docking options for the T42

Greetings.

I am fully sold on getting the T42 as my first laptop.

I'd like to ask you all for some recommendation on what is the best/easiest docking solution for this machine. Poet replicator, etc is not so clear to me.

Thanks for your help!

 

It took me a while to figure them out too, when I was shopping for my thinkpad. I could be wrong but this is what I gathered:

You have 3 options (from IBM): Port Replicator II, mini-Dock, and Dock II.

Port Replicator and mini-dock are essentially the same, the main difference between port replicator II and mini-dock is that, mini-dock comes with a power adapter. note that this adapter could NOT be used for your laptop as it has differnet plug. I only found out about this after I got mine. Other differences are trivial, like if you lock the mini-dock with the chain lock, you can't un-lock the laptop, while if you lock the port replicator II, you can still unlock the laptop from it. (Maybe it's the other way around, I didn't check.)

the Dock II has everything on the mini-dock, plus Ultrabay 2000, PC CardBus slots, and a PCI slot. I am not sure what kind of power adapter it comes with tho.