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charlesteeth

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 23, 2007
6
0
Moving up to college in a few months, and I'm trying to get the best setup out of the equipment I have now. I don't want to bring the PowerMac, just the laptop and the iMac. I was thinking about hooking the 23" to the iMac as well, any suggestions on setup and equipment? I'm a graphic design major, I'm going to miss my real estate on just the 17 inches. Also, would dual monitors perform well considering their size difference?
 
That's a lot of kit to take to school.

In your case I'd take the MBP, the 23" display, and the keyboard and mouse from your iMac. Simple, small, and functional. Have fun.
 
That's a lot of kit to take to school.

In your case I'd take the MBP, the 23" display, and the keyboard and mouse from your iMac. Simple, small, and functional. Have fun.

see, but I like having something stationary, at the desk, almost always on. I've got a 1TB external HD with a bit of media on it, surround sound, wacom tablet, and slide/negative scanner which I'd prefer to leave connected and happily seated on the desk :)

Would there be an issue transferring between the 17" and 23" on a spanned background considering the resolution differences? Would I have to change one to accomodate the other, or could I let each run at their native resolution for optimum sharpness.
 
Would there be an issue transferring between the 17" and 23" on a spanned background considering the resolution differences? Would I have to change one to accomodate the other, or could I let each run at their native resolution for optimum sharpness.
In that case taking the iMac might make sense. The iMac will span on ACD just fine. Both will run at optimum resolution.
 
In that case taking the iMac might make sense. The iMac will span on ACD just fine. Both will run at optimum resolution.

Very good. And I wouldn't need any additional hardware other than a cable to connect the two, correct?

Also, Fleetwood Mac...Rumors. Mleewood Mac Rumors. I love it.
 
A follow-up question:

How will this dual monitor setup work with applications that run full screen? Will they open and be split across the two monitors? Front Row, for instance, or watching a DVD. Is there any way to set things like that to run full screen on the 23" monitor?

Also, if I wanted to, somehow, tie my 360 into this, how would that work? o:) I'm trying to consolidate before college, it's starting to get frustrating. heh.
 
Some apps will open in fullscreen only the first monitor, and some will open on the second if they have already been on that display.

If you take a QuickTime video and press Command + F, it will fill whichever screen it's on at that time.

FrontRow, however, only displays on the primary monitor. You could always choose the ACD as the primary monitor though, and in fact, this is what I think I would do personally...
 
Some apps will open in fullscreen only the first monitor, and some will open on the second if they have already been on that display.

If you take a QuickTime video and press Command + F, it will fill whichever screen it's on at that time.

FrontRow, however, only displays on the primary monitor. You could always choose the ACD as the primary monitor though, and in fact, this is what I think I would do personally...

That's what I was going to do. The work I do is mostly graphic design and some sound engineering. I wanted to set the ACD as the primary monitor, and when I had any of my Adobe programs open, keep my canvas open on the ACD, and my toolbars on the iMac internal.

Additionally, I was hoping I could get iChat to automatically open on the iMac monitor, as well as Mail and iCal, etc. The preferences should remember which monitor it was last opened in, and adjust accordingly when I open them again, correct?
 
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