05/04/2007, 4:55pm, EDT

Friday, May 4th

External PCIe support for MacBook Pro ships

Magma today began shipping ExpressBox, which it claims is the first external PCI Express expansion product for laptops. ExpressBox provides an easy means of attaching a PCI Express card to a laptop via the ExpressCard slot included in Apple's MacBook Pro. The device works with any "single-width" video card that requires 55 watts or less, and the company plans to support "double-wide" GPUs that require auxiliary power with the next generation of the Magma ExpressBox later this year. The accessory ships in two sizes to support half-length cards up to 6.6-inches long ($730) or full-length cards up to 12.283-inches ($750).

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ppayne

Ugh

05/05, 8:39am, EDT

That is fugly. Since I have only put one PCI card in on machine in the past ten years -- an eSata card in my backup server -- I can't imagine needing anything this would work with on a laptop.

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testudo

Re: ugh

05/05, 2:22pm, EDT

Which is, I'm sure, why they made it. Because they looked at the market and said "Hey, mac owners don't need something like this, because they never use cards. So let's build it!"

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tigas

Smell the Pro coffee

05/06, 11:43am, EDT

Heck, anything Magma always costs an arm and both legs, ever since the PCI33 expanders.

Running ProTools TDM or doing 3D previz that needs a Quadro 4500? Those guys that need it in a laptop can pay for it.

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LouZer

Re: ugh

05/06, 11:26pm, EDT

Fugly? I guess if all you care about in computers and hardware is how it looks, then perhaps you're right. But, if you actually care about quality and performance, maybe you'd actually try it first and see if it works for what its needed for.

But that's what Apple has brought to the table. Looks first, performance/capabilities second.

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