If you're an Apple user, you may have looked longingly at the VAIO Z and its external power media dock that connects via Light Peak. Today MSI may have made your dreams come true — it's just demoed its GUS II external GPU enclosure that connects over Thunderbolt. The device can take any AMD or Nvidia graphics card so long as it doesn't need more than 150W of power and, of course, it needs to fit within the casing. We were told that it will support 10 Gbps of throughput per channel.

Before you start dreaming of a MacBook Air that converts into a powerhouse machine, you need to know that this will require driver support from AMD, Nvidia and Apple. We find it unlikely that the latter will ever happen, but should AMD or Nvidia support the device you'll be able to use it in Windows. Since there currently aren't any drivers that support the case, MSI tricked Windows in the demo to make the OS think that the GPU was connected over PCI Express. The enclosure will work with any new Windows PCs with Thunderbolt, like the recently-announced Thinkpad Edge S430. The GUS II will come out during the first half of this year, though pricing info is not yet available.

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T.C. Sottek contributed to this report.