Mac Mini / Macbook Pro and Dual Displays

[JasonR]

Ok...so I love Macs but they're frustrating the hell out of me. I wanted to run dual 20" displays (portrait) and one 30" displays using a Mac Mini and a Macbook Pro. I know the new Mini should do it, but I've heard bad things about Apple's Dual Link DVI adapter. Also, I don't think there's a way for a Macbook Pro to drive a 30" Display and a 20." Am I missing something? What should I do?

I'd much rather buy a Mac Mini than the Mac Pro which is way too powerful.

 

[spinnerlys]

Maybe you should look into the Matrox Dual Head 2 go, or the Tripple Head 2 Go, as the MBP only supports one external display, due to one display output.

The Mac Mini supports two displays.

Possibilities, port by port.
Mac mini includes five USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 800 port, so you can connect your keyboard, mouse, iPod, iPhone, digital camera, DV camcorder, external hard drive, printer, and any other peripherals you use. Mac mini even lets you connect up to two displays, including your TV, with the mini-DVI port and Mini DisplayPort.

from Apple.com/MacMini/design

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

The MacBook pro will not run not a 20" and a 30" atthe same time. I also, don't think that the mini will run three displays at once. For that cofiguration I believe that you will need something a little more expandable (ie a Mac Pro).

 

[11800506]

Nope, you aren't missing anything. I don't have any personal experience with using the Dual Link DVI adapter, but you will never know if you'll have problems unless you try it. There are some devices that allow you to run 2 displays from one connection, but IIRC they run the monitors as if they were one. But I don't think you should have too many issues running dual displays from the Mac Mini.

 

[JasonR]

What about buying a used Mac Pro? They seem to be reasonably priced. How new of one should I look for? I definitely need two dual link DVI outs and a decent amount of power (equivalent to a 2008 Macbook Pro or so).