Desktop Hub Advice

[eldreams]

First off Surface Book owner here (day 1) and really enjoy/love the device. I wasn't plagued with any of the problems (cross fingers) as everyone else aside from some battery issues (getting varied results). All the other hacks/reg edits and such such as high performance I enabled day 2.
Anyhow I'm wondering if someone can give me a microsoft dock/hub alternative for less than 60 dollars or so.

I have one monitor (VGA), USB mouse, Ethernet/Lan cable, USB Keyboard, and sometimes a USB Drive, at my physical work station and run around to meetings constantly which require either VGA/HDMI. With that said, as you can see I don't need everything on the 200 dollar Microsoft dock.

Can someone recommend products even if I daisy chain some of this stuff together?
I purchased a VTin Mini display to VGA Female/HDMI adapter, but so far I'm not satisfied with the quality and may return.
I'm thinking I'll need a 3-4 port USB 3.0 hub, USB to VGA/HDMI, USB to Ethernet, connect them all to the USB hub and have one cable (usb) going to my laptop each time I connect/disconnect for all my items.

Any recommendations on brands and/or a all-in-one hub that'll have most of these things?

 

[ccpopham]

What hacks and reg edits did you do?

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[eldreams]

You can generally find most of the write-ups here in the Surface Book section posted by Daniel. I just enabled the High Performance mode, WiFi Fix, enabled dark theme, removed activation theme borders, and I believe I changed a few other things all cosmetic related. I also manually installed some drivers for display and such but have since rolled back after MS released a series of updates.

 

[ctk4949]

ewwwww VGA, lol time to upgrade that monitor.

I am thinking about getting this dock...http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NIQFB8E...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3289163

 

[zerospace-net]

I've been using this with my SB: Amazon.com: USB 3.0 Hub, HooToo 3 Port Hub with Gigabit Ethernet Converter for Windows XP Vista 7 8/8.1 PC Mac Linux laptop ultrabook High Performance Interface for Personal Business Gaming Black: Computers & Accessories

That plus a mini-DP to DVI adapter for my monitor (my monitor has a small USB3.0 hub built into it as well). I also attached a separate, powered USB 2.0 hub. It's not really a docking station, but it works, gives me a gigabit wired connection that's been super-stable, and costs a heckuva lot less than the $200 MS docking station. I do miss my SP3 docking station, though, I'm just not sold on the new one just yet.

Now if only I could change the scaling in Windows 10 without having to sign out and back in every time I plug/unplug my external monitor, I'd be good to go.

 

[eldreams]

The problem is, the VGA monitor - keyboard - mouse etc is all company provided. Not willing to BYOD and buy separate items for my physical work space. Also travelling to a lot of places people still use VGA....So stuck with this for presenting until more go to wireless or HDMI/Other. I've looked at something similar - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CKIFPQY...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3289481

 

[eldreams]

Clicking that link I noticed http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CKIFPQY...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3289485 which I think was recommended elsewhere with SP3.

 

[zerospace-net]

Clicking that link I noticed http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CKIFPQY...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3289630 which I think was recommended elsewhere with SP3.

I used my HooToo adapter like that one on the SP3 originally, before I bit the bullet and got the docking station from MS. It's actually currently working better with my Surface Book than it did with the SP3 (faster to switch between Wi-Fi and wired internet). Either way, when I got it, it was pretty cheap, so it was a worthwhile purchase. I'm tempted to spend a little more and buy a powered, generic docking station unit either from the same manufacturer or like the other one posted in this thread (the Anker one on Amazon).

 

[freetail]

Best solution would be to get a USB hub with Ethernet port, such as one from EasyAcc (or similar). This will give you 4 or more USB 3.0 ports plus an Ethernet port without having to power it from external source.

For displays however, VGA's never going to work well (don't understand why so many business still use it). It's an analogue technology so when you try to push a digital signal through (HDMI, DisplayPort), it's never going to work brilliantly well. That said, a good MiniDP to VGA adaptor, should work well enough if the display you're plugging into has a decent resolution.

You might want to get a miniDP to HDMI cable and then an HDMI to Display Port or HDMI to VGA adaptor that you can plug in. Just carry the extra cables in your bag - they don't take up a lot of space. Until the world turns to a common connection, adaptors and cables are here to stay.

That said, one final bit of advice is to use a wireless display adaptor. Plug this into the TV you want to connect to, and you can connect wirelessly without cables - yum yum!

 

[freetail]

As lovely as the Anker devices look, I didn't have a lot of joy with them. Had to return and although they sent me two more to try (they were certainly keen to get their kit to work and their service was impeccable), the connections were simply too loose and unreliable for me.