My 17” mbp just died I’m looking at iMac 3.4 ghz 8gb and a t fusion drive. But I’d like to know if I’d be able to upgrade it myself to 16gb and an SSD ?
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iMac 2017 upgradable
- Thread starter justabrake
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If yuo need the 27":
- Ram -> yes, easy from memory compartment in the back
- SSD -> yes but you need to open it (something that i wouldn't personally do). In my opinion It is better to just buy the largest ssd you can get and if you need more space put an external ssd (like samsung t3/t5). If you like the fusion drive just avoid the 1TB that has 32GB ssd (2TB and 3TB have 128GB SSD).
[doublepost=1504342893][/doublepost]Actually I’m looking at the iMac 21” June 2017 I see it at one store with upgradable options any advice on this the 27” is too big for my needs
You can't upgrade the memory on the 21" like you can the 27". With the 21", it is best to get the most RAM and SSD space you can afford during BTO, unless you are comfortable taking the iMac in to have the upgrades done by someone else.
Yes, this is what I suspected about the 21": hard to upgrade RAM at home.
But, anyone know why the 16MB upgrade is $180, but 32MB is $540?? Why would 32 be more than double 16?
The best option is getting the 27" with 8GB / SSD and then buying your RAM online.
Once you crack open the 21" your warranty is void.
Once you crack open the 21" your warranty is void.
You -can- upgrade the RAM easily. (on the 27" iMac)
You -cannot- upgrade the internal drives easily. You can break the iMac open to access the drives, but remember that if you do, and if you break something inside, Apple is almost certainly NOT going to honor the warranty. You will bear the cost of repairs yourself.
IMPORTANT QUESTION:
Why buy the 1tb fusion drive, IF you're not going to be satisfied with it?
Why not buy either a 256gb or 512gb SSD instead, and add external storage as required?
You -cannot- upgrade the internal drives easily. You can break the iMac open to access the drives, but remember that if you do, and if you break something inside, Apple is almost certainly NOT going to honor the warranty. You will bear the cost of repairs yourself.
IMPORTANT QUESTION:
Why buy the 1tb fusion drive, IF you're not going to be satisfied with it?
Why not buy either a 256gb or 512gb SSD instead, and add external storage as required?
This makes sense
I’m going to look into this it just seemed too big when comparing the 2 in BB I’ll take another look !
The 21" seems too small to me. We have two 27" 5K iMacs and I just sold the 21" model because it was too small. You will be much happier with the 5K model. RAM is relatively inexpensive at Amazon or Newegg. It is super easy to upgrade.
Also, the SSD upgrade makes a huge difference. Plus your 27" will have higher resale value when you decide to upgrade in a few years.
You know, I was going to defend Apple and point out that both configurations use two RAM sticks, single, and single 16GB RAM sticks are more than twice the price of 8GB sticks because they have higher-density chips (which has been true in the past when the higher-density chips were new)... but fortunately I checked the prices first and it ain't so - 16GB sticks from Crucial are less than twice the cost of their 8GB ones.
So, yeah, it's just Apple's mark-up policy. There's possibly an element of supply-chain logistics: 16GB is probably the most popular config, at least for the 21.5", so they make more of them. On the 27", where it really is just a case of popping the hatch and plugging in the appropriate sticks, Apple's prices really are shameless gouging: I'd expect BTO upgrades to be a bit more expensive than DIY upgrades, but when you can add 16GB of third-party RAM for less than Apple charges for an upgrade to 16GB then it beggars belief.
I'm just glad Apple didn't get round to removing the RAM hatch from the 2017 iMac 27" - I'm sure it will disappear in the future.
Considering the fact that the 27-inch iMac is the only Mac left with user-upgradeable RAM and that even the iMac Pro won't be user-upgradeable I'd say thats a safe assumption.
The RAM hatch may be gone as soon as the next revision.
What speaks slightly against this is that (i) Apple went back to socketed RAM for the 2017 21.5"" model and (ii) that the iMac Pro has an entirely different internal layout that the standard 27" iMac.
Good points and I hope you're right, actually. While I do hope to keep buying iMacs into the future, I am never going to be forced into paying the ridiculous prices Apple charges for RAM.
I hope Apple marketing understands that removing the ability to add RAM to the 27" iMac will reduce sales and profits. Even Mac Addicts, like me, would rather build a Hackintosh than pay massive markup on RAM.
Sadly, I suspect that the only reason that those sockets are there is because they save Apple money c.f. having to manufacture and stock logic boards in 8, 16 and now 32GB flavours (multiplied by the number of CPU/GPU variants) and/or technical difficulties in designing board layouts that can accommodate 8,16 or 32GB. I'm sure there's a fairly sensitive tipping point between the economies of soldered-in-RAM vs. the logistics of being able to configure the RAM during assembly. Certainly, Apple have made no effort to make the RAM officially user-upgradeable.
Likewise, the socketed CPU is only there because Intel don't do those particular processors in a solder package.
As for the iMac Pro, all that shows is that "make the RAM user-upgradeable" wasn't on Apple's to-do list. Again, although it looks like the RAM is going to be socketed, they're probably going to be offering it with at least 3 CPU/GPU options and 32/64/128GB RAM configurations, so soldered-in-RAM might not make economic sense.
Or, at least, removing the upgradeable RAM without cutting the cost of BTO upgrades and/or being more generous with the standard RAM (8GB standard might make sense in the entry 21.5" model, but 8GB standard in the top-of-the-range 5k iMac only makes sense if you're going to add a 3rd party upgrade).
It is true that we're no longer in the good old days where the amount of RAM you could get for a given price doubled every 18 months, and the amount of RAM demanded by OS and applications seems to have levelled off. I'd have happily ordered my iMac with 32GB and not worried about whether it could be upgraded if only Apple's prices had borne some relationship to reality.
The Apple pricing is actually the same for either option.
First of all, we are talking GB, not MB.
The 16 GB option provides an additional 8 GB above the stock 8 GB. Price for the extra 8 GB is 180/8 = $22.50 per GB
The 32 GB option provides an additional 24 GB above the stock 8 GB. Price for the extra 24 GB is 540/24 = $22.50 per GB
Apple memory is expensive, but their pricing is consistent.
D'oh! Yes, of course.
D'oh again! I should have thought of that. Thanks for clarifying.