The PCI Express to Laptop Adapter: A Game-Changer for Portable Computing?
soanggood.com recently reached out to me and asked if I'd like to try out one of their products. When I saw what it was, I thought that many of you would find it interesting as well, since it certainly did for me. The product in question is a PCI Express to laptop adapter.
This adapter is great for gaming because it means you can use a full-size desktop graphics card on a laptop. Video editing should also be much smoother thanks to hardware acceleration. I'll be using my now ancient Dell D420 for this experiment, which wasn't even powerful back in its day with its really slow 1.2 gigahertz processor. So it remains to be seen how well it will perform at gaming assuming the adapter even works.
Unfortunately, the adapter didn't come with a manual, but it seems pretty straightforward to set up. I'm going to plug in the adapter's data cable into the spare mini PCI Express slot on the laptop, most laptops only have one slot, meaning that in most situations, the wireless card has to be removed to use the adapter. The other end of the data cable strangely uses an HDMI connector, but I'm guessing it would be a pretty bad idea to plug it directly into a TV.
Now it's time to plug in a graphics card. It's a bit wobbly without a case, but it seems secure enough. A powerful graphics card like this needs plenty of juice to run the adapter, which has a 12 volt DC jack for less powerful cards, but for more powerful ones, it has an 8-pin socket so that it can be hooked up to a standard ATX power supply using the included cable. This cable plugs into the 20-pin motherboard connector and the 4-pin CPU connector, as with most cards, it needs additional power through the PSU's PCI Express power connector.
Now it's time to boot it up. Sure enough, in Device Manager, the card appears to be detected, and while installing NVIDIA drivers, the screen suddenly switches to my main display on the graphics card's output, with everything appearing to be working. It's time to try a game, I'm going to try an old favorite of mine as the laptop doesn't have its own optical drive, so I used an external one. Interestingly, plugging it in caused the display to go blank for a few seconds recovering soon afterwards, the same thing happened when I plugged in my external hard drive but other devices that don't need external power like USB sticks work fine.
I'm assuming this has something to do with power grounding but it's not too much of an issue. Now, the moment of truth. It's worth noting that this game doesn't even launch when using the laptop's built-in graphics card so anything more than that is a success and we're in the game, runs smoothly and looks graphically splendid. This is one of the reasons I chose to try it at first. I was a bit conservative with the resolution but surprisingly bumping it up from 720p to 1440p did not affect the frame rate indicating that the laptop's 1.2 gigahertz processor is indeed a bottleneck.
I confirmed this later when I ran Unigene's Heaven benchmark where the score actually improved with more graphically demanding settings, the average frame rate was 34 percent lower than when the GTX 660 was in my desktop PC which isn't too bad considering the laptop's measly specs. Even more modern games like Skyrim and Grid 2 were playable at 1080p, remember this is all on an ultra portable business class laptop that's nearly 9 years old.
Overall, I was surprised that the adapter works as well as it does and it should perform even better with a more modern laptop. It's certainly a niche product but it does have its uses and for me it makes laptops a viable option to have as a desktop replacement. I'd like to revisit this in the future to see how much of a performance hit there is running a card through this adapter, but for that, I'll need a more powerful laptop.
A big thank you to banggood.com for sending me this adapter, as this video wouldn't have happened otherwise, I've included a link in the description if any of you want to buy one but make sure your laptop is compatible beforehand as many aren't.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso banggood.com got in touch recently and asked me whether i'd like to try out a product they sell when i saw what it was i thought that many of you would find it interesting as it certainly was for me the product in question is a pci express to laptop adapter this is great for gaming obviously because it means you can use a full-size desktop graphics card on a laptop video editing should also be much smoother thanks to hardware acceleration i'll be using my now ancient dell d420 for this experiment it wasn't even powerful back in its day with its really slow 1.2 gigahertz processor so it remains to be seen how well it will perform at gaming assuming the adapter even works unfortunately it didn't come with a manual but it seems pretty straightforward to set up so i'm going to plug in the adapter's data cable into the spare mini pci express slot on the laptop most laptops only have one slot meaning that in most situations the wireless card has to be removed to use the adapter the other end of the data cable strangely uses an hdmi connector but i'm guessing it would be a pretty bad idea to plug it directly into a tv now it's time to plug in a graphics card it's a bit wobbly without a case but it seems secure enough a powerful graphics card like this needs plenty of juice in order to run the adapter has a 12 volt dc jack for less powerful cards but for more powerful ones it has an 8-pin socket so that it can be hooked up to a standard atx power supply using the included cable this cable plugs into the 20-pin motherboard connector and the 4-pin cpu connector as with most cards it needs additional power through the psu's pci express power connector so now it's time to boot it up sure enough in device manager the card appears to be detected and whilst installing the nvidia drivers the screen suddenly switches to my main display on the graphics card's output with everything appearing to be working it's time to try a game i'm going to try an old favorite of mine as the laptop doesn't have its own optical drive i used an external one interestingly plugging it in caused the display to go blank for a few seconds recovering soon afterwards the same thing happened when i plugged in my external hard drive but other devices that don't need external power like usb sticks work fine i'm assuming this has something to do with power grounding but it's not too much of an issue so now the moment of truth it's worth noting that this game doesn't even launch when using the laptop's inbuilt graphics card so anything more than that is a success and we're in the game runs smoothly and looks graphically splendid which is one of the reasons i chose to try it at first i was a bit conservative with the resolution but surprisingly bumping it up from 720p to 1440p did not affect the frame rate indicating that the laptop's 1.2 gigahertz processor is indeed a bottleneck here i confirmed this later when i ran unigene's heaven benchmark where the score actually improved with more graphically demanding settings the average frame rate was 34 percent lower than when the gtx 660 was in my desktop pc which isn't too bad considering the laptop's measly specs even more modern games like skyrim and grid 2 were playable at 1080p remember this is all on an ultra portable business class laptop that's nearly 9 years old so overall i was surprised that the adapter works as well as it does and it should perform even better with a more modern laptop it's certainly a niche product but it does have its uses and for me it makes laptops a viable option to have as a desktop replacement i'd like to revisit this in the future to see how much of a performance hit there is running a card through this adapter but for that i'll need a more powerful laptop a big thanks to banggood.com for sending me this adapter as this video wouldn't have happened otherwise i've included a link in the description if any of you want to buy one but make sure your laptop is compatible beforehand as many aren't on the topic of graphics cards do you remember how i tried mounting a cpu cooler on one a while ago well i've built it into a custom case and i'll be uploading a video about it soon so stay tuned and in the meantime don't forget to subscribe youso banggood.com got in touch recently and asked me whether i'd like to try out a product they sell when i saw what it was i thought that many of you would find it interesting as it certainly was for me the product in question is a pci express to laptop adapter this is great for gaming obviously because it means you can use a full-size desktop graphics card on a laptop video editing should also be much smoother thanks to hardware acceleration i'll be using my now ancient dell d420 for this experiment it wasn't even powerful back in its day with its really slow 1.2 gigahertz processor so it remains to be seen how well it will perform at gaming assuming the adapter even works unfortunately it didn't come with a manual but it seems pretty straightforward to set up so i'm going to plug in the adapter's data cable into the spare mini pci express slot on the laptop most laptops only have one slot meaning that in most situations the wireless card has to be removed to use the adapter the other end of the data cable strangely uses an hdmi connector but i'm guessing it would be a pretty bad idea to plug it directly into a tv now it's time to plug in a graphics card it's a bit wobbly without a case but it seems secure enough a powerful graphics card like this needs plenty of juice in order to run the adapter has a 12 volt dc jack for less powerful cards but for more powerful ones it has an 8-pin socket so that it can be hooked up to a standard atx power supply using the included cable this cable plugs into the 20-pin motherboard connector and the 4-pin cpu connector as with most cards it needs additional power through the psu's pci express power connector so now it's time to boot it up sure enough in device manager the card appears to be detected and whilst installing the nvidia drivers the screen suddenly switches to my main display on the graphics card's output with everything appearing to be working it's time to try a game i'm going to try an old favorite of mine as the laptop doesn't have its own optical drive i used an external one interestingly plugging it in caused the display to go blank for a few seconds recovering soon afterwards the same thing happened when i plugged in my external hard drive but other devices that don't need external power like usb sticks work fine i'm assuming this has something to do with power grounding but it's not too much of an issue so now the moment of truth it's worth noting that this game doesn't even launch when using the laptop's inbuilt graphics card so anything more than that is a success and we're in the game runs smoothly and looks graphically splendid which is one of the reasons i chose to try it at first i was a bit conservative with the resolution but surprisingly bumping it up from 720p to 1440p did not affect the frame rate indicating that the laptop's 1.2 gigahertz processor is indeed a bottleneck here i confirmed this later when i ran unigene's heaven benchmark where the score actually improved with more graphically demanding settings the average frame rate was 34 percent lower than when the gtx 660 was in my desktop pc which isn't too bad considering the laptop's measly specs even more modern games like skyrim and grid 2 were playable at 1080p remember this is all on an ultra portable business class laptop that's nearly 9 years old so overall i was surprised that the adapter works as well as it does and it should perform even better with a more modern laptop it's certainly a niche product but it does have its uses and for me it makes laptops a viable option to have as a desktop replacement i'd like to revisit this in the future to see how much of a performance hit there is running a card through this adapter but for that i'll need a more powerful laptop a big thanks to banggood.com for sending me this adapter as this video wouldn't have happened otherwise i've included a link in the description if any of you want to buy one but make sure your laptop is compatible beforehand as many aren't on the topic of graphics cards do you remember how i tried mounting a cpu cooler on one a while ago well i've built it into a custom case and i'll be uploading a video about it soon so stay tuned and in the meantime don't forget to subscribe you\n"
