iMac Pro Teardown Highlights Modular RAM, CPU and SSD Along With Redesigned Internals

[NT1440]

I presume Apple want to sell as many as they can to as many different businesses as they can. No ? And due shortly != available now if you need a machine. And also we are simply talking about designing in a hatch to allow access to the RAM and SSD. We aren't talking about a moon-launch here.

You are talking about a complete redesign (or rather, design from the ground up around a hatch) of a machine that is clearly not aimed at the market you seem to think it is. This screams, from it's very construction, that it's main purchasers will be IT leasing companies

 

[Marekul]

I would never buy a computer that's this expensive while also being difficult to upgrade. But I also recognize that my opinion is in the minority, and plenty of people will be completely fine with the tradeoffs necessary to have this form factor. I wish more people around here realized that their point of view isn't the only one.

I don't think your opinion is in the minority. And I also think there would be fare less complaining if apple gave us a choice. But apples business model seems to rely heavily on planned obsolescence, so a really "modular" computer - a tower like the MacPro - doesn't fit anywhere into their product portfolio.

The only reason they have not released a modular MacPro yet is because they have not figured out how to make it obsolet in 3-4 years. It's not like they can down clock it cause battery, or solder the components on to the motherboard and superglue the lid. It's also not pre 2008 where they had some kind of walled garden with PowerPC chip architecture. But I am sure they will figure it out, proprietary RAM, CPU and GPU connectors would be my guess...

 

[NT1440]

Buy an Enterprise AppleCare program and they come to you.

They have that now?

 

[Timur]

So you are doing on-site support at ESPN. One of your pros is asking for more RAM, because he really needs it to get the work done. Your boss is telling you "Nope, we are not going to lease another new iMac for that, because the fiscal year just began".

Will you then carry that big expensive thing to the next authorized store to get the RAM upgraded?

Anyway, the whole ongoing mind-set of "carry your broken computer hardware to our stores" is turning me off. I once had to wait four weeks for a replacement Macbook Pro to arive from China, while the local Apple online store delivered them within 2 days. Then the replacement shipment got lost and I had to wait another four weeks. Apple's "business" infrastructure is just silly, especially compared to real business PC brands.

 

[Elijen]

I find it disturbing that there is a chip (that might be A10) we know basically nothing about. The "Hey Siri" theory is completely dumb as you don't need a separate chip for that (especially on devices without batteries).

 

[Timur]

Buy an Enterprise AppleCare program and they come to you.

Last time I asked they didn't offer anything like that in Germany for small/medium businesses (no idea about BIG corps). On the other hand you can just buy a cheap 500 EUR Fujitsu office PC and get 2 years onsite support (48h/5d response) without paying a single extra coin.

 

[kgelner]

I just bought an iMac pro, would have liked an updated Mac Pro but I think it will be at least another year before we see that... however I don't consider this model to lack upgradability. I bought the base level RAM as it will be good enough for now, and I can take it in later in the year as the price of RAM falls a bit to have them install RAM I buy elsewhere (could do it myself but I'd like to keep it all in Apple's hands to keep up AppleCare). I'm hooking an external 4k monitor to it for a bit of extra space.

I did buy the upgraded GPU but people are forgetting you can buy the eGPU box to add another GPU over Thunderbolt3.

So far I really like it (just arrived today), I'm still setting up for real work but the machine feels great and has no discernible fan noise (we'll see if that changes under real load). The speakers are also really good though a bit heavy on the bass for my tastes.

 

[deanthedev]

And what do you do for a living? I have over a dozen friends who are designers, photographers, editors, 3D animators, special FX artists, color graders with Davinci Resolve...and all of them have switched to Windows PCs because of this issue.

The last friend to do so was last year. He was a Mac user with two Macs. He used Premiere Pro to edit indie movies. He had a guy build him a custom PC tower and he now uses the Adobe Creative Cloud suite on that. It cost him $2K. Unlike my $6K 2013 Mac Pro, his PC does Thunderbolt 3 because he just popped in a card. And, no, I don't want to buy a $5K iMac Pro (minimum) just so I can have Thunderbolt 3, even though Thunderbolt 3 RAID drives are 3X faster than my Thunderbolt 2 RAID.

The idea that content creators are throwing out $6K Macs every 2 years and happy to do so is just simply idiotic. It's the dumbest thing I've read on these forums.

How much money do they make? As in what’s their yearly salary?

Our company routinely buys top-of-the-line computers (and other equipment) every 2 years. The cost of computers is a tiny fraction of what the employees who use them make. And their increased productivity from using the latest machines easily makes up for the cost of those machines. Fiscally speaking, for us it would be stupid to keep a machine for many years and try to extend its life through upgrades.

 

[Tech198]

Apple likes the "require" method (so no one but the experienced will really Do it themselves and what's more (they can put it back together with no parts missing)) ..

It's getting to be a regular IKEA job

 

[NT1440]

So you are doing on-site support at ESPN. One of your pros is asking for more RAM, because he really needs it to get the work done. Your boss is telling you "Nope, we are not going to lease another new iMac for that, because the fiscal year just began".

Will you then carry that big expensive thing to the next authorized store to get the RAM upgraded?

Anyway, the whole ongoing mind-set of "carry your broken computer hardware to our stores" is turning me off. I once had to wait four weeks for a replacement Macbook Pro to arive from China, while the local Apple online store delivered them within 2 days. Then the replacement shipment got lost and I had to wait another four weeks. Apple's "business" infrastructure is just silly, especially compared to real business PC brands.

....No one has every asked me for a RAM upgrade because most media pros don't know a computer from a toaster, they just know how to use their media editing programs. Not once was I asked for an upgrade in a spec on a computer in my two years there. Frankly I've never met a professional who knew anything about computers or components unless they happened to be a tech enthusiast. Most of these people couldn't even tell you how to force quit out of a program. They're focused on their job, making content, they don't need to know anything about computers to do it.

Also, if you're even a decent sized company I really worry for you if you're doing your heavy lifting computing on desktop machines in the first place....

Btw I don't work there anymore, great people but Disney is just a ****ing **** company and so is everything it owns/touches.

 

[superduperultra]

This iMac is as modular as my intestines.

 

[Tech198]

Any components custom made are more like "tailored to guarantee the best performance", so i would also think while upgrade can be done, u may not get the same performance afterwards either if you decide to tackle this alone.

Maybe i'm wrong, or maybe I'm right.

 

[ericwn]

Well clearly you must be swimming in money. The most useful aspect of buying a computer with upgradability is that you don't have to shell out all the (overcharged) cash at once in case you might need such-and-such capability in two years time. With an upgradeable machine you could buy a low spec now, and only buy the upgrades (for less cash than apple charge) in years to come if and when you need it!

I think this product is not even trying for that market. I know quite a bunch of professionals, both in self-employment and in corporations who use iMacs for their business. They like the simplicity of the computer. Get it with higher specs than you actually need, then run it for a few years until it’s written of, then get the next one.

This approach might not be for everybody, but is quite common.

 

[Timur]

....No one has every asked me for a RAM upgrade because most media pros don't know a computer from a toaster, they just know how to use their media editing programs. Not once was I asked for an upgrade in a spec on a computer in my two years there.

Of course they don't ask for upgrades. They just want something faster, preferably asking you to make it happen both fiscally and technically. And of course everyone needs their own Photoshop licence to fill blank areas of line drawings with color nowadays.

Anyway, I mainly got unnerved about the "at an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider" bit. It's absurd, especially if you ever wasted more than 2 hours of time to have any iMac serviced that way (for whatever reason).

 

[VictorTango777]

Standard 27-inch iMacs have a small hatch in the back that allows easy access to the RAM for post-purchase upgrades, but that's missing in the iMac Pro. Apple has said that iMac Pro owners will need to get RAM replaced at an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.

Having a hatch doesn't matter. The original iMac G5 did not have a hatch. You laid the computer face down, turn 3 screws under the front bezel, and the whole back cover comes off, allowing access to RAM, HD and all other parts.

 

[NT1440]

Of course they don't ask for upgrades. They just want something faster, preferably asking you to make it happen both fiscally and technically. And of course everyone needs their own Photoshop licence to fill blank areas of line drawings with color nowadays.

Anyway, I mainly got hung up on the "at an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider" bit. It's absurd, especially if you ever wasted more than 2 hours of time to have any iMac serviced that way (for whatever reason).

I've never had any problem servicing an iMac, it's basically like working with legos and a few torx screws after you get the glass off (which you can do if you're mechanically sound enough to use a pizza cutter). I mean this, any idiot capable of not being scared looking at computer internals can work on an iMac. I think people fear computers too much to do simple component swaps in the first place, which is sad really.

Your veiled insult of hundreds of video editors at the company is remarkably rude. Are you insinuating that because they're using iMacs they're not doing real video editing?

Every 30 for 30 documentary you've ever seen (I don't care about sports so I just chose one of their more popular shows that has great editing) was made on iMacs or Mac Pros. Never had anyone complain to me about speed other than one guy that stupidly jammed paper towels in the top of the Mac Pro because he didn't like the way the warm air blew on his leg (he had it under his desk for some reason).

 

[Tech198]

I've never had any problem servicing an iMac, it's basically like working with legos and a few torx screws after you get the glass off (which you can do if you're mechanically sound enough to use a pizza cutter). I mean this, any idiot capable of not being scared looking at computer internals can work on an iMac. I think people fear computers too much to do simple component swaps in the first place, which is sad really.

Your veiled insult of hundreds of video editors at the company is remarkably rude. Are you insinuating that because they're using iMacs they're not doing real video editing?

Every 30 for 30 documentary you've ever seen (I don't care about sports so I just chose one of their more popular shows that has great editing) was made on iMacs or Mac Pros. Never had anyone complain to me about speed other than one guy that stupidly jammed paper towels in the top of the Mac Pro because he didn't like the way the warm air blew on his leg (he had it under his desk for some reason).

It's one ting following a video on website, its another tackling it yourself.... I've tried this on my previous Macbooks,, and have stuff them up, to the point i had no fan,,,, all ports except one usb port was still active, but i could use it for few weeks till i replaced it. It was out of warranty anyway.

 

[ipedro]

This looks like an amazing machine, and if I could justify the cost, I would buy one. The one thing that would bother me though is the fact that from the front it looks almost exactly like the iMac I bought in 2009. And 2014. Shame it doesn't have an exciting new design to go with the innovative internals.

This has proven to be a timeless design.

Another example: if Apple were to release a new cheese grater Mac Pro, professionals would rush to buy them in droves. The razor edges and the beautiful understated glass and metal design hasn't gone out of fashion one bit.

I love my 2012 iMac. It proudly sit on a desk as one of the nicest design showpieces in my home. I've got my eye on a Mac Pro as soon as they add the inevitable Face ID. I'm glad they didn't change the design other than the colour.

 

[VictorTango777]

Leave it to the professionals.. But if you wanna wanna get ya dirty. don't blame me if u can't turn it on afterwards

Professional level service design is not the same as weekend hobby service design.

 

[NT1440]

It's one ting following a video on website, its another tackling it yourself.... I've tried this on my previous Macbooks,, and have stuff them up, to the point i had no fan,,,, all ports except one usb port was still active, but i could use it for few weeks till i replaced it. It was out of warranty anyway.

That sounds like you forgot to plug several cables back in.

I find iMacs easier to work on than MacBooks personally, once you have the screen off they're like 4 or 5 parts total.

 

[ppdix]

Looks great on paper but after comparing the 3Ghz 10-Core iMac Pro with 64GB RAM side-by-side with my Late 2014 iMac 4-Core 4Ghz iMac 5K with 32GB RAM. The results were exactly the same using Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC and sometimes slower on the new iMac. I also use Final Cut Pro sometimes which will probably take advantage of the additional cores but for my everyday Photography workflow, it just doesn't make any difference.
The price of the iMac Pro was over $7500. I would have gotten around $1600 for my old iMac on eBay so the $6000 difference in price for No performance gain at all is just ridiculous.
Geekbench 4 shows a 150-point improvement in Single core performance between the iMacs and an expected double on Multi-core but not worth the $6K at all.
I returned it the next day. I guess I will wait for the new Mac Pro, which was also a disappointment when it came out in 2013 so I returned it and opted for my existing iMac 5K, which was actually faster for half the price and included a 5K gorgeous display...
Very sad and mad with Apple for not giving us a real Pro machine yet...

 

[toke lahti]

I supported 5,000+ Pros at ESPN, guess how many ever upgraded their machines? None. The iMac Pro is a business leasing computer that some independents will purchase.

You want upgrades, that's why they're remaking the Mac Pro. There's NOTHING to complain about here.

Btw, did those 5000+ pros use any Apple’s pro software? Or even macos?

 

[ericwn]

And its stunts like that is driving people back to windows!

It might as well be that stunts like this gain them more visibility, more users and more sales.

 

[ppdix]

that was a great commercial and an awesome machine.
!

 

[NT1440]

Btw, did those 5000+ pros use any Apple’s pro software? Or even macos?

There weren't 5,000 Macs there but the majority of the use was Adobe's various creative programs....purely because ESPN shelled out for a volume site license.

That said, there was tons of use of Final Cut as well to shape segments quickly before they did their finishing work in Adobe whatever-it's-called.

And yes, every one of the Macs was on MacOS. There were one or two senior level guys that HAD bootcamp installations...but god help you if you had to explain to them how to hold down the option key BEFORE the chime (why that's so ****ing hard for people to get is beyond me)....