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PCI compatibility in Dock II
Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 6:33 am
by ChugokuOtaku
I'm planning to add eSATA interface to my Thinkpad Dock II, and would prefer to go the PCI route over PCMCIA
However, I remember reading somewhere that not all PCI cards work in the Dock II. Does anyone have any experience with using eSATA PCI cards in them?
This is the card I'm planning to get
Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 4:06 pm
by independent
Hello. Just letting you know that most of the reports that I've seen where a card won't let you boot with a thinkpad dock II are graphics cards which overload the power supply.
However, I don't think you can actually boot off a thinkpad dock II. Or I don't know how you can anyway. hth
Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 4:13 pm
by ChugokuOtaku
sorry, I guess I should've clarified
I'm not trying to boot from the SATA card
I'm thinking about running a torrent server with an old thinkpad, but have an eSATA harddrive for the torrent target directory
what you're saying is that most other cards should work find with the dock, right?
Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 12:13 am
by independent
Yep. Those graphics cards can be power hogs. The power supply in the Dock II is very efficient but probably can't handle more than a dozen or so extra watts (at a guess).
However, I should state that the Dock II can be booted off (the internal CD/DVD drive). I tried with my X31 and could see how I could. I plugged a T42 and it boots off fine. So, my post above was incorrect.