[tcMag] Asus XG Station almost at the finish line - Overclock.net

**Marin** · 05-19-08

Source

Quote:

We remember the XG Station when it had a GeForce 7900 GS at its core and today, with Nvidia already pushing the 9 series cards, Asus' product has yet to be delivered. But all is not lost as apparently Asus has pretty much finished up work on the external graphics solution.

Boasting a well-designed black casing with an LCD and 'overclocking knob' at the front, the XG Station can be hooked up to graphically-challenged laptops via an Express Card slot. The external card offers a two-slot PCI-Express x1 interface and in its 'stock' form it is powered by a GeForce 8600 GT with 256MB clocked at 700 MHz (GPU) and 700 MHz (memory). The two slots suggest a possible SLI setup but the PCIe x1 connection will likely cripple performance significantly enough for SLI to not be a viable solution.

In addition to pumping extra juice into your laptop's graphics capabilities, the XG Station also features two audio outputs and two USB connectors. The actual release date of the XG Station is still up in the air, as is its price tag.

LegendaryC · 05-19-08

Wow, I though it was canceled.

Whatever the case, good to see it's still coming out! Not that I'll need it.

The PCI-Express x1 is a downer though. It should be at least a x4, if not a x8.

medium pimping · 05-19-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by LegendaryC

Wow, I though it was canceled.

Whatever the case, good to see it's still coming out! Not that I'll need it.

The PCI-Express x1 is a downer though. It should be at least a x4, if not a x8.

Yahh an x4 or x8 would have been nice, but they probably needed to go with x1 to keep the power requirements down so they didn't have to shove a big power unit in.

I am very happy to see this come out, even though I'm not a laptop user, it's nice to know that if I ever switch there are graphics options!

DuckieHo · 05-19-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by medium pimping

Yahh an x4 or x8 would have been nice, but they probably needed to go with x1 to keep the power requirements down so they didn't have to shove a big power unit in.

I am very happy to see this come out, even though I'm not a laptop user, it's nice to know that if I ever switch there are graphics options!

Nope. Power has NOTHING to do with it. PCIe x4 or x8 wouldn't draw much more power anyways.

The XG Station is x1 PCIe because this is for laptops with ExpressCard. ExpressCard is x1 PCIe.

LegendaryC · 05-19-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckieHo

Nope. Power has NOTHING to do with it. PCIe x4 or x8 wouldn't draw much more power anyways.

The XG Station is x1 PCIe because this is for laptops with ExpressCard. ExpressCard is x1 PCIe.

Couldn't they make it use an ExpressCard + two USB ports + the Audio and Microphone port + the DVI/VGA port + the power plug for "Maximum Bandwidth"?

Of course, I'm joking.

TnB= Gir · 05-19-08

Pci-e x1 has less bandwidth than pci doesn't it?

RayvinAzn · 05-19-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by TnB= Gir

Pci-e x1 has less bandwidth than pci doesn't it?

No, PCI-e x1 offers something like three times the bandwidth of PCI.

TnB= Gir · 05-19-08

PCI-E x1 bandwidth is 250MB/S and pci bandwidth is 133MB/S. So roughly twice. We're both wrong

My bad

Turnoz · 05-19-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by TnB= Gir

PCI-E x1 bandwidth is 250MB/S and pci bandwidth is 133MB/S. So roughly twice. We're both wrong

My bad

Who cares? ITS BETTER THAN MY PCI CARD

I seriously can't wait. My 6150 in my laptop is only a tiny bit better than my sig rig.... and that's if it isn't crashing.

RayvinAzn · 05-19-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by TnB= Gir

PCI-E x1 bandwidth is 250MB/S and pci bandwidth is 133MB/S. So roughly twice. We're both wrong

My bad

Bi-directional though, isn't it? Or is that already figured in?

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[tcMag] Asus XG Station almost at the finish line

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