How to run a Mac mini with 3 Monitors

When I was setting up my study I only had a small space, so being clever about how its configured was key to making it functional. As a programmer who works from home a lot I wanted 3 x 24inch monitors and I wanted a system that was easy to change from my work laptop back to the home Mac mini.

Can a Mac mini support 3 monitors without using Thunderbolt? Yes it can, and the answer is the Dell D3100 USB Hub. The 3, 24inch Full HD displays work great with both the 2012 Mac mini and my work laptop (Microsoft Surface Pro 4).

Dell D3100 USB Hub Compatibility: Windows 10 and Mac OS?

I took a chance with the D3100, as at the time the official Dell documentation for the hub listed Dell hardware only as compatible. As it turns out, it is compatible with both the Mac mini and the Microsoft Surface Pro 4, all it needs is a USB 3 port and away it goes.

I run Mac OS (Sierra) and Windows 10 via Bootcamp on the Mac mini and both work great with the dock. There’s been no problem with either operating system recognising the monitors and ports on the dock, and I’ve never had to manually install the drivers. Both operating systems recognised the Dell Dock and took care of the drivers for me when it was initially plugged in.

Dell D3100 Price?

The Dell Hub is an amazing bit of hardware for its price. At the time of writing this article it was $103.89 on Amazon plus shipping, click here to get the latest price.

UPDATE: I purchased the D3100 roughly 2 years ago and in that time Dell has released a newer version of the dock called the Dell D6000, click here to check it out on Amazon. At the time of writing this it’s $104.89 and the D3100 is no longer available.

Dell 3100 Specs

The Dell D3100 dock supports either of the following monitor configurations:

• 1 x 4K display with 2 x Full HD displays
• 3 x Full HD displays (this how I run my setup)

Ports

The dock includes the following ports:

• 3 x SuperSpeed USB 3.0
• 2 x USB 2.0
• 1 x Headphone jack (3.5mm)
• 1 x Audio input jack (3.5mm)
• 1 x Network Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45)
• 2 x HDMI
• 1 x DisplayPort (20 pin)
• 1 x SuperSpeed USB 3.0 – USB Type B
  • Note this one is used connect the dock to the computer or laptop

Dell D6000 Specs

As I mentioned above the D6000 is the latest universal dock from Dell. It’s only $30 more expensive, and if you can spare the extra change it’s a higher spec. The main difference is that it supports 5K.

The monitor configurations it supports is either on of the following:

• 1 x 5K Display
• 3 x 4K displays
• 3 x Full HD Monitors

Ports

• 3 x SuperSpeed USB 3.0
• 1 x SuperSpeed USB 3.0 with PowerShare
• 1 x USB Host
• 1 x Headphone jack (3.5mm)
  
• 1 x Network Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45)
• 1 x HDMI
• 2 x DisplayPorts
• 1 x SuperSpeed USB 3.0 – USB Type C
  • Note this one is used connect the dock to the computer or la

My Set up

The Mac is a 2012 Mac mini which I’ve swapped out the regular 500Gb harddrive with a 240GB Kingston SSD (and moved the original 500GB drive to drive bay 2).

I’ve got to say that this made such an improvement to performance! It only has 4GB of RAM, yet it boots either Mac OS (Sierra) or Windows 10 in 20-30 seconds. I was so impressed with the performance hit this one update gave that I’ve never gone back to upgrade the RAM.

Note: This has no bearing on running to Dell dock and 3 monitors but I thought I’d mentioned it as a side note.

The 3 displays are a mix of 

• 2 x AOC 24″ gaming monitor
• 1 x LG 24EA53 – I’m looking to update this one to match the AOC monitors once I have the extra cash. 

The keyboard is a Microsoft Sculpt wireless keyboard and mouse. I’d highly recommend it. I will add that the keyboard does take some getting used to, but once your muscle memory kicks in, it’s such a great, efficient keyboard. I’m no expert typist, but it has definitely improved my words per minute.

Conclusion

The Dell D3100 USB dock makes running 3 monitors on a Mac mini easy and reliable, and a bonus is you get more USB ports which are easily accessible – no more fiddling around on the back of the Mac mini for that spare USB port. I very rarely get an issue with it, and if I do, all that’s needed is to power it off and back on. I need to do this maybe once every 3-4 weeks.

When I need to run the Microsoft Surface Pro 4, all I need to do is unplug the Dock’s USB cable from the Mac mini and plug it into the Surface. Making it super easy to swap the keyboard and displays over with just one cable.

As you can probably tell by the Mac mini machine specs, I’m no gamer. So I cannot comment on how the 3 monitor setup runs when gaming. It’s the general home machine which we browse the Internet, check mail and watch YouTube. It has no problem running a Full HD YouTube clip in full-screen whilst browsing on the other 2 monitors.

Overall I’m very happy with it, it works well with Mac OS and Windows 10 via bootcamp (or Windows 10 on the Microsoft Surface Pro 4). I highly recommend it if you are looking for a 3 monitor setup for the Mac mini – click here to check it out on Amazon.