There do have to be compromises but this one does not seem to have an obvious benefit to trade off against which is what makes it a problem. If it was for a good reason I think Apple would have marketed it as a feature and not used a daughterboard for the larger ones.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
New 27-Inch iMac's Storage Affixed to Logic Board, 4TB and 8TB Configurations Have Expansion Connector
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
There do have to be compromises but this one does not seem to have an obvious benefit to trade off against which is what makes it a problem. If it was for a good reason I think Apple would have marketed it as a feature and not used a daughterboard for the larger ones.
This might be the final straw for me.
After using macs for almost twenty years and having my family use macbooks etc. my next machine might end up being a windows pc. At least I can service it and add parts easily.
After using macs for almost twenty years and having my family use macbooks etc. my next machine might end up being a windows pc. At least I can service it and add parts easily.
I think threads like this are funny. I recognize that there remains a small, very small, tiny even, group of consumers that are still into building or modifying computers, but the future of computing is not going to be kind to this group.
And that is the reason that Apple does what they do with ram and storage, physical build, etc. Heck, every computer maker is moving this direction.
I remember back in the day, there were small computer stores in even city and town selling parts, not to mention the build chains that offered cases, drives, effectively every component to build your own computer. Maybe there still are these stores, but I’m guessing people are buying parts online instead because the market for this type of consumer continues to shrink.
I have to assume what we’ll see from Apple in the coming years will be their making computers using fewer off the shelf parts, which will make this tiny and shrinking group of consumers even more mad, while the tens of millions of people buy Apple computers, iPads, iPhones, etc. without thinking twice about whether they can add ram or upgrade the gpu (my guess is most people have barely a minimum understanding of what either is or does).
And that is the reason that Apple does what they do with ram and storage, physical build, etc. Heck, every computer maker is moving this direction.
I remember back in the day, there were small computer stores in even city and town selling parts, not to mention the build chains that offered cases, drives, effectively every component to build your own computer. Maybe there still are these stores, but I’m guessing people are buying parts online instead because the market for this type of consumer continues to shrink.
I have to assume what we’ll see from Apple in the coming years will be their making computers using fewer off the shelf parts, which will make this tiny and shrinking group of consumers even more mad, while the tens of millions of people buy Apple computers, iPads, iPhones, etc. without thinking twice about whether they can add ram or upgrade the gpu (my guess is most people have barely a minimum understanding of what either is or does).
It’s manufacturing and money benefits for Apple only. The Mac Pro is no less secure and has removable storage modules. The performance reason falls flat on its face as the iMac SSDs are SLOW compared to state of the art Samsung NVME SSDs. Apple is most likely using cheap TLC memory chips while charging you MLC prices.
Well, you can on this "swan song" iMac. Betting is strongly suggesting the Silicon iMac won't allow user upgrading of any kind, including RAM. Oh well.
I say go for it and find happiness. Whining as most do here certainly does no good.
Positive is you don't have to give up MacOS if that's what you're used to.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh
Even the The iMac G4 and iMac G5 aren't too terrible either.
The eMac is the real goddamn fly in the ointment. It's not hard to get into but there's so...many...screws.
Grab one of those iMac backpacks and you can hide the drive away without a cable in sight. Heck with some of the smaller NVMe enclosures you could probably velcro it to the back of the iMac.
Or heck, if you don't need ridiculously fast storage, you could always go the NAS route.
Except the picture omits the messy cable. I have a 512SSD 2019 iMac 21" with a Synology NAS. The NAS drive is useful for all kinds of stuff including Apple Time Machine backup. I have a folder on the NAS drive(s) continually mounted on my desktop for just dragging things to storage. That said, external SSD drives are cheap. So...I'm in the camp of "eh...so what?" And, you can boot a T2 iMac from an external drive. Google it.
Here - let me put my comment in context for you:
I was responding to the blanket statement inferring that reparability issues affect *ALL* Apple products that have ever been produced. You modified the intent of the original comment. Your apology has been noted (in advance) and is accepted.
You know, as a long, long time Apple Stock holder,I don't really mind that they continue to find ways to make money. On balance, I think the STORAGE brouhaha is much ado about nothing. Really fast external storage is cheap. Now RAM,IMHO, on the other hand, with the exception of the current 27", is an issue.
I think you, and LOTS of others have the idea that "expansion" slot is for ....."Expansion".It isn't. It appears to be for internal APPLE analysis purposes. You DO NOT get expandability in the 4 and 8TB options.
If, if, if.....you prepared your T2 iMac by setting it up to boot from an External Drive, you can. Google how to enable T2 to boot from External.1\\\\
Last edited:
Wow. "I'm not doing anything illegal...." is the cry of someone apparently willing to let the Government have access to everything he has. Sad. Sad. A fascist government is quite capable of making things illegal retroactively. Then what ? Can't happen here ?
There is no justification whatsoever for soldered SSDs on a desktop computer. Apple's move boils down to one thing: GREED. Just look at how much SSD upgrades cost: insane amounts of money. The never-ending pitch of security is total bulls**t. The T2 chip already encrypts the data (if opted for). The iMac lives on a DESK; it's not prone for theft unless someone specifically targets your home. One never knows when an SSD might fail; it's electronics, guys. Though it may never happen, but one's computing needs might change in the future. With such massive space, it needs to have 2 SSD slots. The new Dell XPS laptops HAVE TWO SSD slots. Apple can't do that? It's just typical Apple trying to squeeze as much money as possible from its customers. It's doing everything it can to make its hardware impossible to repair. Apple is abusing the loyalty of its customers.
Anyone talk about how the best GPU in the new iMac is a midrange performer on the market today... There’s people who need a Mac and the best GPU they can get still... I dont get Apple and their relationship with GPUs it’s annoyingly frustrating
Last edited:
Yes, this is exactly how au use my 2016 rMBP, because the soldered NVME drive failed and I’m not shelling out $1k for a new logic board.
As for the comment about 50% of Mac purchases each being Folks new to the platform: Apple has essentially pushed professionals away. The Mac Pro is a great machine, but Adobe CC runs great on W10 and Microsoft has done a LOT to build a very stable, fast, solid OS. From a video perspective most things are done in Premier Pro and After Effects (which runs better with NVidia GPU’s).
I think the transition to Apple silicone is going to return Apple to the 90’s and the PowerPC days UNLESS they get Boot Camp running. Mac OS is great - I really do love it (and the ecosystem they built), but they are going to pigeonhole themselves if they close off the Mac like it was prior to the intel transition.
The level of commenters in this news article defending Apple like fanatics disgusts me. Unlike you receive some sort of sponsorship from Apple or you work for Apple, there’s no reason to defend Apple with your own energy and time. It seems that people ARE willing to do free work despite not saying that. Interesting.
Onto the topic. I feel either Apple management team orders engineer team to design a Mac that dies exactly at 5 years or they have so little time they implement a ton of shady design practices that acts like time bombs, triggered by any possible cause. For the storage, what is the most important thing to do with a storage device? Store data. Yes, T2 chip provides the so-called security that renders your expensive SSD inoperable as soon as that bridgeOS crashes and dies. Then, all your data is gone and irretrievable. Why I buy a storage device that I cannot access my data after putting them inside?
Some folks will argue “make a backup you *********”. Yes, I know the importance of a full backup as I have been saved from at least one SSD failure. The problem is, once the data is outside of internal SSD, the security of your data is dependent on the weakest encryption (or the lack of). Having one more copy also raises the risk of your data being stolen. Then, what’s the whole point of T2 chip for data security if the backup HAS TO be made outside of internal storage anyways? Plus, snatching an external hard drive is so much easier than stealing a whole Mac, even if the thief don't care about the data stored on it. I have a hard time finding any justification for this “T2 chip makes data secure” argument other than pure marketing bs and pure greed on that regard. Other feature or support provided by T2 chip is outside of the scope of this discussion so I will not delve into that.
As for speed, PCIE SSD can have some insane level of sequential read write speed, much more so than many macs in apple’s current lineup. Correct me if I’m wrong, but soldering storage for speed is also marketing bs.
TLDR, data security can’t be achieved without people being vigilant. Soldering SSD will not help data security in almost anyway. PCIE storage device does exist, and they are easily swappable with amazing speed, so the argument of soldering storage for speed is moot. Remember, when accident happens, 90% of the time YOU are the culprit.
Onto the topic. I feel either Apple management team orders engineer team to design a Mac that dies exactly at 5 years or they have so little time they implement a ton of shady design practices that acts like time bombs, triggered by any possible cause. For the storage, what is the most important thing to do with a storage device? Store data. Yes, T2 chip provides the so-called security that renders your expensive SSD inoperable as soon as that bridgeOS crashes and dies. Then, all your data is gone and irretrievable. Why I buy a storage device that I cannot access my data after putting them inside?
Some folks will argue “make a backup you *********”. Yes, I know the importance of a full backup as I have been saved from at least one SSD failure. The problem is, once the data is outside of internal SSD, the security of your data is dependent on the weakest encryption (or the lack of). Having one more copy also raises the risk of your data being stolen. Then, what’s the whole point of T2 chip for data security if the backup HAS TO be made outside of internal storage anyways? Plus, snatching an external hard drive is so much easier than stealing a whole Mac, even if the thief don't care about the data stored on it. I have a hard time finding any justification for this “T2 chip makes data secure” argument other than pure marketing bs and pure greed on that regard. Other feature or support provided by T2 chip is outside of the scope of this discussion so I will not delve into that.
As for speed, PCIE SSD can have some insane level of sequential read write speed, much more so than many macs in apple’s current lineup. Correct me if I’m wrong, but soldering storage for speed is also marketing bs.
TLDR, data security can’t be achieved without people being vigilant. Soldering SSD will not help data security in almost anyway. PCIE storage device does exist, and they are easily swappable with amazing speed, so the argument of soldering storage for speed is moot. Remember, when accident happens, 90% of the time YOU are the culprit.
Yes, but it requires complicated setup that is disabled by default. Trust me, when accident actually happens, those victims will NOT have bootable option setup and Apple will frame that “bootable external hard drive” thing super dangerous and tries their best to discourage users from enabling it.
Last edited:
Have you ever opened an iMac G3?
It has been a long while since I opened by iMac G3, but I remember it being really easy and painless. I think it was a few screws and the inside came out.
I upgraded the HDD, RAM, VRAM for the GPU, and I don't remember it taking. very long time.
I still have it and while it is currently packed away in storage, it ran great when I last used it.
The iMac G4, while compact, was also very easy to do upgrades. The hardest part was trying to fit everything back together without cables getting in the way.