Anyone considering buying TWO 21.5's and "ganging" them together to get huge screen?

[D ROCK]

I am wondering if this would be a great way to get matching "monitors" and also allowing you to span the screens for editing etc, then when you want to burn dvds etc you can run both separate and burn two at a time. you should also be able to use the processors on both units for rendering etc with the network node mode. Batch rendering.
what are your thoughts on this? will it work? anyone planning on doing this?

 

[Zach Schible]

umm, no. That would be a waste of money wouldn't it. Just buy a new monitor since one of the iMac's have to be a slave.

 

[D ROCK]

yes except that another monitor both looks stupid (I said matching monitors) plus a monitor alone will not allow you to burn two dvds simultaniously or capture video on one while exporting video to a firewire drive on another and then on days when you need to just edit you reboot in "slave" mode and get all that sweet real estate! what could be better?
I actually had a e-mail out to steve to design just this thing. But I had in mind a user upgradeable hard drive bay on the slave screen monitor. I was thinking separate screen not dual imac but hey he outdid me on this one! search imac slave screen on macrumors and you should find my posts from a year or two ago.....

 

[darklyt]

The 27-inch iMac supports video input via its DisplayPort connector, allowing the machine to be used as a display for external sources.

That makes it sound like you can't do the same with the 21.5" iMac, or are you suggesting something different?

 

[tman07]

you can use synergy(google for it) to allow you to use your mouse and keyboard and copy and past between the two units. However, from what i understand, you want this and to be able to hit a button (or whateve) and instantly use the other imac as a secondary monitor for the other imac. Synergy will no do that.

 

[D ROCK]

ahhhhhh,,,,,
somehow i missed that little bit about 27 inch only and not the 21.5 that totally throws out my idea since 2 27's would be overkill at least for me for now. also cheaper at that point to go mac pro....
something to look into.

anyone out there with a 21.5 willing to try hooking something up to it to see if it is input as well as output?

 

[D ROCK]

you can use synergy(google for it) to allow you to use your mouse and keyboard and copy and past between the two units. However, from what i understand, you want this and to be able to hit a button (or whateve) and instantly use the other imac as a secondary monitor for the other imac. Synergy will no do that.

it doesnt have to be instantly but some days I am editing all day or several days in a row. then I want lots of room on my desktop for all sorts of windows and bins etc... I would then slave screen. other days I am finished with the edits and need to burn 3 different dvds 7 times each. authoring takes 2 hours and then the 7 burns are each ten mins or so. having two separate machines running a different burn each would be so much faster. also I could burn on one while capturing the next projects footage on the other..
I hope this will work on the 21.5

I also can buy one now and another in 6 months when the money is back up. spreads out the pain a little. )