Need a laptop with DVI-D

**Tommy Boomfiger** · 04-09-2007, 11:46 AM

I'm looking for a windows laptop that has a DVI-D out and a dedicated ATi or NVidia graphics card that can push 1920x1280 to an external monitor. I'm looking to purchase within 1 month.

Ideally I want an ultraportable, but really I need one as powerful as a desktop replacement as it will be my main box, so the smaller the better. I'm looking for an Core 2 Duo or Athlon 64 X2. RAM and HD sizes aren’t important as long as I can upgrade. DVI can be either built in or through a dock, as long as its digital.

I'm not stuck on any brand, as long as they are well built and drivers are easily available. Honestly, the 15" MacBook Pro seems to fit the bill, but I will be running Windows on it all the time so I'm not sure I want to go that route. Other than that all I've found was the Dell Inspiron 9400/E1705. Asus also has some decent looking options, but thier website is painfully slow. Anyone have any other recommendations?

**Paymaster** · 04-09-2007, 12:27 PM

That shouldn't be too hard to find. My trusty old IBM T41p has a built in ATI card that can pump out a much higher resolution that what you need, and it has DVI through the docking station. Check the newer Lenovo laptops...

**Tommy Boomfiger** · 04-09-2007, 05:01 PM

Part of the problem is docking stations. If a laptop doesn't have a built in DVI port, it's hard to tell if they have a dock with DVI. And sometimes if it has one they don't always identify it as DVI-D. For example docks for Inspirons don't specify what type of DVI connection it has. At least not on thier website.

So because I couldn't find any Lenovo laptops with DVI, I stopped looking at them. But thanks to your post I found that the Lenovo T60 and Z60 lines have a docking station that actually can hold a PCIe card. I'm going to have to look into what kind of card that dock can fully utilize.

**Jeffbx** · 04-10-2007, 09:32 AM

Have a look at the T60p if you need high end video built in - they use the ATI FireGL V5250 (256MB VRAM). They definitely support DVI-D on the docking stations, with a max external resolution of 2048x1536. Look for the 14.1" model, since those are nice & light. Be quick about it, though - Lenovo is discontinuing the 14.1" display on the T61p & going with widescreen only.