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So next time something goes wrong with your computer, if you didn't but extended warranty, they will charge you $1000 to look it up and then selling you a brand new computer instead.... Thanx to Tim Cock.
They have already done this. Opening the iMac and replacing the hard drive does void the warranty, seeing as you literally have to remove the display, possibly breaking that. You guys act like much has changed, but not really. It was technically possible to upgrade the hard drive before, but it was still an absolutely ridiculously hard process. It wasn’t a walk in the park like the old Macbooks
 
You guys act like repairability is a new problem with Apple. Their products have never been very repairable. Go back and open an iMac G3 from the 90s. Not exactly the easiest process to do upgrades in that thing.
 
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Actually, the difficulty of upgrading the storage on the iMac hasn’t changed one bit. It’s very simple, USB cord, external SSD. You plug one into the other, then you plug that into the iMac, and boom!
It’s like magic
True enough, though in fairness the thread is about the machines internal drive. I'm just pleased the user accessible RAM is still a feature as that would have been a real material change to most people.
 
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Mac rumors posters: Apple needs to do something with the macs. The iMac design hasn’t changed in over 10 years, it’s ugly and old. Tim clearly doesn’t care about us actual computer users.
Next year when Apple redesigns the iMac:
Mac Rumors posters: omg you can’t upgrade the ram anymore? You can’t upgrade the storage? Clearly this is just a cash grab, there was nothing wrong with the old design. Tim just cares about money and thinness
 
Years ago, opening up a chassis and installing a bigger hard disk felt like huge advantage. These days, not really. For the average consumer, if you have 512 GBs, it’s more than sufficient for what you will likely do. When I bought my MacBook Pro in 2015, I consciously went with the mid range model that had 256 GBs. I sure wish I could have chosen more since I do use VMs from time to time and just space running out on the device requires a little more work.
 
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True enough, though in fairness the thread is about the machines internal drive. I'm just pleased the user accessible RAM is still a feature as that would have been a real material change to most people.
it’s called a joke. Also, when it comes to ram, get ready for that to be gone as well. If this rumored iPad Pro shaped super thin iMac coming next year is actually true, it will not be upgradable at all.
 
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This might be just a taste of what's to come when Apple begins shipping Macs with their own silicon. I would guess that most if not all of their consumer-grade computers will have their components soldered to the motherboard.
 
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Mac rumors posters: Apple needs to do something with the macs. The iMac design hasn’t changed in over 10 years, it’s ugly and old. Tim clearly doesn’t care about us actual computer users.
Next year when Apple redesigns the iMac:
Mac Rumors posters: omg you can’t upgrade the ram anymore? You can’t upgrade the storage? Clearly this is just a cash grab, there was nothing wrong with the old design. Tim just cares about money and thinness
You know the obvious fallacy of your post is the fact that people can want a modernized desktop without soldered components, right?
 
The report doesn't say, but are the soldered on Flash-RAM and soldered header (when there) mutually incompatible? As in, does the header surface mounting pins still exist such that a competent "expert" could add the header, and if so, does any existing Flash-RAM prohibit/obstruct the mounting/fastening of an installable SSD module and/or access to the storage controller/CPU?

Guess these are going to be iFixit teardown answers.
 
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Except the article states "In the 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations, the expansion board and connector are not present." So your 2TB iMac will not have the expansion board and will not be upgradeable
You're right - I wasn't clear - I realize the 2TB is still on the board - just glad I didn't get the 512 and assumed I could upgrade it down the road to 1tb or 2tb. At least having gotten 2 TB now, will likely save any need to upgrade down the line.
 
At least with removable storage you elliminate the problem of losing all your data if something goes wrong with OSX because you was able to intall another storage device, install OSX onto that and then put the original storage device in a usb caddy and connect it to the mac to be able to still have access to your data.

With soldered on storage that is no longer possible and unless you regularly carry out daily backups, all your data is lost if OSX crashes due to system files going bad and your forced to do a complete reinstall which of course means you lose all your data.

All you need to do is look in the forums at mac owners complaining of OSX problems and people recommending that they reinstall OSX to fix the problem. Apple are now basically saying, if you do not back up your data on a regular basis and something was to go wrong, your basically screwed on data recovery but don't go complaining to us (Apple).
 
Security yes, but there are m.2 SSDs out there that outperform this new iMac by quite a bit. I don't really think you can say soldering on the storage is providing a speed benefit.

True but playing devil's advocate you can also expand the storage via Thunderbolt 3 which is around the same performance as internal. For a dekstop that doesnt move around I dont see the argument why not.

There's nothing that says you cant buy the base storage and word exclusively off external SSDs. As others point out that sometimes is better for data loss prevention having it decoupled from the OS.

A laptop, ok, one could debate upgradability there to not carry around another drive. It's still a weaker argument when you're carrying around a case of cables and a docks though personally; and for the types that need that much storage likely are already carrying a bunch of "stuff" anyway.

Im certainly not praising Apple here, but I dont see the huge deal either, especially on a desktop
 
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Why are so many complaining about putting the SSD on the motherboard, as the speed and security improvements are quite worth it.

The T2 chip doesn't require that the chip be soldered on the board and having a removable chip does not slow down the SSD. The Mac Pro has a t2 controller and removable SSDs. There is no reason for this except to make it impossible for you to upgrade your storage. It's basically a screw you from Apple. That's why we're complaining.


True but playing devil's advocate you can also expand the storage via Thunderbolt 3 which is around the same performance as internal. For a dekstop that doesnt move around I dont see the argument why not.

There's nothing that says you cant buy the base storage and word exclusively off external SSDs. As others point out that sometimes is better for data loss prevention having it decoupled from the OS.

A laptop, ok, one could debate upgradability there to not carry around another drive. It's still a weaker argument when you're carrying around a case of cables and a docks though personally; and for the types that need that much storage likely are already carrying a bunch of "stuff" anyway.

Im certainly not praising Apple here, but I dont see the huge deal either, especially on a desktop

If you've been on catalina, external disks are treated differently in terms of permission and security than an internal disk unless you weaken the security settings.
 
Hardware encryption. Data theft is a real thing, even physical theft.
But you can encrypt a removable drive... so why not make it removable?
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But look how much thinner and lighter the new iMac has become thanks to this small change! /s
 
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Many people on here don’t realize (or ignore) that most computer users won’t upgrade anything on their computers ever even if they could.

My main computer is one I built. It has about 16 TB of storage but I’m far from a typical user. I also have a Dell laptop that was able to upgrade the SSD and RAM in. So I appreciate upgradable components. But again, I’m not a typical computer user. Many commenting here are not either.

Soldered SSDs isn’t necessarily the right way to go but few people really care either way. If people run out of space they will delete things, buy external storage, or buy a new computer. Or they might do nothing and keep complaining.
 
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Why are so many complaining about putting the SSD on the motherboard, as the speed and security improvements are quite worth it.
Eventually computers die. If you didn't have a really recent backup, it's nice to be able to pull the drive out and seat it in an enclosure. I mean it's just nice in general. Say you're selling a computer, you can take out your drive and put in a blank one. It's just generally nice.
 
At least with removable storage you elliminate the problem of losing all your data if something goes wrong with OSX because you was able to intall another storage device, install OSX onto that and then put the original storage device in a usb caddy and connect it to the mac to be able to still have access to your data.

If you lose all your data because of that then you didn't have proper backups.
 
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