Docking station or USB hubs

[sgleo87]

I am buying a new laptop soon and I was wondering if I should get a docking station or just a few USB hubs. I would hook up my new laptop to an external monitor, a surround sound speaker system, keyboard, mouse, printer, and some other things that plug into a USB port.
So all the things except my speakers, monitor, internet, and power cable, would plug into a USB port so USB hubs would work for most of the things just fine.
Is it worth getting a docking station and what are the advantages over the USB hubs? (I don't mind plugging and unplugging a few more cables)

 

[Brainonska511]

Advantages of a real docking station (not one of those that runs off a USB port):
-better cable organization - most cables will be going out the back of the machine and not hanging off the sides
-only have to lift the laptop off the dock when you want to take it with you
-some have DVI-out on the dock and not the laptop, so you can have DVI for a monitor
-Possibly more audio ports for surround sound, but probably unlikely.
-A few extra ports, such as serial, parrallel, a few more USB, etc...

Advantages of a USB hub:
-Cheaper
-Many more USB ports than a dock would have

Personally, I went with a USB hub as it was a cheap option ($15 at the time) for an extra 7 USB ports, which I then used to plug in all my notebook extras (the only thing plugged directly into my notebook is my network cable, the power cable, and my speakers).

For the surround sound, there are a few options - if you're speakers are compatible with digital outputs and your notebook also has it, you could use a TOSLink cable and hook that into your speakers. Otherwise, you might need an external sound card (unless the notebook has analog surround sound outputs), such as the upcoming Creative X-Fi for ExpressCard or some USB sound card.

 

[VinDSL]

Generally speaking (because of the slow transfer rate) the only things you'll want to hook up to USB ports are:

* joysticks
* keyboards
* mice

Personally, I hook up all my machines (lappys/desktops) to an IOGEAR MiniView SE KVM switch (PS/2). That way, I can use the same keyboard, monitor and mouse for everything.

I use an uber cheap EZ-PU21 PS/2 TO USB CONVERTER to hook up my PS/2 keyboard and mouse to the lappy. Works great!

The IOGEAR cable also plugs into the VGA port - the LAN cable into the LAN port - the power supply into the power port, Harmon/Kardon amp into the headphone jack, yada, yada, yada...

Anyway, it's no big deal. Just stay away from USB as much as possible, IMHO!