External Thunderbolt PCI Expansion Chassis and Hub in Development

MacRumors · Aug 1, 2011

Current generation ViDock

VillageTronic seems to have started work on a Thunderbolt version of its ViDock PCI expansion chassis that allows laptop owners to use PCI Express graphics cards on their computers. They lay out the following usage scenario:

Imagine using your thin and light laptop PC during the day on the job, at school, or at the local café then arriving home, or dorm room, plugging it into your ViDock and firing up your latest PC game on a large format monitor. Just plug in one cable into your laptop PC and you instantly have a powerful 3D workstation with a big display, a big keyboard and your pointing device of choice. You are ready for gaming, video transcoding, photoshop, 3D design, watching full 1080p HD movies, and more!

The ViDock presently interfaces through laptops using an ExpressCard slot, but we've heard that development has started on a Thunderbolt compatible version. ExpressCard slots are a rarity on Apple's laptops, presently only available on the 17" MacBook Pro. By offering a Thunderbolt version of this expansion chassis, even 11" MacBook Air customers could theoretically drive an external graphics card.

Villiagetronic originally posted a feeler for such a device on their Facebook page, promising to pursue development if there was enough interest. They've also discussed the possibility of adding USB ports, Ethernet and other ports to the expansion dock. Separately, we've heard the chassis itself will adopt an aluminum "Mac" look, unlike the presently shipping ViDocks (pictured above).

Sony had previously introduced a similar but proprietary dock system for their upcoming ultra-thin 13" notebook. It's no surprise that companies are starting to work on similar solutions for the broader market, and Villiagetronic isn't alone with a similar Sonnet device also having been announced.

Article Link: External Thunderbolt PCI Expansion Chassis and Hub in Development

talkingfuture · Aug 1, 2011

Thats a cool idea. Wouldn't surprise me if Apple themselves have played around with the idea too.

Ramsos · Aug 1, 2011

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Exciting possibilities. My thunderbolt iMac could use this.

Hellhammer · Aug 1, 2011

Sonnet is also working on PCIe adapter

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/thunderbolt/index.html

firestarter · Aug 1, 2011

This is quite old news. Sonnet announced a PCIe expansion dock months back - with their Echo Express boxes.

linky

xstaycold · Aug 1, 2011

would love to see this on thunderbolt displays. it would actually influence me to buy one.

Narrie · Aug 1, 2011

Would the Macbook Air be compatible with its stripped down Thunderbolt port?

This is a very clever solution for people who want to add some extra horsepower to the Air, Mini or the 13" MBP.

Just think about the possibilities if it's going to be modular. You could just insert a high-end graphics-card and you're good to go.

obiwan · Aug 1, 2011

This would be great - I've been clammering for something like this for ages. (Ever since Apple started putting underpowered none-upgradeable graphics cards in their machines.)

I can only see one major downside though...

- Who the heck is going to write the software drivers for these Graphics cards? Apple sure isn't - and it's not like there are a whole bunch of Mac compatible graphics cards out there to choose from...

MrNomNoms · Aug 1, 2011

So in theory if someone created USB3 drivers for Mac OS X one could put a PCIe USB card into one of those external boxes and thus have what so many people seem to be demanding?

miles01110 · Aug 1, 2011

Narrie said:
Just think about the possibilities if it's going to be modular. You could just insert a high-end graphics-card and you're good to go.

...if the drivers for Lion exist, which they probably won't. Also depending on the power supply the true high-end graphics cards might not get enough juice.

iSayuSay · Aug 1, 2011

" ... Imagine using your thin and light laptop PC during the day on the job, at school, or at the local café then arriving home, or dorm room, plugging it into your ViDock and firing up your latest PC game on a large format monitor. Just plug in one cable into your laptop PC and you instantly have a powerful 3D workstation with a big display, a big keyboard and your pointing device of choice. You are ready for gaming, video transcoding, photoshop, 3D design, watching full 1080p HD movies, and more! ..."

Yeah .. imagine that Thunderbolt naysayers ... Can USB 3.0 do that?

res1233 · Aug 1, 2011

miles01110 said:
...if the drivers for Lion exist, which they probably won't. Also depending on the power supply the true high-end graphics cards might not get enough juice.

I'd imagine anything like this would have to come with its own power supply to be viable in the first place, so I wouldn't worry.

P.S. So now you people understand why some of us see a bright future for thunderbolt. Buy yourself a low-end mac mini, then get yourself one of these babies, and presto! A gaming PC. All we need now is for AMD/NVidia to start provide their own drivers, then we'd be all set. I wonder if NDIS could be ported to Mac OS?

Narrie · Aug 1, 2011

miles01110 said:
...if the drivers for Lion exist, which they probably won't. Also depending on the power supply the true high-end graphics cards might not get enough juice.

If the purpse is gaming, you could just use in boot camp. The selection is still much larger for Windows.

arn · Aug 1, 2011

res1233 said:
I'd imagine anything like this would have to come with its own power supply to be viable in the first place, so I wouldn't worry.

The current ViDocks come in 3 configs to handle the power

ViDock 3 is designed for graphics cards that consume up to 75W of power and get all of their power needs from the PCI Express connector. It can accommodate cards up to 240mm long, which is a bit longer than the PCI Express Standard half length cards.

ViDock 4 is designed for those higher performance graphics cards that require up to 150W of power and use a 6 pin power connector to supplement the power supplied by the PCI Express connector. It will accommodate cards that are up to 316mm long, which is the PCI Express full length specification.

ViDock 4 Plus adds a second 2 x 3 pin power connector to accommodate graphics cards that require up to 225W.

miles01110 · Aug 1, 2011

res1233 said:
I'd imagine anything like this would have to come with its own power supply to be viable in the first place, so I wouldn't worry.

The Sonnets come with 150W or 75W power supplies. The Radeon HD 6970 requires about 360W. So, as I said- the high end graphics cards will still be out of reach unless they decide to stick a rather large PSU on the back of those things.

Of course, not everyone will need the best of the best. I imagine for most people the bay PSU will suffice for whatever they want to put in it.

lostngone · Aug 1, 2011

miles01110 said:
...if the drivers for Lion exist, which they probably won't. Also depending on the power supply the true high-end graphics cards might not get enough juice.

I agree about the Apple/Mac OS X not supporting it. However I doubt the thunderbolt cable would supply power to the box I would guess it would have external power.

MacFly123 · Aug 1, 2011

talkingfuture said:
Thats a cool idea. Wouldn't surprise me if Apple themselves have played around with the idea too.

xstaycold said:
would love to see this on thunderbolt displays. it would actually influence me to buy one.

Think of the new Apple Thunderbolt Display if Apple put a monster GPU in the display and when you dock your MacBook Air it turbo charges it with a beautiful display and ports already there! This sounds like a logical progression for mobile computing coexisting with power users!

Hellhammer · Aug 1, 2011

miles01110 said:
The Sonnets come with 150W or 75W power supplies. The Radeon HD 6970 requires about 360W. So, as I said- the high end graphics cards will still be out of reach unless they decide to stick a rather large PSU on the back of those things.

Of course, not everyone will need the best of the best. I imagine for most people the bay PSU will suffice for whatever they want to put in it.

That is the wattage the whole system is using, not the power consumption of the GPU (it can't really be measured separately). 6970 has TDP of 250W while the Sonnet and ViDock provide up to 225W (150W PSU + 75W PCIe).

benbrownlol · Aug 1, 2011

If you like the idea please express that here : http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=89321949134&topic=17768

Can add suggestions as to what you want aswell.

jesushavemercy · Aug 1, 2011

Wow, I've been longing for this.
TBH I don't think that this will work very well outside bootcamp. So it's probably suited for windows more.

2499723 · Aug 1, 2011

obiwan said:
I can only see one major downside though...

- Who the heck is going to write the software drivers for these Graphics cards? Apple sure isn't - and it's not like there are a whole bunch of Mac compatible graphics cards out there to choose from...

You won't need to rely on Mac drivers. Just boot camp into Windows 7 for your gaming. Unless you're thinking about productivity software... Still, if Sonnet is making something like this, you know they'll be including Mac drivers of some description for the hardware. They'll probably include a list of supported graphics cards or something. We'll see... The real question will be if the Mac versions of this external design will require Mac versions of the graphics cards. Again, if you just use it for a boot camp installation, that shouldn't matter too much either. Anyway...I'm just speculating, which is about as good as most people are doing, I suppose. =P

In any case, I will definitely buy something like this if it provides a real solution. I just dumped my PC tower because it's noisy and large and a pain in the rear as it freezes up on occasion. Yes, Windows 7 is better, but I still get a BSD every now and then, and on multiple machines (so, I'm not convinced it's just a hardware issue). Maybe I just suck.

Hellhammer · Aug 1, 2011

mac1984user said:
You won't need to rely on Mac drivers. Just boot camp into Windows 7 for your gaming. Unless you're thinking about productivity software... Still, if Sonnet is making something like this, you know they'll be including Mac drivers of some description for the hardware. They'll probably include a list of supported graphics cards or something. We'll see... The real question will be if the Mac versions of this external design will require Mac versions of the graphics cards. Again, if you just use it for a boot camp installation, that shouldn't matter too much either. Anyway...I'm just speculating, which is about as good as most people are doing, I suppose. =P

In any case, I will definitely buy something like this if it provides a real solution. I just dumped my PC tower because it's noisy and large and a pain in the rear as it freezes up on occasion. Yes, Windows 7 is better, but I still get a BSD every now and then, and on multiple machines (so, I'm not convinced it's just a hardware issue). Maybe I just suck.

Thunderbolt doesn't work under Windows (yet). We need drivers for that too.

grue · Aug 1, 2011

Shame thunderbolt isn't fast enough to support full-speed PCIe cards, otherwise it'd be a lot more interesting.

2499723 · Aug 1, 2011

Hellhammer said:
Thunderbolt doesn't work under Windows (yet). We need drivers for that too.

Ha. I suck. Didn't realise Thunderbolt isn't working under Windows yet. Thought there were some random Sony machines or something that were implementing it. Thanks for informing me!

obiwan · Aug 1, 2011

mac1984user said:
The real question will be if the Mac versions of this external design will require Mac versions of the graphics cards.

Yes I wondered that too - hence my comments about writing software drivers. - It would be far better if the hardware supports Mac and PC graphics cards (if this is possible). There are a far greater (and cheaper) range of PC cards available - but they would require the necessary drivers for them to be supported on the Mac.

If the hardware only would work with Mac compatible graphics cards, what's the guarantee that these work under Windows 7 even IF thunderbolt was supported.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

External Thunderbolt PCI Expansion Chassis and Hub in Development

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