Laptop with super GPU expansion. Nice.

[jomni]

Fully powered gaming rig wherever you go. 

http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/5/7493303/msi-gs30-shadow-gaming-dock

[MIGMaster]

Alienware was the first with a an external GPU - unfortunately, ther model only works with an Aleinware PC. I suspect we'll see a growing market in this area- and as Martha Stewart woud say - that's a good thing! Aisde from turning a alaptop into a monster gaming machine, I like the fact you can upgrade the external unit with bigger PSU's or different graphics cards. 

[Yskonyn]

And how is this comfortably sitting on your lap?   
If not for the weight, your balls (or those of the person next to you) will be constantly frigid due to the blowing fans.

[bbmike]

Isn't this sort of like Keurig 2.0 introducing the new, wonderful ability to brew a full pot of coffee?  :D
I thought the reason for having a laptop was for small size/portability. Why not just get a desktop to go with your laptop? For the cost of that thing you could could get a nice desktop.

[MIGMaster]

It's a techie thing - you have it because you can ! O0 Of course, chances are if you have this you also have a kick-ass desktop too because you're a die-hard nerd/gamer/grog - but you "need" this because nobody else has one !

[Yskonyn]

I'd rather keep my balls in good condition, thank you! I am already taking enough of a risk sitting behind a weather radar every day.


.

[MIGMaster]

The Alienware Version

[JasonPratt]

Or you could get an actual laptop that doesn't need the dock:  :D

Current Price: $6,650.85

    Components
    Display: 17" Matte LCD Panel - 1920x1080 w/pixel perfect guarantee
    Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 4940MX 3.10GHz
    Memory: SD 1600MHz 4x8GB (32GB)
    Video Card: 2 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 980M 8GB SLI
    Hard Drive: Crucial® m550 mSATA SSD 256GB (for the 64 bit Win 8.1Pro OS)
    Hard Drive 2: Samsung® 840 EVO mSATA 1TB
    Hard Drive 3: Seagate® SSHD 1TB
    Hard Drive 4: Seagate® SSHD 1TB
    Optical Drive: 6x Blu-ray & DVD Writer
    Networking: 802.11 B/G/N/AC & Bluetooth
    Battery: 1x Lithium-Ion 8-Cell (89.21WH)
    Power Supply: 1x AC Adapter - DRX
    Carrying Case: Falcon Northwest Backpack (boss as hell, though I kind of prefer the aluminum suitcase)
    USB Rescue Drive
    Warranty: DRX - 3 Year & Falcon Overnight (meaning they'll match your freight back to you, if you have to send it in)

Plus Falcon tech support for like ever. Not that you'll need it much, Falcons are designed utterly rock solid.

That's actually about a grand less than I paid for my DRX many years ago, and it comes with more power and vastly much more onboard memory (though mine had an extra DVD drive). Still runs XP2SP2 like a champ, the old warhorse. 

[Nefaro]

Or you could get an actual laptop that doesn't need the dock:  :D

Current Price: $6,650.85

That's just ridiculous!

C:-)

[JudgeDredd]

Alienware was the first with a an external GPU - unfortunately, ther model only works with an Aleinware PC. I suspect we'll see a growing market in this area- and as Martha Stewart woud say - that's a good thing! Aisde from turning a alaptop into a monster gaming machine, I like the fact you can upgrade the external unit with bigger PSU's or different graphics cards.

And that's different to a PC how?

Sorry - it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The box below (given as you say you can upgrade it) is almost a full PC anyway. What exactly is the benefit here? And having that big bloody box doesn't mean you have mobile gaming.

I've got a laptop for mobile use (not gaming) and a PC for gaming. If I wanted a laptop for gaming, I'd buy a gaming laptop...not a shitty one and connect it to a "PC".

This smacks of one of those "lets invent this because it hasn't been done yet" things. Invention for the sake of it.

[Rekim]

A year ago I bough a laptop with an i7 processor and discrete graphics card to allow some gaming away from the home PC

http://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_ZENBOOK_UX32VD/

Turn based wargames like WitE work well enough, but don`t care for all the effort required to scroll around big maps using a touch pad. A couple of my real-time favorites (CMANO, Distant Worlds) start off great, but found the laptop lacks the horsepower to keep things running smoothly once things start getting busy. Still searching for that title which will play nicely with the hardware and keep me engrossed.

[sandman2575]

That's actually about a grand less than I paid for my DRX many years ago

!!!
!!!

Man, and I thought I had gone overboard when I blew just over $3 Grand on a dual-gfx card Sager laptop back in 2010...  (was, and remains to some extent, a great machine, but the overall take-away from that experience was, 'never again')

Close to $8,000, on a laptop?   I'm bowled over, truly.

[JasonPratt]

Tis true; my current tower (The Presence) didn't cost much more, and it was blinged out pretty heavily. But hardware costs seem to have dropped quite a bit since then.

FNW used to have a photo on their site showing how hard it was to get a photo of my DRX because IT'S SUCKING ALL THE LIGHT INTO IT! Sadly gone now; wish I had kept it, it was hilarious. They still have a photo for purposes of showing that they'll do their company logo in alternate colors, but without the context of what they had to go through to get enough light to shoot it, it isn't as impressive.



Keeping in mind, I could have paid less for a tower with some more strength. But that laptop beat almost every tower in existence at the time, and was fairly portable: it really was a desktop replacement. You wouldn't ever want to use it on an actual lap, of course; I always put it on its aluminum suitcase as a heat sink. 

[sandman2575]

I've been intrigued by FNW for a while. Thought about buying a Tiki for my desktop, in 2013 -- went with a Maingear machine instead and have been very pleased with it.

I can't really fathom dropping more than $4k max on any computer, no matter the quality of build...

[JasonPratt]

FNW design their computers for maximum efficiency and reliability at the top possible speeds. Sure, I'm paying a lot more for parts I could put together myself, and even more than I could have someone else put together for me. But the few times I've ever needed tech support were never their fault, and they helped generously. In fact, I'm not entirely sure I've ever talked to their tech support in 15 years; I always seem to talk to Matt, one of the chief salesmen and possibly one of the owners. (Right now I'm remembering I was going to wait until after the holiday rush and call up to ask them what they'd recommend for putting on my board for setting up an HDMI video/audio passthrough, or if that's possible. I mean one, from my PS3, through my computer's video card into my monitor -- which by the way is a 43" Vizio: best quality for the price, nothing beats it, maybe LG does as good. I don't buy my monitors from Falcon, but I bet theirs are top-quality, too.)

They sell nothing they don't trust 100% to work to their high expectations, and they system engineer as religiously as monks. I could never get near making the computer work as well as they do even with the same hardware.

Their Tiki system (and the older Fragbox design) are the results of their near 20 years engineering expertise for efficient power for the space used.

No lie, if I ever retired from the family business, I'd be delighted to be able to rep their products -- but I'd not be good enough to do so.