Stupid 'Puter Monitor Question

Factual Questions
1

My current home computer is an old crappy Mac that I inherited from my brother-in-law. I’m looking to upgrade to a brand new PC. The one thing that is not old and crappy about my current system is the fairly new 21" monitor. “Gosh,” I think, “it sure would be neat to buy a new computer, sans monitor, and keep using this 21” monitor. Not only will this save me money, but I’ll also get to use a fairly nice monitor! AND it’ll save me money!"

I never quite trust myself with hardware compatibility issues, so can anyone tell me: 1)Is this a good idea? 2)There’s no inherent incompatibility in moving a Mac monitor to a PC, is there? 3)Do I need to buy a new cable? 4)Do I need a specific video card? 5)I can’t use the video card from the Mac (and save even more $$), can I? 6)Do the answers to any of these other questions depend at all on the specific brand/style of my monitor? 7) And, as always, any other suggestions would be appreciated.

2

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by zut *
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1)Is this a good idea? Depends

2)There’s no inherent incompatibility in moving a Mac monitor to a PC, is there?

Possible. Depends on whether monitor is compatible with PC VGA interface (15 pin D shaped connector) output. Monitor manual should tell you this. You have a better chance of cross compatibility with 21 inchers than other monitors as they will often make units PC/MAC cross compatible in this higher price/size range.
3) Do I need to buy a new cable?

If monitor is VGA compatible you may either need a new cable or an adapter that converts the cable to be VGA or there might be an adapter on the cable for MAC use that needs to be removed to convert back to VGA.
4)Do I need a specific video card?

Won’t help. Don’t know of any PC VGA output cards that are dedicated MAC monitor compatible.
5)I can’t use the video card from the Mac (and save even more $$), can I?

No.
6)Do the answers to any of these other questions depend at all on the specific brand/style of my monitor?

Yes. Absolutely.

3

I realize I didn’t answer the question posed in the OP as to general (in-) compatibility. The assorted MAC and PC video interface standards are generally incompatible with each other. The monitor needs to accomodate both interfaces to allow you to use it with a PC.

You need to study the monitor manual to find this out. If you don’t have the manual the monitor manufacturers website or advertising docs should tell you this as it would be a significant selling point.

4

I did it once, cost me $6 for an adapter from buy.com

Search for MacToVGA or something like that.

5

Actually, that was a PC monitor to a Mac adapter.

But then you didn’t say what type of monitor you have or how many pins it has.

6

Replacing an old Mac with a new PC and calling it an “upgrade”? :rolleyes: OK, I assume you mean the reuse of the monitor. Yes, of course it is a good idea.

Apple monitors (and Macs) use a different connector (DB 15 instead of VGA, which is the PC video port standard) but adapters are available. My PowerBook, in fact, has a VGA connector and I would need an adapter if I wanted to hook up a conventional Apple monitor instead of a VGA monitor to it. You need a similar adapter. You can get one from MacWarehouse or similar Mac-oriented catalog companies if you have trouble locating them in PC-oriented catalogs.

No, just the adapter.

It does not need to be any different from what you’d use for a 21" monitor designed for a PC.

Get a video card sufficient to give you 6.7 million colors (32 bit color, aka “Millions of Colors”, aka “True Color”) at 1152 x 870 or higher, with adequate performance putting up the pixels.

Well, you said it was an “old crappy Mac”. Just how old? If it is so old that the card is a NuBus card, the answer is no, absolutely not. If your “old crappy Mac” uses PCI slots and the video card is a PCI video card, the answer is “maybe” and depends on whether or not your operating system recognizes it and/or you can locate drivers for it. I should explain further that your “old crappy Mac” could be a PCI-bus Mac and still have a proprietary video card from Apple (e.g., a processor-direct slot, or PDS, video card) in which case you can once again forget about using it in a PC. But if it is a PCI card, well, PCI cards are PCI cards and if you can get a driver for it (or Windows recognizes it via Plug-n-Pray), you should be able to use it.

Well, if it is a Sony Trinitron, your PC does not need an adapter and your Mac is using one instead. Aside from “adapter or no adapter necessary”, no, it makes no difference what brand the monitor is.

Well, you could rethink your taste in operating systems :stuck_out_tongue:

7

Ugh! talk about disinformation!

You didn’t mention how old the monitor was, and what brand it was, so I’ll do my best.

Using the monitor from your mac on a new PC should be no problem. There are exceptions, and I will list them in a moment.

For monitors, RAM, and Hard Drives, the type of computer doesn’t matter at ALL. For RAM and Hard Drives however, the motherboard need to be able to support them. But this is not a “PC vs Mac” thing, this is a “as technology progresses, all computer change over time” type thing.

But monitors have changed very little over the last 6 years, other than getting cheaper. If your monitor can do multiple resolutions (640x480, 768x1024, etc.) then you have a relatively recent monitor, and moving it to your PC will be no problem.

So if you have any 3rd party (non-apple) monitor made within the last 6 or so years, you should be in great shape. If fact, it’s prolly connected to you mac right now with a cheapy mac adaptor. Just take the adaptor off and you can use it with your PC.

Exceptions:
If you have a really old Apple monitor, and it doesn’t do multiple resolutions, then it probably has a proprietary connector on it. Sucks to be you.

You have a really new apple monitor that has the single cable connector (for power/video and USB?) then you have a proprietarty connector, and again, sucks to be you.

Now, video cards. If the video card in your Mac is a PCI one you might be able to use it in your PC. But it probably has 8megs of memory max on it, and if you say your computer is old it is probably closer to 4 megs of memory.

Your best bet is to go and get a new AGP video card for your PC. You can get a nice 16meg video card new for about $50 new, and probably less used.

One more thing: Don’t be afraid of buying used hardware, especially video cards or RAM or anything without moving parts. If it worked previously, it will most likely always work.

8

Er, a monitor using a Sony Trinitron picture tube does not indicate that it’s PC-compatible.

Basically, original Mac monitors use a 15-pin D-shaped connector with two rows of pins. PC monitors use a VGA connector, which is also a 15-pin D-shaped connector, but it has 3 rows of 5 pins. Many more recent mac video cards have both mac-style and VGA-style connectors on them, so lots of mac people just buy VGA-style monitors nowadays.

If it’s a mac-style monitor (two rows of pins on the connector), I’m pretty sure you’re hosed.

If it’s a VGA-style monitor (3 rows of pins), you have no problem.

9

Naaah, that’s what the adapter is for.

10

The only adapters I’ve seen are for plugging a VGA monitor into a mac-style video card, not vice versa. Are you saying you’ve seen ones for plugging mac monitors into VGA cards?

11

Yes indeed. in an earlier post in this thread, I pointed out that my PowerBook has a VGA port for plugging in external monitors, not a Mac-style video port. Therefore it ships with an adapter that lets me use Mac-intended monitors (the ones whose video cables end in the DB-15 connectors) in case I want to. I’m holding one in my hand; therefore they exist.

I also mentioned that it might be difficult to find them in a PC-oriented catalog or a generic computer equipment store, but that MacWarehouse would be likely to have them. MacWarehouse, incidentally, is at 800-255-6227 as well as being available at http://www.warehouse.com