MacMini with 2, 27" NEC Pro Monitors PA271W-BK

austinphotog said:

I'd like to finally replace my 2008 tower with the new Mac Mini. However, I have 2, NEC Pro Monitors PA271W-BK. The resolution on those are 2560 x 1440 .

They have thunderbolt adapters so I could run one monitor into the thunderbolt hub with no problem. However, I assume, even with a DVI adapter, my second monitor would only be 1920X1200.

Is this correct that I really couldn't run both monitors at full resolution? Or is there a work around that I'm unaware of? It's a shame they didn't put 2 thunderbolt ports in that.

I've done a bit of poking around here and yet to find a concise answer. Thanks so much!

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Yes, as far as I know the second monitor would have to run at 1920x1200 max.... but...

HDMI 1 - 1.2 supports up to 1920x1200
HDMI 1.3 supports up to 2560×1600
HDMI 1.4 supports up to 4K resolution

So the question is what version is the HDMI port on the Mini. It might be HDMI 1.2, but I have not seen confirmation one way or the other. If it's 1.3, then, in theory, you could use an HDMI (male) to DVI (female) adaptor and run the second monitor at full resolution. IN THEORY.

You won't be able to check with Apple's monitors since they use miniDP or TB.

In order to run over 1920x1080 you'll need HDMI-----> DVI D Dual Link which supports over that resolution. I can't rememeber if the included adapter is Dual link but I think it is, so you'd need a dual link cable which has added pins.

austinphotog said:

Checking around, it looks like the MAc Mini has HDMI 1.4 so I guess in theory it would work. Wonder if there is a way to test this at the apple store with one of their monitors.

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I know some people on here complained about HDMI quality over the HD 4000. It's also important to note that not everything works flawlessly. You could probably check with NEC on cables. You should be able to run a mini displayport to displayport cable rather than an adapter + cable. Keep in mind that Apple's thunderbolt cables will not work with the NECs. I agree with you on the lack of two thunderbolt ports. I think the mini is using the same chip as the macbook pro. The Air chip might only support one, but if it's using the normal chip, it shouldn't be a problem. They may not have wanted to adjust the design. If you look at the cMBP, they didn't shuffle ports around or add a second thunderbolt port. They just left it as it was and stuck in new chips.

braddman said:

In order to run over 1920x1080 you'll need HDMI-----> DVI D Dual Link which supports over that resolution. I can't rememeber if the included adapter is Dual link but I think it is, so you'd need a dual link cable which has added pins.

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* over 1920x1200

theSeb said:

* over 1920x1200

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Right...thanks.

braddman said:

Right...thanks.

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Sorry, I am very pedantic

here is a screen shot of my 1920 by 1200 screen with hdmi to dvi adapter in a 2012 mini

Did you ever figure out an answer to this? I am trying to run the exact same setup with dual 27" NECs. Thanks!

Thanks! Please let me know if you find out any more details.