Oh, and also need a high quality dock for 1 large screen and multiple USB ports. been using an old thinkpad dock with 2 screen inputs, hdmi, 5 usd inputs (older style) internet, headphone 1 usB C I think..
Got it, Chris.
FWIW, I have used a couple of different docks over the years. The best (for me) were the ThinkPad Docks due to their design - i.e. that they mated well with my various ThinkPads over the years and of course the Surface docks worked well with the MS Surface devices. In today's world, however, the Lenovo docks are more "generic" and the newer Surface devices no longer feature proprietary Surface Connect port so they have moved more "mainstream" to use USB4 or Thunderbolt 4. In today's world, some of the 3rd Party docks work better for
my purposes.
It should be noted that it has been many years since I was actively appraising, engaged developing software and/or collaborating with hardware manufacturers, so my main use case for docks revolves around my personal and professional travel schedules. So, a laptop figures heavily in my daily life for a good part of the year but my "heavy lifting" computers are somewhat esoteric desktops which sometimes could suffice for space heaters and items which feed to income streams of our local electrical coops ;-)... I do, though, use a laptop at one of my desks, so I have a couple of favorites. That said,
how you envision using a dock figures heavily in which one(s) might fit the bill, so I aim to get more info from you on that aspect. Some of this may not be of interest here in a "Tablet" forum, so I may just PM you.
If this stuff is still of interest here, though, I'm happy so interject the pertinent/relevant aspects for (say) "convertibles/2-in-1s"...
Anyway, while mentioning
USB4 and
TB4, one should note that TB4 on Windows devices
requires an Intel CPU and you may have noted that I gave
cashcatz above a couple of "agreement thumbs ups" regarding his recommendations on AMD vs. Intel. For docks, I believe that the primary tasks revolve around I/O (duh, right?) so speed and reliability are key factors. In general terms, the performance of USB 4 and TB4 can sometimes (mostly?) be very similar and in fact, most device specs advertise their TB4 connection is fully compatible with USB4 specs. My advice there is that sticking with well-known brand names and reading legit reviews, etc. is wise... If you feel like the I/O speed of your laptop <> dock is of utmost importance, then
TB5 may be worth considering, but again, that requires that your device has a proper/certified TB5 chip/port, and not all do... Again, in my personal usage scenarios, my desktop CPU is an AMD where as my laptop s are both Intel and ARM. When working professionally as a consultant, the advantages of AMD are my primary factors - my desktops have the space, breathing room, etc. to allow for specialized GPUs, several large SSDs, and of course a motherboard that accommodates these things, but when I'm traveling and need to do some "heavy lifting", I'll generally take my Intel laptop because for the work I do, the TB5 speeds on the external SSDs, eGPU, etc result in getting more done in less time. If my work is not so specialized, I'll go with my ARM devices and TB4/ USB4 (x2). One of my main clients runs the video production facility for an international development company, so we configured his desktop around TB5's I/O performance, but when he travels, he isn't compiling/producing, so an AMD with USB4 fits that use case scenario best.
Unless your ultimate choice of Laptop is very unusual,
you should be able to continue using your existing dock until if/when it becomes a barrier to productivity (or just inconvenient) and you select something faster, more portable or whatever factors best suit what you want today and into the foreseeable future.
Selecting the dock & laptop combo that works best for
you might come down to us taking a deeper dive via PM or a call (phone, WhatsApp, Zoom, Teams, whatever) vs. having you parse through my meandering diatribes ;-) I'd like to better understand your workload and use case scenario - are you mainly running conventional appraisal apps in the field, or are there other considerations? Feel free to
PM me here with contract info if that appeals to you and we'll arrange a mutually convenient date/time for that.
Hope this helps!
+Randall Garrett+
TX ATM (
on the road soon, though)
/end/
