dual monitors and the Mac mini

[carleton]

I just sent the following email to IOGEAR because I am looking for a KVS to hook both my PC's and my new Mac mini to the same dual monitor setup. I have some general DVI questions and one Mac specific questions, so I thought I might post the whole thing here, too
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I am looking for a KVS that will support a dual DVI monitor configuration. There are three computers, two that need to be hooked to the same two 1080p monitors.

System 1: Has an ATI Radeon card that has two DVI ports and one HDMI. Currently both DVI ports are used, one for each monitor.
System 2: Mac mini

If you don't know about the Mac mini, it has a HDMI port and propriety "Mini DisplayPort". It is my understanding that dual monitors is supported by using both ports.

Here is what I am trying to figure out:

I know that one DVI cable/port has the ability to carry two different singles, which is used by the WQXGA displays.

Q1: Is it also possible to support two totally separate monitors, which is my situation, the same way?

Q2: Assuming Q1 is a yes: With the ATI Radeon card, right now two different DVI cables are being used, one for each display. Should there be some way for me to reconfigure the software to push the singles for both monitors out one DVI port on the video card or do I need to get a Y adapter to consolidate the two ports down to one cable?

Q3: Does your IOGEAR GCS1204 support dual monitors by leveraging the full DVI cable?

Q4: If you are familar with the Mac mini, do you know if the Mini DisplayPort to dual DVI will support dual monitors or if it only supports high res screens like the WQXGA?

Sam

 

[Stan Mikulenka]

Hi carleton,
I have a dual monitors set-up on my Mini which are shared (both) with my Gaming PC.
My setup isn't using ANY KVMs, just plugged to the different inputs on the monitors.
My monitors are 28" + 25" and each has 3 (or more) inputs.
Here is my set-up on the Mini:

 

[carleton]

yep, currently I have the Mac mini running on one of the monitors by using a second port. My issue is that I have three computers and having three mice and keyboard gets to be a bit much to manage. I also switch back and forth a LOT thus I really need a KVM. The only question is: What hardware do I need?

 

[momo8881]

My Setup

yep, currently I have the Mac mini running on one of the monitors by using a second port. My issue is that I have three computers and having three mice and keyboard gets to be a bit much to manage. I also switch back and forth a LOT thus I really need a KVM. The only question is: What hardware do I need?

Try and take advantage of your monitor's multiple inputs when you can. I have dual monitors with my setup of a mini and pc. I run a dvi from the mini and a dvi from the pc into one monitor. The other monitor only has one dvi and a vga. I run the second pc dvi to this monitor and use the vga with the mini display port / vga adapter of the mini. This way I can use an inexpensive kvm switch for audio/usb device switching. I realize you have three computers which will be more difficult/expensive, but that's what I do.

I bought this switch from Amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002K0TU2C/ref=oss_product


Kevin

I found this a couple minutes after I posted. This might solve your keyboard/mouse issue...

http://synergy-foss.org/