We over at notebook review have been working on an external GPU solution for a long time now. While at its current state, it does not lend to a lot of portability, but some great custom enclosures are being put together. Also, the price is far less restrictive than the Villagetronic solution.
I have gone as far as getting rid of my desktop since my docked HP Elitebook 8460p with second-gen i7-2720qm with 8gb ram and GTX460 is faster at just about everything than my old Intel Q9300/GTX 460 system. The only downside RIGHT NOW is there are no PCIe 2.0 compliant parts yet, so we are seeing limited bandwidth. Even Villagetronics parts are having trouble working on 2.0 compliant laptop(Lenovo x220)
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We over at notebook review have been working on an external GPU solution for a long time now. While at its current state, it does not lend to a lot of portability, but some great custom enclosures are being put together. Also, the price is far less restrictive than the Villagetronic solution.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-egpu-experiences.html#post5324240
I have gone as far as getting rid of my desktop since my docked HP Elitebook 8460p with second-gen i7-2720qm with 8gb ram and GTX460 is faster at just about everything than my old Intel Q9300/GTX 460 system. The only downside RIGHT NOW is there are no PCIe 2.0 compliant parts yet, so we are seeing limited bandwidth. Even Villagetronics parts are having trouble working on 2.0 compliant laptop(Lenovo x220)
My experiences
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-egpu-experiences-464.html#post7750576
Once 2.0 compliant parts are available, I am switching to a GTX570 for gaming on the internal LCD at friends, and my 24" LCD at home.
Unfortunately, my Elitebook has no TB port or I would perhaps go that route simply for a cleaner, less work intensive solution.