Thunderbolt Display with PC, how?

[DrD]

I'm just toying with ideas here.

My situation currently - I have a 13 inch macbook pro (with thunderbolt port), and an older 24 inch Imac form 2008.

The imac screen is slowly going bad, and the internal notebook-class 8800gs graphics is starting to show it's age, and can make things a tad too toasty inside when running games. It's an iMac, after all.

I am trying to think about what an ideal setup might be. I use Mac OS X and Windows 7. I don't think I need 2 macs at this point. The 13 inch MBP is more then adequate. I am thinking about using the mac as my portable and a PC as the desktop.

Where this leads me to, is the thought of getting a thunderbolt display. I really like the idea of being able to use it as a larger screen for my macbook, with just a thunderbolt cable. Clean and simple. I don't need 2 monitors, and would like to be able to use the same high res screen for my PC most of the time when the macbook is not connected.

Can this be done? Google isn't giving me any definitive answers. My impression is that the Thunderbolt Display will not work with mini display, DVI, or HDMI output, period - it will only even theoretically work with a PC, if the PC itself has thunderbolt.

Is this indeed true? And if so, are there any decent video cards out there which offer thunderbolt output - which in turn would let me ouput to the apple thunderbolt display?

 

[justperry]

It might work if you go this way, Mac (Laptop)>TB Cable>PC>TB Cable>TB Display.
But you need a card on the PC with 2 TB ports, will it work, that is the question.

 

[maxosx]

"Thunderbolt Display with PC, how?"

The question is Why?

With a plethora of very high quality, high res monitors priced so reasonably, even the huge Art Department in our company uses other Pro monitors with our Macs & PC's.

 

[JayMBP]

I used to run a similar setup until I moved to a rMBP with dual TBD+VMware.
MSI Z77A-GD80 was the mobo. Just make sure to enable Virtu MVP in the BIOS and the TBD should turn on.

The only thing is that Win7 would run on integrated GPU this way. Download LucidLogix's Virtu's driver and assign apps/games that you want to run on discrete GPU and voila.

The only problem I remember having was I couldn't get the anything to work other than the display under win7 (means no isight, speaker, USB... etc)

 

[DrD]

The question is Why?

I do get your point... But you may have glossed over the answer:

I really like the idea of being able to use it as a larger screen for my macbook, with just a thunderbolt cable. Clean and simple.

It'd be nice - when I want to hook up the mac - to just pop in a single cable, and have everything work. Boom, done. Display, mouse, external hard drive, etc. The magsafe charger is nice too.

Your point is still quite valid though... Why would I bother with the Thunderbolt Display, which I'm already on the fence about price-wise, when it offer no extra connectivity which would let me hook up other devices? TB connectivity is nice, but not when you are limited to that alone, and have to go an extra $200 - $300 in the hole. Sigh.

Also, and this is no big deal, but I do wish that a lot of other monitors... didn't look like rejected props from a transformers movie. Perhaps I can find one that is top tier, priced well, and looks decent, at least.

Once again, just playing with ideas.