Multiple Monitors on the W510 - a great solution (with pics)

[RonS]

Before i got my W510, I was a long-time Thinkpad T6x and T4x user. With those systems, it was easy to add a docking station that could hold a video card, which natively drove additional monitors. I have a post here (with video) that talks about adding monitors to the T6x. But adding a card natively in the dock isn't an option for the W510 because the best dock available is the Series Three Plus dock, which adds no real way to extend video capability.

But the W510 does have an ExpressCard/34 slot. I bought VillageTronic ViDock 2 from Sewell Direct for $200. The dock is simply an extension of the PCI-Express bus in the W510 and seems to run at full x16 speed. They shipped immediately and it arrived in two days.

I added an ATI v5200 video card in the ViDock enclosure . The W510 recognized the v5200 card, loaded drivers automatically, and the card was up and running. The v5200 card needs 32 watts of power, and the ViDock 2 can supply 65 watts. So it's possible to add a more powerful card. Note, however, that you apparently can't put an NVidia card in the ViDock 2. The W510 will not boot. I tried several NVidia cards with the same result. If I hot-inserted the ExpressCard/34 card, the W510 would recognize the card. But upon reboot, the W510's BIOS locked up. There's apparently some kind of resource conflict or BIOS bug that shows up with two NVidia cards on the W510.

If you put an ATI card in the ViDock that supports 3840x2400 output (v5200 and v5600 are good ones), you can split each output to multiple 1920x1200 monitors using a Matrox TripleHead2Go or DoubleHead2Go. I did this to split one of the v5200's Dual-link DVI outputs to two monitors, adding a total of three monitors on the ViDock. With the two already on the W510, that makes five monitors on my W510, each at 1920x1200 resolution. In this picture you can see the ViDock 2, with its bright blue LED, sitting to the left of the W510. I could easily add one more screen with an additional Matrox unit on the second DVI port on the v5200, for a total of six 1920x1200 monitors.

If you don't need more than two extra monitors, or if you're into gaming, I suggest you go with the ATI 4670 card in the ViDock 2 as demonstrated here. It has much higher performance, but its resolution is limited to 2560x1600. That means that you can't use the Matrix unit to create two 1920x1200 displays from one DVI output.

So, the ViDock 2 is a fantastic solution for adding additional screens to the W510. It has excellent performance, far faster than the T6x's Advanced Dock because that dock has just PCI Express x1 performance and the dock itself is bandwidth limited to 34 MB/sec. Those limitations are gone with the ViDock. The ViDock 2 has its own built-in fan that runs very quiet unless it's under heavy load, and then it gets louder but still very reasonable.

After adding a ViDock 2, still more monitors can be added using DisplayLink video adapters. I'm looking forward to a DisplayLink adapter that supports USB 3.0 speeds, as the USB 2.0 versions put a fairly decent load on the computer. Also, with both a ViDock 2 and a DisplayLink video adapter on the W510 at the same time, Windows 7 Aero features are disabled. It appears to be a problem in the W510's NVidia FX 880 driver, so that problem may be fixed with a driver update. Besides DisplayLink video, MaxiVista is another option for adding monitors.

I've found two problems worth pointing out: 1) NVidia cards don't work, as I said above. 2) There have been a couple of times that I rebooted and Windows 7 would come up with a black display. I had to boot into safe mode, then re-boot normally and the all of the displays would be correct again. I'm not sure why. UPDATE: It looks like BIOS release 1.12-1.08 (March 9 2010) has fixed this problem.

[Marin85]

Wow, impressive! Great post!

Kind of related, I wonder whether it is possible to make ViDock 2 work with a T60p or Z61p. If I am not wrong, both have ExpressCard-54, but since I could not find any clear specs of the ViDock 2, I don´t know whether it is compatible with the -54. I have no idea if the ExpressCard slots in the aforementioned ThinkPads will run at full x16, either.

Marin

EDIT: It turned out the ExpressCard slots of Z61p and T60p are just 1.0 since ExpressCard 2.0 was introduced in 2009. This makes the ViDock2 solution pretty much pointless in the case of Z61p and T60p compared to the excellent capabilities of the Advanced Dock + Matrix TripleHead2Go.

[fbrdphreak]

Very cool.

So I'm curious. The W510 has VGA and DisplayPort out if I'm not mistaken. Did I read somewhere that you can use both video outputs at the same time, although not the notebook LCD also?

[RonS]

So I'm curious. The W510 has VGA and DisplayPort out if I'm not mistaken. Did I read somewhere that you can use both video outputs at the same time, although not the notebook LCD also?

That's right. Between the W510's built-in screen, the VGA and DisplayPort on the unit, and any of the DVI/Displayport outputs on the docks, only two may be active at any one time. This is a hardware limitation. The DisplayPort outputs max out at 2560x1600, and the dock's DVI output is single-link which maxes out at 1920x1200 resolution even though the FX 880 will support higher.

The W510 was clearly designed towards maximizing performance, with little thought given to expanding video capabilities. The ViDock 2 now makes the W510 a complete powerhouse in a notebook package.

[archer6]

The W510 was clearly designed towards maximizing performance, with little thought given to expanding video capabilities. The ViDock 2 now makes the W510 a complete powerhouse in a notebook package.

Uh... WOW...

Kudos for the excellent work! What a fantastic setup you've created.

Great post, it will be very helpful as I'm about to do my first multiple monitor project. In my case due to the available space in my office I plan to install 18 monitors...uh..yeah right. Strike that..ha..ha.. just kidding.

Actually what I have in mind is three, but five as you have.... Magnificent!

Thanks for the great info, it will save me from having to go through what you did. I've got a tentative shipping date of 3.25 for my W510, I'm looking forward to the project.

Cheers...

[AMATX]

Great timing here, Ron, as I recently bought a W700 specifically to expand into multi-monitor support(along with mucho more horsepower, etc). It has a Dual DVI 3840x2400 port, so should be splittable into 2x(1920x1200) ala your excellent youtube video(via Matrox 2/3 head box).

I didn't recall the DisplayPort on it being limited to 2560x1600; if so, I might hook up one of the 30" monitors. At this point, going with WUXGA monitors is cheaper, so I've concentrated on that(I currently have a 1920x1200 hooked up to the DisplayPort).

Also, I picked up a USB 3.0 card w/two ports to use in the Express card slot. I have some Tritton 'TRI-UV200' USB/DVI adapters, which support 1920x1200(16-bit color, if I recall, which doesn't matter to me). These babies were S-L-O-W in my old Z61p Tpad. I did a quick test of the Tritton in the USB2.0 port, and while still slower than 'native', it -was- quite a bit faster than on the Z61p. That got me up to three 1920x1200 external monitors concurrently. So, I'm thinking W700+USB 3.0 setup oughta work. The USB 3.0 seller left out the driver(none on website, either), so I'm waiting on getting that in to fully test the 3.0 ports. While I don't particularly dig the Tritton stuff, it's on hand/$cheap$, so is worth investigating...

Possible total at this point:

2 x (1920x1200) via USB 3.0 Express card.
2 x (1920x1200) via Matrox splitter, out of the Dual DVI port.
1 x (? 2560x1600 ?) via the DisplayPort. Maybe 1920x1200, if I'm out of $$$.

Five total, so far...

I don't need fancy graphics, as this is for stock market stuff. But, I do need lots of real estate, so that's why the W700 vs. W500/W510/etc and the WUXGA vs. lower res. I can pickup 24" WUXGA monitors off of ebay on the cheap, some w/minor defects for ~$150, while a Dell/HP/Samsung 30" monitor is probably gonna be $600-750 on the low end. A 30" monitor provides about 1.75 times the pixel count, but is 4-6 times more expensive than a WUXGA monitor.

I'm particularly intrigued by your ViDock comments, so will check that out. However, that would mean giving up the USB 3.0 monitors, so I'd be doing a -2+4 trade(lose 2 USB 3.0, gain potentially 4 through the ViDock+Matrox splitter box).

For now, I'm keeping MaxiVista in my back pocket. I'd like to drive all of this home setup via one laptop. I'll eventually get a 'roadie' version going, at which time I'll investigate using MaxiVista. It would enable me to take several laptops w/me without having to lug around a bunch of external monitors. More squinting, but a view of the beach thrown in, too

I'm also very impressed with the W700. I go all the way back to the early pc days, and would never have imagined having a box like this sitting on my table. W700+SSD+Ramdrive is faster than snot, and a whole lot slicker, too

Interesting stuff, Ron. Keep the posts coming, as I'm about 4-6 weeks behind you on this one. I still have a fair amount of basic Win7/W700 config stuff to do, so it'll be a while before I get to the extra video toys.

[RonS]

Thanks for the kind words, AMATX. The ViDock solution will run circles around your two USB monitor solution. It performs natively on the W510's PCI-Express bus, so performance is higher and system overhead is negligible. With the USB (DisplayLink) video adapters, performance is low and overhead is high.

There's one detail hidden in all this that I still want to prove to myself. Lenovo documents the DisplayPort (both built-in and on the docks) to max out at 2560x1600 resolution. IBM/Lenovo have been notoriously inaccurate when quoting their own specs... they're wrong more time than right, it seems. I don't have a DisplayPort monitor with that kind of resolutions, so I can't test it. But I did test a $99 DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapter and used it to drive a 30" screen in 2560x1600 resolution. There's the possibility that the DisplayPort may go byond 2560x1600... to, say, 3840x1200. The only way to know would be to get a very high res DP monitor, or get a Matrox DisplayPort DoubleHead2go. This DisplayPort version of Matrox unit will take DisplayPort as input rather than the standard dual-link DVI. If the Matrox DP can pretend to support 3840x1200, and create two 1920x1200 displays like the Dual-Link DVI version of the DoubleHead2Go, then splitting the W510's native DisplayPort outputs would be a good option. It's a long shot, though.

Edited to change "PCI-Express x16 bus" to "PCI-Express bus"

[AMATX]

Yeah, I know the USB adapters are crap, but I was being 'charitable'

Plus, I've paid for them, so I might as well try them before I chunk 'em into the closet with other 'proven technology'. I am also using the $99 DisplayPort/DVI adapter that you suggested(nice little gadget), and it works just fine. I did notice that the doc on it mentions 2560x1600 max. I'm driving a 1920x1200 monitor with it and don't have a 30 incher to try with it.

If I go 30" through the DisplayPort, it's cheaper to buy the $99 DP/DVI adapter and pick up an old 30" monitor(such as a Dell 3007WFP) than to go native and -have- to buy a 30" DP monitor(Dell 3008WFP). Also allows me to use my DVI, non-DP monitors that I have lying around the house.

Right behind you in the Matrox DisplayPort DoubleHead2go; saw that on the Matrox site and wondered(like you) about driving 2x(1920x1200) out of the DisplayPort. Surely the W700 Nvidia card and DisplayPort hardware support > 2560x1600, but there's no telling at this point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort has conflicting, vague hints pro/con about DP resolutions, etc. I'm not enough of a video guy to get into this in more depth; rather, I'm just interested in home-gamer results for my own needs.

Time & $$$ is all it takes to try this stuff...

Where I'm likely headed(eventually) is:

DVI - split two ways via Matrox = 2x(1920x1200)
ViDock - split two ways via Matrox = 2x(1920x1200)
DisplayPort - one monitor = 1x(1920x1200)

This appears to be the best-est, cheap-est, easiest way to ramp up a lot of screen real estate. Fortunately, I don't need ALL of this right away. Currently running 2x(1920x1200) via one into DVI and the other into DisplayPort means that monitor #3 is next, which should be fairly easy to implement. Monitors four & five can wait a bit...

As a side note, I'd like to end up with a setup that will drive a VP2290 super res monitor I picked up a while ago. 3840x2400 bad boy...that's where I was headed with the USB adapters, but that doesn't work. Didn't know about this forum then, or I'da tried your earlier Dock w/ATI card setup. Not too practical these days, but since I bought the d.a.m.n thing, I'd like to crank it up at least ONCE.

[Dummvogel]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but expresscards only have one lane, so its x1, not x16. With PCIe 2.0 that limits the throughput to about 500MB/s.

[jtreble]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but expresscards only have one lane, so its x1, not x16. With PCIe 2.0 that limits the throughput to about 500MB/s.

Dummvogel,

Unless, of course, this device provides " ... an extension of the PCI-Express bus ... " (i.e., bridging).

Multiple Monitors on the W510 - a great solution

Rons,

What more can I say: good find. Thanks.

[RonS]

I ran Sandra SiSoft on my W510 and it reported this about the PCIe. Look near the middle of the report: The FIREGL V5200 is installed in the ViDock 2. PCI2 2.0 2.5Gbps


The v5200 card itself is PCIe v1.00, and SiSoft reports a maximum bus bandwidth to the card of 250MB/s. But this seems to be a limitation of the ATI v5200 card itself, not the interface.

Matching the ViDock with an ATI 4670 or v5600 card, both which support PCIe v2.0, should provide faster speeds.

Either way, I know that 250 MB/sec sounds pretty slow, but it feels much faster in everyday use. FAR faster than the Advanced Dock solution.

When I get a second, I'll put my ATI v5700 card in the dock and see what Sandra reports for it throughput. No time right now...

[jtreble]

... But this seems to be a limitation of the ATI v5200 card itself, not the interface ...

RonS,

The ViDock 2's single lane pair (i.e., X1) and a PCIe v. 2.0 video card should give you 500MB/s on the bus (i.e., double the ATI v5200). Not bad. Thanks for your efforts.

[Dummvogel]

Dummvogel,

Unless, of course, this device provides " ... an extension of the PCI-Express bus ... " (i.e., bridging).

If you connect a 16 lane bridge to a 1 lane street you will have the throughput of one lane. Period.

[jtreble]

If you connect a 16 lane bridge to a 1 lane street you will have the throughput of one lane. Period.

Agreed. The point that was being made previously is that ViDock-2's bridge seems to provide a proper PCIe 2.00 X1 implementation (i.e., 2.Gbps/500MB/s clear). What concerned some of us was a repeat of something analogous to what Lenovo has done previously with the Advanced Dock (i.e., PCIe X1 that is bandwidth limited). This is why the ViDock-2 appeals to some of us.

[Dummvogel]

Agreed. The point that was being made previously is that ViDock-2's bridge seems to provide a proper PCIe 2.00 X1 implementation (i.e., 2.Gbps/500MB/s clear). What concerned some of us was a repeat of something analogous to what Lenovo has done previously with the Advanced Dock (i.e., PCIe X1 that is bandwidth limited). This is why the ViDock-2 appeals to some of us.

The Vidock seems like a good product which has its uses. I was just picking up on the false statement of full x16 bandwidth.

[jtreble]

The Vidock seems like a good product which has its uses. I was just picking up on the false statement of full X16 bandwidth.

OK, sorry, now I understand what you were trying to say: end-to-end PCIe 2.0 X16. Nope, not via ExpressCard (X1) or any other mobile chipset PCIe interface. Nonetheless, I haven't been able to find anything better than what RonS has proposed in this thread for large W510 multi-monitor setups.

[guruguhan]

Hi all - so I would like to drive two 30" monitors at full res (2560x1600) from a W510 - do I need additional hardware, or will the W510 do it out of box? What are my options?

VillageTronic ViDock 2?
Displaylink over USB?

Thanks

[RonS]

Hi all - so I would like to drive two 30" monitors at full res (2560x1600) from a W510 - do I need additional hardware, or will the W510 do it out of box? What are my options?

At first, I thought you may be able to do this right on the W510 unit itself, by hooking one monitor up to the VGA and the other to the built-in DisplayPort. But the VGA resolution only goes to 2048x1536, so it looks like you'll have to buy something.

Probably the most obvious solution is to get a Series 3 plus dock. Notice the "plus" - that's important. The plus dock has two DisplayPort outputs that will each drive 2560x1600. If your monitors don't support DisplayPort, then you'll have to get two active DisplayPort to Dual-link DVI converters. "Active" is important. Passive won't work beyond 1920x1200. They run about $100 each. Google "Accell UltraAV B087B-002B".

DisplayLink does not currently go beyond 1920x1200. This will soon change as SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) DisplayLink adapters start hitting the market. Still, the Series 3 Plus dock is a far better-performing "native" solution.

[guruguhan]

Thanks for the reply

After googling the Series 3 Plus dock I found this page:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 72873.html

In the features and benefits, it says this:

Two DisplayPort monitor supporting 2560 x 1600 resolution
Supports attachment of DisplayPort monitor cables; Using DisplayPort monitor cables reduces resolution to 1920 x 1200

I'm confused about the "using DisplayPort monitor cables reduces resolution to 1920x1200" - what other cable should I use (a DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI)? The monitors do support both DisplayPort and both have 2 Digital Visual Interface connectors (DVI-D) with HDCP.

And for hardware compatibility, it doesn't list the w510. Does it work for it? Will it work with an X series laptop (X201)?

Hardware compatibility
Description Machine Type - Models
ThinkPad T400s, T410, T410s, T510
All

Notes:

ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 does not support earlier ThinkPad models. Earlier ThinkPad models include: R60, R61, R400, R500, T60, T61, T400, T500, W500, Z60, Z61.
ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 for Mobile Workstations is also available other compatible ThinkPad Mobile Workstation systems. The ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 for Mobile Workstations includes a 135W AC Power Adapter.

Thanks!

[RonS]

The dock you want is the 433820U, not the 433810U. The 20U comes with a 135 watt power supply for the W510. The 10U comes with a 90 watt power supply.

The description of DisplayPort cables is clearly a typo. Lenovo/IBM is notoriously bad at documenting specs and compatibility requirements. The only technical info I trust is from psref.

[ukieandrew]

Hi everybody. Thanks for great comments and ideas. After reeding this post I decided build at home multi monitor setup. I have W700ds and I did everything we discussed here. I bought the ViDock and ATI v5200 video card. I also got two Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition boxes and six monitors with 1920x1080 resolution.

Now, when I connect 4 screens with two Matrox boxes to ViDock, it does not even let me go through Matrox Install Wizard and gives me windows error message (I have Windows 7 (64). At the end I could make it work but instead of two setups 3840 x 1080 I got two setups 3200 x 1200. However, when I connect only 1 Matrox box to ViDock, and to another dual DVI port on v5200 I connect just dvi cable that goes directly to monitor, I can make it work. But in this situation I have only one 3840 x 1080 (wich has 2 monitors) and another one is 1920 x 1080.

Does anybody had same issue?

So, I connected second Matrox box I have to dual DVI port in my laptop and got to work monitors 4 and 5. Then, I connected monitor #6 to VGA port in laptop and finally got this 6 monitors setup to work. But that would be great to have 4 monitor setup on ViDock so, I would be able use laptop screen as well.

Thank you for your thoughts!

P.S. Sorry for my english, I leave in US only couple years but I'm trying to do my best )

[RonS]

Now, when I connect 4 screens with two Matrox boxes to ViDock, it does not even let me go through Matrox Install Wizard and gives me windows error message (I have Windows 7 (64). At the end I could make it work but instead of two setups 3840 x 1080 I got two setups 3200 x 1200. However, when I connect only 1 Matrox box to ViDock, and to another dual DVI port on v5200 I connect just dvi cable that goes directly to monitor, I can make it work. But in this situation I have only one 3840 x 1080 (wich has 2 monitors) and another one is 1920 x 1080.

Your English is just fine!

You may have found a limitation of the v5200 card that I haven't seen yet. Perhaps the V5200 card can't drive two simultaneous 3840x1200 outputs. Or it could be that trying to drive a vertical resolution of 1080 forces you to a horizontal resolution of 3200. I'm driving all of my monitors at 1920x1200.

The v5600 card is a newer design... I wonder if that card would let you do what you're trying?

[AMATX]

Well, time for a status report. As posted above, I'm expanding a W700, and when done, will post a write up in a new thread in the W700 section. But, for -now-, here's where I'm at:

* Got four monitors, 4x(1920x1200), going, out of the DVI-D and DP ports(W700 has one of each). Note that this is DVI-D, unlike the DVI-I, per RonS's W510 post. Interesting issues that I'll elaborate on later, but I -did- get it working. Works great, too

* Note for ukieandrew: I used a TripleHead2go Digital box, -not- a DualHead2go Digital, as the Dual box does not have a port that will plug directly into the W700 DVI-D port. It must be plugged into the W700's VGA port, which I didn't want to use. I was, however, able use a DualHead2go DP box to plug into the DisplayPort on the back of the W700, as it didn't have the same limitation as the Dual Digital box. The DP box works fine.

* So, right now, I have four external WUXGA [4x(1920x1200)] monitors plugged in, using the two Matrox splitters to route the W700 display output to the monitors.

* Note that I stayed away from any kind of USB-monitor gizmos. Tried a few and decided they're all crap. Even if you can find one that'll work, they place a significant load on the laptop's cpu, which I want to avoid. Other approaches use a video card somehow, and offload the mips from the cpu.

* Next on the list is the ViDock, which I tried to order from SewellDirect(I like them, per RonS's suggestions). BUT, back ordered for quite a while, so through Google, found some place in Wichita(I think). $209 later, have it in hand. Nicely built, looks good.

* Tried an old ATI V5200 card. Powered up, found drivers, just as in RonS's case, but wouldn't work. Think the card's bad(from a while back), so no surprise; worth a shot, though.

* On to another card lying around, an nVidia Quadro FX1500, which WOULDN'T FIT(!) The ports on the card are too close together, won't line up with the grate/grill in the ViDock. ViDock supplies some extra template grills, but none match the FX1500. SO, be careful what kind of video card you buy for the ViDock.

* I'll be picking up another V5200 card soon for the ViDock, and the plan then is to load up as many 1920x1200 monitors as it'll take. Now, the specs for the V5200 card specify 3840x2400 out of EACH of the TWO ports(total of 8 WUXGA monitors?!?) Lots of pixels, here, but the more you load it up, the slower it'll go. Dunno at this point how far I'll get on this. At a minimum, I'll just hook up two monitors, one to each port, bringing my total box output to 6x(1920x1200) monitors...making progress.

* Depending upon whether I can add any more Matrox splitters(1-4 of the TripleHead2go, Digital versions) into the mix, my max could be up to eight monitors out of the V5200(hard to believe!). If so, great. If nogo on any more splitters, I may eventually use two 30" 2560x1600 monitors, one to each V5200 port, but that's a ways down the $road$. Matrox is very specific in their doc about not using more than two Digitals in a setup, so hard to tell. Otoh, I'm currently mixing a Matrox DP with a Matrox Digital, which they also say won't work, so who knows?

* For a final BLOWOUT, the W700 can be had with TWO Expresscard slots, which implies one could add a second ViDock that way(!). My W700 has the other slot as a CF reader(bad move on my part, but that's another story). However, I can get the two-Expresscard hardware for ~$150, so I might possibly swap it and see if I could get another ViDock going. At a minimum, that would allow for two more 1920x1200 or 2560x1600 monitors to be thrown into the mix.

* And, lastly, I haven't investigated whether the ViDock will support any of the 4 head video cards or not(would need to rig up a grill/grating that could accommodate 4 head openings, tho). RonS shows one in his earlier posted youtube video. Those can really require some juice, and are fairly expensive, so not likely I'll be venturing that direction anytime soon.

I really doubt whether I can load up the W700 with this many monitors, but LOTS of possibilities at this point.

More later...

[GrandMasterKhan]

Nice setup braddah. Looks like a security guards desk with all them panels. lol.

[AMATX]

Yeah, still workin' on it. Just got a VP2290(similar to IBM T221) going; 3840x2400(!)

Wayyyy slow, so not gonna use it, but still quite interesting...

More down the road, I'm still building things out and need some more $play$ to buy some extra monitors and a couple more Matrox splitter cards and some other misc. goodies.

Stay tuned

[thinkpadfan2010]

I am awaiting my T510 and just received the Mini Dock Plus Series 3. I am a bit confused by the tech specs for the dock though and am hoping someone here can answer my question:

I use a dual-head KVM (VGA) to support multiple PC's with my two monitors. I run them at 1600x1200. Will the Series 3 dock support those two monitors using a DVI-to-VGA adapater for each monitor? The dock's tech specs are a bit confusing and mention something about not supporting DVI-to-VGA but I'm not sure if that is in reference to multiple monitors on the same DVI port. (which I'm not looking to do)

My fall-back is to use the VGA port and then use a DisplayPort-to-VGA adaptor for the second monitor but according to some posts here it sounds like that will hog resources. another option is replace the KVM with a DVI-native model, but that'll get expensive and require me to replace the video cards in the other PC's that currently have one DVI and one VGA output.

Thanks!

[crashnburn]

I love these discussions

Accell UltraAV B087B-002B

RonS - Have you used this? Is it more reliable than the Apple MiniDisplay Port to Dual Link DVI ACTIVE box that Apple had release for MBP to Cinema display connection? That thing has bad reviews all over the net & apples site.

ALSO - Ron & guys.. Another Question

I am considering something like this in the near future for my T61, X61T & W510 (well maybe it wont need it). Thoughts? Suggestions?

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/21/msi- ... t-to-call/

[AMATX]

^ I tried the ViDock2 that RonS had suggested previously and it worked just fine.

However, this engadget thing appears to support higher wattage than the ViDock, so it might be worth checking out for use with a wider variety of video cards.

[cpfuller]

I want to use the W510 with a docking station and 3 monitors. What is the best way to accomplish this. Should I put a dual head card in the ViDock and drive 2 monitors while hooking one to the docking station or should I hook 2 monitors to the docking station and one to the ViDock. Also would it be possible to hook up 2 monitors to the docking station and use a usb video adapter also hooked up to the dock? I don't do any gaming or video editing just basic Visual Studio programming and office document work.

Thanks
Charles

[RonS]

I want to use the W510 with a docking station and 3 monitors. What is the best way to accomplish this. Should I put a dual head card in the ViDock and drive 2 monitors while hooking one to the docking station or should I hook 2 monitors to the docking station and one to the ViDock. Also would it be possible to hook up 2 monitors to the docking station and use a usb video adapter also hooked up to the dock? I don't do any gaming or video editing just basic Visual Studio programming and office document work.

You should always run the first two monitors off the dock. For the third monitor, if performance or future expandability is in any way an issue, go with the VIDock solution with a single or dual-head card. Otherwise, the USB-Video solution will probably work fine.