USB 3380 on M11x R3?

So I've been looking into an external GPU solution for my R3 (for quite a while, I might add), and I stumbled upon PLX Tech's USB 3380. Can this work on the M11x R3, or would I still have to take out my WiFi card? I'm aware there are hundred-page threads dedicated to this topic, but I a) don't have the time to read it, and b) can't understand all the technical jargon going on even being relatively-knowledgeable about graphics cards and such.

 

It looks like its worth a shot if you can return it if it doesn't work. I don't see a reason for it not working, but I am not too experienced with that sort of thing.

 

So is there some sort of limit on how good of a card I could connect (as better cards are obviously more power-intensive)?

 

If you get a card with its own power source no. But you will still be limited by your processor, so anything better than a gtx 560m would be impracticle.

 

Sounds good. Although is there any place that has a sort of tutorial on hooking up the GPU? I'm sure I could do it, but I'd feel a lot better with a guide. Also, what's the performance difference between a GTX 560M and GTX 560 (out of curiosity)?

 

The GTX 560 is a desktop gpu and the GTX 560m is for high end notebooks. Since it is for notebooks the 560m will consume less power and be less powerfull. But will also require substantially less cooling. The performance difference should not matter (I think its like 60% for the desktop one) its as both cards will pretty much max out all current game settings. As I said before you will be limited by your processor before the new GPU.

Check out this site for GPU specs:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

OK, just a few more questions. What's the basic process that I'll have to do to hook up the new GPU? I plug in the 3380 and attach the GPU to that, and then what do I do about the internal 540M? And just to make sure, the speed of USB 3.0 is fast enough to support an eGPU, right? The last thing I want is to buy a $200 graphics card only to discover USB isn't fast enough to support it.

 

I've never actually done this for myself. I know that for the sony vaio Z, it recognizes the external video card automatically like hooking up a mouse or printer. I'd imagine that for a make it yourself one, you would hook it up, then dounload the driver (when you run the new driver it should pick up the external) Then to manage the card you would go into nVidia control pannel.

Just found this from someone who did it using a different method, but the connecting to the Cumputer process looks the same:
"Setup is very easy... almost too easy. With our Lenovo ThinkPad T410s test rig, we plugged the ATI 4890 graphics card into the external adapter, connected the adapter to the laptop with the ExpressCard interface, and turned everything on. The system booted like normal and once it loaded into Windows, Windows Update started to automatically pull in drivers. From that point on the card showed up as a secondary video device, just like connecting another monitor via VGA or DisplayPort-out. Outside of installing the latest drivers from the ATI website for benchmarks, everything was handled automatically by the system without any problems whatsoever. Another added perk was the external audio device that showed up, adding HDMI-audio out to the notebook which would have helped greatly if we chose to make it into an HTPC. For even the most basic users this upgrade is entirely plug and play over the ExpressCard interface with most systems."

Whole article:
How to Upgrade Your Notebook Graphics Card Using DIY ViDOCK

 

I'm really not to sure if USB 3.0 is fast enough for an external GPU tbh. Sounds like a huge bottleneck to me.

 

Yeah, I was a bit worried about that. Does anyone else have experience with this and could say whether it works or not?

 

USB 3.0 should have speeds up to 5GB per second, that should be plenty fast enough.

 

Any updates on this im following im hoping to be able to get something like this set upp so i can connect multiple 30" monitors to my m11x r3 to be the portable when on the road and powerful when im at home any luck?

 

i am really sleepy, but from what i understand even though USB 3.0 gives 5gt/s the "PCI Express Gen 2 x1" means it gives only x1 line, which should be 2.5gt/s each way, (read/write) thats theoretically at best is 312.5MB/s, which most likely would fall down to 200ish in real life, now considering 540m runs at x16 (i assume, correct me if i am wrong thx), the usb3.0 adapter would be considerably far slower than integrated 540m in anything but processing power... as the x1 bus would just bottle next everything...

that adapter would be good for a laptop with low end nvidia/ati card on board, or only the intel graphics, but not one equipped with a fairly decent mid-range card... it would be money down the drain as performance increase would be minimal apart from benchmarks, as in games textures and all that other magical pixies and elves need to be shoved into the graphics card for processing and blending all the time...