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1309 Review
39 Karma

Review on πŸ”Œ StarTech.com 6in DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort Cable - 4K UHD Video - Male to Female Adapter - DP to mDP 1.2 Extension Cable by Luis Tuazon

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Required to connect an Apple Cinema Display to a Dell laptop

We just upgraded a working Apple MacBook to a Dell laptop and I wanted a 24 inch Apple Cinema Connect the display to this new Dell laptop. This was a lot harder than I expected since the Apple Cinema display uses a mini display port and the Dell laptop only had one VGA port and three USB ports. So I tried to connect it to a VGA connector, but it's very, very difficult because VGA is an analog signal and the mini display port is a digital signal. It's not enough to just buy a VGA connector for the mini display port, you actually need to convert the signal to it, which requires very expensive signal processing equipment. So I read the manual and the two USB ports are actually USB 3.0 which can be used to connect an external monitor. So I found this StarTech USB 3.0 to DisplayPort adapter, and then bought a StarTech DisplayPort to MiniDisplayPort adapter (DP2MDPMF6IN) that allowed me to connect the Apple Cinema Display's mini-Displayport connector. After following the instructions and installing the included software, everything works great! I didn't think it would work, Apple and PC hardware don't usually work well together. The picture on the 24-inch Apple Cinema Display looks fantastic! No lag or other issues, the only problem is that I can't figure out how to lower the brightness. After plugging in the USB from the Apple Cinema Display, I was able to get the built-in iSight camera and speakers working along with an Apple keyboard plugged into the display's USB hub on the back. To be honest I was ready to buy a new Dell LED monitor but I'm very glad I was able to get the old Apple display to work with a Dell laptop, it's just a much nicer made item and the color and clarity of the display is better than I could jump in for!

Pros
  • Designed and manufactured to DisplayPort version 1.2 standards
Cons
  • weak