Laptop docking station advice

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice regarding docking stations. I don't have a desktop and don't really need one. I like the portability of a laptop but when I'm home and doing some work, or getting into some music recording, I like to have my laptop be more user-friendly.

I want to attach an external keyboard and mouse to it and then another screen so I can have two screens and better navigation.

I don't need one of those docking stations that you set the computer on top of and then it clicks into place. I'm thinking a unit that has the screen, mouse and keyboard plugged into it at all times and then all I need to do is plug the unit into my laptop and then the external units all work. Fewer cables to plug in, neater and quicker to plug in and go and get up and leave.

Any advice on what I should be looking for? Everything seems to be fairly pricey so if anyone knows some good budget options that would also be appreciated.

What I want from it:

• plug in a screen (VGA/DVI compatible)
• plug in a mouse
• plug in a keyboard
• USB ports for attaching external hard drives, USB dongles, recording pre-amp etc)
• Speaker/headphone jack optional.

Thanks in advance!

 

Docking station work with certain laptops only you should check the laptop maker whom you looking at to see which of theirs uses Docking station.

 

If you don't want a real docking station, then what you will get is a usb-hub with built in gpu, network card, sound card etc... If such performance is good enough for you, then go for it.

I'm using right now a usb-c/usb-3 docking station that also charges this laptop. That usb3 gpu is much worse than intel's integrated and even moving windows around the screen is choppy. A thunderbolt dock would be better (same usb-c connector). We have few of those here at the office but I haven't tried them yet. They have other issues on most users though.