Please help me choose a Docking Station for my MBP 15'

[dschiller]

Hi all

I'm about to receive my refurbished MBP 15', and I'd like to purchase a docking station to go with it (something to which I can plug all my monitor/USB/FW/Audio cables, and then easily plug my MBP into/out of). I could only find this docking station by BookEndz. What I want to know is...

1) Is there anybody who has one of these? If so, how's your experience?

2) The BookEndz model doesn't seem to look that good (please correct me if I'm wrong) and it is quite expensive. Any recommendations for other brands?

Thanks in advance

Cheers
Daniel

 

[kkat69]

Hi all

I'm about to receive my refurbished MBP 15', and I'd like to purchase a docking station to go with it (something to which I can plug all my monitor/USB/FW/Audio cables, and then easily plug my MBP into/out of). I could only find this docking station by BookEndz. What I want to know is...

1) Is there anybody who has one of these? If so, how's your experience?

2) The BookEndz model doesn't seem to look that good (please correct me if I'm wrong) and it is quite expensive. Any recommendations for other brands?

Thanks in advance

Cheers
Daniel

Bookendz is about it. They ARE the docking station creators for portable Macs.

You can probably find some LapStop stands or universal docking units that pretty much just have cable management type systems. But so utilize all the features of the Mac (mini-dv, etc) Bookends is it.

 

[aaronw1986]

Bookendz is about it. They ARE the docking station creators for portable Macs.

You can probably find some LapStop stands or universal docking units that pretty much just have cable management type systems. But so utilize all the features of the Mac (mini-dv, etc) Bookends is it.

Unless there are cheaper alternatives (which I don't know about), I'd say manually plugging stuff in/out is worth saving $300...

 

[kkat69]

Unless there are cheaper alternatives (which I don't know about), I'd say manually plugging stuff in/out is worth saving $300...

The only other "cheaper alternatives" are things like universal docks that you can pick up at pretty much any bestbuy, compusa etc which is what is meant by:

You can probably find some LapStop stands or universal docking units that pretty much just have cable management type systems.

A true "dock" like what the old Dell's, IBM's had the only other option IS the bookendz docks.

If your going to manually plug things in/out then there's really no point in having one of the above mentioned cheaper solutions.

 

[dschiller]

Unless there are cheaper alternatives (which I don't know about), I'd say manually plugging stuff in/out is worth saving $300...

I definitely see your point, but I'd really like to have a docking station, even if that means having to spend US$300 on it...

It seems BookEndz is my only option then. Does anybody has experience with their products? I am willing to pay their price, I just want to know whether I'll be getting the quality product I expect to receive for this (rather steep) price.

 

[kkat69]

I definitely see your point, but I'd really like to have a docking station, even if that means having to spend US$300 on it...

It seems BookEndz is my only option then. Does anybody has experience with their products? I am willing to pay their price, I just want to know whether I'll be getting the quality product I expect to receive for this (rather steep) price.

Thing is we're stuck unless someone wants to start up another company to offer a better looking cheaper solution (even by 100 bucks cheaper).

I agree they are REALLY pricey and ugly as well. But that's what we're stuck with.

Since Macs do not have the nice little port plug that some machines have (dell/ibm/etc) a port replicator/docking station will have to be something like what bookends has. BUT I agree the price and looks need improvement. Right now I"m pretty content with having an extra set of cables pre-connected and zip tied together waiting for me to plug into my computer when I decide to sit at my desk.