Full-sized desktops
are great
for playing the latest AAA games
at high framerate,
or if you need the extra muscle
for video editing, 3d rendering
or computer system design
but
if we're being honest
for most people
a thin
and light
basic laptop
is more than enough these days
and
comes with the extra
benefits
of portability
and
convenience
that you simply
don't get with the desktop
the real bummer
is when you ended up
having to buy
both
a desktop
for your gaming
or your
heavy work, and
a laptop
for when you're out
and about, i mean
why bother
having
2 full
cpu's
installed
on
2 motherboards
when you can
only
really use
1 at a time
if only
there was
a solution
where just
by plugging 1 cable into
that laptop
you
already own
you could extend it
with a full sized desktop
all the peripherals and expension you could want
and even, a powerfull graphics card
i mean, while i'm dreaming, what if wireless charging
simply built, right into our desk
oh wait
it is, and we did all of that stuff
and we're gonna show you, exactly how it works
after this message from our sponsor, Origin
Origin PC build custom desktops, ha
like this one over here that we're actually using for the video earlier
and laptop with 24/7 lifetime tech support and
high quality components
like samsung 970 EVO M.2 SSD
check them out at the link in the video descriptions
Lazslo - Supernova
so step zero for making your very own
1 cable desk-top thing
is having a compatible laptop
you don't get dual 4k monitors
10 gig file transfers
and 85 watt of charging
to a regular old micro usb port and cable
now, for this to work
we need a laptop with atleast 1 thunderbolt free port
and we would strongly recommend finding 1
that has a 4x Pcie lane interface
so thunderbolt 3 looks like a normal usb type c port
except for this liiitle lighting bolt emblem
that isn't keep on this there
so the thunderbolt 3 port on our 2018 razerblade still for example
is totally on mark
if you need to double check your device
you can always search for it on the thunderbolt technology website
now, for step 1
plan yor layout
at a minimum, your desktop is going to need a thunderbolt 3 hub
for everything to run through
luckily for us, Caldigit was kind enough to send us their flagship
Ts3 plus
which can provide 85 watts of power
that's enough to charge my macbook pro
and, it's got enough port for your peripherals
wired internet, and a 10 gigabit external drive
oh, also up to 2 4k monitors
now you could just get the device like this
and call it a day with no other parts necessary
but to make our setup really special
we want it to add an external graphic card enclosure
so that our desktop
not only makes our laptop easier to use
with the monitors, peripherals, and
you know a lot of ports and all that
but also, substancially more powerful
so that ended up making things a lil bit complicated
for started, while thunderbolt 3
does support daisy chaining
up to 6 devices off of a single port
you can't just plug your graphics card into your dock
unless your egpu is the 1st device in the chain
you'll get often latency at desk
and at worst, random crashes or total malfunctionality
okay,
so we just switch the order then, right ?
laptop to egpu
epu to dock, ooh
so at the time we writing, the odds of your egpu
having 2 ports on it for daisy chaining
are pretty low
the only option we're aware are a Blackmagic egpu
it's only works with max
akitio node duo which is designed to hold 2 cards
but at only half the benefit each
and the akinio node pro
which is exactly what we ended up using
i solves our problems, but
it has a
even tho our ts3 plus hub
can deliver 85 watts of power
your laptop only receive power from the device
that it is directly connected to
so on our case, that the node pro
whose the thunderbolt 3 ports can only deriver up to 60 watts of power
so, machine with higher power demands
like the macbook pro could ended up triple charging
fortunately for us, that is not the case for my blade stealth 2017
so, our journey continues
step 2 then, choose a suitable desk
as you can see, our finished desktop is completely
meaning that, even tho it's got an integrated wireless charging and a freaking graphics card
you can't see either of those things when you're sitting on the desk
and that is only possible because of the planning that we did back in the step 1
so we limited our options to runs with enough cabinet space
and thickness to containing all of our devices and our cables
with obvious cable management runs for bonus points