Thinkpads Forum

bill bolton wrote:

commander wrote:Yes, but I cannot plug 500+GB 3.5" drive, which I have.

Why did you bother to buy any laptop rather than a desktop?!?

It is simple. At home, i have a desktop. But I work at home, in a office and even "when Iam mobile". It is very hard to synchronize everything. So I have some things at home, some on laptop, etc.

I thought, that I can have only T60 with all my work, then at home Advanced Dock with all accessories like desktop, LCD and HDD for non-work files like music, movies and backup of T60. To work I thought Mini dock is enaught, only for LCD and imput devices. So all the work will be on T60, an instead of another two desktops only two docks.

I think that the idea was good, I really didn't antedate that the dock has bottleneck, especially when all the previous models hasn't.

commander wrote:I think that the idea was good, I really didn't antedate that the dock has bottleneck, especially when all the previous models hasn't.

This doesn't make any sense!

So, I put up with the speed, and I'll buy 200GB 7k200 as a system disk, and 320GB WD to Enhanced bay in the dock - Or 500GB new 5k500 if fit, or wait to new samsung 500GB 9.5mm thin disk.

I checked the advanced dock today, and a small problem is its fan, which is very noisy. It seems, that the main unit fan is 60x60mm, can anybody confirm this? It seems, that it is not regulated, only on/off. During normal stand-by, air was cold. Has anybody replaced this fan to another, which is more silent?

The fan in PCI-E area was OFF, but I want to fit only USB/FW combo card here, so I hope It can be off all the time.

Thanks

The original fan is made by Sunon. It is a 12V fan which is 60x60x15. I can find the fan in the closet again, but i believe it is a 36 dBA fan

I thought about fitting the dock with a fan speed controller, so i could manually adjust the speed. But i was put off by the fact that it may not be more quiet actually, since the bearing could have an influence.

So what i did was disassemble the advanced dock (it's actually very hard) and you WILL need a secure torx screwdriver which is not based on bits. You'll need a size 8. Wera makes one which is about $5-6 which is quite good.

If you need any help, just PM.

I replaced the fan with a Papst/EBM 612F/2L which is 16 dBa and 19 CFM. I have my dock loaded with various usb devices and a PCI-e dual hybrid tv tuner - and it still blows cold air, but it is extremely quiet compared with the old fan.
You'll need to desolder the wires that the papst comes with and solder on the wires from the original installed fan since it comes with it's own type of connector.

The total mod time is going to take one day, since you'll have to disassemble everything to get to the fan (thanks lenovo) - and there's no manual on how to do it

Troels wrote:The original fan is made by Sunon. It is a 12V fan which is 60x60x15. I can find the fan in the closet again, but i believe it is a 36 dBA fan

I thought about fitting the dock with a fan speed controller, so i could manually adjust the speed. But i was put off by the fact that it may not be more quiet actually, since the bearing could have an influence.

So what i did was disassemble the advanced dock (it's actually very hard) and you WILL need a secure torx screwdriver which is not based on bits. You'll need a size 8. Wera makes one which is about $5-6 which is quite good.

If you need any help, just PM.

I replaced the fan with a Papst/EBM 612F/2L which is 16 dBa and 19 CFM. I have my dock loaded with various usb devices and a PCI-e dual hybrid tv tuner - and it still blows cold air, but it is extremely quiet compared with the old fan.
You'll need to desolder the wires that the papst comes with and solder on the wires from the original installed fan since it comes with it's own type of connector.

The total mod time is going to take one day, since you'll have to disassemble everything to get to the fan (thanks lenovo) - and there's no manual on how to do it

Wow, thank you Troels, thats exactly the reply what I was looking for!

Now I have in my desktop five 80x80x20 Papsts, and they are superb (and very expensive, when I bought).

Do you know, if the papst you have is the best what is possible? I mean, if it is possible to fit 60x60x25 fan witch even a bit less RPM or something.

Your fan in PCI-E area is turned off?
Thank you one more time.

I don't know if it is the best, but i know that they are some of the most durable fans i've ever had (in my desktop). Unlike some others i've had they don't become more noisy when they have run for a long time. But i believe, other good brands are Panasonic, Delta and NMB, but they were not easily available here.
I didn't find lower than 16 dBA.

There's a problem with larger fans thicker than 15 mm, due to the way the fan is mounted with bolts onto the metal frame - unless you want to do some serious modding of course.
I have not tampered with the fan in the PCI-E area, i don't think it is running now actually. It is much easier to remove it, if need be.

Why not just reach through the fan vent cover and snip a wire? It's a lot easier than taking the dock apart.

I've done that on two Advanced Docks so far, with no problems. The dock is still totally cool while being very loaded down. I don't understand why the fan is there in the first place.

Interesting. Any comparative reviews on Dock vs Mini Dock?

Have there been any success stories?

I was planning to get a T61 with internal nVidia graphics and 8600GT in dock for some gaming . Reportedly 8600GT draws 43W, so it should work.
Using both nVidia cards allows using both under Vista as well.

Anyone here to test that configuration?

Finally 7k320 arrived, so now I am buying the dock. Can the second HDD placed in the Dock in Slim bay be used for backups?
I have heard that Lenovo backup software cannot recognize it.
Thanks

commander wrote:Finally 7k320 arrived, so now I am buying the dock. Can the second HDD placed in the Dock in Slim bay be used for backups?
I have heard that Lenovo backup software cannot recognize it.
Thanks

It's recognized as a standard hard drive (typically E: or F: for me). I've never used Lenovo backup software, so I can't say if it will recognize it. I can't imagine why it wouldn't, though.

Where did you buy your 7K320 drive? I can't find any in stock.

RonS wrote:

commander wrote:Finally 7k320 arrived, so now I am buying the dock. Can the second HDD placed in the Dock in Slim bay be used for backups?
I have heard that Lenovo backup software cannot recognize it.
Thanks

It's recognized as a standard hard drive (typically E: or F: for me). I've never used Lenovo backup software, so I can't say if it will recognize it. I can't imagine why it wouldn't, though.

Where did you buy your 7K320 drive? I can't find any in stock.

Thank you. I haven't it in my hands yet, waiting for delivery to Lenovo czech.

But I'v got a tip for you, I know people who have it from there.

Hey,

I have a W500 4GB RAM, 32GB SSD OS, 320GB HDD running Vista x64 sorted most of my issues out and the machine is running great.

Gave up on swtichable graphics for the moment.

Got the mini dock at home running 32" 1080p panel for media center, that is working well.

The next challenge getting it to drive 3 external panels at work using the Advanced dock.

The V5700 card is more than ample for the work that I do, so it will drive the primary center display, I then want two panels either side for datasheets/emails/etc so the second GPU doesnt have to be great, just needs to work.

I dont have a X1300 to test with but I have tried HD2400XT and HD4350 both give same result:
* HD2400XT or HD4350 installed in advanced dock
* Dock the W500
* Press the power button
* Fans start in dock and on graphics card
* Lights come up on laptop hdd/power etc
* Docking station LED changes "Dont remove"
* Laptop shutdowns, Fans off, LED changes "Undock ok"
* 2 secs later the process repeats

During this nothing is displayed on the screen of the laptop. The timing of the reboot occurs just when the notebook panel would have displayed the BIOS splash so I am assuming it is some form of init error?

Did anyone else have this issue?

Thanks in advance,

Jordan

RonS wrote:I use a PCMCIA Firewire card on my Thinkpad and get 64-65MB/sec from a LaCie firewire drive. You may be able to do even better with an ExpressCard.

The Thinkpad supports a second hard drive in the SlimBay (remove the CD Drive) which does not have the bandwidth limitation of the dock. You can put the CD drive in the dock instead.

The Advanced Dock has a slot for a PCI Express card (commonly used for an add-on video card) that, from what I can tell, HP doesn't offer.

The dock's 34MB/speed limit shows itself during benchmarks, but in my real-world use of the dock, it's rarely noticable.

Ron, I can't see it anywhere else...
The Ultrabay in the dock is a USB device so is limited to USB speeds. It runs an ATA to USB bridge.
Cheers,

hi, I am running a t61, advanced dock, win7
I am looking to get a Pci-e gfx to put in the dock.
How will I know which cards are supported?
I know that the formfactor has to be lowprofile and I've read that powerconsumption should be below 50v
any determining factors appart from these?
As the speed of the pci-e on the dock is only x1 I am wondering if it is recommendable to buy a gfx that is also pci-e x 1?

I have been looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102817 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... (512%20MB)

or for a PcI-e x1 solution, the http://www.edbpriser.dk/Product/Details.aspx?pid=672453 (Club 3D HD 4350 (512 MB))
and pci 2.0 x1 : http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6814150335
sry for posting similar posts but I am getting no replies and I am getting desperate

Btw: "hot-undocking" works fine for me running t61-win7-firegl v3300

bump...
is this topic being discussed further somewhere else?
I just started looking into this mod again and I could use a few tips concerning a solution for my T61 + adcanced dock + radeon HD gfx
From this and other threads, it would seem that it is possible to use:
(i) Certain Radeon Cards (like 4350 & 4550) that have a low enough Power consumption (<50W?) to be used "natively" in the dock, or with a Pci riser card in case the card physically to to big for the dock.
(ii) Certain Radeons cards (like 5770) with a bigger power consumption, using an external PSU (and the riser card solution)

It seems then, that the cards that will NOT work, includes:
(a) Most or all Nvdia Cards (like 7800GT) due to a Pci x16-> x1 scaling issue?.
(b) Any card using more power than the dock can supply while lacking the option to connect an external PSU
I need help devicing a theoretical list based on the assumptions above.
At the moment, I am looking at a few cards that sell for next to nothing, in order to try the mod and get a bit more performance than offered by the intel Gfx in my T61
I am looking at HD4550, HD5450, HD5550, HD4650, HD4670 and HD5670
as they all sell for less than 100$ in DK
I am looking at Sapphire, XFX and Asus, and most of these cards (exept 5670) are passively cooled.
Obviously (I think), the HD5670 or the passively cooled HD4670 provide most value, but the question now, is to figure out which cards will work natively as (i), which ones will work with a PSU (ii), and finally, which ones that will not work at all (b). I think that 5670 and 4670 lack the external PSU option and I am afraid that they will draw too much power for the dock to sustain them?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Note: the primary purpose is not gaming but rather Photoshop, Premiere, Blue-ray and such, whereas I do a bit of occasional EvEonline/wow gaming (and yes, these games DO require much more than an onboard gpu

I've successfully installed and used the cards below under Windows 7 in combination with my T61 8895-CTO (Intel graphics).

• Sapphire ATI HD4550 Silent, 512 MB (DVI + HDMI)
• Sapphire RADEON HD 5450 - PCI Express 2.0 x16 low profile, 512 MB DDR3 (DVI + HDMI)
• Asus Radeon EAH6450 SILENT/DI, 1GB DDR3 (DVI + HDMI)

The 6450 will play back full HD movies @ 24 Hz, the 5450 will drop frames playing back the same movie.

One of the pins on the back of the Asus EAH6450 card will touch the metal from the dock. You will need to remove a tiny piece of metal from the dock, or otherwise the card will not function at all and may even short circuit.

f.v.b wrote:I've successfully installed and used the cards below under Windows 7 in combination with my T61 8895-CTO (Intel graphics).

• Sapphire ATI HD4550 Silent, 512 MB (DVI + HDMI)
• Sapphire RADEON HD 5450 - PCI Express 2.0 x16 low profile, 512 MB DDR3 (DVI + HDMI)
• Asus Radeon EAH6450 SILENT/DI, 1GB DDR3 (DVI + HDMI)

The 6450 will play back full HD movies @ 24 Hz, the 5450 will drop frames playing back the same movie.

One of the pins on the back of the Asus EAH6450 card will touch the metal from the dock. You will need to remove a tiny piece of metal from the dock, or otherwise the card will not function at all and may even short circuit.

Hi there, thanks for the input. Not to insult you at all but are you sure about the Asus card? I'm in New Zealand where we pay a fortune for hardware and am considering buying the following; <http://www.pp.co.nz/products.php?pp_id=AA30413>. As you can see it's not cheap (at least for me, an invalid on welfare). Going by the published measurements it seems like it would need some serious lubrication to fit. (I have the Advanced Dock already.)

Is that the card that you tested? I seriously can't afford to buy it and then have it be of no use to me. My credit cards are about maxxed as it is.

My primary purpose for buying it would be to play a few games. I know that it's no gaming powerhouse but it's got to be better than the ATI X1400 in my T60 right? Right?

Thanks in advance for any reply. That's a reduced price for the card in NZ and I don't know how long the offer will last.

Oh, I'm running XP on my primary machine (although I do have W7U on the second). I'd like to run it with XP as the (older) games that I want to play are native XP games and I've had a few issues playing older games on 7. Hence the fact that I'm still running XP for my day-to-day stuff.

Cheers,

Concerning the physical dimensions, you are not totally screwed if it doesn't fit.
I think the size-issue can be solved using a riser cable
I never got around to buying one of those cards myself for various reasons, but seeing as you can get a 6450 to run, I am thinking that a 5550 or 5570 might work as well. (6450 has a "much" higher powerdraw than the 5450)
Does the 6450 run stabile under heavy load for hours?

eyeland wrote:Concerning the physical dimensions, you are not totally screwed if it doesn't fit.
I think the size-issue can be solved using a riser cable
I never got around to buying one of those cards myself for various reasons, but seeing as you can get a 6450 to run, I am thinking that a 5550 or 5570 might work as well. (6450 has a "much" higher powerdraw than the 5450)
Does the 6450 run stabile under heavy load for hours?

Hi eyeland,

Yes, I've seen those riser cables before. One of the (many) things that drew me to ThinkPads in the first place was the visual design of them. Form and function combined in such an elegant way. As it is an Advanced Dock is one noisy, ugly beast compared with my T60. However I could put up with it for the times that I wanted to have more graphics grunt.

However having an Advanced Dock and a riser and naked graphics card is just too much ugly to have on my desk! That's why I wanted to check with 'f.v.b' to make sure that the Asus Radeon EAH6450 SILENT/DI, 1GB DDR3 (DVI + HDMI) would fit inside the dock so I could minimise the ugly.

Cheers,

You guys might also check out using/hooking up a ViDock box via ExpressCard slot(I think T60p has ExpressCard, but am not sure, as I've never used a T60p). That allows a lot more flexibility in choosing cards, as the current crop of ViDock external video card boxes can handle a wide range of video cards.

Advanced mini-dock, T60p, older ATI cards, etc. are starting to fall behind the technology curve, where as the ViDock box is basically just an external box that'll hold all kinds of video cards.

AMATX wrote:You guys might also check out using/hooking up a ViDock box via ExpressCard slot(I think T60p has ExpressCard, but am not sure, as I've never used a T60p). That allows a lot more flexibility in choosing cards, as the current crop of ViDock external video card boxes can handle a wide range of video cards.

Advanced mini-dock, T60p, older ATI cards, etc. are starting to fall behind the technology curve, where as the ViDock box is basically just an external box that'll hold all kinds of video cards.

Interesting, thanks.

The only problem is that the ExpressCard slot is a single lane PCI express, same as the slot in an Advanced Dock so, although the ViDock might physically hold high horsepower cards they'll still only run at the 2.5Gbits/sec bandwidth that the ExpressCard has in common with the Advanced Dock slot.

End result is no increase in graphics grunt over the Advanced Dock. However the ViDock is perhaps slightly less ugly than an AD *but* the AD offers a second optical drive / HDD, five more USB 2 ports and card-reader etcetera...

Where the ViDock could be more useful is for owners of T43s. They have an ExpressCard slot but don't fit the AD.

Cheers,

AMATX wrote:You guys might also check out using/hooking up a ViDock box via ExpressCard slot(I think T60p has ExpressCard, but am not sure, as I've never used a T60p). That allows a lot more flexibility in choosing cards, as the current crop of ViDock external video card boxes can handle a wide range of video cards.

Advanced mini-dock, T60p, older ATI cards, etc. are starting to fall behind the technology curve, where as the ViDock box is basically just an external box that'll hold all kinds of video cards.

misfit wrote: Interesting, thanks.

The only problem is that the ExpressCard slot is a single lane PCI express, same as the slot in an Advanced Dock so, although the ViDock might physically hold high horsepower cards they'll still only run at the 2.5Gbits/sec bandwidth that the ExpressCard has in common with the Advanced Dock slot.

End result is no increase in graphics grunt over the Advanced Dock. However the ViDock is perhaps slightly less ugly than an AD *but* the AD offers a second optical drive / HDD, five more USB 2 ports and card-reader etcetera...

Where the ViDock could be more useful is for owners of T43s. They have an ExpressCard slot but don't fit the AD.

Cheers,

Hmm.. True and good comparative of both options.

f.v.b wrote:I've successfully installed and used the cards below under Windows 7 in combination with my T61 8895-CTO (Intel graphics).

• Sapphire ATI HD4550 Silent, 512 MB (DVI + HDMI)
• Sapphire RADEON HD 5450 - PCI Express 2.0 x16 low profile, 512 MB DDR3 (DVI + HDMI)
• Asus Radeon EAH6450 SILENT/DI, 1GB DDR3 (DVI + HDMI)

The 6450 will play back full HD movies @ 24 Hz, the 5450 will drop frames playing back the same movie.

One of the pins on the back of the Asus EAH6450 card will touch the metal from the dock. You will need to remove a tiny piece of metal from the dock, or otherwise the card will not function at all and may even short circuit.

how does the 6450 work with games?
what is the memory bandwidth?
i would like to run games in 1600x1080 in med-low settings (ar AT LEAST run them...)

i have tried the following cards:
-sapphire hd 5570 (1024 mb, 128 bit) low profile, with fan - does not work
-msi hd 5550 (1024 mb, 128 bit), the high profile one, with fan - does not work

i know that my dock works as i currently have an x550 card and its working without problems (i know it's worse than anything but at least the integrated gpu does not get heated up and i know the dock works)

i looked around and found only 64 bit variants of the 6450 that i can buy around me (im buying from local retailers of online shops where i can return the cards personally) which is a big stepback - even the x550 is 128 bit

does anyone tested ANY 128+ bit memory bandwidth card that worked (NOT including the running huge cards with external power supply method...)

a weird thing i noticed is when i use an usb-to-2*ps/2 splitter plugged in the dock's usb port booting sometimes fails (the windows 7 logo on the windows loading screen does not appear) and keyboard responsiveness is terrible outside windows (it takes 3 seconds for grub to switch menu entry), but works without problems inside windows and once i boot it up it has no problems - so currently i have it plugged into the thinkpad

This is such an interesting topic.

The current status of my system:

T61
2.4 ghz duocore 2
4 gbs ram
Win 7 64-bit
160 gbs HDD @ 7200 rpm
14.1 WXGA+ TFT
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M 128MB
etc.

Usage: .doc, .xls, starcraft 2, streaming, surfing

I just bought a 23.6" monitor, so I started looking for a docking station since I didn't want to plug/unplug my monitor when I bring my laptop with me. I've also maxed out my 3 usb ports and the additional ports that I'm running off my card reader. The question I have is: since when was there an option to "upgrade" the videocard on my laptop through a docking station?! This never occurred to me!!

I have also recently upgraded Vista 32-bit to Win 7 64-bit, and finally taking advantage of the 4th gb of ram that's been sitting there all this time. Everything's running a lot better.

Everything is fine, except that I want to get an advanced dock and a PCIe videocard. But which videocard should I get, because I'm afraid of buying the wrong one online and having to return it.

I found this on http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad_Advanced_Dock concerning the PCIe slot:

"NOTE! Only 1x speed, but 16x graphics cards will work. Speeds of the interface will be between PCI and AGP bus speeds standard length - i.e. about an inch longer than the connector. Only thin cards will fit. Many performance video cards with heat sink/fans are too thick.
Validated Cards: Visiontek Radeon X1300 PCIE 256MB Mfr #: 900237 (Heat sink that comes on unit is too long, you will need to change it to fit)"

Does this mean regardless that it's a 1x speed, a 16x speed graphics card will work?! I mean I can read english, but I want to be sure.

Also, another thing that concerns me is how to I ensure that it's going to fit into the slot? (different PCIe sized cards?)

Lastly, how do I ensure that my power supply will be able to power everything?

Thanks for all the work into this thread! Hopefully my laptop will continue running for at least another 4-5 years.

Wesley wrote:This is such an interesting topic.

The current status of my system:

T61
2.4 ghz duocore 2
4 gbs ram
Win 7 64-bit
160 gbs HDD @ 7200 rpm
14.1 WXGA+ TFT
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M 128MB
etc.

Usage: .doc, .xls, starcraft 2, streaming, surfing

I just bought a 23.6" monitor, so I started looking for a docking station since I didn't want to plug/unplug my monitor when I bring my laptop with me. I've also maxed out my 3 usb ports and the additional ports that I'm running off my card reader. The question I have is: since when was there an option to "upgrade" the videocard on my laptop through a docking station?! This never occurred to me!!

I have also recently upgraded Vista 32-bit to Win 7 64-bit, and finally taking advantage of the 4th gb of ram that's been sitting there all this time. Everything's running a lot better.

Everything is fine, except that I want to get an advanced dock and a PCIe videocard. But which videocard should I get, because I'm afraid of buying the wrong one online and having to return it.

I found this on http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad_Advanced_Dock concerning the PCIe slot:

"NOTE! Only 1x speed, but 16x graphics cards will work. Speeds of the interface will be between PCI and AGP bus speeds standard length - i.e. about an inch longer than the connector. Only thin cards will fit. Many performance video cards with heat sink/fans are too thick.
Validated Cards: Visiontek Radeon X1300 PCIE 256MB Mfr #: 900237 (Heat sink that comes on unit is too long, you will need to change it to fit)"

Does this mean regardless that it's a 1x speed, a 16x speed graphics card will work?! I mean I can read english, but I want to be sure.

Also, another thing that concerns me is how to I ensure that it's going to fit into the slot? (different PCIe sized cards?)

Lastly, how do I ensure that my power supply will be able to power everything?

Thanks for all the work into this thread! Hopefully my laptop will continue running for at least another 4-5 years.

both of these cards fit:
-x550: http://cassaniti.com/projects/htpc/images/x550.jpg
-hd 5550: http://im4.shopmania.org/files/p/m/409/ ... 853409.jpg

as i mentioned earlier the x550 works for me and the hd 5550 does not
but it should give a relative idea of the limits of the dock
note that the x550 is longer than the hd5550 (look at the part above the L shaped cut-out) and the hd 5550 is taller (by about 3-4 mm)

over the levovo forums, in this post http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and-prio ... 357#M45044 someone says that he was able to get a hd 4650 running

which is weird because according to this site http://www.geeks3d.com/20090618/graphic ... -database/ it has a tdp of 55 watts

also any further info sharing would be useful

For anyone that's thinking of doing this. I just recently upgraded my videocard on my T61 through the advanced dock.

Specs on my laptop:

2.4 ghz Duocore 2
4 gbs ram
Win 7 64-bit
Nvidia Quadro 140M
External 24" monitor
Advanced dock
Zotac Nvidia Geforce GT 520 w/fan

Steps that I used to get it to work
- Disabled my internal nvidia card through device manager
- Turned off laptop
- Plugged in DVI plug from external monitor to the Nvidia Geforce card
- Restarted laptop
- Went into Bios
- Changed display to PCI-e primary and DVI+LCD output
- Loaded into Win 7
- Installed drivers through Nvidia website
- Restarted laptop

Reason why I got vidcard just to push the system a bit further. I'm not a gamer, although i do play a bit of starcraft 2. Able to run it at ultra texture @ 1920x1080 with 20-30 fps. The old card was playable, but I kept everything at low just to keep everything fluid, still had 30-60 fps with the internal card.

Hope this helps someone.
Next card I'm going to try is the Radeon HD 5570, if I find it for a decent price.

Just a little note, there won't be anything on your laptop display, but that's okay, for me since I'm dualling 24" monitors.
Fan is annoying as hell, so i do suggest trying to find a card with passive cooling

*EDIT the videocard is uber quiet!!! The fan noise is from the extra fan in the advanced dock that's in the PCI-e slot!!!! Wow, would would have thought?! I still can't believe it!!!

A little update:

Able to get both video cards to work simultaneously.

T61 monitor works along side external monitor attached to DVI out put from advanced dock. AND external monitor attached to my Nvidia Geforce GT 520 DVI output.

Sum it up 3 monitors up and running simultaneously. Both video cards functional simultaneously.

Hope this helps someone.

Wesley wrote:A little update:

Able to get both video cards to work simultaneously.

T61 monitor works along side external monitor attached to DVI out put from advanced dock. AND external monitor attached to my Nvidia Geforce GT 520 DVI output.

Sum it up 3 monitors up and running simultaneously. Both video cards functional simultaneously.

Hope this helps someone.

Nice! I didn't think that was possible!

I assume that you're talking about your 2 nvidia cards still and not the radeon?