iFixit Tears Down New Retina iMac, Internal Layout Largely the Same as Prior Generation

[snebes]

How did they fit all this stuff in 5mm-thick iMac?

Image

You do realize that it is only 5mm at the edges, right? Its the same trick measurements they used last generation. There is a reason you never see a profile shot of the iMac, and it's not because they want to show the screen in every picture....

But I was stunned to see this one in the keynote.

 

[jonblatho]

Hark! This article clearly means that innovation is dead at Apple and that Tim Cook has doomed Apple to the pits of hell.

 

[cottington]

It uses the same SanDisk PCIe SSD as the late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro, with Marvell Controller

OK... so PCIe SSD with typical HDD makes a Fusion drive, the model iFixit appears to have tore down. But if you BTO with all SSD, are you getting the PCIe bus still, or is it just SATA then?

I don't see PCIe mentioned anywhere on the info sections for the iMac Retina 5k http://www.apple.com/imac-with-retina/

Can anyone say which with 100% certainty?

 

[jasonefmonk]

I want to know if I can order this iMac (or the non-retina) with the 1TB PCIe SSD, and add an HDD down the line. I know I would have to remove/replace adhesive, but what connectors will be missing if I don't buy it with a Fusion drive installed?

 

[Sonmi451]

DANGER! DANGER!

As much as I wanted to pull the trigger and order one of these iMacs yesterday, this is the main reason I didn’t get one right away. I am a first-gen MBPr owner who was – and still is – being burned by LG’s burn-in prone display.

Image

App Store and some other windows were visible for only a couple of mins before I started the installer. You think the Vista-like frosted-glass effect in Yosemite is cool? I’ve been living it for the past ~2.25 years.

Best of luck to new iMac owners.

I have a gen 1 retina macbook pro with LG display. Never had burn in. Stop Fudding. Also if true, you should have gotten it replaced.

 

[the8thark]

Why does ifixit not show the apple on the back on the iMac in their photo teardown?

 

[twoodcc]

glad to hear that the RAM can be user replaced

 

[firsmith]

Would anybody know how much of the 3 GB Fusion drive would be SSD, and how much spinner?

both the 1TB and the 3TB have an additional 128 SSD

 

[SeaFox]

How did they fit all this stuff in 5mm-thick iMac?

It gets thicker in the middle closer to the base. Only the outside edge is 5mm thick.

So the answer is... they didn't.

 

[prospervic]

DANGER! DANGER!

As much as I wanted to pull the trigger and order one of these iMacs yesterday, this is the main reason I didn’t get one right away. I am a first-gen MBPr owner who was – and still is – being burned by LG’s burn-in prone display.

Image

App Store and some other windows were visible for only a couple of mins before I started the installer. You think the Vista-like frosted-glass effect in Yosemite is cool? I’ve been living it for the past ~2.25 years.

Best of luck to new iMac owners.

And you didn't take it back to Apple? I had the same problem on my refurb 2012 rMBP after about 5 months. Took it to the Genius Bar and they replaced the display, at $0 cost to me.

 

[Moto G]

Only the edge of the chin is thin.

How do people miss this? Amazing... It's like how ALL tech sites used to report the iMac as "Brushed alumnium" when in fact it is ANODISED... copy/paste journalism involves ZERO analytical, critical thinking.

 

[marioguarneros]

Oh no, LG displays again. Prepare for the onslaught of uneven yellowing and image persistence issues!

DANGER! DANGER!

As much as I wanted to pull the trigger and order one of these iMacs yesterday, this is the main reason I didn’t get one right away. I am a first-gen MBPr owner who was – and still is – being burned by LG’s burn-in prone display.

Image

App Store and some other windows were visible for only a couple of mins before I started the installer. You think the Vista-like frosted-glass effect in Yosemite is cool? I’ve been living it for the past ~2.25 years.

Best of luck to new iMac owners.

I have the same issue and since the UAE official Apple ones were (maybe still are) shipped from Ireland I never really managed to send it back as I needed it for work.

If these new Retina iMacs don't have the image retention issue I will get one and just cut my loses and try to sell my old rMBP as I was looking into getting a desktop for the heavy lifting and a MB Air for when I travel anyway.

Surely there's nothing I can do about the faulty display on my original rMPB now being out of warranty right? Has anyone had a similar situation? Any advice?

P.S. If you have any HELPFUL advice I will truly appreciate if you could share it without being sarcastic, throwing insults or assuming best case scenarios and trying to put me or anyone down for not doing things the way you would have done it initially.

MANY THANKS! And here's to hoping that these new displays are the bomb for everyone and have no issues, enjoy your new Macs and please report back!

 

[redheeler]

DANGER! DANGER!

As much as I wanted to pull the trigger and order one of these iMacs yesterday, this is the main reason I didn’t get one right away. I am a first-gen MBPr owner who was – and still is – being burned by LG’s burn-in prone display.

Image

App Store and some other windows were visible for only a couple of mins before I started the installer. You think the Vista-like frosted-glass effect in Yosemite is cool? I’ve been living it for the past ~2.25 years.

Best of luck to new iMac owners.

Tolerated this on my 2012 rMBP for 5 months. Finally had enough, took it to the Apple store and they replaced it free of charge.

 

[reevans]

iFixIt is a total waste of space.

In this day and age of integration, iFixIt stands for a by gone era of rack mounded devices, mother and daughter cards, ZIF mounted chips, repairable transistors in those chips and above all, repairable pixels in displays. If they had their Luddite way, we would never have had powerful portable devices and only mainframes would exist.

 

[hspace]

In this day and age of integration, iFixIt stands for a by gone era of rack mounded devices, mother and daughter cards, ZIF mounted chips, repairable transistors in those chips and above all, repairable pixels in displays. If they had their Luddite way, we would never have had powerful portable devices and only mainframes would exist.

Yeah, us luddites actually wanting to be able to fix and repair things. And maybe even... upgrade? (ducks for incoming flames) How dare we!!!

 

[inscrewtable]

How did they fit all this stuff in 5mm-thick iMac?

By making it an inch thick.

 

[mike...]

Oh no, LG displays again. Prepare for the onslaught of uneven yellowing and image persistence issues!

Yep this is a disappointment. My January 2013 iMac at work has an LG panel and it's plagued by image retention.

 

[sharbeen]

DANGER! DANGER!

As much as I wanted to pull the trigger and order one of these iMacs yesterday, this is the main reason I didn’t get one right away. I am a first-gen MBPr owner who was – and still is – being burned by LG’s burn-in prone display.

Image

App Store and some other windows were visible for only a couple of mins before I started the installer. You think the Vista-like frosted-glass effect in Yosemite is cool? I’ve been living it for the past ~2.25 years.

Best of luck to new iMac owners.

Curious. You didn bother replacing the rmbp from Apple store? My friend did and got it fixed. It's the first gen. And he got the LG itself but fixed. While I got the Samsung display. I live in UAE.

 

[HalfNelson]

How did they fit all this stuff in 5mm-thick iMac?

Image

I wonder how possible it would be to build an enclosure for the internals and repurpose the screen as a standalone display. Thinking more for the non-5K iMac, as I know nothing is going to push the pixels of the 5k. I am just one of those dismayed Mac Mini owners who needs the performance of a high-end 27" iMac without the screen. Still can't believe they axed the quad-core Mini.

 

[Imory]

DANGER! DANGER!

As much as I wanted to pull the trigger and order one of these iMacs yesterday, this is the main reason I didn’t get one right away. I am a first-gen MBPr owner who was – and still is – being burned by LG’s burn-in prone display.

Image

App Store and some other windows were visible for only a couple of mins before I started the installer. You think the Vista-like frosted-glass effect in Yosemite is cool? I’ve been living it for the past ~2.25 years.

Best of luck to new iMac owners.

While I feel your pain there's really no logic to dismiss LG as a supplier of displays. They are really in the same bracket as Samsung in terms of quality and even though that batch is admittedly terrible, LG deliver superb screens as well. It's interesting though how their reputation is close to ruined thanks to that batch of displays.

Why haven't you replaced it, free of charge? Warranty covers that.

No, I'm not a spokesperson for LG, if anyone would ask that.

----------

Yep this is a disappointment. My January 2013 iMac at work has an LG panel and it's plagued by image retention.

You should get a replacement for that. Doesn't warranty cover that in the US?

 

[Pressure]

Yeah, us luddites actually wanting to be able to fix and repair things. And maybe even... upgrade? (ducks for incoming flames) How dare we!!!

I believe what he is getting at, is that you aren't actually able to repair anything in consumer hardware these days. You can replace an item, say, like the processor, fully assembled screen and RAM but you cannot in any way solder on new resistors or anything else on the logic board if it burns out.

It's a fallacy that any of these devices are repairable and as such, the "repairability"-score is a joke.

You can still repair hi-if equipment and the like but not computers, phones or other electronic devices with your solder iron and steady hands.

 

[ashdelacroix]

I have a gen 1 retina macbook pro with LG display. Never had burn in. Stop Fudding. Also if true, you should have gotten it replaced.

Same. It's as beautiful now as it was when I bought it. Still use it everyday at work.

----------

glad to hear that the RAM can be user replaced

Amen to that.

----------

You do realize that it is only 5mm at the edges, right? Its the same trick measurements they used last generation.

The Brits thinks that Americans don't understand irony, which is not true, but comments like these sometimes make me think there might be something in it. The OP obviously mentioned 5mm for a laugh and wasn't being serious.

 

[341328]

Replacable SSD / Hard drive

I wouldn't ever buy a computer that doesn't have an easier accessible and replaceable ssd/hard drive.

 

[theluggage]

I wouldn't ever buy a computer that doesn't have an easier accessible and replaceable ssd/hard drive.

That's one of the few things putting me off. As long as a computer contains spinning rust I'd like to be able to get at it.

If the 1TB SSD option wasn't so stratospherically expensive I'd be happier - to me, anything more than that is better in external, swappable drives now that we can have fast TB or USB3 connections (if you're not doing a lot of video, then 1TB is plenty - if you are doing a lot of video then 1TB is a joke and you need external storage).

 

[mainstreetmark]

The thing about apples displays is that they aren't used by most professionals because they aren't even close to being the best in the market in terms of colour accuracy, especially for the price. And since 5k cannot runnover TB2 there is little to no chance of seeing a 5k apple Cinema Display within the next 12-18 months.

There isn't a market for them and they're currently technically impossible without dual TB ports being used or using a sub-4k signal that is upscaled in the display, which again would be a deal breaker for high end pro use.

Hmm... I guess I got into the "Thunderbolt can do everything" hype a little too much. My monitor is some hacky monitor with a converter to drive the display, which results in static half the time. I've been wishing for a proper monitor for some time. But, sure, this display required that "special chip" they made, so you are probably right - no 5k monitors in the near future.