Looking for a "Mac like" 4k 27" glossy display

[Nikki51]

Hello guys!

I just upgraded my Hackintosh to a recent build (i9 9900k, z390, GTX 970) and I'm looking at replacing my old 23" full hd display.

I would like something as close as possible to the original Mac experience, that is a glossy display.
Ideally I would love to have it 4k, but I could settle down for 2,5k if that's the only available option.
Also, size would need to be no less than 27" and no more than 32"
I don't plan on spending much more than 500$ on it, so that's another thing to consider.

So far I don't find anything on the 4K side, only the 5K LG, but it seems to be quite difficult to set up (and quite too expensive) considering I don't have a thunderbolt. Seems to me that the Z390-e gaming can't get thunderbolt even with additional card?

On the 2,5k side, I find the Apple thunderbolt, but is there a way to make it work with my build (that is, without thunderbolt)?
There's also the Apple 27" Cinema Display, but I have much trouble finding one. People sell used one for about 400$ which I think is kinda crazy.

TLDR:
Looking for a display:
-Glossy (as much as possible)
-4K
-27"

Thanks !

 

[e-troc]

I have an LG 32UD89-W that I am very happy with. Combined with my RX 570 HiDPI looks extremely close to the Retina experience. It is also a very minimal design that blends well with the Apple aesthetic. Not cheap, but if you hunt down deals it can be had for 500-600$.

 

[Going Bald]

If you can find a 27" iMac with miniDisplay Port you can connect and use it via Target Display Mode on your PC-Mac. Requires mDp to mDP or DP to mDP cable.
See https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-an-imac-as-a-display-mh30822/mac

You might also be interested in one of these (same specs as Cinema Display):

27" monitors with 2560 x 1440 resolution - The very best of 2023

multimonitorcomputer.com

 

[trs96]

Looking for a display:
-Glossy (as much as possible)
-4K
-27"

Here's a late 2013 iMac that fits most of your criteria:

Apple iMac 27” i5 Quad-Core 3.2GHz 8GB 1TB GT 755M 1GB Catalina Late 2013 | eBay

Up for sale is an iMac computer from Apple, model A1419. This computer is in great physical and working condition. Hard Drive Enclosure. eRecycler, LLC is a family owned and operated electronics recycling and data destruction service provider in Dallas Texas.

www.ebay.com

For that much money you could also find a very nice new 4K monitor. Nothing is as glossy as a glass front iMac though.

I've got a lower res 27" HP monitor I use with a hackintosh. It doesn't have any heavy anti-glare treatment/coating on it and it looks more like a Mac display than my other LG which is matte, with a heavy anti-glare treatment. I use the LG for reading text on sites like this. The HP is best for video editing and viewing video content online.

 

[bitguru]

If you can find a 27" iMac with miniDisplay Port you can connect and use it via Target Display Mode on your PC-Mac. Requires mDp to mDP or DP to mDP cable.
See https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-an-imac-as-a-display-mh30822/mac

Be careful, because retina iMacs don't support Target Display Mode. See this article https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...ort-target-display-mode-despite-thunderbolt-3 for a list of the iMac models that do support it.

As I understand it, the protocols just didn't exist (in late 2014) to allow an external cable to drive the retina display. I think I read that Apple even had trouble driving the 27" retina display internally, and had to design custom chips or something.

I'm hoping that now, with Thunderbolt and other protocols catching up to 5K deep-color monitors, that iMacs released in the future will support it again.

 

[Nikki51]

Thank you very much for the different answers.

Nice to know you can blend in the iMacs. That could be an extra usage ahah.

I must consider the LG option first, which have the benefits of 4K resolution.

I have an LG 32UD89-W that I am very happy with. Combined with my RX 570 HiDPI looks extremely close to the Retina experience. It is also a very minimal design that blends well with the Apple aesthetic. Not cheap, but if you hunt down deals it can be had for 500-600$.

As far as I can tell, the 27" equivalent is the 27UD88-W?
It seems those are discontinued, but there are newer models, namely the 27UL850.
I also see that the 27UL650 looks to be almost the same screen but almost twice cheaper.
I will look into that for sure.

I also saw conversation mentioning the Dell Ultrasharp screens to be "almost glossy" does anyone have an input on that?

Of course I could go to any retailer to find out myself, if only we weren't quarantined for a month ahah...

 

[Going Bald]

I have the 24" model of this series from Dell. Here is a link to the 27":
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0728K6YVB/?tag=tonymacx86com-20