eGPU advice needed

I’m no expert here, so I’m looking for some advice.
So, I’ve got this old Dell laptop from back in 2007—still holds up surprisingly well (Intel Pentium Dual-Core M300, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon 4570 graphics, etc.). It actually handles SolidWorks, AutoCAD, and 3ds Max just fine for now.
My issue is with Blender. Version 2.7 runs perfectly, but 2.8 and 2.9 are a struggle—turns out my graphics card doesn't support OpenGL 3.3, which seems to be the baseline for Blender 2.9.
I was thinking about bypassing the internal hardware by swapping the Wi-Fi card for an external GPU via a mini PCIe expansion slot—basically pull the Wi-Fi card, grab an eGPU dock, a decent card, and a power supply. Supposedly, that should do the trick.
Is that even doable?
And would this specific card work...
Hoping for a sensible answer from someone who actually knows their stuff.
edit: also, is a 700W power supply enough?

Stop wasting your time on outdated junk and check out this new laptop...

fadedorca66 said:Stop wasting your time on dead ends and just look at a new laptop...

Funny enough—a decent new laptop is gonna set me back $1,500, while this thing? Only about $400.

John Hughes26 said:but what about this 3000 bit

+ plus you've got no idea how much time you're gonna waste dealing with compatibility nightmares—just endless troubleshooting for a result that might not even be worth it. It’s definitely not "plug and play," especially when you're trying to bridge the gap between 2017 laptops and... well, ancient tech from 2007.

Alexander Diaz4 said:+ I have no idea how much time I'll waste dealing with compatibility headaches—troubleshooting just to end up with a mediocre result. It’s definitely not a "plug and play" situation, especially since we aren't talking about modern laptops, let alone ancient tech from 2007.

That’s exactly why I’m asking for advice... if I mess this up, I'll just tell my wife the hardware died on its own and convince her to donate for an upgrade.😁

Anyway, if I decide to pull the trigger on this, I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Wouldn't a $700-$800 laptop do the trick? You can find stuff with an Intel Core or an i5/i7 plus a decent dedicated GPU for that kind of money. Plus, you’d probably end up with a much faster processor, more RAM, and an SSD... I mean, this current machine is getting pretty old, so maybe it's just time to let it retire, whether you want to admit it or not. 😁

fadedorca66 said:Wouldn't a $700-$800 laptop do the trick? You can find stuff with an Intel Core or an i5/i7 plus a decent dedicated GPU for that kind of money. Plus—you'd get a way faster processor, more RAM, and an SSD... This one's already a few years old and honestly, whether you want to admit it or not, it's probably ready for retirement. 😁

Look, I know it's outdated—that's exactly why I'm looking to tinker with it a bit.

Honestly, I don't see this ever actually working. Just because some guys in India are posting nonsense on YouTube doesn't mean you should take it seriously.

Richard Lee47 said:Honestly, I don't see this working—don't take those random YouTube tutorials too seriously.

It's pretty obvious who spends their time watching YouTube nonsense👍
Yeah, well—I picked it up from some guy on YouTube myself.😵😵😵

Yeah, I usually check these things out just to see what kind of nonsense they've come up with lately—I’m a bit of a geek like that—but in the end, it's always the same: zero actual explanations provided.😁

Richard Lee47 said:Yeah, I usually take a look just to see what kind of new nonsense they've cooked up—since I'm pretty deep into this stuff—but in the end, it’s always nothing. No actual explanations, of course.😁

I'm not really into that sort of thing myself—but I don't mind watching.
I feel bad for my laptop—I was actually really happy with it, truly... it was such a great machine. Now? I formatted the drive one day, reinstalled Windows 10 along with SolidWorks, AutoCAD, and Photoshop, and suddenly everything is just flying.
If I screw this up—I'm definitely going to regret it.

I get that you're emotionally attached to it, but once you actually get your hands on something new, you'll probably be pretty happy with the switch 😁

That kind of experiment isn't going to pan out for you. Old Wi-Fi cards ran on standard PCI, whereas modern GPUs demand a PCI-e bus. You’d also likely run into a wall trying to reprogram the BIOS to bypass hardware protection—I know for a fact companies like HP implement those kinds of locks, and most other manufacturers follow suit. People have struggled just trying to swap one Wi-Fi card for a different model, so adding a GPU to the mix is a massive leap, not to mention how messy it would look with cables cluttering up your desk. Honestly, you're probably better off just picking up a new desktop or a laptop.

I've got this old PC lying around—might be worth salvaging the case, though I haven't actually checked what's inside yet.
If anyone would be willing to put together a parts list for roughly $1667, I'd really appreciate the help.
I'm looking for everything—motherboard, PSU, CPU, a GPU that handles OpenGL (v3.3 minimum), RAM, an SSD... the whole works.
Mainly for modeling and rendering work—Blender, SolidWorks, and 3ds Max.
Thanks in advance.

Check out the thread here:

https://www.forum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=218