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Insides of 2012 iMac (pic)

D

DennisD7

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 17, 2012
62
2
London, UK
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I captured this from the keynote posted on Apple.com - sorry if this is a double post, I haven't checked all new posts here :)

Thoughts:
1. Only one fan is visible, I hope this doesn't affect noise levels too much.
2. Only one exhaust, under the foot on the back. It also seems all air is pulled in through the grille on the underside - and those holes are less than 5 mm wide.

I'm not that worried though, I'm sure they know what they are doing. That metal backside also helps a lot with heat dissipation, which in turn helps keeping the fan(s) at low speeds. I tried maxing the CPU on my work iMac for a few hours and while temperatures went up significantly, the fans stayed surprisingly calm.

/D7
 
Last edited:
How awesome would it be if the screen was held in by magnets and only had like 2 or 3 cables going to it. Once it pops off, everything is easily accessible!
 
Johnf1285 said:
How awesome would it be if the screen was held in by magnets and only had like 2 or 3 cables going to it. Once it pops off, everything is easily accessible!
Click to expand...

sorry to burst your bubble but the image on top is of the iMac if its facing AWAY from you. I'm gonna assume that you'll have to tear it down a bit to access the memory slots.

hopefully ifixit will come up with a workaround
 
That appears to be the 27" due to the 4 RAM slots.

That also appears to have a standard 3.5" desktop disk drive, not the laptop drives some rumors are touting.
 
Johnf1285 said:
How awesome would it be if the screen was held in by magnets and only had like 2 or 3 cables going to it. Once it pops off, everything is easily accessible!
Click to expand...

The reversed Apple logo was a dead give-away that this is viewed from the back of the machine. I hope they make the back removable, like the first generation iMac G5.

The picture also suggests that the RAM on the iMac can be installed by the user, just not as easily as popping a back door on the 27".

And for those who cry about no SSD standard, the 21" and 27" has two mounting points so you can drop SSDs onto both. The simpler layout gives me hope that it's more user-doable than before.
 
Cooling system looks very simple.

1) Cool air flows in from the bottom vents, which from the pictures look like they will let a lot of air in.

2) Heat pipes bring heat from the GPU, CPU, and Hard drive to one central heatsink that spans across the back vent.

3) One fan pulls ambient air from the case and forces it across that heatsink and immediately out of the computer.

It looks like the same general design that they're using in the new Retina Macbook Pros, hopefully it gets the job done.
 
It looks like the back comes off, and the flat chassis is behind the display. This would eliminate the heat related dark patches on the LCD that the previous iMacs were prone to. To get at the guts you would still need to remove the display first, then detach the rear shell. The flat cable going to the top is obviously the display channel.
 
Somewhat related question...

Is the back panel/bowl still aluminum?

A friend said it was plastic, which I said can't be true because they've always used the al backs as heatsinks.

Is it still metal?
 
zoffdino said:
The reversed Apple logo was a dead give-away that this is viewed from the back of the machine. I hope they make the back removable, like the first generation iMac G5.

The picture also suggests that the RAM on the iMac can be installed by the user, just not as easily as popping a back door on the 27".

And for those who cry about no SSD standard, the 21" and 27" has two mounting points so you can drop SSDs onto both. The simpler layout gives me hope that it's more user-doable than before.
Click to expand...

There is a small cover that comes off for memory access on the back between the vent holes and line cord socket.

From the Apple site:
Configure and buy your iMac at the Apple Online Store and it will arrive with the memory already installed. Or add more memory to the 27-inch model yourself by popping open the easy-to-access memory panel on the back.
 
Stetrain said:
Cooling system looks very simple.

1) Cool air flows in from the bottom vents, which from the pictures look like they will let a lot of air in.

2) Heat pipes bring heat from the GPU, CPU, and Hard drive to one central heatsink that spans across the back vent.

3) One fan pulls ambient air from the case and forces it across that heatsink and immediately out of the computer.

It looks like the same general design that they're using in the new Retina Macbook Pros, hopefully it gets the job done.
Click to expand...

I don't see the heat pipe from the HD. With the PSU under the HD, will there be sufficient cooling to keep it alive in the long-term?
 
flopticalcube said:
I don't see the heat pipe from the HD. With the PSU under the HD, will there be sufficient cooling to keep it alive in the long-term?
Click to expand...

Yep, you're right. What I thought was a heat pipe is actually the Power/SATA cable for the HD.

----------
karpich1 said:
Somewhat related question...

Is the back panel/bowl still aluminum?

A friend said it was plastic, which I said can't be true because they've always used the al backs as heatsinks.

Is it still metal?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's still aluminum.

----------
drambuie said:
It looks like the back comes off, and the flat chassis is behind the display.
Click to expand...

Look at the pictures on Apple's site and from tech news sites I don't see any way for the back to come off. Like previous models the way in is most likely to remove the glass/display assembly from the front.
 
Cooling?

A few thoughts, conjectures, and questions on cooling....
 

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easy4lif said:
sorry to burst your bubble but the image on top is of the iMac if its facing AWAY from you. I'm gonna assume that you'll have to tear it down a bit to access the memory slots.

hopefully ifixit will come up with a workaround
Click to expand...

I understand the perspective of the image. I can discern that it's as if we are looking at the machine from the rear.

The fact of the matter is, the rear won't be opening on these things.

Think about it. Look at the unit. The only way IN is from removing the screen. Same story for all the aluminum iMac's - been inside of a 2007 and a 2010 before, I am pretty familiar with these machines.

Also, they went on for like 5 minutes about how the front aluminum portion is specially welded to the rear portion now. How the hell does it open from the rear then if the front "chin" is welded to the rest of the rear shell?

----------
Dadioh said:
A few thoughts, conjectures, and questions on cooling....
Click to expand...

The black heatsink and heat pipe on the left is the GPU. The heatsink in the center is the CPU.
 
Johnf1285 said:
How awesome would it be if the screen was held in by magnets and only had like 2 or 3 cables going to it. Once it pops off, everything is easily accessible!
Click to expand...

well thats essentially how the pre-2012 models were.

From what I gather, the front panel is just the top-case/keyboard of the unibody MacBook Pros. and the back is one piece.

you suction cup off the front panel from the rear stand and the parts sitting on the rear of the display housing/panel.

so ultimately if you have an issue or a bad LCD/Display they swap off all the components and put thoses on a new unibody display panel and pop it back on the rear stand housing.
 
Here's the labeled slide from the keynote (pulled from 720p version, I'm downloading the 1080p version now to try to get a better shot):

666Jq.png


The heatsink off to the left is the GPU. The CPU is buried right in the center under the heatsinks. I guess that's what the U shaped heatpipe is for.

As I look at this design I'm starting to think that everything is actually bolted to the display assembly. If that's the case then when you pull out the display via suction cups you'll actually be pulling out the whole computer, leaving just the aluminum shell. It definitely makes sense to put the logic board right up against the display, because that leaves the maximum amount of room behind it for all the heatsinks (which is what the bulge is for).
 
Stetrain said:
Here's the labeled slide from the keynote (pulled from 720p version, I'm downloading the 1080p version now to try to get a better shot):

666Jq.png


The heatsink off to the left is the GPU. The CPU is buried right in the center under the heatsinks. I guess that's what the U shaped heatpipe is for.

As I look at this design I'm starting to think that everything is actually bolted to the display assembly. If that's the case then when you pull out the display via suction cups you'll actually be pulling out the whole computer, leaving just the aluminum shell. It definitely makes sense to put the logic board right up against the display, because that leaves the maximum amount of room behind it for all the heatsinks (which is what the bulge is for).
Click to expand...

Aaaaahhhh. I get it. The logic board extends under the exhaust shroud. Shoulda seen that :eek:

So GPU is integrated onto the logic board rather than an installed card. No more graphics card swap if the original one dies. Whole logic board replacement required.
 
Dadioh said:
Aaaaahhhh. I get it. The logic board extends under the exhaust shroud. Shoulda seen that :eek:

So GPU is integrated onto the logic board rather than an installed card. No more graphics card swap if the original one dies. Whole logic board replacement required.
Click to expand...

Yep, looks like it.

Honestly the general construction here looks like the 15" Retina MBP on steroids, which makes a lot of sense.
 
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