Plug & Play External Graphics Card Solution for Precision laptops?

Yeap. It "should" work with Dell systems. Just make sure the one you are planning to use it with has full duplex thunderbolt speeds. Some.of the recent ones have half.

 

This is not a problem with an external display, but it is an absolute deal-breaker with the internal screen.

 

Well, was kind of easy for a process like that.

I just turn on my dell m6800, after get the windows ready, put on sleep mode then plug the EC cable with the GPU already on the adapter (fed by PSU externaly), turn on the pc again and windows recognize a new hardware. Install drivers and be happy

If start m6800 with the EC cable attached, system will freeze because Dell will not able to recognize the new hardware and it will blocked for your *safety*

 

You probably can't "hot remove" the eGPU? Does it behave OK if you sleep, remove the EC/eGPU, and then turn it on again?

 

Idk, but I'll test soon and post here

 

Iirc you'll need to force a shutdown and restart if you forget to unplug before sleeping. Nine times out of 10, it would light up the keyboard but nothing would be usable.

 

tested here, bios A17 you can boot with the egpu plugged in without the freeze! (legacy boot)

-> GDC EXP BEAST v8 with external PSU for GPU and PNY GTX 970

 

Very cool piece of hardware. Didn't know it existed. and is reasonable price. Would require the version connecting to internal PCIe card connector (as current precisions do not have external express expansion slot). Also requires having laptop cover removed while connected and also of course having such connector open and not being used for something else. but still very cool.

I may try that on my old M6500 but using express card interface.

 

I think for newer Precisions, Thunderbolt is clearly a better option --- aside from the wonky connection that you would have to work out, this thing would be limited to a PCIe x1 connection (I believe, 8 Gbps connection to the card, compared to Thunderbolt 3's 40 Gbps). However, for Precisions older than the 5510/7510/7710, it's the only possible option.

 

sounds like fun experiment to try with my M6500. I wonder if I can use WWAN connection on m6500. I'd also need to source a power supply and desktop GPU but still sounds fun