Using my iMac for my main monitor with my new M2 Studio..

[itsjustmeee]

I’m planning on picking up a new M2 Mac Studio very soon and I was pricing monitors. They’re about the same price as trading in my 2019 27 inch 5K iMac (around $475). Then I started thinking about if it’s possible to just keep it and use it for my main monitor. That way I’ll also have a backup Mac in case I need it. Has anyone done this and are there any downsides to this idea?

thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[salamanderjuice]

How are you going to use it as your main monitor? There's no video input on the 2019 iMac. Using something like a USB capture card will lead to quality loss and latency and you'd have to keep the iMac running the entire time. You could mod your iMac into a monitor with a 3rd party board from China but that's not the easiest or cheapest solution and you can't easily keep the iMac in a usable state. There's a thread somewhere here about that.

 

[Cirillo Gherardo]

iMac cannot be used a monitor for another Mac.

 

[PaulD-UK]

I have been looking at a 5K iMac screen connected to my M1 mini for the last 14 months, and it gorgeous, truly the best screen I have ever had...

But, to have a working 5K iMac, you have to leave it as Apple built it.
To use it as a monitor you have to do a total DIY conversion and remove the 'computer' innards more or less completely.

Here's s link to my conversion, but look at the more minimalistic conversions in the previous and subsequent posts (and the rest of the thread)...

It can be a lot of effort - mine was, or you can do it in a few days.
About a hundred people in the MR community have done it, and many more have dismissed it as beyond them.

But the only way to keep the thousands of old iMacs from being prematurely consigned by Apple into obsolescence is to convert them.
For your efforts, and with the expenditure of about a quarter to a third of Apple's Studio Display costs.

 

[deconstruct60]

I’m planning on picking up a new M2 Mac Studio very soon and I was pricing monitors. They’re about the same price as trading in my 2019 27 inch 5K iMac (around $475). Then I started thinking about if it’s possible to just keep it and use it for my main monitor. That way I’ll also have a backup Mac in case I need it. Has anyone done this and are there any downsides to this idea?

If you were thinking about the legacy "Target Display Mode" , then that isn't covered by the 2019 iMac.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/105126


Another path not mentioned is to just screen share from the Studio to the iMac ( Ethernet or point-to-point Ethernet-over-Thunderbolt (effectively, approximately 10GbE) . ). Put the shared screen 'full screen' mode and keep using same keyboard/mouse. ( Nothing much deliberate is running locally. ). For non video/color high intensive or hyper mouse/keystroke latency contexts it would/should work. ( folks play video games over much slower than 10GbE networks these days; albeit from remote connect/compression that is geared for that. ). Some VNC and other protocol remote systems have advance settings to control compression/color/etc . With a 10GbE connection, you can crank those setting to their highest (bandwidth consuming; lower compression. ) with little network congestion impact ( it is a 'private' , point-to-point network ... there is no one else around. . You can 'hog' as much bandwidth as you want without disturbing anyone else. ).

For example.

https://help.realvnc.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002321097-What-can-I-do-to-boost-picture-quality-or-performance

Note however, if constantly running the iMac, then you are putting 'wear' on it. A 'back up' that gets periodically turned on will incur less wear.


[ Aside: for the gut the computer and insert dedicated monitor guts ... 'undo' that when need a 'back up Mac' is a problematical path. ]



P.S. the Ethernet-over-Thunderbolt feature.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/ip-thunderbolt-connect-mac-computers-mchld53dd2f5/mac

It is network between just two computers so can use some static IP numbers that are chosen (not trying to put those ports on some general "Internet"/"local area network". )


P.P.S. Ooops forgot. There is a corner case where this doesn't work well. It is boot/recovery diagnostics on Studio. but if had a TV around with a HDMI port around for oddball cases. That would be a cheap workaround for low volume corner cases. [ If Studio had a second monitor that was hooked to HDMI it could 'fail' over to that one I think. ]

 

[ChrisA]

I’m planning on picking up a new M2 Mac Studio very soon and I was pricing monitors. They’re about the same price as trading in my 2019 27 inch 5K iMac (around $475). Then I started thinking about if it’s possible to just keep it and use it for my main monitor. That way I’ll also have a backup Mac in case I need it. Has anyone done this and are there any downsides to this idea?

thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Yes, of course you can use the iMac to access the Mac Studio. Even if peoiple say "The iMac has no video input."

You'd used screen sharing. It works well but is slow and I do not recommend it but it does work just fine. I have an M2-Pro mini with a Dell 27" monitor as the main computer and I also own a 2014 mini with no monitor or keyboard attached. I use screen sharing to access the 2014 mini and it is fast enough for most things.

DOn't use WiFi for screen sharing. Use at least gibibit Ethernet. Or even better point to point Thunderbolt networking. But really, you get the best performance with a local monitor.

Why do I have the Mini? It is a server that runs 24/7. Old Minis make great servers. They are reliable, small, silent and cost less than $100 on the used/refurb market.

I have some other computers I access this way too, some Rasberry Pis embedded inside 3D printers and some robotics development. It all shows up on the M2's 27" screen. But remote screen sharing does not have the best graphic performance. I would not use it for the primary computer.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

If the Studio is intended to run headless & only needs occasional, low-graphic-density checking - sure. It'd work fine.

If you're running photo editing, video editing, or similarly graphics-intensive tasks - not a chance.

 

[wonderings]

I wanted to do this as well, I have a 5k iMac sitting around at home and an M1 Max MacBook Pro. Originally wanted to use the 5K iMac at work as a screen. I did not want to rip the computer apart to remove the motherboard and everything, which is the only way to make a 5K iMac truly work as an external screen. There are some software options but nothing you would want to use as a main display.

This is where Apple really could do something that is actually "green". Open things up and extend the life of their products. They last really long as is, but now with no ability to upgrade and then purposely locking down a 5K iMac so it can be used as an external display is the exact opposite of green.

 

[theorist9]

P.S. the Ethernet-over-Thunderbolt feature.

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/ip-thunderbolt-connect-mac-computers-mchld53dd2f5/mac

It is network between just two computers so can use some static IP numbers that are chosen (not trying to put those ports on some general "Internet"/"local area network". )


P.P.S. Ooops forgot. There is a corner case where this doesn't work well. It is boot/recovery diagnostics on Studio. but if had a TV around with a HDMI port around for oddball cases. That would be a cheap workaround for low volume corner cases. [ If Studio had a second monitor that was hooked to HDMI it could 'fail' over to that one I think. ]

How's that ccompare in performance to the usual approaches?:

1) Airplay (maxes out at 4k).
2) Luna Display (4k@60 or 5k@45); but may have higher latency than Airplay.

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