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Docking station for xps 7390
I want to be able to connect my Dell monitor to my laptop and have been using a hub with an HDMI port. Every so often the display changes on start up and I loose what normally is recommended which is 1920 x 1080 so I was thinking that perhaps using a docking station instead of a hub might help. I also have some software that only works when the software key is plugged into a usb 3 port. I use this with a usb c Dell adapter but the software runs very slow and at times doesn't respond. Again I'm thinking that perhaps a docking station might help this software run better so I've been looking at a Dell D6000, Dell WD 19 and WD 19TB. Could someone please let me know if one of those devices might help and if so, which one, or if there's something better? I need a docking station that has an HDMI port and more than one usb 3 ports. I don't know if I need one that powers my laptop because I have no idea what the benefit to that is.
jphughan
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May 30th, 2020 21:00
@Sheryl66 If you want to preserve the option to upgrade to a WD19TB by buying the upgrade module later, then the WD19 180W makes sense. Otherwise, the WD19 130W would be just fine to use with your XPS 13 since it only requires 45W. The 180W version will work too, but you're spending extra money on power delivery capability you won't need or benefit from. The WD19 180W is meant for systems that require up to 130W, like the XPS 15.
jphughan
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June 6th, 2020 23:00
@Sheryl66 Great news! I support you don't HAVE to keep the dock powered all the time, but that would be the typical setup, and the dock itself doesn't consume much power when it's not charging the system or actively being used. Additionally, I believe you'll find that if you cut power to the dock while the system is still attached, then when you restore power to the dock, it won't start charging the system until you disconnect and reconnect the system to the dock. That has to do with how the USB Power Delivery spec works. So you might find it inconvenient to cut power to the dock.
In terms of your battery, the system won't allow its battery to be "overcharged". However, if you keep it connected all the time, the battery will stay topped up. That's how the vast majority of people use their systems so that they have a full charge whenever they happen to disconnect, but technically being topped up at 100% all the time isn't ideal for your battery's long-term lifespan. The catch is that improving long-term lifespan requires you to give up some day-to-day convenience, so you'd have to decide which is more important to you. But if you're willing to make that deal, in your BIOS Setup or in the Dell Power Manager application if you have that installed, you can set a maximum charge level and/or a minimum charge level. A maximum charge level will restrict your battery to being charged only to a certain level below 100%. A typical alternative value is 80%. Incidentally, Tesla vehicles default to charging themselves only to 80% specifically to increase battery lifespan, and they only go to 100% if you specifically choose a Max Range charge, which has to be selected every time you want it. It is deliberately not possible to make that the default. So if you're willing to give up 20% of your battery capacity, that will improve your longevity. And the minimum charge setting improves things quite a bit further. In my case I have my minimum charge set to 50% (and a max charge of 80%). This means that when my battery is at 80%, the system will NOT keep the battery topped up even to that level. It won't actively drain it either since it will still be running on wall power, but instead the battery will be allowed to "self-discharge" down to 50%. This can take several days if the laptop is never disconnected from wall power. Only when the battery finally gets down to 50% will the system recharge it again, and then only to 80%. This is ideal from a longevity standpoint because in this setup, the battery spends the vast majority of its time completely idle, i.e. not being charged, kept topped up, or actively discharged. Most of the time it's just self-discharging for several days at a time. The catch of course is that if you ever have to disconnect unexpectedly, you might only have a 50% charge available even if your laptop had been connected to power for days. So like I said, you have to decide whether you'd rather have everyday convenience of long-term lifespan. Hopefully this helps!
jphughan
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May 30th, 2020 07:00
@Sheryl66 It might depend on the exact hub you're using now, but I'm not sure a docking station would improve that situation. If the hub is like most USB-C hubs that offer display outputs, then a dock would be tapping into the exact same USB-C video output capability that the hub does, so it might not perform differently in that regard. And docking stations are decently expensive. You will get the benefit of charging your system, which will free up your laptop's charger to be parked elsewhere in your home or kept in a laptop bag so you don't have to unpack and pack it every time you use your laptop at your desk, but again I don't know if it will solve the problem you're trying to solve.
But if you want to consider a dock, I wouldn't recommend the D6000. Unlike most docks that tap into the actual GPU output wired to the USB-C/TB3 port, the D6000 uses "indirect display" technology called DisplayLink (not to be confused with DisplayPort). It's useful if you have no other options for connecting the number of displays you want, but that doesn't apply to your case, and DisplayLink can have quite a few potential downsides, which I've written about in the post marked as the answer in this thread.
The WD19 and WD19TB both tap into actual GPU outputs, so they won't have DisplayLink's issues. The main difference with the WD19TB is that it uses Thunderbolt 3 rather than USB-C, which means it can tap into a lot more display bandwidth than the WD19 and therefore can run higher-end display setups. The WD19TB also includes a "downstream" TB3 port to allow you to attach a Thunderbolt peripheral to the dock, which the WD19 doesn't offer because it isn't using Thunderbolt 3 in the first place. That extra port is especially useful on systems that only have a single TB3 port, because without it, you wouldn't be able to attach a dock and another TB3 peripheral together.
In terms of the display setups you can run on each dock, it depends on whether you have the regular XPS 13 7390 or the XPS 13 7390 2-in-1. With the 7390 generation, Dell used two very different CPUs for those two variants, and those different CPUs incorporated GPUs with different capabilities. If you have the regular 7390, a WD19 would allow you to run dual displays up to 1920x1200 each or a single display up to 2560x1440 (or 4K but only at 30 Hz rather than the default 60 Hz). If you have the XPS 13 7390 2-in-1, a WD19 would allow you to run dual displays up to 2560x1440 each or a single 4K 60 Hz display. If on the other hand you get a WD19TB, then with either system you'd be able to run dual displays up to 4K 60 Hz each or triple displays up to 2560x1440 each.
Sheryl66
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May 30th, 2020 08:00
Thank you for your advice. You were giving me advice before I bought the laptop and was just looking to buy a hub. You had talked about the WD19 and WD19TB which is why I was looking into it right now. I don't really understand the benefits to the one with thunderbolt so I'm still pretty confused as to which WD 19 to buy. I was looking at the Dell site but couldn't find one that said WD19. All I saw was WD15.
Sheryl66
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May 30th, 2020 08:00
So I've been trying to look into the wd19 and wd19tb and see the tb one has a thunderbolt port. I guess if I don't have any devices that plug into a thunderbolt port I probably don't need it. Is that right?
Sheryl66
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May 30th, 2020 10:00
OK. Thanks. I was watching a youtube video and it sounds like I could upgrade to the TB if I decided to first go with the WD19. I'm not sure I'd need higher resolution on my monitor. 1920 x 1080 seems fine to me but then I've never experienced a monitor with anything higher so I guess I have nothing to compare it to other than a smaller resolution which happens every so often when starting up my laptop. That I know I don't like.
I appreciate all your help and suggestions. This technology is so confusing to me.
jphughan
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May 30th, 2020 10:00
@Sheryl66 The Thunderbolt is one of the two advantages of the WD19TB over the WD19. The other is that the WD19TB is able to run more and/or higher resolution displays than the WD19, as I mentioned in my first reply here. But if you don't need to run any higher end display setup than the WD19 will be able to support and don't want to spend the extra money on the WD19TB purely for futureproofing in case you want to upgrade your display setup later, then the WD19 would be fine. The WD15 is the WD19's predecessor. I'm not sure why it's not coming up in your search, but here is a direct link to it in the Dell US store.
jphughan
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May 30th, 2020 16:00
@Sheryl66 Yes, the WD19 can be upgraded to a WD19TB by purchasing the module, but the combined cost of a WD19 + a WD19TB upgrade module will be greater than just buying a WD19TB in the first place. Of course the former strategy leaves you with a WD19 module that you won't be using, but I wouldn't anticipate a strong resale market for that.
I recently upgraded from 24" 1920x1200 displays to 27" 2560x1440 displays and I have to say it's been fantastic. The physical size change isn't as significant as it might seem since the pixel density of the latter is higher, so you get more pixels without a perfectly proportional size increase, but the advantages of the extra workspace as substantial. One of the best use cases that I didn't even know I would get has been that it turns out that a 27" 2560x1440 display is the perfect size and pixel area to allow you to use Word or Acrobat to display two 8.5x11 pages side-by-side, in their entirety (margins and all), in either portrait or landscape orientation (the pages, not the display), at full physical print size -- meaning that I can hold up a physical sheet of paper and it will be the same size the page shown on the display -- and you'll still have room left over for the Word/Acrobat button bar at the top, status bar at the bottom, etc. That has turned out to be a significant productivity enhancer for me. So if you're thinking about upgrading displays (or even if you're not), you might want to check the physical dimensions of a 27" 2560x1440 display. You might find that they won't require quite as much extra desk width as you might expect.
Sheryl66
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May 30th, 2020 16:00
I ordered the WD19 with 180W. I hope that was the right choice.
jphughan
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May 30th, 2020 16:00
@Sheryl66 One thing I forgot to mention about the WD19 to WD19TB upgrade. The WD19 is available with either a 130W power adapter (allowing up to 90W through to the attached system) or a 180W power adapter (allowing up to 130W through to the attached system). The WD19TB is only sold with a 180W power adapter. The XPS 13 only requires 45W, so if you get the WD19 you can definitely get by with the 130W version. However, if you do that and want to upgrade to a WD19TB later on, then you won't technically have the supported power adapter for that dock model. It might be completely fine given the relatively low power requirements of the XPS 13, but I don't know for sure.
Sheryl66
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May 30th, 2020 16:00
Thanks for telling me all that. I don't think I'll ever be increasing the size of my monitor because I don't really have room for anything bigger than my 24". Even that is tight on my desk. For what I do, the 24" has been sufficient.
I ended up ordering the WD19. Hopefully this will solve my display problem and a slow program.
Sheryl66
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May 31st, 2020 07:00
According to the information on the Dell site, it said my laptop wasn't compatible with the 130W. It said it was compatible with the 180W but recommended the WD19TB.
jphughan
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May 31st, 2020 08:00
@Sheryl66 Not sure where you found that, but the XPS 13 7390 is absolutely compatible with the WD19 130W. Again, the XPS 13 only requires 45W, which as far as I know is Dell's lowest laptop power level these days -- so if the WD19 130W couldn't even power that system properly, then it would be basically useless. The ONLY reason to get the WD19 180W is if you need up to 130W passed through to the attached system because the WD19 130W can only pass through 90W.
Sheryl66
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May 31st, 2020 08:00
I clicked the link that says "Guide to choosing the right dock" on the link you posted, then clicked a link that said "Dell Docking compatibility guide." If you scroll down to the xps 13 7390, it had a red x for the 130W.
https://www.dellemc.com/resources/en-us/asset/data-sheets/products/electronics-accessories/dell_docking_compatibility_guide.pdf
jphughan
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May 31st, 2020 11:00
@Sheryl66 That's an error. The system compatibility lists for Dell's accessories being incorrect and/or incomplete isn't all that rare -- which is why I read the manuals on support.dell.com to get detailed spec information. One last time, the only difference between the two wattage levels of the WD19 is the amount of power available to be passed through to the system, 90W or 130W. The XPS 13 is only designed for 45W, which you can verify by checking the wattage of the power adapter that came with the system.
If it makes you feel better to buy the WD19 180W version even to the point of being willing to spend the extra money, then of course it's your money, so there's no point in me spending even more time trying to help you save it. And the 180W version will certainly work -- but it will still be true that you'll have spent more than you needed to.