Running a mac with your own monitors.

Creamy Goodness

ok so i've been using a macbook now for a year and i love it.

but as a coding/photoshop and general photo editing lark i find the 13 inch screen a bit of a hinderence.

i have a windows machine at home where i have two monitors connected up to it and my workflow on that machine is much more efficient due to the dual monitor set up.

now i do have a mini-DVI to DVI convertor and ocassionally use my macbook with one of these monitors but since i'm so used to having a dual display i find my workflow suffers just as much as when i'm using the laptop screen.

what i would like - and this would actually be somewhere down the road as i'm still a poor student - is to have a mac with a dual screen set up, but i see with the iMac's that's not possible and even if it was i'd like to keep the two screens the same. i know a dual screen mac is possible but it involves one of two methods (that i know of)

1. build a hackint0sh, not really feasible as i'd like to not break the law.
2. buy a mac pro, again not really feasible as i don't have that sort of cash floating about.

is there any other way of having a mac with a dual display without breaking the bank/law?

aidan_walsh

I'm a little confused, are you looking to connect a second display to the Macbook or an iMac?

J-blk

I don't own an iMac but I'm pretty sure you can use its' built in display and any external display as well - would that not be the best option? Dual screen modes work just fine on most Macs (heck, I've even had three displays going via a USB/DVI DisplayLink adapter) and you can run them in mirror or extended desktop modes, just like in Windows...

Creamy Goodness

aidan_walsh wrote: »

I'm a little confused, are you looking to connect a second display to the Macbook or an iMac?

no i'm looking to run one mac machine with two monitors. i did go a little overboard in explaining it

aidan_walsh

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

no i'm looking to run one mac machine with two monitors. i did go a little overboard in explaining it

Ah. Mac Pro

Creamy Goodness

aidan_walsh wrote: »

Ah. Mac Pro

ahh balls. looks like i won't be able to get rid of windows for a while yet.

thecommander

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

ahh balls. looks like i won't be able to get rid of windows for a while yet.

If its 2 monitors you want, including the laptops screen, then you just plug extra monitor in.

If its an extra 2 on top of the laptop screen then you need to use;
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/dh2go/

babypink

you may not want to go back to PowerPC for coding purposes....but you can pick up a PowermacG5 for very reasonable $$ right now.

though you should still be able to compile universal apps while on the PPC machine.

Mr. Magoo

I use a second monitor with my iMac, works like a charm. Would be nicer to have 2 identical monitors I suppose but they're the same size and resolution so it's close enough, just at different heights.

johnk123

You can definitely connect an external monitor to a macbook with no problems at all. This is also possible with an iMac which im not sure you are aware??

Red Alert

you can run it with the lid shut too if you've an external keyboard and mouse.