What can I do with 24" iMac and 23" Cinema Display?

[davekatya]

We have purchased a 24" iMac (only 128mb video) and would like to use it for displaying photos in our photo studio. Of course this is a bit of a waste of such a nice machine, just showing photos on it...

So then we started thinking about could we connect a 23" Cinema Display (to show the photos) to the 24" iMac (to 'work' on the photos). Of course we know it can be done physically, but having no experience of dual screen setups, we need to know if we can constantly show an iPhoto slideshow fullscreen on the 23" cinema display and keep working in Photoshop on the iMac if they are connected?

Or would it be better to get a mac mini and power the 23" display from that and keep it seperate from the iMac?

Thanks for any advice
David

 

[Twinsbb17]

Hello,
I'd go with a refurbed mac mini from the online Apple Store and use that to show the pictures. You could network the iMac and mini so the photos would sync and with no worries about transferring pics. Hope this helps,
Good luck on your purchases,

 

[keeneye]

agreed

I would say maybe buy one of the cool older acrylic monitors for $500 at macofalltrades and use that 23" and a mini. That will leave you extra cash to max out the mini's ram and buy yourself a nice dinner. It would work with the 24" Imac but may run a little slow when other aps are open. Plus the acrylics are a thing of beauty. Maybe even go with a cube since they are on permannet display in the museum of modern art and when maxed out are faster than a mini.
Sorry, got a little mac-cited

 

[Chundles]

I would say maybe buy one of the cool older acrylic monitors for $500 at macofalltrades and use that 23" and a mini. That will leave you extra cash to max out the mini's ram and buy yourself a nice dinner. It would work with the 24" Imac but may run a little slow when other aps are open. Plus the acrylics are a thing of beauty. Maybe even go with a cube since they are on permannet display in the museum of modern art and when maxed out are faster than a mini.
Sorry, got a little mac-cited

Yeah but to do that you'd need a DVI -> ADC converter which are pretty expensive. The old acrylic displays don't use regular DVI connectors.

 

[keeneye]

update video card

It would be cheaper to update the video card on a Cube that use the converter

 

[davekatya]

Thanks for the advice so far - what I need to add is that I'm in Ukraine, no access to refurbished equipment from Apple Store, no access to older Mac gear, can only buy brand new gear (and that at a premium...)

So the main question remains can I run an iphoto slideshow in full screen on a cinema display while working on the imac?

 

[keeneye]

Yes

Just make sure you have a lot of ram so both operations will be smooth

 

[eXan]

Dont waste your money on a Mac mini.

iMac will work perfectly for what you need it.

GeForce 7300 is not as bad as you all think for dual displays.

Also, get 2 gig of ram for the iMac, so you can confortably work with multiple applications at the same time.

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