use a 27" iMac as a display for Mac Pro?

[bluesteel]

i found a thread at Apple's forums where a person is using his 27" iMac as a display for his Mac Pro:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2228153&tstart=120

"I went ahead and got the 27" iMac. The Belkin Mini-DisplayPort to Mini-DisplayPort cable, once plugged in, automatically changes the iMac display to the Mac Pro. Likewise, plugging in a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable from the Mac Pro audio out to the iMac audio in allows the Mac Pro's sound to play through the iMac speaker."

so, as you have read, all he did was use a MiniDisplay Port to MiniDisplay port cable and the iMac became his Mac Pro's display. that being said, here is my question. if i were to use a 27" Quad-Core iMac as a display for my 2010 Mac Pro, could i then use the iMac's Quad-Core's as a "render node" for my Maya renders? the idea is to have both my Mac Pro and the iMac rendering together, while at the same time using the iMac as my display. can anyone shed any insight on this concept? is it possible? am being stupid?

 

[Hellhammer]

The iMac will keep running normally so if you put it to render before entering Target Display Mode, it will keep rendering. What do you mean by "render node"?

 

[bluesteel]

The iMac will keep running normally so if you put it to render before entering Target Display Mode, it will keep rendering. What do you mean by "render node"?

yeah, i guess your right. os x will keep running in the background. i think this will work, unless someone tells me it won't....lol.

by render node, i mean that the iMac would be my render farm, as tiny as it would be..haha! not sure if your simply asking what a render node is. if you don't know, a render node would be a computer, in addition to my main computer (the host), that can be used for rendering. so if i'm working in Maya 2011 on my Mac Pro, and i have setup the iMac as a Mental Ray satellite (render node), and it comes time to render, my mac pro processors and iMac processors would be rendering. and at the same time, i think i can use the iMac as my display.

 

[Hellhammer]

yeah, i guess your right. os x will keep running in the background. i think this will work, unless someone tells me it won't....lol.

by render node, i mean that the iMac would be my render farm, as tiny as it would be..haha! not sure if your simply asking what a render node is. if you don't know, a render node would be a computer, in addition to my main computer (the host), that can be used for rendering. so if i'm working in Maya 2011 on my Mac Pro, and i have setup the iMac as a Mental Ray satellite (render node), and it comes time to render, my mac pro processors and iMac processors would be rendering. and at the same time, i think i can use the iMac as my display.

That should work, I can't see why it wouldn't. The iMac will keep running normally on the background but its display is used for something else. You can even see iMac's desktop and what it's doing if you VNC to it.