered laptop, and it is also very expensive compared to desktops and smaller laptops. > I intend to buy a high > powered laptop (probably Lenovo) so that all my apps are on one computer. There are better ways to solve that problem. IMAP for email. Portable apps. > That way, I'll have the laptop at whichever location I'm at. The only thing good about a LT is its portability. Everything else is bad, expense, lack of flexibility and ergonomics, heaviness. > Please give me some ideas. Thanks...... -- Mike Easter
From: Paul on 7 Jul 2010 15:03 PeoplesChoice(a)Chicago.net wrote: > I live in two locations: Rhode Island & Texas. I intend to buy a high > powered laptop (probably Lenovo) so that all my apps are on one computer. > That way, I'll have the laptop at whichever location I'm at. My problem > is that I would like something like an expansion box so that I can use > and/or change some hardware (like a graphics card) when I choose. The > laptop is not conducive to this. If I did this, I'd have a duplicate > expansion box in both locations. I'm thinking: the best of both worlds: > I can have my PC while traveling - and not have to travel with a desktop. > Overall, I'm thinking this would be both practical and cheaper than a > desktop. Lenovo doesn't have what I want. Does my idea have merit? If > so, are there any limitations to what I can put in the expansion box and > be able to connect to it? Please give me some ideas. Thanks...... A laptop ExpressCard slot, has a single PCI Express lane on it. That isn't enough bandwidth for connecting real high performance peripherals. There are plenty of ordinary card functions that might work, such as sound card, TV tuner, maybe a SATA or ESATA card. But gaming video would be another matter. You can see, that this company does make expansion products which utilize ExpressCard. So the product exists, but it can be expensive. http://magma.com/pciexpress.asp The impact of that, on video performance, was documented on Tomshardware years ago. The benchmarks here, give some idea of the impact of using a "thin" expansion interconnect. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-scaling-analysis,1572-8.html If the laptop had a "wider" bus for expansion purposes, it might make sense. You can buy laptops with pretty powerful graphics in them now, but I wouldn't recommend such a thing, because the heat levels from such devices, leads to a shorter laptop life. And laptops are never cheap to repair. You wouldn't sit a laptop like this in your lap, with a 100W GPU in it. http://www.anandtech.com/show/3790/clevo-w880cu-gtx-480m-shipping For the amount of money involved, I might be tempted to use a couple desktops. They're easier to repair or upgrade. (Build them yourself, not to save money or anything, but to make them easier to upgrade with standard components. Use a retail copy of Windows, so you can move it from one motherboard to the next.) Then, carry a netbook with you, something with long battery life, for times when portability and long battery life is what you need. Paul
From: Mike Easter on 7 Jul 2010 15:53
Mike Easter wrote: > The only thing good about a LT is its portability. Everything else is > bad, expense, lack of flexibility and ergonomics, heaviness. .... short battery life, heat generation, breakability... Did I mention the ergonomics issues? Put that one down again, because there are more than one ergo-issue. You need a workstation anyway, for such as printer and scanner. The same place you would put your 'dock' with a monitor and decent keyboard and mouse, you could put a desktop with a tiny footprint - or none if it were so small it could attach to the back of the monitor. You could put sub-$300 desktops on each end and an economical small laptop and spend about 1/3 as much as you would on a big expensive laptop that is liable to break something and which you would quickly tire of carrying if you travel a lot. The serious roadwarriors don't carry heavy laptops. -- Mike Easter |