15 out of 15 people found this review helpful.
The full dock, but not much more than the D/Port
Date of Review: Jan 23, 2009
The Bottom Line: A good product, but for 95% of users, the D/Port will do just fine.
The Dell D/Dock is a full featured dock for use with Dell D-Series notebooks (ie D4x0, D5x0, D6x0, D8x0), but is very similar in it's feature set to the Dell D/Port port replicator,
which I've already reviewed here. Because of this, this review will largely be similar to this unit, and I'll try to focus primarily on the differences; please read both reviews to get the full effect of this device! The D/Dock is a notebook dock for use with all of the ports you'd expect from a D-series dock:
Headphone/stereo jack
D-Bay compatible USB Port
(3) USB ports
S/PDIF sound output
(2) PS/2 ports for keyboard/mouse
Serial port
VGA port
Parallel port
DVI port
S-video port
Network port
Modem port
In addition to these ports, you'll also have a PCI slot, and a Dell media-bay. Unlike the D/Port, the D/Dock actually utilizes a three-pin power cable, instead of the Dell 90w AC adapter. The dock is substantially larger because of this, as it has to accommodate not only the power circuitry as well as the PCI slot and media bay. The media bay can accommodate anything in one of Dell's media bay form factor, including a floppy drive, optical drive (DVD, CD, etc), hard drive, or you could charge a media bay battery in it.
So at the end of the day, why would you want the D/Dock instead of the D/Port, given their steep price difference? Well for starters, it uses a plain power cable instead of an AC adapter. This can be convenient in case you're buying them used, or just want to have your desk clear of any wall-warts, corded or not. The media bay can be rather substantial, in that you can use it to house your optical drive or secondary hard drive, while you keep your media bay battery installed in your notebook for easier charging. Personally, I keep a media bay battery installed in my D630 at all times, so this makes it much easier to keep things charged for my time on the go, but also allow me to use a DVD burner while at home.
You've also got the ability to install a PCI card, which can offer a multitude of choices. Maybe you need a more powerful video card? How about a premium sound card? There's a chance you might need a SCSI card for some external devices, or who knows: maybe you'd want to install a PCI fiber NIC (hey, some people need that kind of bandwidth!). Realistically though, you'll probably be using something that's a little more normal like a PCI TV tuner or maybe an extra USB card. For expansion on a notebook though, it's a great feature to have, because aside from that the only realistic expansion options you've got is USB and PCMCIA, and let's face it: PCMCIA doesn't have a ton of options!
Overall the D/Dock works very well, but it's function compared to the D/Port isn't much greater, especially when you're looking at a price difference of around $100 if you're buying from Dell. If you've got to have the extra expansion of the PCI slot then it's a no-brainer, but otherwise you'll probably be fine with the D/Port.
