Mini review: Advanced Dock with T60p

[Wesley]

Nice! I didn't think that was possible!

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

I don't have a radeon card. The internal card is Nvidia Quadro 140M, whereas he external card is Nvidia Geforce GT 520.

[printf]

I don't have a radeon card. The internal card is Nvidia Quadro 140M, whereas he external card is Nvidia Geforce GT 520.

could you please tell the specifications of the card (manufacturer most importantly, but other stuff too that is available) along with a photo that you can find
could you run some tests please to see how the card works with games like oblivion, crysis etc, just try pushing the card a little bit

[Wesley]

Just a little word on the fan noise from the Advanced Dock. I have both the IBM model as well as the Lenovo model. The IBM model's fan that's inside of the pcie slot is super loud as compared with the fan from the lenovo docking station. I'm tempted to snip the wires that are in the pcie slot and only use the fan that's built on to my video card. I originally thought it was the video card's fan, but I was totally taken aback when I looked at it more closely.

[Wesley]

could you please tell the specifications of the card (manufacturer most importantly, but other stuff too that is available) along with a photo that you can find
could you run some tests please to see how the card works with games like oblivion, crysis etc, just try pushing the card a little bit

This is the exact card that I bought: Zotac GeForce GT 520 1GB DDR3 PCI-E Video Card

From this website: http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/ ... 490a4ben02

Got it when it was sale for 45$.

In terms of benchmarks I haven't tested the card. All I use it for is to play starcraft 2. But I know that the Radeon HD 5450 was tested with this type of setup as well as the Radeon HD 6570.

You might have some fun watching these videos:
Crysis 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZycXERJQ ... ideo_title
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB9PH4OA ... ideo_title
http://www.youtube.com/user/kendragnev# ... XzCGBQ0dKY (Radeon HD 6570)

Battlefield 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCco69x2 ... ideo_title

You can check out his youtube page as he does have a few interesting games/setups with the T series laptop and advanced docking station.

Specs on my laptop:

2.4 ghz Duocore 2
4 gbs ram
Win 7 64-bit
Nvidia Quadro 140M
External 24" monitor x 2 (one hooked up to DVI port from Advanced docking station and other is attached to DVI from external video card)
Advanced dock
Zotac Nvidia Geforce GT 520 w/fan

[printf]

you just mentioned earlier that you have a lenovo manufactured advanced dock too.
i just realized that there are ones manufactured by ibm and lenovo...
could you test the card with the ibm one as i have that one too and would like to know if there is any difference in terms of which one accepts which cards

[Wesley]

you just mentioned earlier that you have a lenovo manufactured advanced dock too.
i just realized that there are ones manufactured by ibm and lenovo...
could you test the card with the ibm one as i have that one too and would like to know if there is any difference in terms of which one accepts which cards

Both my IBM and Lenovo Advanced Docks accept the Geforce GT 520 card and runs without any problems. The only difference is that the PCIe fan in the IBM dock is a lot louder!

[Wesley]

Hmm.. clean your fans.. lol mine dropped 20 degrees celsius after i cleaned my fan. 60s to 40s on idle. Was almost 4 years since i`ve had my T61. first time cleaning. there was a lot of dust!

[printf]

update:
bought a new advanced dock, this time a lenovo manufactured one
results:

sapphire hd 5570 (link: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... iew-7.html) - fits and works perfectly, tested with uniengine tropics, graphics are beautiful, fps is slow-medium, but no crash, no error
NOTE: this exact card previously did not work on my ibm manufactured dock (no signal on display)

powercolor hd 6570 (link: http://www.powercolor.com/Global/produc ... asp?id=373) - does not fit: there is an almost practically useless plastic cover on the fan that does not let the card to fit in, it is attached to the fan by 6 plastic clips, 2 of the are hidden in the middle, so it could be removed but i did not want to risk void of warranty as i am returning this card

now i am waiting for a sapphire hd 6570 which looks like a hd 5570 so it should fit (has a plastic cover like the powercolor but the whole fan system is much shorter and the cover has a screw so i think it is possible to remove it if needed)

[eyeland]

NOTE: this exact card previously did not work on my ibm manufactured dock (no signal on display)

Interesting.
I guess the question is if there are any distinct differences between the Lenovo- and the IBM-produced models or if your IBM model was faulty.
Can you post the exact serial numbers etc from the 2 different models you tried?

[vincentbihler]

Hi there !
I have a "hd6570 which looks like the 5570". It doesn't works with my T400 and Lenovo advanced dock. Looks like it needs too much power (the base reboot every 5 seconds, and nothing is visible on the screen)... Is there anybody here who could advise me a working card for the t400 ? Thanks =)
Maybe is it because I have the 2Gb Sapphire one which probably needs more power than the 1Gb passive one.
This car should work isn't it ? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-Radeon-545 ... B003AK2HJO

[printf]

Hi there !
I have a "hd6570 which looks like the 5570". It doesn't works with my T400 and Lenovo advanced dock. Looks like it needs too much power (the base reboot every 5 seconds, and nothing is visible on the screen)... Is there anybody here who could advise me a working card for the t400 ? Thanks =)
Maybe is it because I have the 2Gb Sapphire one which probably needs more power than the 1Gb passive one.
This car should work isn't it ? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-Radeon-545 ... B003AK2HJO

http://www.geeks3d.com/20090618/graphic ... -database/
the gddr5 hd 6570 has a tdp of 60w (the gddr3 is only 44 watts) but just looked up sapphire's site and they dont have gddr5 variant so this may not be the problem
the 5450 as i have seen from tests is too weak
try the 5570, it must work

[printf]

Interesting.
I guess the question is if there are any distinct differences between the Lenovo- and the IBM-produced models or if your IBM model was faulty.
Can you post the exact serial numbers etc from the 2 different models you tried?

ok... which one is the serial number (as thinkpad hardware tend to be full of numbers...)
post a picture please if it is at a weird location

[cadillacmike68]

Hi, I need to get one of these advanced docks with the Ultrabay slim for my wife's T61. Any consensus as to which is better, the IBM labelled one or the Lenovo labelled one? I'm not putting a graphics card in the thing, I just need 3 drives, 2 HDDs and an optical full time. If the Dock II works in with a T61 and has the additional ultrabay, that would also work.

[vincentbihler]

try the 5570, it must work

Okay, what are the perfs you got with this card on recent games ?
I wonder if I'm not gonna try this solution : http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... -dock.html

At least, it seems to work with a T400 without any surprise...

[printf]

Okay, what are the perfs you got with this card on recent games ?
I wonder if I'm not gonna try this solution : http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... -dock.html

At least, it seems to work with a T400 without any surprise...

tested only with this: http://unigine.com/products/tropics/ as i had little time
with directx 10.1 and opengl renderer, default settings (i think max is default) and full screen (around 1600*900), fps was around 10-20 fps, but note that despite being an old application this is very graphics intensive

today the sapphire hd 6570 should arrive and i can try to test some games

you can use this as comparison: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4278/amds ... hd-6570/12

[vincentbihler]

Looks to be a pretty good test regarding te pictures !
Tell me when you'll know more about the hd6570 ! Is this the 1 or 2 Gb version ?

[printf]

installed the sapphire hd 6570 (gddr3, 1gb, active cooling)
fits perfectly, windows booted without problem, installed latest drivers without problem
just ran uniengine tropics benchmark

results:
Unigine
Tropics Demo v1.3
FPS: 14.2
Scores: 357
Min FPS: 8.2
Max FPS: 23.8

max gpu temperature was at 76 celsius

test details:
Render: direct3d11
Mode: 1680x1050 fullscreen
Shaders: high
Textures: medium
Filter: trilinear
Anisotropy: 4x
Occlusion: enabled
Reflection: enabled
Refraction: disabled
Volumetric: disabled

[vincentbihler]

I think the 2Gb version is consuming more power... It's the only reason I see about my problem... Well I wish you to enjoy it
PS : I maybe have the answer : the T400 needs more power than T60 or T61... So maybe it reduces the 50W limits to 40W or somthing like this ! What do you think about this idea guys ?

[Binh]

Can a T61 with faulty GPU boot with external video card installed in advanced dock? Does anyone try to do that?

[pit1337]

Can a T61 with faulty GPU boot with external video card installed in advanced dock? Does anyone try to do that?

AFAIK, it won't boot - faulty GPU means that it won't even POST.
Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

[maverick85]

I think the 2Gb version is consuming more power... It's the only reason I see about my problem... Well I wish you to enjoy it
PS : I maybe have the answer : the T400 needs more power than T60 or T61... So maybe it reduces the 50W limits to 40W or somthing like this ! What do you think about this idea guys ?

depends on what cpu you have in the t400, if you have the P*** cpu, it uses less power, 25w. the other T**** has a tdp of 45w.
i've been scouring the internet looking for someone using the 2gb 6570 version and have not found anybody that has confirmed it working with a 2503 advanced dock. i know the 2gb version has a tdp of 50w and the 1gb version, 44w..

waffle aside, can someone confirm if the sapphire 2gb gddr3 6570 gpu works with advanced dock? could you also state what your setup is, i.e cpu, thinkpad model, etc. thanks

[vincentbihler]

Yeah, you're right, but actually, I don't think the CPU changes anything on working issues. 50W tdp is too close from the limit, that's why it works for some people and did not work for others. I'm planning to do this kinda installation :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VODw8ROJ6bg

Or else, I'll buy the PE4H card and be able to use optimus.

[eyeland]

I just finished installing an ASUS GT430 in my dock.
The heatsink on the card is too big for the dock, so I installed it with a cheap Pci-e riser cable from ebay.
For a while I had problems with detection etc, but after reseating the riser and the card, I finally have detection, installation and a working VGA output from the card.
I am still trying to figure out why I get no output on the DVI, will post back with further findings.
I managed to get support for the card in adobe CS 6 by following the simple guide on Fix for unsupported nvdia cards in adobe
When I have a fully tested and working setup, I will try to maximize power load to see how stable it runs.
If everything goes well, this is a high value upgrade and quite an inexpensive way to extend the life of an old system a bit.
NOTE: I do believe that ATI is the way to go if gaming is the purpose, as you can get a more potent GFX without hitting the TDP ceiling that way. I am hoping that the CUDA features of nvdia will make the latter a superior choice for me though.
I am faily certain that either will offer a huge performance boost over my stock intel GMA though

EDIT: Bios is set up to: default gfx=PciE - Boot: VGA
Did NOT try multiple monitors.
NO support for dock/undock "yet", the card ONLY works if I boot docked, and when I do, only the GT 430 and NOT the intel GMA are detected in Device manager.
I will keep tweaking and testing, but for now, I achieved my primary objective: The ability to smoothly edit DSLR footage in Pr/AE on my old T61 for 45$ (while waiting for a new W5xx with IPS or Retina-like panel )
EDIT2: changed to Boot: DVI and got dual output working from the 430 (DVI + VGA)
I noticed that VLC still has some stutter when playing MKV files, but I have no idea if that is directly related to the new gfx...

[vincentbihler]

Hi eyeland,

I personnaly bought a GTX460 and PE4H. Simple and fast. I can play Crisys 2 with high graphics level (1680x1050). Same thing for Sleeping Dogs. This is an extraordinary thing

And I sold my advanced dock ^^'

Good luck !

[eyeland]

GTX460 and PE4H

Are you running it on an ext PSU?
Glad to know that it works nicely though, since it would seem that the new higher powered dock that can handle the power draw of the W530 has NO PciE slot for adding stuff like GPU, REAL FW, esata etc

which model TP do you have btw?

[vincentbihler]

Yeah, of course ^^ It's better to get the eGPU working !

[eyeland]

Got both the onboard intel gma and the GT430 running simultaneously by choosing "internal" instead of "pci-express" as main gpu in BIOS.

Regardless of this setting however, the GT430 in the dock only works (the system only boots) when I set PCI-e power management to "disable"

So far so good.
The one serious problem that remains, is that no matter which output I choose from GT430, I am unable to play back 1080p .mov files from my DSLR in any player I tried.
The clip starts but freezes at the first frame while the audio continues.
When oppening the same clip in Premiere Pro, it plays just fine.
When running internal display + DVI out on GT430, the files will play just fine in VLC on the internal display, but upon dragging VLC onto the external display, the igame freezes again.

Could this be a driver or codec issue? any ideas?
Any ideas on how to troubleshoot such an issue?

[vincentbihler]

You should try the nando's .inf mod for nvidia optimus drivers. I think it could help you. Take at look at this forum for more info :

http://forum.notebookreview.com/e-gpu-e ... ences.html

Good luck

[irisservice]

Which one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... =BESTMATCH

gt520 works wow...

[eyeland]

You should try the nando's .inf mod for nvidia optimus drivers. I think it could help you. Take at look at this forum for more info :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/e-gpu-e ... ences.html
Good luck

Looks very nice!
Alas, my dock PSU popped just as I was getting ready to further play and tweak... oh well
probably a sign that I shouldn't play with CUDA optimized decryption anyhow
Does such in terms of AE and Pr pro though....