Hello everyone,
I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T480s laptop running Fedora 39 Kinoite. I would like to use it in a multi-display setup, so I am looking for a docking station. The laptop has a Thunderbolt 3 port. I have attached the details of my device at the end of the post.
People on Reddit are writing that “all Thunderbolt docking stations should work fine” and that’s obviously not the case… I have this Dell Thunderbolt Dock (WD19TB) at home from work and the displays work when I plug it into the laptop but, for example, my mouse (connected via USB-A) doesn’t work. When I connect it to the DELL laptop provided by the company, there are no problems at all.

Docking station requirements: Ethernet, 3x USB-A, 1x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI.
I have two 1080p displays: 75Hz and 165Hz. Obviously I’m not going to be playing any high-frame-rate games on this laptop, but even on a desktop it’s sometimes nice to see a slightly higher refresh rate. So if it’s possible, I’d like it to be able to display things above 60Hz…
I also have a Steam Deck OLED and would like to be able to use this dock with it.

I don’t want to spend too much money on it. Do you have any experience in this area and can you help me choose?

I am from Poland if it helps in any way (maybe some brands are not available here).

LAPTOP DETAILS
Operating System: Fedora Linux 39
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.9
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.111.0
Qt Version: 5.15.11
Kernel Version: 6.6.6-200.fc39.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Memory: 15.5 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics 620
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 20L8S0SA00
System Version: ThinkPad T480s

  • szelbi@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
    3·
    11 months ago

    So you’re saying it’s safer to get this USB dock than the Thunderbolt one?

    • LuciEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      In my experience, yes.

      • szelbi@lemmy.zipOPEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        From what I understand after doing some research, these USB docks are the DisplayLink docks, right? I see that people on Reddit are writing that DisplayLink adds some latency etc. so it makes these decs unusable when trying to play games. So I’m assuming it might not be a good idea to get one of those, as I want to use it with the Steam Deck as well?

        • LuciEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          I cannot find anything that indicates the 40ay uses DisplayLink tech beyond a Reddit post without any credibility. Do a search for “40ay” “displaylink” and you should find a few places saying it is not a DL dock. Can’t seem to find any confirmation in either direction for one or the other, and I’m not sure my Lenovo rep would answer their emails this week :)

          Give me a list of games you play that requires high latency and if I have one of them I’ll test it for you. If not I’ll break out StreetFight 3 under FBNeo and see how it feels.