Extra Monitor

[darylk]

Hi guys,

I am *relatively* new to macs, I bought my first one in May 2006, an iMac 2.0Ghz 20". I was wondering if it's possible to have a second display hooked up to this? The monitors I can see have a different connection to the slot on the back of my computer. I've heard to words "VGA dongle" knocked about a bit, but if I get a new monitor (Like a widescreen generic display) and a converter, can I hook up another screen to my iMac? Or could you explain how this would be done please

 

[AppleMan101]

With ur DVI out 'dongle' to VGA you can hook up an extra monitor. because iMacs are designed for non-professional use for the most part, they do not natively support screen spanning, which i think is what you want. otherwise you can only have mirroring, the 2nd screen displays exactly what on ur 1st one and unless you're lucky, the resolution of one of the displays will get messed.

There is (thankfully) a little haxie which lets you do all the lovely screen spanning shizzle. It essentially changes an option within the OS, so that within the displays preferences when you've plugged in that 2nd display you'll have all the options to manage the two displays separately.

I've done this myself on my iMac G5 20" and it works perfectly, search for "screen spanning doctor" and use at your own disgression.

I just realised all the above may be worthless to you if you have an intel iMac...it may be natively supported with those babies, if not, good luck finding a solution.

 

[darylk]

Great thanks for the info Theres bound to be people who've found a solution to this so i guess i'll try it out with a friend's screen at some point before buying one

 

[0007776]

is your iMac a G5 or intel?

 

[darylk]

intel

 

[mkrishnan]

The Intel macs do support a second display and spanning natively. (FWIW, I have an iMac G5 and I also used the screen spanning doctor.)

Do you have the display already, or are you shopping for one? If you're shopping, if possible, get DVI instead of VGA.

 

[darylk]

Sorry for such a late reply, kind of went out of my head with all the work I have on. Yeah like I said it's an Intel iMac, great to hear that it's supported natively. I'm still shopping for one, so any ideas?

EDIT: Will this one do? DVI etc:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-19-WIDESC...619QQihZ020QQcategoryZ174QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[darylk]

Thank for replies all, got it all sorted now. Bought that monitor above and it works great with the mini-DVI converter