WD19/ or 19tb docking station for 7400

@giorgostz  If you're only running a single FHD display, then the ONLY benefit the WD19TB would offer you is the "downstream TB3" port, which allows you to connect another Thunderbolt peripheral to the dock.  The regular WD19 doesn't have this port.  The reason that can be useful is that if you have a system that only has one USB-C/TB3 port and you have a regular WD19 connected to that port, then you don't have a way to also connect a Thunderbolt peripheral to your system at the same time.  With a WD19TB, you can use a dock and that Thunderbolt peripheral at the same time.  But if you don't have any Thunderbolt peripherals, then the WD19 and WD19TB would perform identically up to dual 1920x1200 displays.  But if you ever wanted to go beyond that with your system, you would need a WD19TB, which with your system would allow dual displays up to 4K 60 Hz or triple displays up to QHD/1440p.

what other peripherals I might needed with TB3?

@jphughan In my setup I will connect Dell 7400 with a FullHD display, I was thinking for the Dell S2419HM monitor. What do you think? Is there any reason to go for QHD/4K , will I notice any difference in normal use?

Also, is there any way to make monitor also take power from Docking station?

Thanks

@giorgostz  The most common peripherals that use Thunderbolt these days are external GPUs, Thunderbolt-based SSDs, and Thunderbolt-based storage arrays.  For the most part, if you don't know that you need a Thunderbolt-based peripheral, then you very likely don't.

In terms of FHD vs. QHD, I just upgraded from 24" FHD to 27" QHD and it's made a huge difference.  The size and pixel density offered by a 27" QHD display means that in Word or Acrobat, I can put up two 8.5x11 pages side-by-side, in either portrait or landscape (the pages, not the display), in their entirety (margins and all), at full print size -- meaning that if I hold up a physical 8.5x11 sheet of paper, it matches the size on the display -- and I'll still have room for the Word/Acrobat application interface above and below.  That capability has turned out to be a handy productivity booster, and a 27" display doesn't require much more space than a 24", especially if you're comparing a 27" display with a very thin bezel to a 24" display with a more standard size bezel.

As for 4K, I would only recommend that if you'll either have a 24" display or a 42" display.  Why?  Because at 24", the pixel density of 4K gives you a "Retina display" experience with razor sharp text.  The "standard" resolution for a 24" display is FHD, while 4K is exactly 4x as many pixels as (twice as many pixels in horizontal and vertical dimensions).  And at 42", the display is large enough that 4K resolution becomes usable without having to enable any display scaling, so in that scenario all of those pixels are being used to give you a larger workspace rather than a sharper presentation.  A 42" 4K display is basically the same as having four 24" 1080p displays.  But for everything in between, like 27-32" 4K displays, the pixel density is high enough that you'll have to enable Windows display scaling to keep things a reasonable size -- and some apps still don't handle display scaling well -- but NOT quite high enough to give you that Retina style experience.  For a 27" display you really need 5K resolution to get that.  So 27" 4K can end up sort of being the worst of both worlds.  For productivity, 24" FHD is still the common option, and in my opinion 27" QHD is the premium option.  4K only makes sense if your work specifically requires that resolution, such as editing 4K video.  Otherwise, it really doesn't make sense to me.  I guess it's popular because 4K is so popular on TVs and therefore it benefits from "buzzword recognition" elsewhere -- how many people have heard of QHD compared to 4K? -- but it's not as good for actual productivity.  The possible exception might be if you knew that all of your apps handled Windows scaling perfectly, in which case 27" 4K would give you sharper imagery than QHD, even if it's not a full Retina-grade experience, but I still have apps that scale badly, so I'll take a reliable setup over a setup that can look great when things work but can look terrible when they don't.

No, you can't power your display from your docking station unless the display is specifically designed to be powered via USB or USB-C, but the only displays I've seen like that are 14-15" portable USB displays like the Lenovo ThinkVision M14 -- which is a great product for people who want to have dual displays on the road.  But I'm not sure why you'd want to power a display from a docking station anyway.  That would require the docking station to come with a higher wattage power adapter to "budget" for running a display, which means a larger power adapter and a more expensive dock, and the only benefit is that you avoid having to use an extra electrical wall outlet for your display -- but if that's an issue, get a 12-outlet surge protector.  They're not expensive.

But even with the previous setup I mentioned, 

you recomend WD19 dock for only one monitor ?

@jphughan Thanks so much !!! you are so helpful!

So you convinced me to go QHD 27'' (Dell Ultrasharp S2719DC 27") with Dell WD19TB dock for Dell 7400 lattitude. 

Do you think i may have any problems with my lattitude laptop to manadge a QHD display (the 7400 is FullHD)?

What about the scalling ? 27''QHD will scale fine in my setup, OR will i experience small letters in word etc.. ?

thanks

@giorgostz  Happy to help! If you only plan to run a single QHD display, then you can get the regular WD19 if you want, but if you want some room to upgrade, the WD19TB would allow you to run up to 3x QHD.

You won’t have problems running a QHD display just because your internal display is FHD. In terms of concerns over text being small, the pixel density of 27” QHD is slightly higher than 24” FHD, but most people can still use a 27” QHD display at regular 100% scaling without any issues. But of course everyone is different too, so you’ll have to see what your experience is like. However, if you plan to run your internal FHD display and external QHD display simultaneously, that might not be ideal if you would and to use different scaling settings on each display. A 14” FHD display is usually used at 125-150% scaling, which might be higher than you want to use for a 27” QHD display, and using multiple scale factors simultaneously still doesn’t work very well in Windows. That’s why I recommend that people avoid using displays with very different pixel densities simultaneously, even if it means getting an additional external display rather than using a built-in display and external display simultaneously. But you can of course see how things work for you with one QHD display first and then decide whether to consider a second one — although again if you want to keep that option available, you should think about the WD19TB instead of the WD19. Good luck!

@jphughan Hello,

Do you know if my Dell 7400 can support the external Dell S2719MD Monitor with QHD with dell WD19TB dock?

It has the Intel UHD Graphics 620 

@giorgostz  Either of those solutions will work. HDMI 1.4 is sufficient to run QHD 60 Hz, so the built-in output would be fine. But since you asked about the WD19TB I figured you planned to connect your display there. The WD19TB’s HDMI output supports HDMI 2.0, which can run 4K 60 Hz. And that output would NOT be limited to 1.4 just because the HDMI output built into your system is 1.4. Those things have nothing to do with each other.

@giorgostz The Latitude 7490 has Thunderbolt 3, but I can’t remember if it was standard or optional on that model. If you do NOT have Thunderbolt 3, then the WD19TB will still work, but it will only work in USB-C backward compatibility mode, which means it will work just like the regular WD19. However, if you are only trying to run a single QHD display, that would still be fine because regular USB-C from a Latitude 7400 is enough to run that.

@jphughan thanks for fast reply

Yes it 7400 has thunderbolt, but the QHD Dell S2719DM monitor accepts HDMI only. And the HDMI output of Dell 7400 is HDMI 1.4. Would it be a problem for the QHD monitor to connect directly to HDMI 1.4 port?

Or, if I connect the QHD monitor with the HDMI port of WD19TB , that is connected with thunderbolt to the laptop, would be ok?

@jphughanI've got another question to this thread. Do you maybe know if Latitude 7400 + WD19[TB] would support dual FHD external monitors so ALL three monitors – the built-in one and the external ones – stay active and each have FHD resoultion?

@mi6th  Even the regular WD19 can handle dual FHD displays connected to it with a Latitude 7400.  The dock doesn't know or care what you're doing with the built-in display, but the Intel GPU in the Latitude 7400 supports 3 simultaneous independent displays, so that setup will definitely work with all displays running at native resolution.