Are the CPU's on the 2019 iMac's socketed?

[patearrings]

As per the title, quick question.

Do we know yet if the CPU's are socketed in the new 2019 imacs or are they soldered to the logic board?

I am wondering about the viability of being able to upgrade the CPU on them in 4 or 5 years?

thanks!

 

[BuCkDoG]

They are soldered onto the Logic Board just like previous iMacs is my guess and upgradeability on iMacs is definitely a PITA but it is doable.

 

[mikeboss]

we still don't know. there's still no teardown of the 2019 model to be found anywhere... in 2017 models the CPU was not soldiered to the main logic board.

 

[Steve121178]

As per the title, quick question.

Do we know yet if the CPU's are socketed in the new 2019 imacs or are they soldered to the logic board?

I am wondering about the viability of being able to upgrade the CPU on them in 4 or 5 years?

thanks!

The pins on any future CPU's will be different, so you wont be able to upgrade.

 

[patearrings]

The pins on any future CPU's will be different, so you wont be able to upgrade.

I'm talking about just switching from the i5 to the i9 at a later date.

 

[curmudgeonette]

Do we know yet if the CPU's are socketed in the new 2019 imacs or are they soldered to the logic board?

I assume they are socketed just like the 2017's. AFAIK, these desktop grade chips don't come in a solder mount package.

 

[cynics]

Socketed. LGA 1151 Gen 3 for Coffee Lake support which is the same dimensionally and pin out as the previous LGA 1151 on Kaby Lake iMacs just with additional pin enabled for power and such.

Its not a complete rip off from apple, the i5-8600 is $236 real world retail, Apple ask $500 for the 9900k which is $526 real world. So $200 dollars Apple Tax (i5 $236 - i9 $526 = $290, upgrade $500 - $290 = $210). In that respect the high end iMac i5 to i9 is a better deal since the upgrade is $400 from the i5 which is similar in price.

If you haven't before its a pain to upgrade. Pending design changes you'll need to remove the logic board. I would consider that the easy part though, reinstalling the heat sink is the part I always dread. The heat sync covers the GPU and CPU, the CPU is held in place by the heat sink and the GPU spring tension can be defined as "intense". Just make sure the CPU is and heat sink is secure then work on the GPU, its easy for the CPU to move and bend the pins of the LGA if you are working on the GPU first. Due to the logic board design its impossible to clamp it without speciality tools.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

I assume they are socketed just like the 2017's. AFAIK, these desktop grade chips don't come in a solder mount package.

Take a look at the 2017 iMac upgrades:

However, it would be nice if the 2019 iMac has a socketed (?) CPU.

As for me, I will buy the i2019 Mac in the middle with 1TB Fusion drive plus 8GB Apple RAM, and when the warranty is over I will replace it with a 1 or 2TB SSD. I will buy as much Crucial RAM for it that I can afford.

I am presently using bottom of the line early 2011 21"iMac for photo editing, and never had any problems with the hard drive. Then about a year ago I replaced the hard drive with a Crucial 1TB SSD, and it is working quite well so far using a standalone CS6 application and Roxio's Nik software package. While the bus speed is not going to change, saving a very large TIFF photo to the desktop takes about a second (or less), something that was not possible with the hard drive. Startup also takes but a very few seconds. I maxed-out the RAM slots, too.