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two 27" imacs for display best way to utilise.

D

dekka007

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 6, 2009
99
0
Just ordered two imac 27" (1 i7 and 1 i5) mainly because i want two identical screens.

However as the i5 will be used as the secondary display for the i7 which is great i feel i should be utilising the power of the machine not just the display.

So my question is how would you utilise the i5 HD,Processor power etc. while using it as the secondary display? How would you use it and for what?

I guess my usage would have to occur through screen sharing??? or is there a better method?
 
dekka007 said:
Just ordered two imac 27" (1 i7 and 1 i5) mainly because i want two identical screens.

However as the i5 will be used as the secondary display for the i7 which is great i feel i should be utilising the power of the machine not just the display.

So my question is how would you utilise the i5 HD,Processor power etc. while using it as the secondary display? How would you use it and for what?

I guess my usage would have to occur through screen sharing??? or is there a better method?
Click to expand...

I'd probably be tempted to use synergy to have both running and processing, but doing different tasks. The keyboard and mouse and clipboard are shared over the network, and that's it... you can't drag windows from one to another, but you're not wasting processing power (or at least you have the opportunity to not).
 
Synergy or if you're only using OSX (no boot camp) then Teleport is even easier and smoother. I'm using my 27" imac and my UMBP with one mouse and keyboard, and it "feels" like having a dual monitor system, but each "monitor" has it's own processing power to handle the tasks within it. I love it.

Take a look at both, they both work great, synergy also works in other OSs, Teleport is a little easier to set up/deal with if you're only in OSX.

Teleport: http://mac.appstorm.net/how-to/utilities-how-to/how-to-control-multiple-macs-with-teleport/ (article with teleport info+link to download)

Synergy: http://sourceforge.net/projects/synergykm/ (synergyKM is synergy+UI to make it easier to set up)
 
Thanks for the info. The above two suggestions were just what I was looking for.

money to burn??

Think about it I could get the Dell 27" monitor for $1200 which is a good monitor but not quite as good as the 27" Imac display. Or I could pay a few hundred dollars more and get an identical display plus the iMac computer.

Think about resale value as well a year or two down the line resale value will be higher on the imac than the dell 27".

The price of the 27" Imac is simply so good its almost like buying the screen and getting the imac bolted on for free.

If you take the price of the Mac Pro say 2.93GHZ Quad minimum plus 2 LED Cinema displays for example (only 24") then it's actually cheaper to get 2 27" Imacs.
 
dekka007 said:
Think about it I could get the Dell 27" monitor for $1200 which is a good monitor but not quite as good as the 27" Imac display.
Click to expand...

Really, who said?

And are we talking about the same yellow tinting and flickering iMac display thats been bitched about all over these forums?
 
this forum is falling apart with the phrase "yellow tint"...a minority percentage of imacs suffer from this problem, and from what it sounds like, the issue has been corrected in new units, and all faulty units are being replaced with great customer service. Posters in this forum need to get over raining yellow on everyone's parade who shows any interest or appreciation of the new imacs. It's really sounding like a bitter broken record at this point.
 
mr.thedaniel said:
this forum is falling apart with the phrase "yellow tint"...a minority percentage of imacs suffer from this problem, and from what it sounds like, the issue has been corrected in new units, and all faulty units are being replaced with great customer service. Posters in this forum need to get over raining yellow on everyone's parade who shows any interest or appreciation of the new imacs. It's really sounding like a bitter broken record at this point.
Click to expand...

i find it strange that most of the yellow posters have disappeared this week, last week hundreds of posts, and this week very few...this tells me most were only trying to rain on everyone's parade...i ordered my 27" i7 yesterday at 12:57 pm eastern time. time capsule has shipped but still waiting for confirmation on iMac.
 
dekka007 said:
Just ordered two imac 27" (1 i7 and 1 i5) mainly because i want two identical screens.

However as the i5 will be used as the secondary display for the i7 which is great i feel i should be utilising the power of the machine not just the display.

So my question is how would you utilise the i5 HD,Processor power etc. while using it as the secondary display? How would you use it and for what?

I guess my usage would have to occur through screen sharing??? or is there a better method?
Click to expand...

I though that iMac and display were inseparable. To use iMac as display you actually have to run it as a computer which means that you'll have to run two CPUs to enjoy the two displays. Am I wrong?
 
I though that iMac and display were inseparable. To use iMac as display you actually have to run it as a computer which means that you'll have to run two CPUs to enjoy the two displays. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

You can connect 2 of the new iMacs together via minidisplayport to allow dual monitor configuration.
 
Reference: Teleport.

Does that mean I could run both iMacs one with Target display (CMD-F2) for the large desktop.

And then I could simply CMS-F2 out of display mode to normal mode and function correctly with Teleport?
 
Does this work with one machine running boot camp?

So here's what I'm attempting to do. Run one iMac with OSX and the other w Win7 under Bootcamp - can use either one of these applications and utilize both displays if they're connected with the mini-display adapter?
 
Apple sales guy says this doesn't work

OK - just returned from my local Apple store and one of their sales guys told me that they tried that config - linking 2 iMac's and using the 2nd one as a 2nd display... and that it didn't work. It appears that the driving iMac does not recognize the 2nd one as display. Has anyone tried this succesfully?
 
rw3 said:
Also, no offense, but his review is not a review, it's an opinion. Read the Anandtech article and then tell me that the iMac screen is better....
Click to expand...

Hey, it's all opinion! Your comment was 100% your opinion.

His just happens to be the opinion of a person who runs them side by side.

I read the Anandtech article and I also read the [H]ard U2711 thread where some critical comments were made about it, in particular the whole color gamut thing. ;)

[H]ard is to the high end display community as MacRumors is to the Mac community.
 
dekka007 said:
Just ordered two imac 27" (1 i7 and 1 i5) mainly because i want two identical screens.

However as the i5 will be used as the secondary display for the i7 which is great i feel i should be utilising the power of the machine not just the display.

So my question is how would you utilise the i5 HD,Processor power etc. while using it as the secondary display? How would you use it and for what?

I guess my usage would have to occur through screen sharing??? or is there a better method?
Click to expand...

Bill Gates is that you?
 
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