[Steiner32]

I went ahead and ordered the ViDock from PowerNotebooks.com (Thanks for shipping it out so quickly Paladin) and I have been playing with the ViDock for a little over a week now – here is what I have found in working with it. Please note – I am not a professional reviewer by any stretch of the imagination. I am a geek that likes to play games every now and then and would be considered an early adopter by most (if not all) who know me.

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Video Review::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCK5dLWiO2Q

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First – some pics::

Snazzy packaging. Very high quality


Packaged very securely. The package comes with the 2 DVIVGA adapters, 2 additional faceplates made (it looks like) from Aluminum, power brick and cable, and of course the ViDock itself. Notice – no DVI cable. It is assumed you have one laying around.


For size comparisons – the ViDock sitting next to a Dell Studio Hybrid on top of a Sager NP5797.


Here the ViDock is sitting next to a OneTouch External HDD. To the left is another 5797.


Before I began – I read through the comments and pages on the forum, looked at the product site and read through the compatibility list. I noticed in a number of places the stress for Windows 7 to be used. Windows 7 has the ability to run different drivers for different display adapters (video cards). Windows 7 can also overcome poor BIOS programming for the ExpressCard – which made me hope that my older machines would play well with the ViDock.


I worked with the following machines:
• Sager NP5797. 1920x1200, 1Gb GTX 280M, T9900 (3.06 Ghz), 4Gb RAM, Windows 7
• Dell M1730 – 1920x1200, Core2 Extreme processor, 4Gb RAM, 8800M Graphics, Windows 7
• Lenovo T400 – 1280x800, 2Gb RAM, P8600 (2.4Ghz), Intel 4500 integrated Graphics, Windows 7
• MacBook Pro 15” version – last generation that had an ExpressCard port. ATI X1600 Video card, Windows 7


I will detail my experience with each machine – but the nutshell is as follows:
• Sager – Worked brilliantly and as expected. Video card is ½ as powerful as the GTX280M.
• Lenovo – Worked brilliantly and as expected. This is the perfect solution for this laptop.
• MBP – Screen was enabled before installing drivers, then would not come back on again. Also – with ViDock plugged in during reboot – no video at all.
• Dell M1730 – Never could get anything to work with this laptop. Driver notification came up after plugging in the expresscard – but never got video.


Testing applications:
• 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark06
• Crysis TimeDemo
• Crysis played (had a little fun)



Detailed experiences:
Lenovo T400 laptop. This is a great machine that would represent something handed out in today’s corporate world. Normal machine with a decent processor, integrated graphics, 2Gb of memory, etc.
Without ViDock. I could not get 3DMark Vantage or 3DMark06 to complete without crashing to the desktop somewhere along the line. I was disappointed – but knew going in that the integrated graphics chip from intel is not meant for gaming. That being said – I fired up Crysis. The game was started at 800x600 with all setting on Med (even though the game wanted to go with high). This was a bit troublesome because I was not patient enough to get through the opening movie. Playback was 1 frame every 3 seconds at best…. Crysis has a tendency to put high end machines on notice – and this business laptop was being choke slammed by this game.
With ViDock. The machine was fantastic to play with. Went through 3DMark06 and scored 5301 – this is slower than my 5797, but to be expected as the 5797 is running a faster processor . I was able to play crysis at 1024x768 with 8xQ AA at about 20FPS. This was totally playable and turned this machine into a gaming machine (not a screamer – but as expected with the ATI4670).
Overall – the ViDock was perfect for this laptop. Providing an alternative to the anemic 4500HD integrated graphics chip led to a wonderful gaming experience. I would totally recommend the ViDock to people that I work with that want to game on the side with a work laptop.

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more benchmarks:

Resident Evil 5 Benchmark: -- All DX10 on Windows 7 - 64bit
1152x864
AA - 4X
Motion Blur - On
Shadow Detail - High
Texture detail - low
Overall quality - high

Fixed: 16.9 Avg FPS

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++==

1152x864
AA - 2x
Motion blur - off
shadow - high
texture - low
overall - high
Fixed: 17 fps avg.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1280x960
AA - off
motion blur - off
shadow - med
texture - low
overall - med
Fixed: 26.2




Sager 5797. This machine is a beast. It is a desktop replacement that can play darn near any title you want to throw at it with ease. It plays COD4 at maxed out settings at 1920x1200 – without the slightest hesitation. That being said – I was not testing the ViDock on this machine for anything other than compatibility. The ViDock fired right up and I had no problem plugging in the card and removing while up and running.
Without ViDock. No real reason to cover this in this article. This machine screams. An ATI 4670 is not going to be an “upgrade” for this machine.
With ViDock. 3DMark06 was 6398 and 2757 on 3DMark Vantage. Admirable scores for this laptop – but roughly half as fast at the GTX280M.

Crysis runs:
Run #1- DX10 800x600 AA=No AA, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Last Average FPS: 19.18
Run #2- DX10 800x600 AA=2x, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Last Average FPS: 17.45
Run #3- DX10 800x600 AA=8xQ, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Last Average FPS: 17.44
Run #4- DX10 1024x768 AA=No AA, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Last Average FPS: 17.20
Run #5- DX10 1024x768 AA=2x, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Last Average FPS: 15.51
Run #6- DX10 1280x960 AA=No AA, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Last Average FPS: 14.57
Overall – This version of the ViDock was not targeted at this laptop. The graphics inside the laptop were far faster than the graphics outside.


MBP and Dell M1730 – I could not get the ViDock to work with either of these machines. You may have different luck – and let me know if you do, but I was not able to get this working.

Overall impression of the ViDock – Very good build quality. I could not really hear the fan (especially with everything going on in my office). I can’t wait for the faster version (version4) to debut – as I will definitely pick up ones of these for gaming at home and a great docking station solution for work.

Please let me know if you have any questions but I did see this on the site and thought it reasonable to show again:
Any laptop that is using Windows7, and has its BIOS properly written to allocate the proper resources to the ExpressCard slot, should work. Not all laptop models out there have been tested, but to see which ones work and which ones don’t from those that have been tested so far, please check the Compatibility List at http://www.villagetronic.com/vidock/compatibility.html



Some additional pics - of the inside: