Help moving from desktop -> laptop with dock?

[pete6032]

Current setup:
Athlon II X4 635
8GB RAM
AMD 785G chipset
RADEON HD 5450

Current laptop:
i5-2467M
4GB RAM
no docking feature

I no longer play games, and the only thing I do on my PC that is resource intensive is sometimes I use photoshop and lightroom to touch up photos. Everything else I do is basic - word, excel, email, etc. I'm wondering if its possible to replace the system above with an ultrabook that has similar or greater performance and has a docking station that would let me continue to use my 22" monitor, keyboard, and mouse? I am always on the go with my laptop, taking it to coffee shops, library, etc, so it's important to have a lightweight machine. I am wondering how I could have an ultrabook but also have a HDD big enough to store all my music and photos? I think I only have about 120GB of photos and music at the moment. Any advice?

I see you can also get aftermarket docks this day in age. How do these compare to docking systems built and designed by the laptop MFGs? I'm assuming I'd have to plug in my HDMI out into the dock? At the minimum I would need HDMI and ethernet.

 

[TheStu]

Is there anything that you'd want to plug into it other than monitor, and USB devices (you can get USB3 ethernet adapters)?

You could simply have 3 cables, Power, Monitor (HDMI, DP, whatever), and USB (to a 3.0 hub), that you plug in. Yes, clicking it into a dock is easier, but... only a few laptops support that sort of thing (mostly business machines, Dell Latitudes/Precision, Lenovo ThinkPads, HP ProBooks, etc.), so if you're willing to deal with 3 cables, then you open up the field. When USB C takes off some more, you'd be able to have a single cable running from the laptop to a hub, but right now there's just the MacBook and Chromebook Pixel that are all in on USB C (they use it for charging is what I mean).

Regarding the storage... A lot (not all) ultrabooks use blade SSDs (either M.2 or mSATA), and you can get those in capacities up to 1TB, so even if it ships with a piddling amount of storage, you can increase it yourself after the fact.

 

[TeknoBug]

I think Lenovo still makes Thinkpads with docks.

 

[pete6032]

Is there anything that you'd want to plug into it other than monitor, and USB devices (you can get USB3 ethernet adapters)?

You could simply have 3 cables, Power, Monitor (HDMI, DP, whatever), and USB (to a 3.0 hub), that you plug in. Yes, clicking it into a dock is easier, but... only a few laptops support that sort of thing (mostly business machines, Dell Latitudes/Precision, Lenovo ThinkPads, HP ProBooks, etc.), so if you're willing to deal with 3 cables, then you open up the field. When USB C takes off some more, you'd be able to have a single cable running from the laptop to a hub, but right now there's just the MacBook and Chromebook Pixel that are all in on USB C (they use it for charging is what I mean).

Regarding the storage... A lot (not all) ultrabooks use blade SSDs (either M.2 or mSATA), and you can get those in capacities up to 1TB, so even if it ships with a piddling amount of storage, you can increase it yourself after the fact.

At this point, nothing else to plug in other than Ethernet, Monitor, Power, keyboard, and mouse. I'm trying to understand how Lenovo's One Link connector works. Seems like that could be a solution? I know it's dicey buying into proprietary connectors like that though.

 

[TheStu]

At this point, nothing else to plug in other than Ethernet, Monitor, Power, keyboard, and mouse. I'm trying to understand how Lenovo's One Link connector works. Seems like that could be a solution? I know it's dicey buying into proprietary connectors like that though.

You should be able to use a USB3 ethernet adapter (there are apparently some edge cases where an actual ethernet port is required, but unless you're doing on-site server tech stuff...), so that's not really a concern if you DON'T get a dedicated dock.

See if any of the Lenovo systems that work with that dock are appealing (and hopefully the dock isn't too expensive), or look into a Dell Latitude with the eDock. I think it's been the same connector for the past 5+ years, so there're plenty of used ones on ebay.