Mac mini with two monitors

[Dentifrice]

Hello,

I'm planning to buy a new mac mini to replace my old. Right now I have a 2010 mac mini with 24 cinema display.

I'm planning to buy a new 27 inches thunderbolt screen. My question, does the Intel HD 4000 is powerful enough to drive these two screen in daisy chain ?

Used with 2.6 quad core and 16 gb of ram

Another question, would you use a fusion drive to add SSD drive to the existing HD ? My only concern is that the mechanical part of the fusion drive in mac mini is 5400 rpm.

thanks

 

[FreakinEurekan]

does the Intel HD 4000 is powerful enough to drive these two screen in daisy chain ?

Yes and no. The HD4000 is powerful enough, but you can't daisy a 24" ACD directly off the back of a TBD. If you have an intermediate Thunderbolt device you can do it though:

Mac Mini -> TBD -> Thunderbolt device (e.g. hard drive) -> ACD

 

[Dentifrice]

so my best option would be to use a "mini display port to hdmi" adapter for my 24'' ACD and use the thunderbolt for the 27'' ?

I have one, but to output my macbook to an HDMI screen

in that case, it would be the other way around, can I do this ?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

so my best option would be to use a "mini display port to hdmi" adapter for my 24'' ACD and use the thunderbolt for the 27'' ?

I have one, but to output my macbook to an HDMI screen

in that case, it would be the other way around, can I do this ?

I may have misunderstood, thought your ACD was DisplayPort. If it's HDMI, then it'll plug straight into the HDMI port on the Mini, while the ATD uses the Thunderbolt/mDP port. That would work fine.

 

[AdrianK]

I may have misunderstood, thought your ACD was DisplayPort.

They are, Apple have never released a display with an HDMI input.

so my best option would be to use a "mini display port to hdmi" adapter for my 24'' ACD and use the thunderbolt for the 27'' ?

I have one, but to output my macbook to an HDMI screen

in that case, it would be the other way around, can I do this ?

HDMI to DisplayPort is doable, but expensive since it requires an active adapter. IIRC they run for > $100 and they can be a bit flaky. DP->HDMI is totally different.

Really you need to compare the cost of any thunderbolt device (as FreakinEurekan mentioned). I'd go the chain route personally (actually I'd never buy any displays from Apple ).

 

[Dentifrice]

thanks

so it seems it will be difficult to use my old ACD. I have three choices

don't buy a thunderbolt display and continue with my current ACD and only upgrade my macmini

buying a thunderbolt display and selling my ACD

buying an iMac and use my ACD as second monitor...

 

[SmileyDude]

thanks

so it seems it will be difficult to use my old ACD. I have three choices

don't buy a thunderbolt display and continue with my current ACD and only upgrade my macmini

buying a thunderbolt display and selling my ACD

buying an iMac and use my ACD as second monitor...

And a fourth option of putting another Thunderbolt device between the Thunderbolt display and the ACD, like FreakinEurekan said above. Then you can daisy chain just fine. The Thunderbolt display just doesn't have the support to directly work with DisplayPort devices. But other daisychain-able device typically do. Just make sure to check with the manufacturer first, of course

 

[Dentifrice]

yeah but buying another thunderbolt device just for this...It's pricey...

 

[Dentifrice]

I'm just wondering, what is the cheapest thuderbolt device that could give me the possibility to chain my ACD 24 ?

I found this at $200
http://www.lacie.com/ca/products/product.htm?id=10574

do you know something cheaper ?

thanks

 

[FreakinEurekan]

do you know something cheaper ?

It looks like this has passthrough for $150:


http://amzn.com/B009HQCAPQ

 

[qubex]

Mac Mini (mid 2013) and two 24” LED CinemaDisplay screens?

Hello.

I’ve got a recent Mac Mini (2013) and it sports Thunderbolt and HDMI video-out options. I have it hooked up to a 24” LED CinemaDisplay by plugging the Mini DisplayPort plug into the Thunderbolt port. All’s fine and dandy.

I’m running the Developer Preview release of OS X 10.9 (“Mavericks”) and, as a developer, I want to test my app’s behaviour with the new dual-fullscreen functionality included in Mavericks.

So I dug out another 24” LED CinemaDisplay (identical, for consistency, because I’m a sucker for consistency) and I’m wondering how to connect it up.

I’ve ordered an HDMI-to-MiniDisplayPort adapter from Amazon.com (the Belkin AV360 to be exact) but I am dubious that it will serve the purpose adequately. Does anybody have any other ideas? For example, how to drive both displays from the same Thunderbolt port, or some other approach I might’ve missed?

Most obliged.

 

[fhall1]

It's a nit....but don't say you have a 2013 Mac Mini....it's a 2012 model. There is no 2013 Mini - yet.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I’ve ordered an HDMI-to-MiniDisplayPort adapter from Amazon.com (the Belkin AV360 to be exact) but I am dubious that it will serve the purpose adequately. Does anybody have any other ideas? For example, how to drive both displays from the same Thunderbolt port, or some other approach I might’ve missed?

The Belkin AV360 or similar would be your best bet. The only other way would possibly be a USB to DisplayPort adapter, but I don't know of any that are Mac-compatible.

There is not a way to connect two monitors to your Thunderbolt/MDP port other than using two Apple Thunderbolt Displays.

 

[qubex]

Thanks for the reply. I've been able to find no other solution either. I'm a little concerned about the the HDMI->Mini DisplayPort adapter (mainly the idea of video being downgraded, I've seen some mentions of the AV360 unit not supporting 1080p) but it seems like it's the only avenue I have available to me...