mini PCI video card

[monkeyguy8504]

Lately I have been using my laptop to play games like World of Warcraft and Halo, and they lag really bad and have a slow framerate that makes it hard to play. I was wondering, just for fun, if there are 3.3 volt PCI video cards out there that you could hook up to your mini PCI slot through a mini PCI to PCI converter. I guess it might help if there was some sort of slot extension cable, too. Are all the newer video cards made for 5V PCI slots? I know this is unconventional, but is it possible?

[azzey]

Not betting on it. Laptops generally aren't meant to be gaming machines--they can't produce too much heat, and aren't big enough. Also, the better-performing graphics cards draw too much power for them to be used in laptops.

Most notebooks will allow you to upgrade the RAM and hard drive. That's about it, although you can sometimes take everything apart and replace the processor.

[deddard]

Mini PCI graphics is something we're all waiting for - trying to add full sized stuff isn't going to work purely on a power basis.
I wasn't sure if anything like this was available, but I found this link to a review of an MSI mobo, which uses a mini PCI

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/newsrelease/news_page.php?UID=296

in it, it mentions:
"this small interface lets you use cards in mini-PCI format. MSI offers four options:

1.MS-9518 with Adaptec AIC-7892B SCSI controller
2.MS-9514 with TI TSB43AB FireWire chips from Texas 3.Instruments
4.MS-9513 with ATI Rage XL graphics chip "

so we might be seing something at last, although I've no doubt it will be ditched in the future in favour of PCI express