ASUS"s XGSTATION WAS a foray into the world of external graphics cards, but things are looking far more official after the PCI-SIG rubber-stamped specification which calls for PCI Express External cabling.
The standards body now allows for PCIe signaling at x1, x4, x8 and even x16 to be transported via a cable no longer than 10 meters. This also kills a bunch of bandwidth bottleneck and signalling problems which kept graphics manufacturers away from playing with the idea of external graphics cards. Remember, when you"re ouside a standardised box, you can do whatever you want - no thermals to be careful of.