Thinkpads Forum

Hi there, new member here ..

I just purchased through the IBM factory Outlet on Ebay a pretty slick Thinkpad T61 (15.4", T9300 2.5 ghz dual core, 160gb 7200 rpm, 4gb ram)..

I'm pretty stoked, this is going to be my work machine and home machine .. I am a .NET developer by trade.

Anyways, My only other thinkpad was an older T40 or T50 series from a company i worked at 4 years ago ..

I am looking for a docking station for work .. which will have 2.0 USB speed, 1VGA and 1DVI monitor out to run dual external monitors .. and was wondering what the concensus here was on the best bang for the buck stations. I am going to order 2 of these, 1 for home, 1 for work. I would also like them to be able to charge the laptop so I can just plug into the dock and go .. (no plugging in the external power supply to go with the laptop).

Thanks!

Sean

Welcome to the Thinkpad forums! I'm also a .NET developer...

There are two docking stations to consider: The Mini Dock and the Advanced Dock.

The Advanced Mini Dock provides pass-through connections, and has both DVI and VGA connectors. If you never plan to add a PCI-Express card, this is probably a good way to go. It is essentially a port replicator.

The Advanced Dock has a PCI-Express slot that you can use to add a video card, or any other pci-e card that will fit in the slot. The fan on the Advanced Dock is a little loud, but I reached through the fan vents and clipped the fan's power wire on both of my Advanced Docks and I've never had any problems. The Advanced Dock extends your Thinkpad to be more like a desktop.

I hope his helps...

thanks Ron,

After doing some reading and searching on prices .. I got the Advanced Mini Dock..

I didn't need the hard drive bays or the additions of the Advanced Super Dock or whatever it was, but I did want the 2 monitor ports.

Ordered 2 online so I'm all set.

Dang them things are expensive though!

IAmTheDood wrote:
Dang them things are expensive though!

Yeah, but you'll love their flexibilty and ease of use.