iMac Pro Base Model Teardown Reveals 2x SSD RAID Configuration and Four 8GB DIMM Modules

[monoton]

The RAM might not be (easily) user-upgradable... but it is possible. It can also be upgraded by Apple or an authorized service center.

One thing to note... it's quad-channel memory and all the slots are filled. The base-model 32GB iMac Pro has 4x8GB sticks. So you can't just pop in some extra RAM like you could with the regular iMac.

In order to upgrade to 64GB... you'd have to replace all the sticks with 4x16GB.

And that leads to the next part... price.

It costs $800 to go from 32GB to 64GB when you configure the iMac Pro. I'm sure you noticed that.

BUT... Crucial sells a 64GB kit (4x16GB) of ECC RAM for $931.99...

You could probably sell the old 32GB to recover some money. But you still have to attempt to install it yourself (and void your warranty) or you could have an authorized service center install it (and pay them to do it)

In other words... it'll probably cost the same either way.

My advice: Find the extra $800 at the time of purchase... otherwise you'll end up paying roughly the same price (and hassle) later for aftermarket RAM.

The big point is... it doesn't appear that there is a 100% markup on RAM anymore... especially when you consider all the hoops you have to jump through.

I hear you though... it would be nice to just open a door and swap out the RAM.

But even with a door... the price advantage of aftermarket RAM is gone.

Right...

It seems apple charges the same to upgrade it (from standard hardware to upgraded) when configuring the system as it would cost from the original source for just the hardware you want.

They charge about $2500 to upgrade to the 18 core, which intel sells for about the same price to end customers. However when apple does this it is just an upgrade from the 8-core already there....

Wonder what the price of the cheapest 128GB ECC DDR4 memory is now.. (4x32GB).

 

[shaunymac]

Or like in the earlier models, magnets.

As someone who just had to get back into my iMac because of a failed SSD, I couldn't agree more.

I have used the suction cups in the past but this time I didn't have one around, I helped someone with a broken window regulator. I still haven't gotten that suction cup back. Hmm. Anyways, I was able to get into my iMac with just my fingers. To me, that's hard to beat.

 

[justperry]

As someone who just had to get back into my iMac because of a failed SSD, I couldn't agree more.

I have used the suction cups in the past but this time I didn't have one around, I helped someone with a broken window regulator. I still haven't gotten that suction cup back. Hmm. Anyways, I was able to get into my iMac with just my fingers. To me, that's hard to beat.

Yup, such a simple elegant solution magnets were, shame Apple decided to make it more difficult soon thereafter and glues about everything nowadays.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

RAID 0 with two drives doubles your chances of a complete volume failure. I would never want all my data (or even worse, a "Pro's" data) sitting on a RAID 0 volume. It seems it wouldn't take more than a little "glitch" to render your drives useless.

I've had RAID 0 for almost 6 years now on my 2012 Mac Mini i7 Quad Server. Risky? No. It's called keeping a BACKUP on an external regular drive (personally I use CCC so it's bootable). What's risky is not having any backup regardless of whether you have two RAID 0 drives or one regular drive.... Oh and no drive failures on the RAID volumes in 6 years now either.

It's almost absurd how many people are pooing their use in this iMac Pro. I agree 100% it's what they should have (and did) use. MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE is PARAMOUNT in any truly professional rig. Backups are just as easy to do for RAID 0 as a regular single drive. I bought an 8TB drive last year for $130. Backing up the internal 2TB doesn't cost very much AT ALL. Backing up this iMac Pro's 1TB equivalent drive would cost under $50 with a single drive or less than $20 as a partition on a larger drive.

 

[qubex]

I've had RAID 0 for almost 6 years now on my 2012 Mac Mini i7 Quad Server. Risky? No. It's called keeping a BACKUP on an external regular drive (personally I use CCC so it's bootable). What's risky is not having any backup regardless of whether you have two RAID 0 drives or one regular drive.... Oh and no drive failures on the RAID volumes in 6 years now

Hello. I have a similar configuration to yours (MacMini6,2 quad server with dual SSDs in RAID) and I’ve been facing dreadful problems since I swapped out my drives for bigger (2TB each) units and tried to reload High Sierra. Do you know if High Sierra will now support booting of a RAID array formatted to be a single APFS volume?

 

[mikeboss]

now there's proof (iFixit iMac Pro Teardown).
the SSDs are Apple's own design.

 

[CWallace]

One less item they need to purchase from Sansung. I expect these to become standard across the Mac lineup.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Hello. I have a similar configuration to yours (MacMini6,2 quad server with dual SSDs in RAID) and I’ve been facing dreadful problems since I swapped out my drives for bigger (2TB each) units and tried to reload High Sierra. Do you know if High Sierra will now support booting of a RAID array formatted to be a single APFS volume?

I'm still using El Capitain so I'm not sure about High Sierra. I've actually been thinking of moving to a single SSD 1TB plus a 4TB rotating drive for the other bay so I can use Windows (for a few games not available for the Mac) as you can't dual-boot a RAID drive. A single SSD would be faster than the RAID 0 rotating config, especially for random access and they make 4TB 2.5" drives now so I could have 5TB internal total and the extra boot speed would make the computer almost like new again (it's still plenty fast when compared to a 2-core i5 today for most tasks CPU wise, although the GPU is terribly out of date). I was hoping Apple would release a new (usable) Mac Mini or something comparable to the Mini server, but it's looking more and more like I'll need an iMac. Sadly, they are very expensive with a 1TB SSD and a decent GPU. I got the Quad i7 Mac Mini Server for $1100 brand new in 2012 with 2TB internal RAID 0 and 8GB of ram at the time. There's nothing comparable in Apple's lineup now.

 

[gctwnl]

With the dual SSD in a RAID config, will it do FileVault Encryption? I recall that having a RAID and doing FileVault is mutually exclusive.

 

[CWallace]

With the dual SSD in a RAID config, will it do FileVault Encryption? I recall that having a RAID and doing FileVault is mutually exclusive.

Yes the iMac Pro SSD supports FileVault and it's handled by the T2 chip so there is no impact on CPU performance.

 

[killermike2178]

What a joke! Why not just solder the special SSDs on the board if they don't want us using two Samsung 960 Pros?

"Hey, look, it's modularity...on an extremely short leash! Will you buy our overpriced product that's inferior to the competition yet?"

Reminds me of that Family Guy joke:

*Peter turns on TV*
Announcer: "We now return to Showgirls..."
Peter: *Excited* "Yay!"
Announcer: "...on TBS."
Peter: *Disappointed* "Awww."

Guess I'm doing a Threadripper build instead...