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Use Old iMac for New Mini's Second Display?

C

CoMoMacUser

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 28, 2012
1,150
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My early 2008 iMac is getting slower, so I'm probably going to replace it with a Mini when the new models come out. I'm self-employed, and the Mini would be my new work machine. I think it would be helpful to have a second display because I typically have multiple things open simultaneously, and it would be a lot more productive to have them available side by side.

Can a Mini use an iMac as a second display? If so, any drawbacks?

Also, if the iMac's hard drive craps out, that eliminates the ability to use it as a display, right? AFAIK, there's no way to use the iMac just as a monitor; it has to be functional as a PC to be able to display video from an external source.

Thanks.
 
CoMoMacUser said:
My early 2008 iMac is getting slower, so I'm probably going to replace it with a Mini when the new models come out. I'm self-employed, and the Mini would be my new work machine. I think it would be helpful to have a second display because I typically have multiple things open simultaneously, and it would be a lot more productive to have them available side by side.

Can a Mini use an iMac as a second display? If so, any drawbacks?

Also, if the iMac's hard drive craps out, that eliminates the ability to use it as a display, right? AFAIK, there's no way to use the iMac just as a monitor; it has to be functional as a PC to be able to display video from an external source.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if the 2008 iMacs support Apple's Target Display Mode. If you do a Google search for Target Display Mode, you'll find all you need to know.

What I do recall:

- only the 27" iMacs had this ability, the smaller ones did not (not sure about the current Thunderbolt-equipped 21" models).

- I do not recall if the 2008 or 2009 iMacs support Target Display Mode.

- the 2010 27" iMac will do Target Display Mode with a miniDisplayPort-equiped Mac (this includes Thunderbolt-capable Macs such as the current Mac minis, but does not include Macs without an mDP port)

- the 2011, 2012 and 2013 27" iMacs will only do Target Display Mode with another Thunderbolt-equipped Mac (which a current Mac mini will have).

- the iMac has to be booted and running OS X for Target Display Mode to work. If the iMac won't boot, the TDM won't function.

With these caveats in mind, the TDM function works quite well. I occasionally connect my MacBook Air to my iMac and use the iMac's display if there's something I need two displays for (like rehearsing a Keynote; the iMac acts as like the display the audience sees and the MacBook Air's screen shows the presenter view).
 
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