Computers & Networking

[kendp]

I'm an expat living in the Dominican Republic, but will be going to US for 2-month visit in July.  Plan to buy a laptop while there that will be my primary computer when home.  For this reason, I would like to be able to use it with a docking station.  I have seen several laptops described on the BB website, but have seen to mention of docking station compatability.  Is there any way from reading the descriptions to determine if a laptop can be used with a docking station?  I understand that not all can.

[Entropy]

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kendp wrote:

I'm an expat living in the Dominican Republic, but will be going to US for 2-month visit in July.  Plan to buy a laptop while there that will be my primary computer when home.  For this reason, I would like to be able to use it with a docking station.  I have seen several laptops described on the BB website, but have seen to mention of docking station compatability.  Is there any way from reading the descriptions to determine if a laptop can be used with a docking station?  I understand that not all can.

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It's getting harder and harder to find laptops that support "full blown" docking stations.  I wouldn't go for the "ghetto" docking station solutions (USB-based) personally.

To get a machine that properly supports docking stations, you may need to get a business-oriented one (such as Dell's Precision or Latitude lines, not Inspiron.)

[kendp]

Thanks for the information.

I am not familiar with what you call the "ghetto" docking station.  What is that and why do you recommend not considering it?

[kendp]

Ok, Entropy, now I understand.  Doing some research after reading your post, I see there are docking stations that plug into the USB port on the laptop.  That sounds like an interesting option and seems to make it possible to select  the laptop with all other features you want and still have docking capability.  I would be interested in knowing why yuo don't think it wise to go to one of them.

I also came across  a wireless universal docking station put out by Tosiba.   Mixed reviews, but supposedly can be used by any Windows based computer.

[Entropy]

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kendp wrote:

Ok, Entropy, now I understand.  Doing some research after reading your post, I see there are docking stations that plug into the USB port on the laptop.  That sounds like an interesting option and seems to make it possible to select  the laptop with all other features you want and still have docking capability.  I would be interested in knowing why yuo don't think it wise to go to one of them.

I also came across  a wireless universal docking station put out by Tosiba.   Mixed reviews, but supposedly can be used by any Windows based computer.

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The video output functionality of such units will be far lower performance than even an Intel GMA950 (considered bottom-of-the-barrel by today's standards), due to the performance bottleneck of USB.

Same for the networking functionality.

[SlimJim77]

Anyone care to elaborate on the usefulness of a "dock"? Am I the only one that doesn't get it?

[kendp]

In brief, if you are going to be using your laptop at home sometimes and on the road or  elsewhere sometimes you can avoid having to plug and unplug a number of cables to your laptop. Attach the various cables to the dock and leave them connected when you take the laptop from the dock after unplugging one cable.

[SlimJim77]

Thanks for the perspective, although it comes off as a bit lazy.

I connect and disconnect HDMIs, USBs, expresscards, and headphones from my laptop on the regular. Doesn't seem like much effort.