2011 iMac as PC Monitor

Only devices with Thunderbolt can be connected to iMac in order to use it as a monitor. Currently, there are no HDMI to Thunderbolt adapters so this does not work. You could look into 2010 refurbs as they have regular mDP that can be used with PCs.

Hellhammer said:

Only devices with Thunderbolt can be connected to iMac in order to use it as a monitor. Currently, there are no HDMI to Thunderbolt adapters so this does not work. You could look into 2010 refurbs as they have regular mDP that can be used with PCs.

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Does the regular Mini Displayport cable just not fit into the Thunderbolt port? Or has anyone tried it and seen if it actually could work?

turbobass said:

Does the regular Mini Displayport cable just not fit into the Thunderbolt port? Or has anyone tried it and seen if it actually could work?

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It does fit and it does work if you want to connect an external display to an iMac however it does NOT allow you to use an iMac as an external display to a PC. As has already been suggested if this is mission critical for you then you should look at refurbished 2010 iMacs while they're still available.

Since you're using an HDMI-compatible PC, you might want to cool your heels until the new Kanex XD is released, which will support Thunderbolt. Check under the FAQs of the product page to see that the company has repeatedly stated that a Thunderbolt version is in the works Bear in mind that this solution will likely run for a pretty penny when released.

Other than that, there's not much you can do to make your 2011 iMac work as a PC monitor. Have you considered trying to install Windows via bootcamp? Unless you need the extra horsepower of the HP desktop, dual-booting would work just fine for your needs. I'm not aware of any issues autoCAD may or may not have with bootcamp, however, so you may want to do more research.