Docking station: Laptop to Monitor

Hi,

I'm currently looking into getting a docking station when I buy a new laptop and monitor. I want to know whether there are any pros and cons if the monitor is connected via docking station instead of directly to the laptop?

What do I need to be aware of in terms of:
Types of connection: Displayport / HDMI
Transfer rates?
Refresh rate when playing games?

Finally, does it really matter if the docking station is a universal docking station vs. using docking station from the laptop manufacturer?

Thanks.

 

What kind of notebook are you looking for? Most systems that would benefit from having a docking station would not be conducive to gaming.

Unless you know exactly what brands/models you're looking for, you should create a thread filling out the information in the form posted here.

 

I'm thinking about the Lenovo T series.

 

If it's a dock with a dedicated docking port or a thunderbolt dock, then pretty much everything should behave as if it was directly plugged in the computer. If the "universal dock" is USB, then, there is likely to be some issues with certain types of workloads such as gaming.

 

Then you'd be fine using a docking station. The available GeForce 940MX doesn't support G-Sync, which is the only reason you'd want to connect an external monitor directly from the computer. For the best connectivity, you'll want a Thunderbolt 3 dock. Any model should work, you'll just need to find the correct combination of ports to suit your needs.

 

How is Lenovo's Thunderbolt 3 dock anyway? HP's was (is?) terrible, even when I could get it to actually work once in every 10 reboots...