Memory in New $1099 iMac is Soldered and Not Upgradable

[MattInOz]

Apple being biggest muscle in the industry should educate people to prolong their macs life by adding more ram after few new versions of OS. Instead they milk money from people throwing their macs away every other year. And then Apple tells us how green they are, with all recycling and stuff... Ridiculous!

If Apple built cars, you'd have to pay premium to change tires...

Throw away?!?!

Seriously everyone I know who upgrades yearly is the head of a food chain. Either at work or in family that let's them max out their Mac knowing it'll be in use for up to a decade at least. Why would you throw it out when resale is a short email or facebook away.

Only problem is it makes you the family "IT guy"

 

[pragmatous]

Really? I'm ignorant? The one with an educated background and works for a living. I'm a systems engineer who works with servers all day long and designs infrastructures. But I'm the ignorant one? You better know who you're dealing with before you make stupid accusations like that. Don't ever call me names again or I will report you.

Just so you know a bad hard drive (non-ssd) can cause "slowness" in your system. Any spindle drive will cause slowness in your system because it's the slowest part in your machine.

it has nothing to do with Apple or RAM or whatever excuse you want to invent in your head.

As an expert in the field I recommend you replace the hard drive and her "problems" will go away.

Now shoo before I school you some more.

This is just plain ignorant. Sure my mom isn't going to upgrade her own RAM, but she sure as heck complains to me when her system isn't working right or slowing down. Probably going to throw an SSD in her Macbook soon.

She also goes to the Apple Store randomly and asks what can be done to upgrade her computers when she starts getting the beach ball again.

With Apple's massive retail presence, it's just plain silly to think that non tech savvy customers don't need upgradeability. '8 gigs is enough' doesn't sound stupid yet.

 

[Poisonivy326]

This is a good example of "reality distortion field." When I was a wee little thing, maybe 3 or 4, my flashlight stopped working. I walked up to my dad, who taught me how to change the battery. And voila! Flashlight worked again.

I remember when the first ipods came out. Those big white things. Remember them? People were like "it doesn't have a replaceable battery." There was some shock and consternation, but then acceptance.

Today, an iDevice where the battery is replaceable is going the way of the dodo bird. I guess the people who hang onto their old-fashioned macbook pros still do it, but everyone else? Nope.

Even in the early days of cell phones, the idea of buying a phone which didn't have a removable battery was absurd. For the iDevices, it's become the norm.

Soldered ram, glued batteries for a laptop, all of this would have been inconceivable only a few years ago. Now it's the norm. So ... thanks a lot, Apple. Very green of you guys.

 

[pragmatous]

By having it soldered onto the mainboard it reduces cost dramaticlly. That's how they saved you the 200 bucks plus the reduced speed.

Also the only way to have such a small form factor is to solder the parts onto the main board.

You want thin, you got it, now you complain about soldered parts.

Ya know I just can't deal with it anymore. I'm done for today. Some of you just have no clue...

I don't get this, all of you say this product is for the people that don't care or want to upgrade. That still doesn't mean it should be soldered? What's the big deal of having it upgradeable, those who want to upgrade it can, and those who don't, have the option to if they want to in the future.

If I'm buying a product, even if I don't plan to upgrade it when I buy it, I want that option to be there in the future. It's logic and treating your customers right. Especially if I'm spending 1K+ on it. I don't care if it's the lowest end computer ever, or the most high tech top of the line, can't get any better because the technology doesn't exist. It should be upgradeable.

Also, for those of you bringing up phones. Phones and computers are completely different, you're not going to be doing intensive things on your phone like you can on your computer. Why even bring that up?



If Apple built cars, once the tires went, you'd have to buy a whole new car.

 

[Cole Slaw]

Apple being biggest muscle in the industry should educate people to prolong their macs life by adding more ram after few new versions of OS. Instead they milk money from people throwing their macs away every other year. And then Apple tells us how green they are, with all recycling and stuff... Ridiculous!

If Apple built cars, you'd have to pay premium to change tires...

There's a lot of truth there.

 

[TheWatchfulOne]

If people buying this model are unlikely to upgrade the ram then you don't need to solder it on.

That doesn't make sense. If people buying this model are not likely to swamp out the RAM then why would you not solder the RAM? You're going to solder something there. Either the RAM itself or the slot the RAM plugs into.

Better to solder the RAM and eliminate the step of somebody down the line having to add the RAM after you solder the slot.

Especially in a computer that has to apparently be half-way disassembled before you can even access the RAM.

 

[a0me]

That's a false assumption. There are lots of us who would like to be able to upgrade our Apple computers. Specially considering the kinda absurd premium prices Apple asks for if we want to upgrade them prior the purchase.

Edit: And what advantages did this move bring to the consumer, to deserve your 100% support?

I'm assuming the people buying this model wouldn't be upgrading the memory and those complaining about it would never buy this model in the first place.

 

[pragmatous]

Actually Apple is very green.

http://www.mactrast.com/2014/04/new...ves-apple-high-ranking-green-internet-report/

This is a good example of "reality distortion field." When I was a wee little thing, maybe 3 or 4, my flashlight stopped working. I walked up to my dad, who taught me how to change the battery. And voila! Flashlight worked again.

I remember when the first ipods came out. Those big white things. Remember them? People were like "it doesn't have a replaceable battery." There was some shock and consternation, but then acceptance.

Today, an iDevice where the battery is replaceable is going the way of the dodo bird. I guess the people who hang onto their old-fashioned macbook pros still do it, but everyone else? Nope.

Even in the early days of cell phones, the idea of buying a phone which didn't have a removable battery was absurd. For the iDevices, it's become the norm.

Soldered ram, glued batteries for a laptop, all of this would have been inconceivable only a few years ago. Now it's the norm. So ... thanks a lot, Apple. Very green of you guys.

 

[koban4max]

This is why i went with mac pro...

 

[rjc74]

i don't get this, all of you say this product is for the people that don't care or want to upgrade. That still doesn't mean it should be soldered? What's the big deal of having it upgradeable, those who want to upgrade it can, and those who don't, have the option to if they want to in the future.

If i'm buying a product, even if i don't plan to upgrade it when i buy it, i want that option to be there in the future. It's logic and treating your customers right. Especially if i'm spending 1k+ on it. I don't care if it's the lowest end computer ever, or the most high tech top of the line, can't get any better because the technology doesn't exist. It should be upgradeable.

Also, for those of you bringing up phones. Phones and computers are completely different, you're not going to be doing intensive things on your phone like you can on your computer. Why even bring that up?



If apple built cars, once the tires went, you'd have to buy a whole new car.

hooray go the shareholders!

 

[FrozenDarkness]

what's amazing to me is that people don't realize the 21.5" imac is already a pain in the ass to upgrade RAM. This will literally not make a difference. Most people don't want to take the whole computer apart on the "upgradeable" version

 

[koban4max]

What the hell is with all the anger toward this model?

It's obviously aimed at a beginner market or businesses/schools buying in bulk, not most users.

But man, the complaints on here are ridiculous.

i think you missed the point...it's probably going to be like for ALL mac products.

 

[teejaysyke]

By having it soldered onto the mainboard it reduces cost dramaticlly. That's how they saved you the 200 bucks plus the reduced speed.

Also the only way to have such a small form factor is to solder the parts onto the main board.

You want thin, you got it, now you complain about soldered parts.

Ya know I just can't deal with it anymore. I'm done for today. Some of you just have no clue...

I don't want it to be thinner though? Thinner doesn't mean better, I could care less how thick my desktop computer is, I'm not carrying it around with me. Nor do I care if the iPhones get thinner, they're already thin enough.

 

[koban4max]

what's amazing to me is that people don't realize the 21.5" imac is already a pain in the ass to upgrade RAM. This will literally not make a difference. Most people don't want to take the whole computer apart on the "upgradeable" version

still they should give that option to do it...rather than be "told" not to...

 

[ksuyen]

Consumers don't want upgradeable parts. They don't care. This is a sensible move from Apple and I support it 100%.

While I support this 100% too I don't think it's correct to say that all consumers don't want upgradeable parts. Fortunately the mid and high end iMacs allow this. As for low end imacs with fixed RAM, what do you expect. It's the same with Macbook Air, and with 8MB it's more than plenty. You won't use this for gaming considering it only has Intel HD Graphics 5000. The target market for this is light users such as students or grandparents, there are 4 other models for more advance uses, and with those you can upgrade the RAM as many as you want.

 

[Parasprite]

I still don't know how he gets away with it on every single post.

I have no idea but it's almost a treat to watch. They are like the Steven Colbert of MacRumors but without actual humour.

 

[DonutHands]

why, just why? did they save 65 cents on the PCB for the ram chips and the plastic ram socket?

they changed an assembly line for this... i just dont get it.

 

[Parasprite]

It sounds like a funny thing, but I too had experiences with stolen PC parts in K-12. Keeping the network locked down was a challenge too.

It was worse with Windows 95/98 when login was optional.

Ahh...good times

 

[DotCom2]

GAH! What was that bean counter thinking ?

 

[Parasprite]

why, just why? did they save 65 cents on the PCB for the ram chips and the plastic ram socket?

they changed an assembly line for this... i just dont get it.

They probably save on being able to use machines to plop the RAM in and less failure rates (AppleCare-related costs) related to inexperienced users hacking their way in and/or not grounding themselves properly*, but I'm only guessing here.

*I have no idea how common this is anymore, but I know it used to be a big issue when opening cases. Also poorly seated RAM, but this is more of a temporary problem.

 

[Tubamajuba]

This thread is unbelievable.

If one machine out of Apple's entire line of Macs not being built the way you want it to causes you to throw a fit, maybe it's time to look into buying a Windows machine.

 

[brentsg]

I disagree. I bought a Mac Pro in 2008 and a MBP in 2009, the Mac Pro was still quite fast and responsive in 2014 but the MBP has been retired in 2012 because it became a bore to work with. Both were the best macs Apple was selling when I bought them, the one with the inferior CPU became obsolete much faster and not because of memory. They both had 8 GB's of memory.

Well sure, if you're going back 5-6 years. There have been huge advances in mobile CPUs since 2009. We've moved to a much more efficient architecture. Intel's current roadmap seems to be focused on power efficiency and GPU, with iterative performance on traditional CPU.

Buying a PC with an expectation of snappy performance in 5-6 years is asking too much, especially with an entry level model. There are points in time where it works out this way, but it can't be an expectation. My 2010 MP is still awesome, but that was also $1000 CPU in Q1 2010, and early in a new architecture's debut.

 

[AFDoc]

All of you guys asking "why would apple do this"..... dumb question but easy answer.... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

What a slap in the face. This new iMac really just reinforces the perception that Apple's hardware is overpriced and underperforming. /smh

Couldn't have said it better!

 

[tom vilsack]

This thread is unbelievable.

If one machine out of Apple's entire line of Macs not being built the way you want it to causes you to throw a fit, maybe it's time to look into buying a Windows machine.

No ill stick to my $199 asus chromebox where I can simply remove 4 screws and easily upgrade the ram or msata.

 

[Krimsonmyst]

I don't understand how anyone can reasonably defend this decision.

Sure, 99% of the people who buy this iMac may not care and will never upgrade the ram - but for the 1% that do care, why is it a bad thing to make it optional?

There is literally no downside in having the OPTION there for someone to do this if they want to.

It's unbelievable that people are so deep into their kool-aid that they're defending such a ridiculous decision.