Belkin Universal Notebook Dock Announced -- Finally a Good dock??

Thanks to Belkin!!

Looks nice too! Would go well with Asus notebooks! DVI out! 5.1 surround sound! Connects thru' Expresscard slot!! One dock for all notebooks!

http://www.belkin.com/pressroom/releases/uploads/10_10_06NotebookExpansionDock.html

Excellent!

 

Brilliant! I will most certainly be purchasing one of them. well wait for the price to come down a tiny bit first

 

While I am stoked a universal one came out with a DVI port, I would rather have one that plugs in under the laptop, to create a space for air to pass through, plus, will it take a hit in Fps if you plug a HD monitor to the DVI port? I thought I saw that it was connected through USB?

 

I suppose FPS is frames/sec for video transfer?? If expresscard is 2gb/s as they claim I think it would be much better than the transfer of video thru' USB2.0 (480mb/s). I think that's what gave them confidence to put a DVI on that system in the first place. Let's wait and see.

Also, if u click on high-res image, the cable shows a notebook icon above it- maybe for the expresscard slot and not USB? I am not sure.

 

ebay.com - 2 months after launch!! i am sure u can get a sparingly used one for 150 bucks from someone who does not want it!

 

I guess I shoulda posted this in press releases forum?? my bad! can any of u good admins please move it if necessary?

 

Well, I'd have to say the price is fair. Most docking stations with those capabilities cost $159 or more, and are specific to a small series of laptops. This is a one-fit-all approach.

This is actually the first ExpressCard product I've seen that is really a good idea. If this dock doesn't cut it, I'm sure they could refine the design even more. But I love the idea here.

The port on the dock itself probably looks like it is USB. However, I'm sure the other end of that cable in the front is an ExpressCard54...it would be really nice if it were ExpressCard34 though.

 

Thanks arevee -- here's the "official" front page NBR news post for this item:

<!-- Generated by XStandard version 1.7.1.0 on 2006-10-10T12:18:06 -->

Finally, a notebook dock has arrived that offers DVI-out, 5.1 surround sound and is available to all laptops that have the ExpressCard expansion slot. The Belkin Universal Notebook Dock is a vertically oriented dock that makes managing cables at a desk easy and expands the capabilities of your notebook. Availability is set for November and the suggested price will be $199.99.

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The Belkin dock is the first available in the consumer market that offers fast connectivity via a notebook's ExpressCard port, quadrupling your available bandwidth so you can run high-quality video -- from DVDs, for example -- without affecting bandwidth to your other USB 2.0 devices. The ExpressCard technology allows throughput at 2.0Gbps to provide excellent video out at a superior 1600 x 1200 resolution in 32-bit color. If you do not have The Notebook Expansion Dock will be shipping in North America in late November, with launches in Asia, Europe, and Australia to follow shortly.

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The Dock's unique vertical design minimizes the amount of space taken up on your desk. At the same time, the design uses convection to minimize heat buildup from the Dock's GPU and provides additional safety by preventing people from putting their laptop battery on top of the docking station.

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The Notebook Expansion Dock is the first docking station to feature ExpressCard technology, which connects at 2.0Gbps to provide unparalleled graphics quality and flawless video reproduction at a superior 1600x1200 resolution in 32-bit color. The Dock provides an additional built-in USB lane as well.

Here's a rundown of the features:

• Features slim, vertical, compact footprint that saves desk space and conveniently manages all your cables
• Minimizes heat buildup from internal graphics-processing unit
• Works seamlessly with Windows® Vista™ and XP operating systems, as well as with most DVD-player software
• High-resolution, DVD-quality video output through VGA or DVI ports
• 5.1 surround-sound support through optical or 3.5mm outputs
• Five (5) USB 2.0 ports, including 2 top-load USB ports for easy access by thumb drives
• 10/100Mbps Ethernet access for instant connection to multiple external devices
• Compatibility with all notebooks equipped with an ExpressCard port

 

very nice, i'll be getting 1 for sure..

 

It has to be ExpressCard/54 to get the stated bandwidth. ExpressCard/34 is just an internal USB 2.0 connection for low-bandwidth devices.

Too bad my Z33 doesn't have ExpressCard...sigh.

 

This looks like a great iidea. My only concern is gaming off of it - would the graphics processing be handled by the X1600 in my soon to arrive W3J, or by some GPU in the dock?

 

The X1600...no ExpressCard device is going to match the power of a GPU. External GPUs are basically impossible to make, AFAIK.

EDIT: At least I hope there isn't a GPU in that thing...

 

How will the 5.1 work? Is there a sound card in there, or will it depend on the laptop soundcard like the video depends on the notebook video card?

The best news is that someone is actually making expressCard devices now.

 

there is a GPU in that thing!! it says right on the press release page and I quote:

"The Dock’s unique vertical design minimizes the amount of space taken up on your desk. At the same time, the design uses convection to minimize heat buildup from the Dock’s GPU and provides additional safety by preventing people from putting their laptop battery on top of the docking station."

 

see above message. the dock does have a GPU. I am sure it has a sound card too?! gawd! I can't wait for it to come out.

whoz in for a group buy?? there are 2 PR folks listed on the press release. I am sure they can help us nice NBR folks get a good price!!!

 

superior to what?

my HP notebook and the $40 (on ebay) docking station already does 1920x1080 (1080p) at 32-bit color over DVI or VGA... with a GMA 950.

the GPU probably isn't very good -- I'd be surprised if it will support Aero Glass. If it had ATI or nVidia graphics, I'm sure there'd be a logo/mention on that press release or a joint press release.

... so if it is Aero Glass compatible, it's probably an S3 chip.

High resolution and DVD quality are contradictory statements. DVD resolution is 720x576 at the most.

Minus the enhanced sound, this thing does nothign my existing docking station doesn't -- plus, my docking station has gigabit ethernet, serial and parallel ports, modem port and svideo/rca video out.

 

Im geting 1 for sure LOoks CoOl to

 

Looks and sounds great,alittle exspensive,will wait to see if price drops.

 

Jumper:

This is completely wrong. The ExpressCard standard is bascially a replacement for the older PCMCIA slots, it contains both a PCI-Express x1 lane and a USB 2.0 lane. The |34 or |54 only denotes the physical width of the slot, and both has the same interface to the notebook/system:
http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/standardsummary.jsp

In particular let me draw to you this diagram:


Belkin would make it with the ExpressCard|34 interface to maximize compatibility with all the notebooks out there (and with the |34 slot it should/would work with Apple's MacBook/MacBook Pros too, pending supporting drivers of course). There would be hardly any electronics on the ExpressCard itself as it's just a PCI-e x1 interface/cable to the actual box/docking station where all the goodies are.

I can see this is an interesting device, as it bascially interfaces over a PCI Express x1 lane to get the 2.0Gbps bandwidth in order to implement on-board graphics, audio, network and extra USB 2.0 ports/hubs. However, the GPU would probabally be the same level as the current Intel GMA integrated graphics. If you have one of the better GPUs already with your notebook (ATI Mobility Radeon X1400/nVidia GeForce Go 7400 and above), I can't see why you would want to get this and get substaintially lower graphics performance from the GPU in it.

Schnook121:

It wouldn't be able to utilize the GPU on the notebook, as it will use its own onboard GPU. Thus, as I said above, I don't see people like yourself wanting to get one.

I guess the convenience of just needing to plug in one thing compared with plugging in multiple cables (monitor, mouse, audio etc.) is worth the $199 price tag.

 

A great idea. Pity it ain't got Gbit ethernet which is so common now.

 

It's a pity it can't use a GPU on the laptop...if this is true. Makes the device almost worthless to those who enjoy gaming or want the full Vista eye-candy.

I'm going to hope that the GPU on there is merely a device that emulates a PC Monitor...so that the laptop GPU would pass info to it.

 

so this has the same bandwidth of any PCI-Express slot??? why don't people make Express card external GPU'S then? haha. that would be cool to see.

 

Because it'll only be a PCI Express x1 link with 2Gbit/s (250MByte/s) bandwidth. While it is true that PCI-e x16, or even x8 is overkill for graphics cards right now, when you move down below an x4 link, it'll become a serious bottleneck.

Let us refresh ourselves with the history of graphics card interfaces:
PCI (32bit 33MHz) - 132MB/s (1Gb/s)
AGP 2x (1.0) - 266MB/s (2.1Gb/s)
AGP 4x (2.0) - 1.06GB/s (8Gb/s)
AGP 8x (3.0) - 2.13GB/s (16Gb/s)
PCI Express x1 - 250MB/s (2Gb/s)
PCI Express x4 - 1GB/s (8Gb/s)
PCI Express x8 - 2GB/s (16Gb/s)
PCI Express x16 - 4GB/s (32Gb/s)

Therefore, any external GPU connected via the ExpressCard slot will be seriously bandwidth limited, and will perform very poorly. I am sure many companies have thought about doing just that, but it'll be so bottlenecked that it won't be a worthwhile endevour as even a basic Intel GMA integrated graphics would give similar performance.

 

I'm hoping there will be a clarification on if it can still use the GPU in your laptop. I am really thinking this would be nice to allow me to use a laptop to completely replace my desktop fairly easily, but it would be kind of a bummer if I couldn't actually do any gaming with it or take advantage of my laptop's GPU.

 

if it goes down to $99 i might be tempted to get it, even tho i dont use an external monitor, i could then get a surround sound speaker set and then i dont have to keep plugging everything in when i get home

 

this GPU probably won't be nearly as good as the GMA 950

... and you COULD just get a surround sound USB or wireless adapter instead of this

 

Thanks for the info.

It may just be the thing that my notebook needs!

Cheers!

 

I've still got to admit, I'm confused about why this thing would need to use the GPU inside it.

Let's say that your laptop does have a high-end graphics card in it. It is outputting video to this unit over the ExpressCard bus, and that is getting passed on to the VGA or DVI port, right?

So why does your laptop need to use the GPU on the unit instead of its own GPU?

That's the thing I'm just not getting. If anything, how does the laptop even use it as an "external" GPU? Does this really mean that when you hook this device up through the ExpressCard slot, your laptop uses an external GPU instead of its own GPU for any video it is outputting?

I honestly just don't get the mechanisms here.

 

I'm thinking the external GPU is nothing but a ExpressCard to DVI bridge device. To actually imply it can render graphics is to imply external GPUs are here...and AFAIK they wouldn't without being FAR WORSE than a GMA 900/950.

BTW, PCIe 2.0 is just around the corner...looks exciting.

This means that external GPUs (that would actually make sense) might be possible within a few years time. But an external GPU over the ExpressCard format is hooey.

 

zadillo:
Think about it this way, say you already have a graphics card on your desktop machine, and you plug an extra graphics card into the motherboard and hook up the monitor cable to the ports of that extra graphics card. Same applies with this docking station, you are merely adding an extra graphics card to the system. The ExpressCard slot in this case is just acting like a PCI Express Slot for the notebook. I know it sounds weird, but that's bascially what's going on, just that its in a form "forgien" to most users out there (i.e. like the idea of an externally connected video card).

I would assume that the notebook's own GPU won't get disabled either, to Windows, it is just like having 2 graphics cards installed into the system. (As Windows XP (and Vista) supports multiple graphics card in the system, and as far as I know, for XP upto 10 monitors).

As to why they couldn't route the display output via the ExpressCard/PCI Express interface so the onboard GPU gets used... that's a very good question. I suppose it could be done (on desktop motherboards with Intel integrated graphics (such as the 915G, 945G chipsets), you can buy these "ADD" cards which plugs into the PCI-e x16 slot to give you an extra DVI or TV-Out), however that might be limited to Intel integrated chipset solutions only. I think it is technically not possible to route a DVI output signal back through the PCI Express bus so the signal can be transferred to say, Belkin's docking station.

 

This is just plain confusing...anyone with an ExpressCard slot (and powerful GPU) willing to test out gaming on this thing? Please post if you do!

That way we'll know for sure!

 

I doubt Its for gaming, Its probally got a basic GPU for decoding video into a useable DVI output, Its very unlikly the system could utlize it for anything else. The lack of Gigabit ethernet is what put me off, I can get a much better sound card for alot less and a power USB multiplier for like 10$ and I dont need DVI output. Anyway in relation to the whole external GPU thing its unlikly that you will see them with rev1 of PCI-express. Its quite likly you will see a external GPU in rev2 though that is supposed to be out late 06/early 07 which double PCI bandwidth. Also I'm pretty sure ExpressCard is 2.5Gbps not 2... though maybe that is lost in the overhead.

 

hmm. i use my Asus pw201 monitor as my docking station. i wonder if this will replace my monitor....

 

I don't see whats so great about this. I have a dell m1210 that I use as my main machine. If I want to "dock" it, all I do is connect my monitor, power supply, and usb hub (with mouse, keyboard, speakers) and it becomes my desktop. For network connectivity I have wifi.

With this dock, it looks like u still have to connect the power supply and plug in the expresscard. So I'm basically saving 1 step, but I lose the ability to use the built-in gpu.

I guess for people needing wired 100meg ethernet and dvi this looks pretty.

 

I guess that's true, if you already have a USB hub with your mouse, keyboard and speakers, it isn't saving that much time.

 

Despite all the doubts in this thread, I'm still hoping to get one soon, though I'm having trouble finding a supplier that will ship to Canada at these discounted prices. I'm a big fan of saving space, and plugging two things (card, power) as opposed to four (speakers, wireless mouse/keyboard, tablet, monitor) is worth it to me.

Anyone actually get one and try it out yet? Would be good to get a testimonial before I invest.