ASUS XG Station gets reviewed (Chinese website)

[stmok]

I'm not sure where to post this, but since its more to do with notebooks than video cards, I'll put it here...

Anyway, HardSpell has reviewed the ASUS XG Station.
=> http://www.hardspell.com/doc/hard/80232.htm


For those who don't know, what the heck the ASUS XG Station is:

* Adds 3D acceleration, sound and more USB ports to your existing notebook.

* Its an external box that connects to your notebook via ExpressCard connection.

* By default, it consists of a:
=> GF8600GT (256MB GDDR3, PCI-Express x16)
=> ASUS sound solution (ASUS U1 Xonar)
=> 2 USB ports.
=> External powered. (You need a spare power point).

* So the setup is like this:
Notebook <=> ASUS XG Station <=> Monitor, Speakers, USB devices

In this article, they replaced the default GeForce 8600GT with a GeForce 9600GSO and Radeon HD 3850 (one at a time!) for "shits and giggles". Its a clear demonstration that you can upgrade the video card with an "off the shelf" solution. (obviously, your choices are limited by the physical and electrical limitations of the XG Station itself).

This is an interesting solution for those who are stuck with notebooks that have "unsuitable for gaming" IGPs.

[SLATYE]

Interesting, although I still think it's a bit pointless. Essentially you're using the laptop to replace the CPU, mainboard, RAM, HDD, case, and PSU. For the price of an XG Station you can build:

Asus TA-B4 $69
MSI 945GCM7-F $42
Samsung 160GB SATA2 HDD $39
E2220 $106
8600GT $63
2GB DDR2-800 $46

Total is $365, or $15 cheaper than an XG Station. I'd expect that to be quicker than most laptops using an XG Station, simply because it's not going to be bottlenecked down to PCIe 1x speed.

[AMD2400]

so one actually exists.

Provided they actually sell it as a bare unit without the GFX, and it drops in prices really hard, i recon it will sell.
At the rate graphics card prices are going, buying a external adapter, which will last a long time, and slapping a 4850 for around $200 or $175 used doesent sound so bad.

Hopefully this actually makes laptop manufacturers break the mold (a standardized mold) and make some PCI-e 2.0 8x equivalent slots in the size of the old PCMCIA. Thats enough bandwidth for the cards of today, more so a laptop.

[jboles]

what's the interface to the laptop.... expresscard? (i.e. PCI-E x1 + USB 2.0)?

[SLATYE]

Originally Posted by jboles

what's the interface to the laptop.... expresscard? (i.e. PCI-E x1 + USB 2.0)?

Yes. As far as I can tell, the video card is connected through the PCIe part and everything else (sound/USB hub) is connected through USB.

[Curryman]

Originally Posted by SLATYE

Interesting, although I still think it's a bit pointless. Essentially you're using the laptop to replace the CPU, mainboard, RAM, HDD, case, and PSU. For the price of an XG Station you can build:

Asus TA-B4 $69
MSI 945GCM7-F $42
Samsung 160GB SATA2 HDD $39
E2220 $106
8600GT $63
2GB DDR2-800 $46

Total is $365, or $15 cheaper than an XG Station. I'd expect that to be quicker than most laptops using an XG Station, simply because it's not going to be bottlenecked down to PCIe 1x speed.

Yeah, but its an advantage not having to carry a desktop PC around.

[SLATYE]

Originally Posted by Curryman

Yeah, but its an advantage not having to carry a desktop PC around.

You're still carrying a monitor (XG Station can't display on the laptop's LCD), a power supply (for the XG Station), the XG Station itself, and of course the laptop. This is hardly portable.