So I have a brand new Mini "mid 2011" it says, AMD Radeon 6630M 256 MB, and it is running a new 27 inch Apple Thunderbolt monitor, and I have a year-old second 27 inch Apple monitor that I would like to run also. Since the "older" monitor is not Thunderbolt, I can't daisy chain them.

What cable do I use? I looked on amazon.com for MINI DISPLAY PORT FEMALE TO HDMI MALE ADAPTOR CABLE and don't seem to be able to find it.

This one for HDMI

This one for DVI


This one for VGA.

thanks! Ordered several of them.

Thanks for the link. I looked for half an hour, just couldn't find the right one.

Your second monitor is an LED Cinema Display with Mini Displayport?

If so then you need a HDMI-male to Mini Displayport-female adapter as you indicated in the OP. I've never seen such a beast.

You might be able to chain some adapters to make the change, for example, chaining a HDMI-male to Displayport-male adapter with a Displayport-female coupler with a Displayport-female to Mini Displayport female adapter.

There are two problems with chaining like that: 1. There's a significant drop in voltage between each adapter so the signal quality will degrade and it may not provide enough of a signal to drive your monitor at the end of the chain and 2. Some adapters only work in one direction so you have to be careful to get the correct adapter.

...

Those cables that Mr. Downtown linked to are all Mini DVI. They won't work on your Mac. They date back to the old G4 PowerBooks and haven't appeared on a Mac for about 4 years.

(Weird. Went to save an edit and it added a second post.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2012 06:31AM by Chakravartin.

...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2012 06:31AM by Chakravartin.

Well, bummer then!

the Mini came with a cable - male HDMI to female (some old monitor thing).

I didn't research things enough. The mini is great, but so ODD to not be able to run a 1.5 year old Apple monitor in addition to the Thunderbolt Apple monitor.

Quote
Chakravartin
Those cables that Mr. Downtown linked to are all Mini DVI. They won't work on your Mac.

My Mini (described as a 2010) has a port that those cables fit into. Are you saying they still won't work?

Quote
Mr Downtown

Quote
Chakravartin
Those cables that Mr. Downtown linked to are all Mini DVI. They won't work on your Mac.

My Mini (described as a 2010) has a port that those cables fit into. Are you saying they still won't work?

The 2010 Mini, released in June 2010, has Mini Displayport and HDMI.

The adapters that you linked to are Mini-DVI adapters. They will not fit a 2010 Mac Mini.

I forgot that the Minis continued to ship with those obsolete ports after they were dropped from the other lines. Apple lagged a bit in the 2008-2009 Mac Mini updates so the 2009 models do have Mini-DVI ports. If you have a Mini-DVI port in your Mini then you have a 2009 model. Not 2010.*

*Note that the late-2009 Mac Mini was sold through June of 2010.

The 2010 model is easily distinguished from earlier models because it is very slim and has a round cap on the bottom that unscrews for the user to add RAM.



The Mid-2011 model is the one at issue in the OP. That Mini has Thunderbolt/Mini Displayport and HDMI ports. It does not have a Mini-DVI port.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2012 08:51PM by Chakravartin.

The Mini came with a HDMI to DVI adaptor.
The HDMI is male and the DVI is female.

Is there an adaptor that goes from DVI (M) to Mini Displayport (F)?

I found this:
[www.amazon.com]

...But then I realized you've got another problem: The HDMI port supports up to 1920-by-1200 images. The LED display has a native resolution of 2560 by 1440. Even if it worked, the result would be blurry and ugly.

There's another possibility for getting it working: Connect another Thunderbolt device between the Thunderbolt display and the LED Cinema display as described here:
[www.anandtech.com]

...OR just give up and sell the LED display.

I am giving up for now. And developing work-arounds.

Maybe after this deadline is done, at the beginning of the year, I will buy a vacuum cleaner - I mean a Mac tower.