What Is Right Dock to Use With the T430?

[polyhedra]

I am thinking of purchasing a used LenovoThinkPad MiniDockPlus Series3 Type 4338 dock which comes with a 90 watt power adapter. However, I have a 135 watt power adapter from Lenovo which came with a used 4337 dock I purchased for my older T420 model.

According to Lenovo's website, the ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 is compatible with the 90w, 135w and 170w adapter. I needed to make sure before I buy this 4338 dock with the 90w power adapter that I can use the 135w power adapter with it instead. Not sure if a 90w adapter with that dock will be sufficient power.

[Cracked Plastics]

Your 4337 420 dock will work with the 430 and I'm pretty sure the 4338 came with the 170
Do you need the extra Watts for something?
90 will power your laptop just fine

[polyhedra]

Your 4337 420 dock will work with the 430 and I'm pretty sure the 4338 came with the 170
Do you need the extra Watts for something?
90 will power your laptop just fine

Most of the 4338 docks I have seen up for sale (used) come with a 90 watt adapter. About a year or so ago, I read some posts in a Lenovo forum somewhere (can't find it anymore) from T430 users who complained that 90 watts was not enough power with the 4338. Hence my query regarding being able to use a Lenovo 135w adapter with a used 4338 dock that comes with a 90w adapter.

Anyway, I would like to connect a 2.5" external drive to the dock, occasionally a large screen monitor and sometimes a thumb drive. If 90 watts will do, then great. Since the 4337 with a 135w adapter will also work with the T430, maybe I will just save a few bucks and use it.

Many thanks for the kind reply and helpful info.

[netrunner]

All T/Wx10-x30 use same docks. There are available newer types of dock for x30 line with USB3, but they are backward compatible. So if you have dock for T420 you can use it for T430. Only issue will be that you will have USB3 only on laptop itself.

Wattage doesn't depend on dock type. It depends clearly on laptop model. Easy rule is: T4xx/T5xx with Intel GPU => 65W source; T4xx/T5xx with nVidia GPU => 90W; W5xx => 135W-170W (depends on Quadro model). You can use higher-powered source without any issue (I use 90W source with Intel GPU T420 in dock). Somehow you can also use lower-powered model, but you can run into some strange issues due the low power (like permanent underclock, slower charging of battery or incapability to run laptop and charge battery at once etc.). Dock itself consumes very little of power, so there is no problem. Even connected 2,5" HDDs are no problem. Extrenal display has it's own powersource. Flashdrive cannot be really counted at all

Long story short: Any 90W power suply should be enough for any combination of T410/420/430/510/520/530 and dock.

[85101]

I have a Nvidia T430 and a 170W 4338 dock, but I use a 90W adapter. I use three external monitors off the dock with no problems.

[polyhedra]

Thanks netrunner and 85101 for your helpful input. netrunner in particular you clarified things for me regarding the model type and GPU.

Don't know what I would do without forums like this where I can tap into the knowledge base and experience of other computer users out there.