MacBook Pro 2011: Dual Monitors?

Hey guys,

I'm going to be replacing my 2010 Mac mini with a 2011 MacBook Pro. Due to the single Thunderbolt port acting as a DisplayPort connection as well, is there anyway to do dual output to two monitors? None of the DisplayPort adapters I have seen seem to support this.

Right now I have DisplayPort > DVI and I'm using native HDMI for the other one (really could have used HDMI in the 2011 MacBook Pros, Apple!) on my 2010 Mac mini.

Just wanted to see if you guys had any ideas or saw where I was missing something before I proceed with my plan to consolidate to one monitor.

Thanks!

 

Which model MacBook Pro are you going for (13/15/17)? According to some very preliminary research (so take what I say with a big grain of salt), it seems like Thunderbolt allows for daisy chaining displays and that the 15/17 can support 2 additional displays on Thunderbolt, while the 13 can only support one additional display.

 

The specific details are right in my signature.

 

Can your laptop's gpu support it? Yes. However, I can not answer your question properly, because I am not sure if the output ports on the macbook pro are currently that compatiable (new technology ALWAYS comes with bugs).

Good luck with your new model, I'm shocked you picked up the 128GB SSD offered by Apple.

 

500GB 7200 RPM or $90 more for the 128GB SSD from Apple (EDU) - figured I would go for it. I have a 6TB NAS for storage.

 

I think he means that you'd likely get a far better SSD by buying it yourself and keeping the stock 7200 drive for use in an optibay or something.

 

I've owned two MBPs previously. The first one I decided I was going to upgrade my own RAM/HD. Everything went flawlessly, but the fit/finish post-install was not as good as new (it was a unibody) due to the screws not being put in perfect order or all being flush or something. It drove me nuts. Since then I decided to upgrade everything I can (within reason) from Apple because I don't want to deal with any imperfections like that.

Also, there's nothing confirmed yet regarding the SSDs in the MBPs. If they are the same as last year, then yes, I could have easily done better.

 

Er, I've never had a problem putting the Unibody back together flawlessly after upgrading the HDD/RAM. I know the SSD details haven't been released yet but I highly doubt they're any different than what already offer.

 

Nice! 10char