Anyone using dual monitors?

Here's the deal... I really can't afford at this time to upgrade to a 27" iMac setup, but I have a working 17" HP Pavillion LCD display that is 100% operational. Its from a Pavilion small footprint PC that we had bought new. I have wiped the drive on the PC and I'm going to trash it probably since it was an HP XP system and by todays standards its so slow.

So I got to thinking, what about extending the display on my 24" iMac (circa 2008) so when I work in Photoshop I can park the tools off to the side and use the whole iMac screen for editing and whatever? Has anyone done something similar? Back in the old days I used a dual monitor display on my PCs, had special video cards that did that well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in theory, all I need is a cable that goes from the video port on the back of the iMac and terminates as a typical monitor pinout?

The port on my iMac appears to be a "Mini DVI" so I think all I need is a adapter cable like this:



But before I make the plunge, should I be concerned about resolution limits of the VGA monitor and mismatching? I'm pretty sure the HP monitor can go up to the SVGA pixel range but I have to check.

Thanks for any/all advice & opinions.

Mike

drgrafix said:

So I got to thinking, what about extending the display on my 24" iMac (circa 2008) so when I work in Photoshop I can park the tools off to the side and use the whole iMac screen for editing and whatever? Has anyone done something similar?

Click to expand...

Lots of folks do it. All sorts of uses & reasons for using dual displays. It almost seems like you can never have too much display real-estate.

drgrafix said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in theory, all I need is a cable that goes from the video port on the back of the iMac and terminates as a typical monitor pinout?

Click to expand...

This is correct. Just need the proper video cable and the proper video adapter.

drgrafix said:

But before I make the plunge, should I be concerned about resolution limits of the VGA monitor and mismatching? I'm pretty sure the HP monitor can go up to the SVGA pixel range but I have to check.

Click to expand...

I don't think that anyone still talks CGA, EGA, VGA. or SVGA any more these days. These were display terminology from the 1980's and 1990's. For about the last 15-20 years (at least in the Mac World)…you just talk display resolution in pixels. In fact in my 28 years of Mac computing…I don't think that I ever (or anyone else) use these terms in relation to Mac related activities (I know these terms were commonly used in the Windows world).

As far as the resolution of the display. Since it's an LCD monitor it's going to be a lot more modern than an old CRT monitor…so there should be no problem at all.

- Nick

Until last night (sigh) I was using a 21in Samsung monitor with my 21in imac. I had it set up so I could rotate it to read PDF's better (full page!). The resolution didn't match but had no problems using it.

cradom said:

I had it set up so I could rotate it to read PDF's better (full page!). The resolution didn't match but had no problems using it.

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An awesome reason for a 2 monitor! I've previously used a 2nd monitor for reading webpages. It's AMAZING how much more fun it is to read the average webpage on a display that is rotated 90° (portrait mode). Much less scrolling.

- Nick

Yup. I had to make a rotating stand for it as it didn't come with one but I can screw up a board and some screws as well as the next guy.
Used a 6in lazy susan bearing.

If I had thought of that I probably would not have paid tons of dough for a Radius Pivot monitor years ago.

Slydude said:

If I had thought of that I probably would not have paid tons of dough for a Radius Pivot monitor years ago.

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Those "puppies" were pretty darn cool!!! As you know…monitors back then were SUPER SUPER expensive. The rotating Radius monitors made them look cheap!

- Nick

Like I said, screw up a board as good as the next guy...

I loved mine while I had it. Unfortunately something heavy fell behind the Mac one day, hit the monitor connection where it went into the computer. Didn't ruin the connection to the computer but ruined the pins on the cable.

Since the other end was hard-wired into the monitor that was the end of that. Every tech I talked to said I could find a new plat panel monitor cheaper than fixing the thing -- if they could fix it.

I had the same problem with a real nice Sony 17" Trinitron monitor that I used for my Windows rig back when I was running Windows 2000 (W2K). The cable pins were damaged and of course the other end was integrated into the monitor. I found a little repair shop in the "seedy" section of Fort Worth that repaired TVs and monitors. The guy that owned the shop rebuilt the cable and pins for $35.00. And it worked great. Some years later I needed some more work done and went back to the little shop but they had picked up and moved to who knows where.

I couldn't even find someone willing to try it for anything remotely resembling a reasonable sum. Apparently they weren't sure they could figure out the correct pinout information. I didn't try too hard though cause by that time the resolution for it was less than some of the other decent monitors on the market.

pigoo3 said:

.
I don't think that anyone still talks CGA, EGA, VGA. or SVGA any more these days. These were display terminology from the 1980's and 1990's. For about the last 15-20 years (at least in the Mac World)…you just talk display resolution in pixels. In fact in my 28 years of Mac computing…I don't think that I ever (or anyone else) use these terms in relation to Mac related activities (I know these terms were commonly used in the Windows world).
.

- Nick

Click to expand...

Nick your making me feel old.. LOL.. I still use those terms, but really seldom have to..

cradom said:

Like I said, screw up a board as good as the next guy...

Click to expand...

LMAO.. Thats something I would do to.. LOL

Was considering doing just that until I seen the new Retina iMac..

drgrafix said:

Here's the deal... I really can't afford at this time to upgrade to a 27" iMac setup, but I have a working 17" HP Pavillion LCD display that is 100% operational. Its from a Pavilion small footprint PC that we had bought new. I have wiped the drive on the PC and I'm going to trash it probably since it was an HP XP system and by todays standards its so slow......

Mike

Click to expand...

Hey Mike, many of us run dual monitors. I currently have 2x 23" Samsung displays. I wanted larger but, they are harder to find over 23" here in Philippines..

But hey most people have troubles with the mDisplay(thunderbolt) adapters. If your screen doesn't show up, just ditch the connector and buy one piece cables. I have a L2012 Mac Mini and my displays are DVI and VGA. So I have one HDMI to DVI cable for one display and a mDisplay(thunderbolt) to DVI cable on the other display.

The resolutions don't have to match, OSX will/should auto detect the best resolution and refresh rate possible with out any hassle. You can then setup the position/arrangement of the display under display preferences.

The dual displays make work all around much easier..