Thinkpads Forum

Hello
I was extremely fortunate to buy almost new (6 battery cycles, warranty 2yrs left) T400 with 4Gb DDR3, P8600, WSXGA LED and hybrid graphics for less than $350.

Now, as ati radeon hd3470 is not enough for me, I am planning to buy a docking station with pci-e. As far as I am concerned a T60 system has a higher current consumption, so theoretically I should be able to put better graphics card into the station than the one using a t60. Did any1 try to use T400 with a pci-e full dock with some low-profile radeon? Which models actually can be used safely in such config?

I think it's only 1x, so you won't really be able to get high performance through it.

I have nothing to add as far as video card recommendations, but congrats on your find! I, too, recently bought a T400 with a T9600 CPU and 4GB of RAM. I still cannot believe the deal I got on it. The guy sold me the ThinkPad with a 6-Cell battery with 52 cycles and a 9-Cell battery with 33 cycles... all for $300.

wujstefan wrote:Hello
I was extremely fortunate to buy almost new (6 battery cycles, warranty 2yrs left) T400 with 4Gb DDR3, P8600, WSXGA LED and hybrid graphics for less than $350.

Now, as ati radeon hd3470 is not enough for me, I am planning to buy a docking station with pci-e. As far as I am concerned a T60 system has a higher current consumption, so theoretically I should be able to put better graphics card into the station than the one using a t60. Did any1 try to use T400 with a pci-e full dock with some low-profile radeon? Which models actually can be used safely in such config?

Wow, what a steal! I paid $550 for a mint T400 with similar specs, but not a penny overpriced if you ask me. Such a great laptop.

I made a similar thread here and there is some good info. I am looking into getting a Radeon HD 6570 with 2GB of video memory, since that seems to be one of the best cards available for the Advanced Dock. I am told the more memory the better to make up for the 1x lane.

well, TY

there's a advanced dock along with a 2Gb ati hd 6570 on the way
I guess such a graphics card is not a plug-and-play
How should I install it actually?

WSXGA on a T400?

The dock natively supports the ATI x1300 gpu, however they are pretty slow. If you want to mod the dock, then follow this tute.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... -dock.html

You should not need to mod the dock as long as the card you got does not require external power. Otherwise just drop in the card, boot up and install the drivers from the manufacurer's website. As it is an ATI card you might need to uninstall the drivers for the 3470HD graphics, but I am not sure.

On the other hand, if it does require external power, you will need a different card, or you will need to follow the guide provided by lead_org and install the card on an external PCI riser, made possible by a small amount of solder.

EDIT: and I hope you have an external monitor or a TV because ATI cards can't do Optimus.

Working in automatics, so I do need a good, big display for some projects (22" NEC with led backlight).

Also the graphics card needs no external power supply (49Watt and no additional power input)
The thing is... would it fit to the dock or will the cooler be too much? We will see.

Also, I am actually considering some software swith between the integrated graphics drivers, and the external ATI driver. Or will uninstalling a HD3470 do the job?

I mean wheather there will be some problems when ejecting the machine and using it with integrated graphics or not. Lots of things to discover guys

wujstefan wrote:there's a advanced dock along with a 2Gb ati hd 6570 on the way

How did it work out?

eyeland wrote: How did it work out?

I also did this upgrade. Sapphire HD6570 2gb DDR3

It all works except:

-The 6570 is not used for driving the secondary monitor, the internal panel on the T60 is still intel GMA-only. So for gaming, a secondary screen is REQUIRED.
-The system fan in the dock gets LOUD. I did stop it using the paperclip trick mentioned elswhere in the forums, but took it out as the dock got hotter than I was comfortable with.

wtg wrote: It all works except:
-The 6570 is not used for driving the secondary monitor, the internal panel on the T60 is still intel GMA-only. So for gaming, a secondary screen is REQUIRED.
-The system fan in the dock gets LOUD. I did stop it using the paperclip trick mentioned elswhere in the forums, but took it out as the dock got hotter than I was comfortable with.

Can you post a link to the card you use? Did you go for one that has active or passive cooling?
Think I will try out a 1 GBDDR3 Sapphire HD6570 Passive within a few days.

As far as I know, there is only one 2gb sapphire HD6570. And it has active cooling.
Part number 299-2E193-100SA
SKU 11191-02-20G

http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/281731/s ... l#tab:info

I can get this one in DK at a fair price: http://www.edbpriser.dk/Product/Details ... id=4998738

eyeland wrote:I can get this one in DK at a fair price: http://www.edbpriser.dk/Product/Details ... id=4998738

It might be a good buy, but I went for the 2gb version because of the fan (the dock doesnt seem very fit to get rid of extra heat to me) and because of the pci-e x1 limit on the dock.
Dont know how much of it is true, but I've read that more memory reduces the need to communicate over the pci-e bus thus makes the low x1 speed less of a limitation.

Also I wasnt sure if the passively cooled card would fit in the dock because of the big heatsink and heatpipe beforehand. Having opened the dock it seems like you should be OK though. But just barely; there is not a lot of spare room left for getting rid of heat I guess.

http://www.edbpriser.dk/Product/Details ... id=4959403
That seems to be my card.

Cheers
I think I'll use a PCI riser card to place the card outside the dock if heat turs out to be a problem. I can live with a few loose wires and exposed hardware if it means running silent
Interesting point regarding the ram/pci-bandwidth.. Can you link me a source of this info?

eyeland wrote:Cheers
I think I'll use a PCI riser card to place the card outside the dock if heat turs out to be a problem. I can live with a few loose wires and exposed hardware if it means running silent
Interesting point regarding the ram/pci-bandwidth.. Can you link me a source of this info?

Sorry for late reply. Cant find back the source I got it from, and according to this article it's bs anyway:
http://www.yougamers.com/articles/13801 ... ally_need/

But the price difference was some 3 euros at the moment I bought it...

Hi everybody.

I got a T400 with advanced dock... I bought the GPU you mentioned (hd6570-2Gb) and it just doesnt work. When I boot my laptop connected with the advanced dock, and GPU plugged in it, well nothing normal happen. Black screen, and the system doesn't stop rebooting again and again and again.

Does anybody knows how to fix this problem ? Is this a bios upgrade problem or somethin ?

Who already SUCCEEDED in booting a T400 with external gpu in here ?

Thanks

Vincent

When I boot my laptop connected with the advanced dock, and GPU plugged in it, well nothing normal happen. Black screen, and the system doesn't stop rebooting again and again and again.

What bios version are you running?
Have you tried different bios settings regarding gfx?

Info System is tellin me
BIOS : 7UET82WW (3.12)
I'm a bit scared with flashing my bios... I heard some bad crash stories !

and you tried the different bios settings relating to gfx?

Yeah I tried this :
- priority gpu : PCI-e
- booting display : lcd

It doesn't changed anything at all....

hmm sounds strange..
Do you have access to a desktop pc for testing the card to rule out uf the problem could be with the card?

Have you read through the threads dealing with dock+gfx? (there are a few here and a few at notebookreview.com)

My ATI FireGL worked pretty much plugandplay on my T61+2503 dock, but that may be due to my model having only intel onboard gpu and thus no danger of driver issues.

Which gpu does your T400 have?

I'll try this on another computer tomorrow I think.
For the threads, I've already read most of them I think. And I'm pretty sure I've done the things correctly. The only thing I noticed is that I'm the only one who have a t400 or t500 with it. The only one that apparently doesn't works...
My internal GPU is the Intel GMA X4500mhd... No switch with ani ati series... So no possible conflicts while starting up the computer I guess...

vincentbihler wrote:I'll try this on another computer tomorrow I think.
For the threads, I've already read most of them I think. And I'm pretty sure I've done the things correctly. The only thing I noticed is that I'm the only one who have a t400 or t500 with it. The only one that apparently doesn't works...
My internal GPU is the Intel GMA X4500mhd... No switch with ani ati series... So no possible conflicts while starting up the computer I guess...

Yearh, I think testing the card is your best bet atm.
I seem to recall someone suggesting that certain driver can be installed before booting in the dock but that might have been in regards to issues with switchable graphics.

I cant really be of any further help as I burned my fireGL currently awaiting a 6670 by mkail

Well, I'll let u know how it's going in few days... But I'm seriously thinkin about gettin a pci-e/expresscard adaptator for 90$... It will be far easier and I won't have the "16x--->1x" loss of velocity... And I'll be able to plug really "powerful" gpu's !

6670 looks really cool yeah ! Good luck !

vincentbihler wrote:Well, I'll let u know how it's going in few days... But I'm seriously thinkin about gettin a pci-e/expresscard adaptator for 90$... It will be far easier and I won't have the "16x--->1x" loss of velocity... And I'll be able to plug really "powerful" gpu's !
6670 looks really cool yeah ! Good luck !

I assume you are talking about the DIY Vidock?
It should be noted that the expresscard solution also has limitations as the most bandwidth you can squeeze out of it is 2x or 4x and not 16x (as far as I remember)
Good luck with getting your card to work

Yeah some kinda same design... But home made. It's pretty easy to do as far as I heard^^
And thanks for the info about the speed !
Thanks, good luck for you too !

If anyone else have an idea with the advanced dock and t400, it would be great !

So, somebody told me this card (hd6570) have a too high power consumption for the docking station... That's why it suddently reboot without showing anything. Is there anything I can do to improve the dock himself ?

vincentbihler wrote:So, somebody told me this card (hd6570) have a too high power consumption for the docking station... That's why it suddently reboot without showing anything. Is there anything I can do to improve the dock himself ?

not to much consumption mr. vincentbihler . it's all right , fit and firm