Tech Goes Boom

VESA Mounting a Cinema Display

Apple's new Cinema display line allows for a variety of mounting solutions based on a standard VESA mount adapter you can buy for $29 from their store. I've got a desk with a monitor shelf that's just a little high, and wanted the flexibility of movement offered by the “lamp” iMacs. I thought I'd give VESA mounting a shot.

So I picked up the adapter, a Kensington Desk Mount Monitor Arm and a new 20 inch Cinema Display to replace my old “fat bezel” 20 inch display. This combo will take about $120 out of your pocket, but for some of us, it's well worth it. Short synopsis? Pretty freaking cool.

Update 3/23/05: Increased the thumbnail and image sizes so things are easier to see. Sorry for their initial smallness.

Update 3/24/05: Make sure to click on that “See all buying options” button on the Amazon page if you're interesting in getting one of these arms. It will save you about $80

Pics and blow by blow after the jump

I chose the Kensington arm frankly because it was cheap. There's a lot of arms out there to meet a variety of solutions and most of them cost a lot of moolah. Turns out the Kensington is a viable performer. It has a wide range of motion available including 180 degree swing of the whole arm, a 9“ or so extension and left/right/up/down tilting of the display.

It mounts via 2 rather long beefy hand turnable screws attached to a clamp that you secure to the desk first. The rest of the arm is then screwed into the clamp with some phillips screws. My only real gripe with this setup is that the clamp screws are very long, and can be a pain on a multi-level desk like mine. They are good however for people mounting the arm on very thick surfaces who need the extra length. All of the joints are extremely stiff out of the box but are fine once they are moved around for a little bit. You should be able to mount either the 20” or the 23“ Cinema displays with this arm, but the 30” is probably too heavy.

Next up we're going to have to remove the standard stand from the Cinema display and attach the VESA mount adapter. Apple provides a nice hex tool for the job and removing the stand is pretty easy. Make sure when you're removing the stand that you're taking the proper precautions to protect the LCD. I laid mine face down on a soft towel for the removal.

Mounting the VESA mount adapter is also pretty easy. Once the original stand is off, there remains what looks like a block of metal with screw holes in the sides standing out from the back of the display. You attach 2 little bumper pieces of plastic to the adapter, center it and screw it in. Unfortunately the adapter obscures the oh-so-hip Apple logo. This makes us sad.

Because we've already got the arm mounted to the desk, we have the bring the monitor to it. This can be a little awkward. Here I'm using a pillow to gain the needed height to secure the screen to the arm. It's also protecting the screen from the desk surface. You could also have a friend hold the monitor while you secure it to the arm, but I did this late at night, so a pillow it was.

Now we have the monitor mounted up and we just need to swing things into place. The left and right tilting offer a little more flexibility than the “lamp” iMacs in that you have a left/right turning ability as well as the ability to rotate the screen like a steering wheel. I wasn't able to mount the arm in the center of my desk due to its construction, but I'm still able to use it because of the left/right turning.

Now my display floats above my desk freeing up a good bit of space for the ton of crap that inevitably accumulates on a day to day basis. I've also got it lower and closer, the two key points of this exercise. Now I can also easily get the screen up and out of the way if I need the space for something else temporarily.

Over-all the procedure is pretty painless and offers a lot of mobility and adaptability to your workspace. For crowded desks or complex setups, this is a great solution.

Ratings:

Kensington Desk Mount Monitor Arm: **** out of 5

Excellent product for a great price. I'd like to see a little more flexibility in the mounting clamp and better quality plastics for routing cables. Stiffness out of the box can be disconcerting and encourage users to loosen joints when they shouldn't. It isn't the prettiest thing on the market, but very few VESA arms are attractive. The arm is available in black as well which some may prefer.

Apple 20“ Cinema Display: ***** out of 5

This is an impressive refresh of Apple's 20” cinema display. Whites are noticeably brighter and contrast is higher. The new, smaller bezel is attractive and takes up much less space. Obviously kudos go to Apple for allowing a VESA mount. Check out our previous review of this monitor for further info.