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Docking Laptop for Light Gaming?

T

TSDible

Golden Member
Okay...

I'm working on consolidating some of my systems. I love having a laptop that docks so that I can get some serious work done with a dual monitor setup.

I've always purchased off lease or refurb business laptops for this.

I was thinking of picking up a new system that would replace my Thinkpad x201 (docked) and my HP Envy 14 (i5 M560; Radeon HD 5650).

The only game I really play is Diablo III, so it isn't really intensive.

I would like a laptop with the following specs

1. Full HD (1080p)
2. Ability to dock and drive 2 dispays (1920x1200 and 1600x1200)
3. Play D3 smoothly on medium to high settings. It would be nice if it could do this at the native display resolutions...
4. Backlit Keyboard - This seems really hard to find unless you get a consumer grade laptop. It isn't absolutely required, but I sure have gotten to like it..

I'd like to keep the budget around $700 or less... lower is always better, but I could be convinced to spend more for a good deal.

It's tough to find a dock-able laptop with decent discrete graphics.

I don't have a problem looking at off-lease or refurbs... I'm starting to think that a newer Broadwell with a HD 5500 may be able to do it without the discrete graphics, but I'm still researching it.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
 
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This seems like a tough find - discrete graphics (not quadro or firepro) and backlit keyboards are mostly found in consumer oriented laptops. Docking options and multiple display outputs are mostly business oriented.

How about the ThinkPad E450?
Intel i7-5500U (you need to select this for discrete graphics, for some reason)
AMD Radeon R7 M260 2GB
Up to 16GB RAM
Optional 1920x1080 display
Docking through the Lenovo OneLink port (i.e. wired, but with dual video pass-through, link)
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops...e-series/e450/

No backlit keyboard there either, though.
 
I really like a docking optinon... I'm not against wired...

Is there any dock that will work with consumer laptops?

I understand that USB docks are pretty crappy for games.
 
RossMAN said:
Would this Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 14" work?
Click to expand...

That looks like a decent deal...

But the "OneLink" dock for it only has a single HDMI

I'm starting to lean towards a laptop that has DisplayPort. Then I could hook up my main monitor to that, and then the rest to a simple USB dock.

It would be more cables, but still relatively easy.

I think I can get more laptop for that price point then.
 
TSDible said:
That looks like a decent deal...

But the "OneLink" dock for it only has a single HDMI

I'm starting to lean towards a laptop that has DisplayPort. Then I could hook up my main monitor to that, and then the rest to a simple USB dock.

It would be more cables, but still relatively easy.

I think I can get more laptop for that price point then.
Click to expand...

The one I linked, with the dock I mentioned, should have everything you want except a backlit keyboard. There's a OneLink dock with multiple display outputs, the OneLink Pro dock. See the link in my post.
 
Valantar said:
The one I linked, with the dock I mentioned, should have everything you want except a backlit keyboard. There's a OneLink dock with multiple display outputs, the OneLink Pro dock. See the link in my post.
Click to expand...

I was looking at the regular One Link.

Nice that there is a pro option, but it is pricey...

Lenovo has frequent deals, so maybe I can find something...
 
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