Alternative Stand for iMac 27"

[svassall]

I'm looking for an alternative stand for the iMac 27" that will enable me to lower the height of the iMac and to mount it in an office bureau. I'm not looking for an arm as all I need is height adjustment and I do not want to drill the furniture. There is a long thread about arms for the iMac 27" but what about alternative stands?

The best I've seen is the NeoFlex Widescreen mount (http://www.ergotron.com/Products/tabid/65/PRDID/242/language/en-GB/Default.aspx) but it's not the most pretty item so I'm interested to find out details of any alternatives.

Any ideas, or URL's would be gratefully received.

 

[Bear]

I'm looking for an alternative stand for the iMac 27" that will enable me to lower the height of the iMac and to mount it in an office bureau.
...

Be careful how low you go and how much room you leave for airflow around the iMac. It pulls in air from the bottom and of course hot air flows out near the top in the back.

 

[svassall]

I've replaced my HDD with an SSD and that seems to keep thing cooler, it also means that I have to monitor the temperature carefully anyway to make sure things remain cool (no HDD temp monitor). I'm also running smcFanControl in case I need emergency cooling. So far everything is ok, but it is early days so I take your point and will proceed with caution.

I've been searching the internet and I've not found anything else so far.

Does anyone have any pictures of the grommet mount for the Ergotron MX arm? I'm considering drilling my desk so size of the required hole, and also what the bottom of the mount looks like. I've taken a look at the Ergotron MX install instructions and they suggest the smallest hole is 8mm (seems possible), but I have a drawer below the desk so I would need the other side of the mount to not protrude at all (=>5mm).

 

[Spike88]

I would also leave a minimum 1" gap under the iMac chassis for venting as well. Thus, allowing it to breath - even if running much cooler SSDs inside it.

If you want to lower the iMac, I would use the factory stand. Simply remove the factory stand using an old credit card (or letter opener), take a steel cutting saw, cut the stand in 1/2 (across its center hole), overlap the cut aluminum stand, position / clamp in place using 2 x small vise-grips tools. Then, take to your local welding shop for welding. For them, very simple under $5.00 cash weld job. For its power cord, I would replace with a standard computer 90 degree power cord. Since power cord and stand is behind the iMac box, these DIY mods can easily be done (and not be seen by its iMac users). This is what I would do to lower its stand…

 

[fhall1]

I'm looking for an alternative stand for the iMac 27" that will enable me to lower the height of the iMac and to mount it in an office bureau. I'm not looking for an arm as all I need is height adjustment and I do not want to drill the furniture. There is a long thread about arms for the iMac 27" but what about alternative stands?

The best I've seen is the NeoFlex Widescreen mount (http://www.ergotron.com/Products/tabid/65/PRDID/242/language/en-GB/Default.aspx) but it's not the most pretty item so I'm interested to find out details of any alternatives.

Any ideas, or URL's would be gratefully received.

I have that stand (or a close variant - I'm not home now to check) in silver. It works great for lowering the iMac closer to the desk. I had the issue with my 24" being too high and its "chin" is even larger than that of the 27".

As far as being pretty....once you lower the iMac to within an inch of the desktop you pretty much don't see the stand (except for the front of the "foot") when you're sitting in front of it.

 

[/V\acpower]

Its a bad idea.

It need good air flow from below and also space to expulse air at the top. So if the computer don't fit in the hole, I don't think it will be a good idea to squeeze it in with a lower stand.

Even the SSD won't do a big difference, since a CPU and a GPU produce lots of heat.

 

[svassall]

Its a bad idea.

It need good air flow from below and also space to expulse air at the top. So if the computer don't fit in the hole, I don't think it will be a good idea to squeeze it in with a lower stand.

Even the SSD won't do a big difference, since a CPU and a GPU produce lots of heat.

The iMac has clearance around it of over 1 inch, it's only about 1/3 of an inch too tall on the original stand. I've changed all the energy saver settings to switch the screen and iMac off when unused for 2 minutes. I'm also continually monitoring it (due to the removal of the HDD temp monitor) and so far so good, the temperature is the same as it was on the stand.

But I suppose my question was that is there really only 1 'stand' that can hold a screen that weighs as much as an iMac 27"? I've seen plenty of mounts but they all require a desk edge, or drilling a mounting hole.

 

[fhall1]

When I was searching a couple years ago for a desktop stand that would support the iMac's weight - the Ergotron was the only solution I found....there were some that had specs that were "close", but I wanted something that would definitely hold it.