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I saw the give-away on the home page, perhaps surreptitiously, I am in the market for such a device. I have a dual monitor setup at home which use HDMI connections, but can use HDMI as can my graphics card. I noticed the dock itself only has 1 DVI connection too, I imagine a split adapter would be necessary?

Also, my ultimate goal is to dock the laptop, have keyboard/mouse/dual monitors/internet all go to the laptop immediately. And when undocked, revert to the desktop without any other connection/disconnecting necessary. Is this the type of device I want to look at or would someone please recommend an alternative? I've doing more and more work from home lately and RDP to my laptop with a single monitor in use isn't cutting it. Not to mention the slight delay being annoying.

If it matters, I also use UltraMon to manage multiple monitors.

The "universal" docks use a USB3 graphics card, effectively, hence the limit of a single DVI port and a single HDMI. They would appear as a separate device to the laptop whenever you connected it.

What you really want is a business-class laptop, like an HP, Dell or Lenovo, which can use a "proper" docking station, which tends to include multiple digital outputs, ethernet, sound, USB 2+3 etc. That's what I use with my own work laptop, which is an HP Probook 6470b. Got a docking station in the office and a docking station at home, so I don't need to carry anything but the machine itself. Docks have Displayport, DVI and VGA outputs - the newer one at work has 2x DP, 2x DVI and 1x VGA, while the older model I have at home has just one of each output, but includes fun things like an RS232 I/O .

Mentawl wrote:

The "universal" docks use a USB3 graphics card, effectively, hence the limit of a single DVI port and a single HDMI. They would appear as a separate device to the laptop whenever you connected it.

What you really want is a business-class laptop, like an HP, Dell or Lenovo, which can use a "proper" docking station, which tends to include multiple digital outputs, ethernet, sound, USB 2+3 etc. That's what I use with my own work laptop, which is an HP Probook 6470b. Got a docking station in the office and a docking station at home, so I don't need to carry anything but the machine itself. Docks have Displayport, DVI and VGA outputs - the newer one at work has 2x DP, 2x DVI and 1x VGA, while the older model I have at home has just one of each output, but includes fun things like an RS232 I/O .

My laptop is a docking laptop - I have a normal dock at work, but I want to be able to use it as efficiently at home without having to disconnect my peripherals from my desktop.

In that case, it sounds like what you really want is a KVM switch, possibly combined with a dock for home use, too.

KVM allows you to use one monitor/keyboard/mouse to control multiple machines. If you plugged your desktop machine into it, and the outputs from a laptop dock into it, you could switch between the desktop and the laptop as you saw fit.

However, dual digital-out KVMs aren't particularly cheap. For example:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Port ... output+kvm

A cheaper option, if your monitors support dual inputs, would be a simple USB switch for keyboard/mouse and just manually switch the inputs on the monitors. You'll still need a way to get two video outputs out of the laptop, however. What model is it?

Latitude e5530

Mentawl wrote:

In that case, it sounds like what you really want is a KVM switch, possibly combined with a dock for home use, too.

KVM allows you to use one monitor/keyboard/mouse to control multiple machines. If you plugged your desktop machine into it, and the outputs from a laptop dock into it, you could switch between the desktop and the laptop as you saw fit.

However, dual digital-out KVMs aren't particularly cheap. For example:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Port ... output+kvm

A cheaper option, if your monitors support dual inputs, would be a simple USB switch for keyboard/mouse and just manually switch the inputs on the monitors. You'll still need a way to get two video outputs out of the laptop, however. What model is it?

A KVM only works part way, I don't want to tear down existing/ setup new beyond docking it. So perhaps a perfect solution doesn't exist, however if cost wasn't a factor (business purchase) would that change your advice?

So you need a fancy KVM and a Dell dock.

steelcity_ballin wrote:

Mentawl wrote:

In that case, it sounds like what you really want is a KVM switch, possibly combined with a dock for home use, too.

KVM allows you to use one monitor/keyboard/mouse to control multiple machines. If you plugged your desktop machine into it, and the outputs from a laptop dock into it, you could switch between the desktop and the laptop as you saw fit.

However, dual digital-out KVMs aren't particularly cheap. For example:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Port ... output+kvm

A cheaper option, if your monitors support dual inputs, would be a simple USB switch for keyboard/mouse and just manually switch the inputs on the monitors. You'll still need a way to get two video outputs out of the laptop, however. What model is it?

A KVM only works part way, I don't want to tear down existing/ setup new beyond docking it. So perhaps a perfect solution doesn't exist, however if cost wasn't a factor (business purchase) would that change your advice?

What NovusBogus said.

A KVM + a dock sounds like what you want. Have the dock wired in to the KVM and the desktop wired in to the KVM, individual network cables to the desktop and to the dock. In normal use, the desktop is attached as device 1 on the KVM, and can be used normally. Plug your laptop into the dock, dock is attached as device 2, flick KVM to device 2 and use laptop as needs be.