Discussions

Hi this is Moshe
Pleas look at my post.
Comments will be appreciated.
http://www.wepc.com/vote/view/dream/7362/William_Gibson_Cyberspace_Machine

There have already been some docking stations with built in video (like the EasiDock), but I think you definitely have the right idea.

I kind of do this to some extent by having my second monitor driven by a USB video card that always stays connected to the dock.

But as you said, why limit ourselves to video:

Since OS's and hardware are getting better and better at multi-processor/multi-core support, why not have a docking station that supports (upgradable) CPU cards? That way, we could have better performance at the desk.

I also wouldn't mind a dedicated hard drive in the dock that worked with the OS to resync to RAID1 mirroring once every week or so when docked. If your laptop gets totally fubared, just boot with a special disk and DD the backup onto the original drive.

Wasn't this one of the original features of the Puma platform? I remember reading stuff about a proprietary external interface the laptops would get for use with discrete graphics in docking stations. But this was well before Puma got into the wild. Then all news of it dried up and I don't remember hearing about this ever appearing in the wild.

Hope you take a look into these too:
http://www.wepc.com/vote/view/dream/6243/Pocket_Netbook___Eee_Go_Multiple_Docking_System

http://www.wepc.com/vote/view/dream/5812/Portable_Desktop_II___The_Gee_PC_Gaming_Rig

The idea is to have expansion options for a notebook/netbook built into the dock and also, for the netbook to be used as a sort of universal remote when interacting with wireless docks serving different purposes (gaming, home theater playback, in-car engine management system, etc.)

Life is sometimes amazing - about three weeks ago I thought of the exact same thing described in the main article - docking stations for laptops with discreet graphics cards.

Then I thought to myself "I wish I could speak to someone who could actually implement this." Then I happened onto the HotHardware link today and here's my idea already posted!

I thought of this when I looked at the Acer Timeline laptops that launched recently. I liked the idea of a slim laptop with a long battery life for mobile use, but I soon realized I would not be able to play anything resembling 3D games on it. The graphics card would also probably not allow the use of an additional high resolution screen.

To add a couple of thoughts of my own regarding this docking station setup:

1. This docking station idea can serve to increase the upgradeability of laptops. You no longer need to buy laptop + graphics card simultaneously, but can upgrade at will.

2. You will need a seperate power supply for the docking station if you're going to power a discreet graphics card. This could possibly also power your laptop while docked.

3. Whilst the motherboard design of the laptop will be interesting, the CPU on the laptop will probably be the limiting factor on the whole setup. In essence you want a powerful chip when the laptop is docked, but a low-wattage chip when it is running on batteries. There are obviously some chips more suited to these requirements, but perhaps things like underclocking and overclocking can play a role here. The docking station could perhaps be designed to better cool the laptop, thereby improving the headroom for overclocking.

That's just wrong--$100 to get a VGA output? Wow.

OEMs are definitely missing the boat with regard to docking stations. With a little "outside the box" thinking, they could add some great differentiating features.

Completely agree. A friend of mine bought an HP netbook and had to buy a $100 port replicator just to - get this - have a VGA out port. Amazing! I'm sure she would have spent ten times that if it let her do other things with it.