Mac Setup: Dual Display iMac 27″ and a Decked Out PC
This weeks featured Mac setup is the home desk of Matthew M., an IT Systems Administrator who has a great personal workstation. Let’s jump right to it and learn more about this setup, the hardware, and how it’s put to use:
What hardware is included in your Mac setup?
- iMac 27″
(late 2013 model) – 3.5GHz Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB 1600Mhz DDR RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4096MB GPU, 250 GB SSD (primary drive) 500GB HD (secondary drive) - 24″ BenQ 2420HD Display used as a second monitor, which has a nice matching silver bottom like the iMacs, it’s a great secondary display!
- Apple Wireless Keyboard
- Apple Magic Trackpad
- Windows PC with 40″ Philips Display and the following specs:
- Case: Corsair 780t Full tower
- CPU: Intel i5 4690k O/C @4.2GHz
- Mem: Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3
- HD1: Samsung EVO 850 500GB
- HD2: Seagate’s 1TB Constellation ES
- Graphics: MSI GTX 970 – SLI
- MB: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK
- Cooler: NZXT – Kracken X31 closed loop
- PSU: Antec 620Watt
- Display: Philips BDM4065UC 40″ 4K UHD LED Monitor
- Audio: Schiit Magni 2 Uber/Modi 2 DAC
- Speakers: Creative T50 wireless/bluetooth speakers
- Audioengine D1 Digital-to-Analog Converter
- Audioengine A5+ Powered Speakers
(late 2013 model) – 3.5GHz Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB 1600Mhz DDR RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4096MB GPU, 250 GB SSD (primary drive) 500GB HD (secondary drive)
used as a second monitor, which has a nice matching silver bottom like the iMacs, it’s a great secondary display!
Why did you go with this particular Mac setup? What do you use your Apple gear for?
I chose this model for video editing, photo editing, and design, also playing FLAC music through my AudioEngine D1 DAC and AudioEngine A5+ drivers.
I use my iMac for mostly study and music/photo editing.
What apps do you use most often?
The apps I mainly use are the Adobe suite, Evernote, VOX for playing FLAC. Writer Pro. Open Emu for my old school games between study.
My Synology apps work good on my iMac also globalSAN for iSCSI connectivity to my Synology DS211j
and Synology DS1513+
.
Do you have any tips or helpful information you want to share with OSXDaily readers?
For people that sit at computers all day like me, screen brightness is an issue. I use a program called flux so that I don’t get so blinded using my screen at night and during the day. Definitely recommended to all Mac users.
Editor note: Flux is an excellent app that we’ve written about before, it is effective, highly recommended, free, and cross-platform compatible!
–
Now it’s your turn! Do you have an interesting Mac setup you want to share? Go here to get started, it’s basically a matter of taking a few high quality pictures, answering some questions about hardware and usage, and sending it on in!
Or you can choose to browse through other featured Mac setups, there are plenty of great ones out there!
I have a similar setup but I upped my ram to 32GB and run Windows 8.1 in Virtualbox when I need to. Just couldn’t bear to put an ugly and noisy PC next to my beautiful Imac 27.
Sounds like your PC my be a good candidate for a Hackintosh.
After some work by a tech. My Mac does not look the same, can you get me to the correct people that can tell me what/why the change. It was so east to forward an email. Now no can do!!!
Call Tim Cook directly. He can fix it for you.
Great setup! But overclocking your cpu and gtx 970 sli with 620 watt psu.. I would get at least 750 or 850 watt..
Great workstation? He is way to close to these 27″ screens!
What is the name of the screensaver and do you have a link to download it?
Live Wallpaper By SquidMelon
https://itunes.apple.com/app/live-wallpaper/id531123879?mt=12
Hello, hehe…. what a surprise for the morning… Thanks OS X Daily! :)
Both PC and Mac are used for virtual environment labs (vmware workstation/fusion) for work, study and gaming :) Both work very well together if set up correctly. I’m lucky to have the benefits of both windows, OSX at home and work with enterprise level hardware and software at work.
PC Specs:
Case: Corsair 780t Full tower
CPU: Intel i5 4690k O/C @4.2GHz
Mem: Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3
HD1: Samsung EVO 850 500GB
HD2: Seagate’s 1TB Constellation ES
Graphics: MSI GTX 970 – SLI
MB: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK
Cooler: NZXT – Kracken X31 closed loop
PSU: Antec 620Watt
Display: Philips BDM4065UC 40inch 4K UHD LED Monitor
Audio: Schiit Magni 2 Uber/Modi 2 DAC
Speakers: Creative T50 wireless/bluetooth speakers
Cheers OSX Daily! Love to read new tips and tricks about the mac :)
Where did you get your desk? I have been looking for solutions for my PC and iMac setup and I like how yours is done.
I’d like to know more about the PC specs, since it is clearly part of this setup. Is it a gaming PC? Does it work well with the Mac? Mac for work, PC for play?