T400- Advanced Dock video Q?

Hey there. I just received my new T400 about a week ago and for what I do it is a pretty nice system. However, I need to be able to run multiple monitors(3-4 of them; I'm a big real estate nut) as well as other accessories when I'm in my home office.

I've been looking at the Advanced Dock for more than a couple of reasons. The ability to add another Ultrabay drive is great; I can keep an optical drive in the dock(I'd have to get a T6x optical drive, I know) for burning/installing media, and have two hard drives in the T400 for copious storage space. I'm also liking the ability to add a PCie video card to drive multiple displays.

Has anyone had success in using any particular video card in the Advanced Dock with a T400 in order to drive dual-DVI or dual-VGA out?

If not, I can resort to using a couple of USB adapters to drive my displays, but would rather not if I can help it.

 

ati x1300 is the only official recommended Graphics card used in the Advanced dock, but if you are able to add additional power supply to the graphics card by modifying the dock, then you can get other graphics card to work too. Also, the PCIe slot on the Advanced dock is a x1 version and not a x16 version.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=445295&highlight=advanced+dock

 

Gotcha... I knew about the X1300, however Lenovo's documentation is spotty as to whether the T400 will actually work with it. I know my T400 also has an HD 3470; being an ATI graphics adapter that might allow it to work just fine.

However, I came upon this thread where someone else inferred the X1300 wouldn't work with the T400:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5862677

Since I just need screen real estate for school and personal work and won't be doing any 3D intensive tasks while in the dock, I might just consider getting two USB adapters and calling it good. I am also considering finding a suitable sound card for use in the dock, if it will function with one... it would be nice to drive my surround sound speakers once again.

 

You can use either a usb or pcmcia/expresscard soundcard. Also the advanced mini dock has a digital spdif output.

 

You could get one of these. That would get you 2 external and the internal LCD, the digital version requires DVI to get maxed resolution so I would get a advanced mini dock to pair with it.

 

Don't believe everything you read. i have had an advanced dock for a loooooong time and I've been down this road before. Using the X1300... T60 + multiple monitors = no problem. T61 w/ nvidia card + multiple monitors = problem. T400 + multiple monitors = problem.

The best solution: Buy these: Lenovo part # 45K5296 USB to DVI Monitor Adapter Mine showed up this week. It kicks butt. Skip the X1300. Or i'll sell you mine cheap. You an use multiple and this thing rocks.

Yes, the people above have found other ways to do it. but unless you are going to game on the monitors, this is the BEST solution out there. I run the T400 with 3 monitors right now this way and it works quite well.

good luck!

 

Excellent... thanks for the clarification. I may as well save my money and get an Advanced Mini-dock and the USB adapters I need. I was wondering if the X1300 would play well with the newer HD3470 in the T400; I guess it won't... heh.

I won't be gaming on any of the secondary monitors. If I'm gaming on the T400 I'm usually out and about, and on the notebook's internal LCD anyway. The most strenuous usage the monitors are going to get will be playing video... other than that they're going to be for IM clients, Office apps, and Firefox.