Plugable USB 2.0 Universal Laptop

✔SALE: 40% OFF Plugable USB 2.0 Universal Laptop Docking Station with DisplayLink DVI/VGA up to 1920x1080, Audio, Ethernet, and 4 Available High-Speed USB 2.0 Ports for Windows and Macbook Air... 4.2 out of 5 stars CONSUMER REVIEWS(198) Use with any PC to add an extra display up to 1920x1080, speakers, ethernet, and 4 USB ports DVI/VGA connector, 10/100 Ethernet RJ-45, 3.5 mm plugs for stereo speaker and mic, security slot Simple and small with no moving parts, no fans, all standard USB 2.0. Does not charge laptop Windows 7/Vista 32/64 and XP 32-bit drivers via Windows Update, download, or disk Linux and Mac beta-quality drivers available but with important limitations--details below Price: $129.99 Deal Price: $79.00

Description With a single, simple USB 2.0 connection, add any DVI/VGA monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and other USB 2.0 devices to your PC. Share this common set of devices among several users with a swap of the USB cable; use the flexibility of the virtual USB graphics card to extend your Windows desktop across both displays. Performance USB virtual graphics provides full performance for office applications and web browsing, but videos and 3D games should be played on the computer's main screen. Supported Operating Systems Windows 8/7/Vista 64 and 32 bit, XP SP2+ 32 bit only - We recommend downloading DisplayLink's newest driver. Mac - Driver supported for OS X 10.8.3 Requires Intel / AMD / nVidia main GPU and driver with Windows Aero enabled. USB graphics requires dual core or 2 Ghz or better CPU for best performance. Not compatible with ARM-based Windows (MS Surface). Windows RT, Vista Home Basic, Win7 Starter Edition disable multiple monitors and are not supported. No supported drivers are available for Linux at this time. GPU Compatibility On Windows Vista and Win7, virtual USB graphics makes use of your primary GPU, so is compatible only with systems with a single Intel, nVidia, ATI GPU running recent WDDM drivers. In the box Includes an AC adapter, so even power-hungry USB devices like hard disks can be connected. Note that the docking station does not power or charge your laptop itself. The dock is a multifunction compound USB 2.0 device, with a Terminus USB 2.0 Hub, DisplayLink DL-165 USB Graphics, C-Media CM6300 USB Audio (supporting the USB Audio Class 1.0 standard), ASIX AX88772A USB Ethernet Chip. For use as a USB Thin Client, see the "Plugable UD-160-M" model. I have been looking for a way to connect multiple monitors to my laptop for a very long time (solutions that won't cost an arm or leg, like those Magma express-card extenders). I was so used to having 3 monitors plugged into my laptop's docking station in XP era, but with the arrival of Vista it stopped working. I used the Tritton USB2VGA device back then, but they have never managed to deliver reliable drivers for Vista or now Windows 7. So I was stuck with only two screens for a few years (as none of the laptop docking ports I know offers three monitor ports, at best you get two -- VGA and DVI).At the CES 2010 I've met with the CEO of Plugable and got a comprehensive overview of their Universal Docking Station product -- which prompted me to buy TWO of them, one for office usage, and another one for home. And I could not be happier with it! The guy used to run the Microsoft USB team, which boosted my confidence that the hardware drivers would be well maintained, and my... Installed on 2/27/2010 this review written on 3/30/2010:PROS:* Considering that this is unit is one of the FEW available universal docking stations that works with Windows 7 (at this time and date). Know that I never tried using the USB to video connection but everything else seems to work as advertised.* No drivers to manually install they will auto-install with your next Windows update (the manufacturer appears to be sleeping with Microsoft).========================CONS:* The unit is VERY light and after connecting a bunch of cables to it, it becomes unbalanced and tends to tip or get pushed to one side or the other. Being a bit of a metal artist I cut a spare of 1/4 steel to size and glued it to its bottom (problem resolved). I wouldn't expect them to add a weight to future models because this would triple the shipping costs.* The motherboard is NOT mounted tight up against its plastic housing so when you insert a USB cable its sort of... I have windows 7. All I did was plug all my devices in then plug the docking station into the wall and lastly connect it to my computer. My computer found and installed all the correct drivers and the whole thing worked right from the start. With other docking stations I read lots of reviews about how they never really worked quite right. Not so with this one. It worked from minute one. It's really nice to have two monitors and use the big monitor for most things and then just have the laptop monitor as an accessory monitor. The only real drawback to it is that sometimes mouse movement on the docked monitor can be a bit sluggish. I guess that's the drawback of have all these other items docked through a single USB port.