i am looking for something similar to what my boss has. He has a dell notebook, and slides his notebook in under his monitor, hooks it up to a couple ports and its now on his monitor and works like a charm.... any docks that are for MBPs?
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any good docks for a MBP?
- Thread starter acrahm
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SnowLeopard2008
macrumors 604
Not really, why not just hook it up to an external monitor and use in clamshell mode with external keyboard/mouse? There's some stands you could buy that let's you do this.
No, no docks worth mentioning (or buying, for that matter)... but the 24" Apple Cinema Display works famously in this situation. If you have a Unibody MBP, that is.
That said, there are docks available for older MBP's... but they are rather expensive and decidedly poorly made (though certainly cheaper than an ACD). It's not worth looking in to, unless you are for some reason truly desperate. There are horror stories. Horrific horror stories. They don't fit well. They're made by a company you've never heard of. And they break rather sooner than one might like.
There's a reason Apple doesn't make docking stations. It's too easy to break something, and it's tied to that one product rather than being relatively future-proof. And with the trouble those docks cause, it is actually easier to just plug in the three or four connectors you might need and then unplug them wen you're done. It's not like there are any thumbscrew-secured plugs or anything involved, which I believe were the reason port replicators were created in the first place.
Alright, so I might have made this a little more dramatic than it needed to be. But I'm a bit tired and in the peculiar kind of mood that I always get into when I watch, read, or listen to British comedy.
Let's start again. The short answer to your question is (IMHO):
Don't bother.
P.S. A quick search on the forums or on Google (or both) should have turned up most or all of the necessary info, though it may have been somewhat outdated.
That said, there are docks available for older MBP's... but they are rather expensive and decidedly poorly made (though certainly cheaper than an ACD). It's not worth looking in to, unless you are for some reason truly desperate. There are horror stories. Horrific horror stories. They don't fit well. They're made by a company you've never heard of. And they break rather sooner than one might like.
There's a reason Apple doesn't make docking stations. It's too easy to break something, and it's tied to that one product rather than being relatively future-proof. And with the trouble those docks cause, it is actually easier to just plug in the three or four connectors you might need and then unplug them wen you're done. It's not like there are any thumbscrew-secured plugs or anything involved, which I believe were the reason port replicators were created in the first place.
Alright, so I might have made this a little more dramatic than it needed to be. But I'm a bit tired and in the peculiar kind of mood that I always get into when I watch, read, or listen to British comedy.
Let's start again. The short answer to your question is (IMHO):
Don't bother.
P.S. A quick search on the forums or on Google (or both) should have turned up most or all of the necessary info, though it may have been somewhat outdated.
thanks for all the input, i am probally going to stick with my plan to get an refurbed Imac and 13' MB and sell my MBP...
I'm using BELKIN F5U407 USB 2.0 4-Port Ultra Mini Hub with a couple of 1 TB HDs hooked up to it, a Wacom Intuos 2 and an Apple keyboard. I run a mouse and a BluRay drive off the keyboard. Everything works quite well. I only need to need to pop in the USB hub, magsafe and DVI for 2nd display and I'm set when I get home.
Apple have universal docks for their ipods and iphone
They could just add an extra port and release a univeral dock with adaptor
They could just add an extra port and release a univeral dock with adaptor