Run Two 30" Apple Cinema Displays on a PC

dealcatcher writes "For those blessed by the Apple gods and actually own two 30-inch Apple Cinema Displays, this guide explains how to hook two of them up to a PC. The guide includes which graphics cards will support this configuration and a step-by-step of how to get it all going."

Comments

Price

[Sux2BU]

Each display costs $3000 from Apple's website.

Re:Price

[antifoidulus]

The shittiest thing about Apple monitors if you don't use Apple computers is that they don't give you the option of using Applecare to extend the warranty of the monitor above the 1 year it comes with even if you want to pay extra. However if you buy an apple computer and get the applecare then the display is covered for free. If you are planning on doing this it almost makes sense to buy 2 minis with your display, get the applecare, and then chuck the minis on ebay for close to what you paid for them. Seems a bit excessive though just to get a 3 year(industry standard really) warranty on your monitor....

Re:Price

[Oculus Habent]

A related question to tax your financial limits...

If you used one of the newer motherboards capable of supporting two PCI-X cards (not in SLI mode), could you get four 30" Apple Cinema Displays out of it?

Re:Price

[foo12]

I don't think your solution will work --- AppleCare transfers with sale of equipment, meaning you'd lose the 'halo' protection afforded by listing the display with the Mini(s).

Re:Price

[Yaztromo]

So, it indeed looks like you can have one monitor attached per mini

There is only one problem in this case -- you can't drive a 30" Cinema Display off a Mac mini, due to the need for the dual-link DVI out. You can only drive a 30" Cinema Display off a PowerMac.

Yaz.

Re:Price

[jtshaw]

Standard 3 year warranty?!?

So far I've checked Samsung, Sony, ViewSonic, Dell, and Phillips and haven't found one yet that offers over a year standard... Dell, like apple, also only seams to allow you to add extra support if you are purchasing a computer.

or to sum it up

[FidelCatsro]

1: buy two rather wonderfull but epensive monitors
2: buy expensive graphics card with duel dvi conectors and a framebuffer to support massive displays such as these
3: install graphics card(driver setup etc ) and then plug in new monitors ( if you buy one with conectors too close either, use an adaptor cable or slice up the one on your 3000 grand monitors... i know which i would do)
4: turn on system and configure your windowing system to use both monitors at a comfertable size .... in other words do exactly the same thing you would do(read:Should do) normaly

Re:or to sum it up

[moontumbohotmail.com]

"your 3000 grand monitors" 3000 grand? They're more expensive than I thought!

I see

[El]

So this would be the computer equivalent of putting Formula One racing slicks on a Yugo?

Wow.

[Moofie]

What a useful guide. You install the video card, plug in the displays, and it works. Gee, I never would have figured that out on my own.

Want to be helpful? Tell me how to get those two displays without selling both kidneys.

Re:Wow.

[putaro]

Sell your liver

This is actually Part Two:

[sRev]

Part One was: "How to afford two 30" Apple Monitors."

Re:This is actually Part Two:

[burns210]

"Part One was: "How to afford two 30" Apple Monitors.""

Step one: How to find a buying on the black market for your spare kidney.

aargh

[toQDuj]

it is like a million voices all cried out at once and were suddenly silenced.

possibly heart attacks.

But seriously, I'd just have put the G5 behind some soundproofing walls and run virtual pc on them. VPC suffices for most scientific programs that would not run under a unix environment.

B.

and as you click here...

[Beatbyte]

to see his desktop...
you can SEE the silver spoon by which he is fed ;)

Re:and as you click here...

[avalys]

http://www.synapps.de/synapps/bin/view/Main/Rafael Laguna

I don't know, the guy looks old enough to have paid for them himself.

I know you were joking, but there's quite a big difference between having mommy and daddy pay for your extravagances, and funding them yourself.

okay

[Sebadude]

Who has enough desk space for two 30" displays, That's what I'd like to know.

How practical is it? You'd have to sit pretty far away from them to see all that there is to see, but if you have to sit far away, why not go with two smaller screens and sit closer?

Re:okay

[FidelCatsro]

if you have the cash for two 30" monitors then im fairly sure you could find the deskspace .. Personaly my desk on which i sit right now is about 1.5M long and would have plenty of space for these to sit at the back(if i moved the clutter/ mess), It is a big desk but not much above average i would think.

Silly

[ed 'g3']

This is all a bit daft - he has a G5 with these two massive monitors and chucks it all because of the fan noise.

So, in some bizarre attempt at making it better, he hooks them up to a pc.

Reminds me of the Volksagon adverts - It's a Mini adventure. Those were bloody stupid as well.

The G5 is too loud?

[newrisejohn]

This person has supersensitive hearing.

He's probably a spy, which would explain being able to afford two of those displays.

Re:The G5 is too loud?

[Mattintosh]

If it has a graphics card in it that can drive those displays, it's going to be loud. I'd be willing to bet his PC ended up with the same problem.

Blessed or heretical

[martinX]

If he was truly blessed by the Apple gods he would be using a Mac. OK, a quiet one...

This just makes him a heretic.

You lucky 10

[gremlins]

I hope the 10 people who can actually afford this enjoyed the article.

The story behind the story.

[Yaztromo]

1. User decides to ditch the Mac because the fans are too noisy.
2. User slices up the connectors of two perfectly good, $3000 Apple Cinema 30" displays to get them to plug into some no-name video card with an nVidia chipset on their "silent" PC,
3. User complains of the fan noise now coming from the PC video cards.

What a complete and total git. And this gets posted to /. for what reason?

(Remember: with great power comes great fan noise).

Yaz.

Two big monitors are a pain in the arse

[Anonymous Coward]

Two 30" monitors are a pain, one tends to center their attention on one monitor and place things that are always open on the other.

The constant head turning and sometimes scooting your chair over to use the other monitor is just plain wasteful.

I've even tried placing one large monitor over the other, this seemed to help cut down on the scooting and head turning as I just can use my eyes to look up.

The work involved dragging windows up to the other monitor just isn't worth the effort.

Since any window can easily be minimized or using Expose in Mac OS X kind of makes getting a second 30" Display a total waste of money. I've been happier since I got rid of the other monitor. BTW I sit about 4 feet from the 30" to take it all in. Wireless keyboard is neccessary.

Of course the other person was very happy to receive it. :)

http://homepage.mac.com/hogfish/PhotoAlbum2.html

Re:Two big monitors are a pain in the arse

[Sebadude]

Yes, that's what I meant. For viewing images, photos, or film: great, obviously. My concern was with text apps. With two such large screens and their high resolution, you're either going to be doing a lot of leaning forward (& sideways) to read the screens, or you're going to be squinting like George Costanza when he's spotting pennies on the sidewalk.

Either way, it's not very healthy or productive. The point is that I think there's a limit to how large a desktop area can be, over that threshold it becomes unpractical and highly inefficient. Just my own 2 cents.

What I want to know is...

[oahazmatt]

what the BSOD looks like on the display. C'mon, show us the goods!

a digusting crying shame

[cypherz]

to run that rig on Windows! KDE makes much better use of multi-monitor setups than does Windows.
mmmm xinerama!

Fan noise solution

[garote]

So he's chucking a G5 because of fan noise ... makes no sense. I've got a solution that you can apply to PC or Mac. I've been doing it for about six years now.

Buy four USB hubs and a really damn long monitor cable, and put the stupid machine in the closet. The closet of some other room, even. Or in the basement. Run the cables through a hole in the wall. The G5 even comes with Firewire 800 and optical audio jacks, both of which can support nice long cable lengths.

Presently I have a P4 in a closet, with all the cabling run through a hole in the floor, along the underside of the house, and up through another hole near the monitor and stereo. I watch movies, compose music, hack, et cetera, starting from COMPLETE SILENCE. If I had a G5 I'd do the same thing - though I might need a bigger closet. >:)

G5 tower... loud?

[Ballresin]

I've been around a number of G5 towers running 30" Cinema Displays, as I work at a retail store. The G5s only make any noise that is audible above a slight whisper when they are churning data really hard.... or are defective. It is not unheard of for a G5 to have a bad midplane. This guy aparently didn't have the sense to bring his $9000+ setup back to an Apple Store and have the Geniuses say "Yup... that's noisy" and fix it. That said... he is clearly not aware of the giant performance hit his "silent" PC is from his G5. Oh well. Feels like another under-appreciated waste of power.

Re:G5 tower... loud?

[Slashcrap]

I've been around a number of G5 towers running 30" Cinema Displays, as I work at a retail store.

It is not unheard of for a G5 to have a bad midplane.

It is unheard of. Macs do not have faults, only defective users.

You should be fired for suggesting otherwise. I hope you and your family starve.

Your type make me sick.

I know that all right-thinking Mac users will agree with me on this.

Challenge: Show me a mac running three 30"

[ionsphere]

Two is not the ideal monitor configuration. 3 identical monitors provide a much more balanced desktop. Who wants to look at a seam in the dead center of a desktop?

What I want to see, is a MAC running THREE 30 inch displays at full resolution. I've been trying to configure this for some time but have not found a real solution. Anyone know of a mac PCI card that can push a 30 at native resolution?