Dual Monitors with 2012 Mac Mini

[JamesTheFish]

Hey all,

I'm close to picking up a new Mac Mini and want to run dual monitors (non-Apple) and I was curious as to what setups people are currently running. I've got a dual setup at work (2x ViewSonic VG2236wm-LEDs) which I like. The home-use Mac Mini is for photos, music, web, nothing real processor-heavy (hence the Mac Mini as the base and not an iMac).

Any input / opinions on dual monitor setup would be appreciated.

Thanks...

[Jig3n]

I've got a dual viewsonic VX2250 - LED monitor setup with the mac mini i7.

I picked up a mini display port(thunderbolt) to dvi adapter on ebay for around $5 and upgraded the ram to 8 gigs and I was good to go.

The system allocates 768 MB ram to the display with the 8 gig upgrade which is pretty sweet for a dual monitor rig.

[evanavevan]

Just ordered a 2012 Mac mini with the 2.6 GHz i7 and Fusion Drive, have 16 GB of RAM and 2 Thunderbolt Displays on the way. I'm really hoping the HD 4000 graphics can drive both displays without any problems, but I think it should be fine.

[fhall1]

HD4000 can drive two monitors with no problem...at work I have a Dell laptop (HD3000 graphics) docked and driving two 30" (2560 x 1600) monitors. I don't do any gaming on it (it's my work machine), but it does everday stuff just fine. Since HD4000 is supposed to be twice as fast as HD3000, you should have no issues.

[benwiggy]

I've got two 20" Apple Cinema Displays on my Mini. Not seen any HDMI issues.

According to Apple: this model simultaneously supports 1920x1200 on the HDMI port and 2560x1600 on the Thunderbolt port.

The Mini has a very capable CPU and can deal with "processor-heavy" work. Geekbench scores put it above 2010 Quad-core Mac Pros from 2010...!!!!

I'm using mine for Logic, Creative Suite, some OpenGL games (Oolite, highly recommended), and more besides, and it doesn't stop for breath.

[JamesTheFish]

Originally Posted by JamesTheFish

Hey all,

I'm close to picking up a new Mac Mini and want to run dual monitors (non-Apple) and I was curious as to what setups people are currently running. I've got a dual setup at work (2x ViewSonic VG2236wm-LEDs) which I like. The home-use Mac Mini is for photos, music, web, nothing real processor-heavy (hence the Mac Mini as the base and not an iMac).

Any input / opinions on dual monitor setup would be appreciated.

Thanks...

Thanks for all the input - it seems that the Mini will drive most monitors that you throw at it.

I guess my followup question is about the connections on the monitors I'm looking at. I take it to run two of the same monitor, they've got to have both an HDMI connection (for Mini -> HDMI Cable -> Monitor) and a VGA port (for Mini -> TB to VGA adapter -> Monitor). Am I understanding this correctly?

Thanks again...

[fhall1]

Originally Posted by JamesTheFish

Thanks for all the input - it seems that the Mini will drive most monitors that you throw at it.

I guess my followup question is about the connections on the monitors I'm looking at. I take it to run two of the same monitor, they've got to have both an HDMI connection (for Mini -> HDMI Cable -> Monitor) and a VGA port (for Mini -> TB to VGA adapter -> Monitor). Am I understanding this correctly?

Thanks again...

No....the Mini comes with an HDMI to DVI adapter - or you can use your own purchased HDMI to HDMI or HDMI to VGA adapter. You can get TB (actually mini displayport) to DVI, or VGA, or HDMI adapters. So as long as your two monitors have any of those - you can connect them.

[JamesTheFish]

Originally Posted by fhall1

No....the Mini comes with an HDMI to DVI adapter - or you can use your own purchased HDMI to HDMI or HDMI to VGA adapter. You can get TB (actually mini displayport) to DVI, or VGA, or HDMI adapters. So as long as your two monitors have any of those - you can connect them.

Ahhhhh... _that's_ the answer I was looking for. So really there's no constraint on the monitors I choose (I'm looking for a pair of 22" or 24") as long as they have some combination of those connectors. IE the monitors don't HAVE to have an HDMI connector as I thought...

Thanks!

[LaunchpadBS]

Originally Posted by JamesTheFish

Ahhhhh... _that's_ the answer I was looking for. So really there's no constraint on the monitors I choose (I'm looking for a pair of 22" or 24") as long as they have some combination of those connectors. IE the monitors don't HAVE to have an HDMI connector as I thought...

Thanks!

Just remember there's an adapter for everything

[madrag]

Originally Posted by LaunchpadBS

Just remember there's an adapter for everything

That's true!

But does it degrade de image quality when having multiple adapters?
(let's exclude VGA). The adapter that comes with the mini, is it best to just connect to the monitor via HDMI or it doesn't matter because the quality via the HDMI > DVI is the same?

[LaunchpadBS]

Originally Posted by madrag

That's true!

But does it degrade de image quality when having multiple adapters?
(let's exclude VGA). The adapter that comes with the mini, is it best to just connect to the monitor via HDMI or it doesn't matter because the quality via the HDMI > DVI is the same?

I can't comment on the hdmi to dvi but I've got this setup, one hp zr2440w, which is a top IPS panel monitor, on a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable as my 'main' monitor and the color and picture are flawless then a straight hdmi out to a benQ ew2420(much cheaper than the hp), the picture on the benQ with hdmi took a lot of calibrating to get right, and when I plugged the hdmi into my hp monitor I had the same flat grey issue, so it looks like the flat greys from hdmi is a problem BUT it can be rectified but some manual calibration.

That said it seems to just be the hdmi port itself as I tried the hdmi to Dvi adapter with a dvi cable and I get the same issue.