Giveaway: USB Docking Station with VGA Support

startech usb dock-1.png

Important Note: This giveaway is only available for residents of the United States.

This is the one and only hardware item that we have up for grabs in our birthday giveaway, and we’ve been able to play around with it for about a month now. It’s a USB Docking Station by StarTech that also happens to support a VGA input. How does it work? You can basically plug in several USB devices, a VGA monitor, ethernet cable, and more into this slim little dock. The dock then plugs into your Windows computer via a single USB cable.

Now I bet you’re wondering the same thing that I was in regards to the monitor support. With this dock you can essentially plug in an external monitor into your machine without needing an extra VGA port on your graphics card. How well can the single USB cable manage the monitor and other devices/cables plugged into it?

Not surprisingly it has some troubles playing videos or games that require a constantly refreshing screen. The USB cable just can’t provide the same bandwidth that a VGA cable can, plus it is also sharing the bandwidth with any other devices plugged into the dock. If you are able to set the color depth down to 16-bit instead of 32-bit you’ll notice a significant improvement, but you probably still won’t want to watch any videos or anything. If you’re just doing some word processing, web surfing, and other casual work this should suit your needs perfectly.

Here are some of the specs for the USB Docking Station by StarTech:

Works with Windows 2000, XP, and Vista
Supports resolutions up to 1600×1200 @ 32-bits & 1920×1200 @ 16-bits
(4) USB 2.0 ports
(1) VGA port
(1) 10/100 Mbps RJ45 LAN port
(1) 3.5mm speaker output
(1) 3.5mm Mic input
Dimensions: 7.99″ x 2.75″ x 0.75″
Weight: 7.6oz

StarTech USB Docking Station Homepage

–The Giveaway–

We have (1) USB Docking Station (valued at $129.99) to giveaway today! All you have to do is drop a comment below providing both your name and email address in the appropriate fields. We obviously need your email address for contacting you in the event that you should win. Believe it or not we’ve actually had winners in previous giveaways get randomly selected, but since they didn’t provide an email address we had to pick someone else.

Just as with all of our giveaways we will be using a random number generator to determine the winners. For this round here is how we’re going to give out the licenses:

1 winner will be picked from comment numbers 1 through however many comments there are.

The winner of the USB Docking Station must be a resident of the United States.

Entries for the giveaway will be accepted up until December 11th at 7:00PM Central Time.

Related Posts:

Tags:

Hardware, Birthday 2008, Giveaway

December 10th, 2008 Written by Ryan

CristianDecember 10, 2008 at 10:13 am

First!

Siva RavulaDecember 10, 2008 at 10:19 am

Second

SEVDecember 10, 2008 at 10:23 am

Tossing my hat into the ring..

tinyburpDecember 10, 2008 at 10:30 am

Wow,me want

JeffDecember 10, 2008 at 10:34 am

I am in.

Chris KDecember 10, 2008 at 10:53 am

Definitely interested

Great contest series — thanks!

BambooDecember 10, 2008 at 10:58 am

I have been wanting to run a 3rd monitor. This would be great!

kfondaDecember 10, 2008 at 10:59 am

I’m in.

DerekDecember 10, 2008 at 11:00 am

Count me in.

SteveDecember 10, 2008 at 11:03 am

ChrisDecember 10, 2008 at 11:07 am

Having a laptop with only one usb input, this product looks interesting. Love to have a chance at it! Thanks!

thenikemanDecember 10, 2008 at 11:14 am

Thanks!

ShriyaDecember 10, 2008 at 11:14 am

I am in the US. Would love to win this one.

RodoDecember 10, 2008 at 11:19 am

me! me!

RajaDecember 10, 2008 at 11:20 am

select me!!

Kenny BaylessDecember 10, 2008 at 11:26 am

Love to test this out…

RoelDecember 10, 2008 at 11:29 am

I’m interested

Stuart O'BrienDecember 10, 2008 at 11:35 am

Would love to have this device!

bloogleDecember 10, 2008 at 11:44 am

You guys are outdoing yourselves! Thanks!

arjayDecember 10, 2008 at 11:44 am

Me me me me me me!

KeithDecember 10, 2008 at 11:46 am

Looks sweet, thank guys for your hard work.

nimrodguyDecember 10, 2008 at 11:55 am

sign me up!

Dave D.December 10, 2008 at 11:55 am

I would love this!

JonDecember 10, 2008 at 11:55 am

Count me in! 4 monitors, here I come !

TravisDecember 10, 2008 at 11:56 am

Travis

travisdhahn@gmail.com

This looks cool – Happy B’Day again….

JustMe503December 10, 2008 at 11:56 am

This is the one I’ve been holding out for… “oh please, oh please, oh please”…

GretchenDecember 10, 2008 at 11:58 am

Count me in

BobDecember 10, 2008 at 12:14 pm

I’ve always wanted something like this!

RandyDecember 10, 2008 at 12:15 pm

I’m in as well

DaComboManDecember 10, 2008 at 12:23 pm

Wishing hard!

Elijah ManorDecember 10, 2008 at 12:27 pm

Sign me up! I’d like to hook up a 3rd monitor w/o having another video card!

Ed SmithDecember 10, 2008 at 12:31 pm

Lol, didn’t notice the spam protection. I wonder if my last comment will post…

SteveDecember 10, 2008 at 12:34 pm

Pie

Mark RobertsDecember 10, 2008 at 12:37 pm

Sounds like something Id use daily…i want in!

Kris KrauseDecember 10, 2008 at 12:38 pm

I hope it works on Vista. Yeah yeah I know I know… the tech specs “say so”.

Adrian AlvarezDecember 10, 2008 at 12:39 pm

Hello number 36

Alan PhillipsDecember 10, 2008 at 12:44 pm

In for the run…

JimboDecember 10, 2008 at 12:44 pm

Pick me! Pick me … Please!!

Jason SDecember 10, 2008 at 12:47 pm

Here’s my entry! Thanks!

AaronDecember 10, 2008 at 12:49 pm

Please?!

Aaron JunodDecember 10, 2008 at 12:49 pm

This thing looks awesome, sign me up!

e-boarderDecember 10, 2008 at 12:54 pm

Andrew MinDecember 10, 2008 at 1:03 pm

*crosses fingers*

Kevin RobertsDecember 10, 2008 at 1:04 pm

please.

Ben DixonDecember 10, 2008 at 1:06 pm

this would be a pretty neat thing to have
Hopefully i’m the ‘one’

Tyler SullivanDecember 10, 2008 at 1:10 pm

ooh please please please.

ArunDecember 10, 2008 at 1:30 pm

I would love to win this.

Juan IgnacioDecember 10, 2008 at 1:32 pm

Yesssss….

EricDecember 10, 2008 at 1:40 pm

sweet.

spock1982December 10, 2008 at 1:41 pm

That would be very nice when I have my EeePC plugged in at my desk.

250December 10, 2008 at 1:51 pm

Not bad, I am 250th in line for the giveaway

AndrewDecember 10, 2008 at 1:51 pm

Count me in for this one!

EdDecember 10, 2008 at 1:56 pm

My wife will kill me if I don’t win this. She’s been begging for a docking station since she bought her laptop. I’m just too cheap to buy one.

Ugur IsikDecember 10, 2008 at 2:05 pm

This would be useful.

PaulDecember 10, 2008 at 2:21 pm

Gimme gimme!

Spikej23December 10, 2008 at 2:40 pm

I’m in. Nice Cybernet

MaxDecember 10, 2008 at 2:55 pm

I’m in too.

jimDecember 10, 2008 at 3:06 pm

yeah

MilesDecember 10, 2008 at 3:11 pm

Just what the doctor ordered!

Scott RobertsDecember 10, 2008 at 3:18 pm

Me, too

SniderVXDecember 10, 2008 at 3:26 pm

Not bad…
I’m interested! haha

RichardDecember 10, 2008 at 3:48 pm

Snake eyes !

Dan in TempeDecember 10, 2008 at 3:50 pm

Happy Birfday to you

david yehaskelDecember 10, 2008 at 3:54 pm

oh yeah…

lelandDecember 10, 2008 at 4:20 pm

Sounds like a useful tool though only for certain types of users. Please include me in this giveaway. Leland Whitlock and lgwhitlock at gmail dot com. Thanks.