HDMI Out into Monitor with Display Port

Monoprice.com sells virtually every cable anyone would want. That said, I'm guessing your Dell accepts more than just display port input.

 

There are adapters which convert a DP or mini-DP signal to HDMI but I've not seen one that does the reverse.

 

Two monitors and a drive

I'm just about to get a Mini and want to connect two DVI monitors and a external thunderbolt drive. Is this possible?

I've been told the connections are 1xHDMi and 1xTB port which doubles as a mini DVi

 

HDMI port -> DVI (converter is even included) -> DVI Monitor
TB -> External TB Drive -> Displayport to DVI converter -> DVI Monitor

No issues.

Edit: This is all fine as long as your DVI monitors have a resolution of 1920 x 1200 or less. Anything higher this will not work.

 

Thanks very much. I'd like to use a Samsung 840EVO in an external enclosure. Do you know of a T/B enclosure for it that I can daisy-chain in the way you describe?

 

Any full size desktop TB enclosure generally has two thunderbolt ports for daisy chaining. There are about 100 of them. Any 2.5" drive will fit in a 3.5" bay. You will probably want to consider getting the converting "rails" though. Most external enclosures for 2.5" drives only have a single thunderbolt port.

 

It is my understanding that HDMI -> DisplayPort just doesn't exist cheaply.

Basically, DisplayPort is a superset that includes the same signals as HDMI (so a simple cable is all you need going DisplayPort->HDMI), but HDMI doesn't have all the signals that DisplayPort needs so converter that takes HDMI in and generates the missing information.

I also have 2xDell 2412m's and a KVM for a mac mini and a pc. I ended up not using the KVM for video switching and just do that on the monitors so that each of pc's uses 1 HDMI and 1 DisplayPort. It's no the most elegant, but it didn't end up costing $300 for a converter thing.

 

I've gone for two BenQ GL2450s. They come with HDMi and VGA connections and come supplied with VGA cables. I've been using one as an extension to my iMac (mini DVi port) and it works fine. Consequently I've ordered adapters for the Mini - an HDMi-VGA and a TB-VGA. I will post again when they arrive.