Is it possible to connect a 2014 MacMini to a Thunderbolt 2 display?
Is it possible to connect a 2014 MacMini to a Thunderbolt 2 display?
Note that there are two old Apple displays that people often confuse with each other.
- The Apple Thunderbolt Display (model A1407) has a hydra cable with two heads: Thunderbolt (Mini DisplayPort connector) and MagSafe. It has FireWire 800 and Gigabit Ethernet hub ports.
- The LED Cinema Display (27-inch) (model A1316) has a hydra cable with three heads: Mini DisplayPort, USB-A, and MagSafe. It has no FireWire 800 or Gigabit Ethernet hub ports.
The Thunderbolt 2 ports on your Late 2014 Mac mini can act either as Thunderbolt ports or as Mini DisplayPorts – depending on what's plugged in. So you could plug either display's video cable directly into your Mac. (Someone with a newer Mac would need to choose an adapter that matched the type of signal required by the display.)
If you have a Thunderbolt Display and the hydra cable is bad, you could try bypassing it by running a cable from its Thunderbolt daisy-chaining port to your Mac mini. In that case, you would want a Thunderbolt 1/2 cable, not "just" a Mini DisplayPort cable.
If you have a LED Cinema Display, you will need to plug in the USB head of the hydra cable if you want to be able to use the USB 2 hub ports on the monitor – or, more importantly, to control the monitor's brightness.
