iMac 17" - External Display

JIMA · 13 Oct 2006 at 21:33

Hi,

I'm looking at moving from a PC to an iMac mainly for the purpose of e-mail, web-browsing, and also some development work in Java, Perl etc. I previously posted a mail and got some really useful info. Thanks.

I was going to go for the 20" iMac, but have just seen that the 17" now comes with a Radeon X1600 card, SuperDrive and 1GB of memory. It's also substantially cheaper than the 20" model, all of which makes it very appealing. In fact I'm pretty close to pressing the "Buy" button now (before my WinXP PC packs up yet again!).

My only worry would be the resolution of 1440x900. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what OSX is like to use at this resolution. Is it useable or does the reduced screen size make things pretty difficult?

Also, I've read that the iMac can be connected to an external VGA monitor which would be very useful for doing development work etc. However, as I can't actually get to see a Mac I can't judge for myself how good this is and info on the Apple website is rather lacking from what I can see. Would someone be able to tell me how good external monitor support is through an analog VGA connection (or other).

Thanks for any help, it's much appreciated.

Jim

Vai · 13 Oct 2006 at 22:31

The screen size is fine for normal use, but can be a bit hectic when you have a few windows open, but that should be resolved when the new version of OS X comes out with Screens, and you could probably work around it by using Expose.

You can hook the iMac up to an external display by using an adapter that you can buy from Apple, it has some wierd mini connection that plugs into your iMac and has a DSUB connector on the other end, it is probably this one, but without pictures I cant be sure:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP.../wo/StoreReentry.wo?productLearnMore=M9320G/A

I havn't used the cable for much other than testing, so can't remember but I think it may only clone the image you see on the desktop, rather than extending the desktop like on a Windows machine.

Cybershot · 13 Oct 2006 at 23:08

"Screen Spanning Doctor" should allow your iMac to span the screen as well as mirror.

~n

Hamish · 14 Oct 2006 at 12:03

Cybershot said:
"Screen Spanning Doctor" should allow your iMac to span the screen as well as mirror.

~n

Cant you do that anyway? With my MacBook Pro when I press F7 it toggles between mirror and span.

Caged · 14 Oct 2006 at 15:22

Yes it does it anyway:

Support for external display in extended desktop
Digital resolutions up to 1920 x 1200
Analog resolutions up to 2048 x 1536
Support for external display in video mirroring mode

JIMA · 15 Oct 2006 at 13:39

Thanks for the information everybody. Being able to extend the screen or mirror it sounds ideal and means that I can use the PC monitor I have here.

Sounds like the 17" one is about right then given the difference in price between it and the 20" model.