Two monitors on Mac Mini without using Thunderbold Port

[TimJones781]

I am considering purchasing the new Mac Mini and making it my semi portable music production computer. I would need to keep the Thunderbolt port free so i can hook up external PCIe cards to it.

Is it possible to connect dual monitors up to the HDMI port or will it just mirror the image?

Thanks for the help!

 

[FreakinEurekan]

It's not possible to connect two discrete displays to the HDMI. However you can have both an external PCIe and display connected to the Thunderbolt port - Thunderbolt allows daisy chaining of up to 6 devices. The PCIe chassis will have two Thunderbolt ports, you can plug your 2nd display into the output port of the PCIe chassis.

 

[TimJones781]

It's not possible to connect two discrete displays to the HDMI. However you can have both an external PCIe and display connected to the Thunderbolt port - Thunderbolt allows daisy chaining of up to 6 devices. The PCIe chassis will have two Thunderbolt ports, you can plug your 2nd display into the output port of the PCIe chassis.

Any opinions on how that will affect the sound quality?

Also, an opinion on how much of the 10GB/s will be used for the video feed and how much will be used for the PCIe?? Will they both be running at 10GB/s or will it share it?

Thanks!

 

[paulrbeers]

Any opinions on how that will affect the sound quality?

Also, an opinion on how much of the 10GB/s will be used for the video feed and how much will be used for the PCIe?? Will they both be running at 10GB/s or will it share it?

Thanks!

The video feed is separate from the data so running a monitor off of the thunderbolt should not affect the bandwidth to your card.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4194/intels-codename-lightpeak-launches-as-thunderbolt

 

[benwiggy]

Any opinions on how that will affect the sound quality?

The digital data will be transmitted from the PCIe card, through the Thunderbolt ports of the TB monitor, to the Thunderbolt port on your Mini without any loss.

 

[TimJones781]

The digital data will be transmitted from the PCIe card, through the Thunderbolt ports of the TB monitor, to the Thunderbolt port on your Mini without any loss.

great thanks for the help everyone!

 

[QWERTYMac7]

Is it possible to connect dual monitors up to the HDMI port or will it just mirror the image?
QUOTE]

You can use a HDMI monitor and a USB monitor - the USB monitor will likely have no sound...

I use a USB monitor often with my MM.