Use old iMac as a Second Display / Dual Monitor?

[souperjen24]

Hi all. I currently have an iMac 2 GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM running 10.6.7. I just bought/upgraded to a new 21.5 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 4GB.

My plan was to use my current/soon-to-be old iMac as a dual monitor/second display for the new 21.5 iMac. I've done a lot of searching but the only way I'm finding to set the iMac up as a dual monitor is with a PC monitor, which is no good for me (or two 27 inch iMacs, which is also no good, obviously).

Is there really no way to set up two iMac's as dual monitors? This seems crazy. I'm just an amateur user and not extremely knowledgable, so I thought maybe I missed something in my search or didn't understand exactly what I was reading.

Any thoughts/info to provide? Appreciate the help. Thanks.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Only the 27" iMacs can be used as external displays with a direct video connection, but if you can network the older iMac to the newer iMac, you could try ScreenRecycler (is a bit hard to setup) or AirDisplay (works on my MBP to iMac extension).

 

[kylera]

EDIT: Please delete this post.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Looking at the specs, your older iMac has a Mini-DVI port? If that's the case, then sadly you're not able to pull it off.

Now, if your iMac has a MiniDisplayPort, then you should be able to do so.

Gain, only the 27" iMac does support being used as direct external display, for all other Macs there is a need to use workarounds like AirDisplay.