External Display Adaptor

[swb1192]

When I went to the Apple Store to find out what kind of adaptor I needed for my computer, I got about 4 different answers!

The attachment is a picture of the display output of my White Intel Core 2 Duo iMac (Bought May 2007). I am connecting it to a VGA display.

I just don't know what kind of output I have...

In addition, how compatible are Dell displays with Macs? (I want to have an extended desktop, not just mirror)

 

[Makosuke]

That's a mini-DVI port; you can buy an adapter to go to either a full-sized DVI port ("mini-DVI to DVI") or a VGA port ("mini-DVI to VGA"), which is what you want.

A Dell display, or ANY other brand for that matter, will work fine--a display is a display. Occasionally I've heard of some of the fancier "bonus" features (in particular a funky iPod dock on a ViewSonic monitor) having issues, but even a USB hub or speakers are totally standard components that should work perfectly on any Mac.

[edit] This is the one:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=M9320G/A
(note that for some reason the small picture on Apple's store shows the DVI version, but the large image is the VGA one, and the package will say if you buy it in person.)

 

[swb1192]

That's a mini-DVI port; you can buy an adapter to go to either a full-sized DVI port ("mini-DVI to DVI") or a VGA port ("mini-DVI to VGA"), which is what you want.

A Dell display, or ANY other brand for that matter, will work fine--a display is a display. Occasionally I've heard of some of the fancier "bonus" features (in particular a funky iPod dock on a ViewSonic monitor) having issues, but even a USB hub or speakers are totally standard components that should work perfectly on any Mac.

[edit] This is the one:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=M9320G/A
(note that for some reason the small picture on Apple's store shows the DVI version, but the large image is the VGA one, and the package will say if you buy it in person.)

Perfect. Thanks for all of the information. I was only doubtful about the extended desktop because I've heard that some adaptors can't handle it, and they can only mirror.

 

[jonbravo77]

Perfect. Thanks for all of the information. I was only doubtful about the extended desktop because I've heard that some adaptors can't handle it, and they can only mirror.

That's just dependent on what video card you have in your machine, as stated before the external monitor does not care what computer you are hooking up to it just as long as your monitor you are using can accept the resolution your machine is outputting. Just an example would be if the native resolution of your monitor is 1024X768, and you want to output 1440X900 (which my MBP is set to do) your monitor more than likely will not be able to handle the higher resolution.

Peace

 

[Makosuke]

I was only doubtful about the extended desktop because I've heard that some adaptors can't handle it, and they can only mirror.

You're actually correct that Apple doesn't support an external non-mirrored monitor on some Macs, but that's no longer the case--certainly yours, and I believe any Mac with an Intel chip, supports dual non-mirrored displays.

Actually the G5 iMacs and G4 iBooks do as well, Apple just doesn't allow that in software for whatever reason. Even that limitation can be worked around if you want, but it's a non-issue since it's fully supported in your iMac.