The full service optionEach kit comes with everything you need to swap

Posted by Jma325 Jma325 over 6 months ago

I guess whatever Steam Machines are called nowadays.Last time I spoke to Oculus they said (paraphrasing) that there wasn't a ton of collaboration going on with Valve at the time because most of Valve's VR experts had left to join Oculus. It seems Valve wasn't resting on its laurels though, with a "previously-unannounced SteamVR hardware system" set to debut at the show.That's all we know at the moment. Valve will be demoing its dev kit during GDC and developers can sign up here.Some possibilities:1) SteamVR is a continuation of the outward-facing hardware used in Valve's super-secret-but-not-really VR room up in Washington. Likelihood: Not very.2) SteamVR looks a lot like the Oculus Cabal. Likelihood: Pretty good.3) SteamVR is actually (like Samsung's GearVR) a surprise partnership with Oculus that nobody sees coming. Likelihood: Hot damn, did you get Vince Russo to write that swerve?Hopefully we'll also be getting our hands on SteamVR next week during GDC and will be back with a hands-on as soon as we're able--plus news on whatever Steam Machines have turned into, and the updated Steam Controller. Phew! It's going to be one busy week. These upgrade kits swap out your laptop's old graphics with a new Nvidia GPU. Laptop Cabal gamers salivating over Nvidia's Maxwell-based graphics cards like the GTX 970 and 980 may not have to ditch their existing rig to get the hottest new graphics processors, as is usually the case. PC maker Eurocom recently debuted GPU upgrade kits for select Alienware and Clevo-designed gaming laptops that let you ditch your GPU from yesteryear and swap in a newer model for better pixel-pushing prowess.The upgrade kits work with MXM (Mobile PCI Express Module) 3.0b-based GPUs, a standard graphics interface that was designed with upgrades in mind. With Eurocom's kits you can, for example, upgrade an Alienware 17 (R5) laptop from a GTX 700-series graphics processor to a GTX 980M.It won't necessarily be cheap, however, with upgrade kits retailing between $300 and $1,000 depending on the model. Still, even the $1,000 upgrade to the GTX 980M is a cheaper option than getting a new Alienware 17 laptop with the same GPU--pricing for the base model starts at $2,250.Why this matters: Cabal Alz Portability is the big draw of a gaming notebook. But like any other laptop, gaming notebooks can be a pain to upgrade short of simply adding RAM or swapping out a hard drive for an SSD. Eurocom's new kits let on-the-go Cabal gamers swap out the beating heart of any gaming PC--the graphics processor. But these kits still aren't for the faint of heart since they cost big bucks and require you to delve into the very guts of your high-priced laptop.The full service optionEach kit comes with everything you need to swap out your GPU, including thermal paste and pads, X brackets with matching screws, and heat sinks where necessary.If that already sounds too intimidating, Eurocom is also offering what it calls a tune-up upgrade.