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Rip Those Macs Open

joe-h2o said:
Did you not read the thread?

R.OG has been doing exactly that for the past 6+ pages, including swapping out the CPU for an upgrade, putting in a Samsung SSD, and taking close up photos of the logic board.
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I think he was talking to Johnny not rog. 😀
 
R.OG said:
I posted about the adhesive tape on this thread. I have not found the exact tape apple used so im using 3m 4926 vhb tape. OWC just released a memory upgrade kit for the 21.5" which includes foam tape, i really what to know what kind of tape they are using.
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R.OG Great work!

If you go to the link you posted on your 21.5" teardown http://blog.macsales.com/16104-owc-...e-diy-kit-for-2012-21-5-apple-imac#more-16104

An OWC representative replies to a comment stating "Our replacement adhesive strips are made from the same 3M VHB adhesive that Apple uses and we found that the shorter runs of these adhesive strips are a little easier to work with than the four long strips Apple uses in their manufacturing process. The adhesive is just as strong as Apple’s and when applied properly provides the same holding power for the screen."

I rather take your word for it regarding the tape and so I am unsure what OWC is actually true or not. Could it be a different variation of the 3M VHB tape? The obvious is the tape OWC are supplying with their kit is white as to Apple's black.

Any comments?
 
jamesakano said:
R.OG Great work!

If you go to the link you posted on your 21.5" teardown http://blog.macsales.com/16104-owc-...e-diy-kit-for-2012-21-5-apple-imac#more-16104

An OWC representative replies to a comment stating "Our replacement adhesive strips are made from the same 3M VHB adhesive that Apple uses and we found that the shorter runs of these adhesive strips are a little easier to work with than the four long strips Apple uses in their manufacturing process. The adhesive is just as strong as Apple’s and when applied properly provides the same holding power for the screen."

I rather take your word for it regarding the tape and so I am unsure what OWC is actually true or not. Could it be a different variation of the 3M VHB tape? The obvious is the tape OWC are supplying with their kit is white as to Apple's black.

Any comments?
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I am so not doing this to my new iMac. Looks like its really easy to do some damage.
http://youtu.be/aN2HFvUfl2g

8GB of RAM is more than enough for FCP X and everything else with RAM to spare. If RAM is that much of an issue for you, you should just return it and reorder it with more RAM.
 
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WilliamG said:
I think it would be acceptable if you had hardback copies of the Steve biography stacked underneath. 😉
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1,000 Internet points to you Sir! However, since I haven't finished reading it, it might be a pain to keep taking it out and putting it back. Should have gotten the audio book version. To busy to sit and read it, but I could listen to it.
 
Gelite55 said:
I am so not doing this to my new iMac. Looks like its really easy to do some damage.
http://youtu.be/aN2HFvUfl2g

8GB of RAM is more than enough for FCP X and everything else with RAM to spare. If RAM is that much of an issue for you, you should just return it and reorder it with more RAM.
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Easy to do some damage if you used a machete to pry open lol.

You have to be aware that every time an imac needs to be repaired officially by apple or authorised repairer the same process will apply, they may have a specific tool, like a prying tool with a restrictor so it only gets inserted deep enough to break the tape. Whatever the case they will still have to break the tape seal and remove it all in preperation to re-apply new adhesive tape.

For most 8gb is more than adequate ram but you might aswell upgrade if you are opening the new imac. The main upgrade to the late 2012 imac is SSD, which is still faster than a fusion drive. A good old 256gb/512gb Samsung 830 SSD should come as standard IMO. Even the 27" has user upgrade-able ram but who cares if you don't have an SSD. Once you go SSD you can't do HDD.

R.OG has upgraded the ram on the 21.5" without removing the logic board, so upgrading the ram isn't a long winded process as some might assume.

I think I can speak for most of us when it comes down to opening up the new imac. We are all just waiting for confirmation on removing the excess tape, how easy is it? Adhesive residue? Can removing all existing tape to have a completely clean untaped imac be even possible? And confirmation of the perfect tape to use to re-adhere the screen? To be as close to or even the same as the one apple uses.
 
I recall a post where it was mentioned that the original factory tape was very easy to peel off of both surfaces and left no adhesive residue. The concern was to find a replacement tape which would do the same.
 
Can anyone think of a good reason why an exacto-knife wouldn't work with a bit of extra care? It seems like it would be way easier and I don't see anything nearby that could be cut as long as you were careful. The only tricky spot would be near the camera/mics and wifi antenna. I'm interested to see more detailed photos of those locations. The only other thing I can think of is sometimes there is black paint on the back of the glass where the bezel is that might get scraped off if using metal.
 
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THOPMedia said:
Can anyone think of a good reason why an exacto-knife wouldn't work with a bit of extra care? It seems like it would be way easier and I don't see anything nearby that could be cut as long as you were careful. The only tricky spot would be near the camera/mics and wifi antenna. I'm interested to see more detailed photos of those locations. The only other thing I can think of is sometimes there is black paint on the back of the glass where the bezel is that might get scraped off if using metal.
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Exacto-knife will either mar the aluminum, scratch the paint on the back of the glass, or both. This is why most prying tools for electronics are plastic. If you are steady like a neuro-surgeon you might be alright though.
 
Personally I'd be a lot more comfortable if OWC would sell the strips separately. Then I wouldn't worry about having too strong a replacement adhesive strip in there if I had to open it again/get warranty work on it.
 
Is anyone here considering purchasing OWC's iMac surgery toolkit? They don't yet offer an SSD replacement kit for the new 27," but they no doubt will offer such a kit in the near future (suction cups, toolkit, double-sided tape, etc.). I'm guessing that such a kit would cost $50-$60 from OWC; do you think this is worth the money, or would it be better to just get the required materials on your own?

Any thoughts?
 
Kirkle said:
Is anyone here considering purchasing OWC's iMac surgery toolkit? They don't yet offer an SSD replacement kit for the new 27," but they no doubt will offer such a kit in the near future (suction cups, toolkit, double-sided tape, etc.). I'm guessing that such a kit would cost $50-$60 from OWC; do you think this is worth the money, or would it be better to just get the required materials on your own?

Any thoughts?
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The OWC and iFixit kits are meant to be quite good quality and will definitely contain all the parts you need - a good deal in a lot of cases.

I'll go for it depending on the price just to chuck in my toolkit.
 
The blade ssd install went as planned, so i decided to boot into recovery with the 128gb samsung drive and Blade SSD. Thankfully disk utility did not try to fuse the two SSDs together. I swapped out the samsung SSD with the 3.5" 1tb and booted back into recovery and disk utility tried to fuse the two drives together to create a fusion drive. This is good news for those who what to run the imac with 2 SSDs, my ultimate goal is to install a 512GB Samsung ssd and a 256GB blade ssd.

DSCF5753.jpg

SSD is held down by a screw not shown in the picture
DSCF5754.jpg

DSCF5762-1.jpg

DSCF5765.jpg

DSCF5763-1.jpg
 
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R.OG said:
The blade ssd install went as planned, so i decided to boot into recovery with the 128gb samsung drive and Blade SSD. Thankfully disk utility did not try to fuse the two SSDs together. I swapped out the samsung SSD with the 3.5" 1tb and booted back into recovery and disk utility tried to fuse the two drives together to create a fusion drive. This is good news for those who what to run the imac with 2 SSDs


Image
Image
Image
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R.OG just a question but what blade did you end up going with?
 
Even better news, people that want a Fusion drive, but don't want to pay Apple the markup, and are willing to open the iMac, can simply add a blade SSD and the system will try to fuse them automatically.
 
R.OG said:
The blade ssd install went as planned, so i decided to boot into recovery with the 128gb samsung drive and Blade SSD. Thankfully disk utility did not try to fuse the two SSDs together. I swapped out the samsung SSD with the 3.5" 1tb and booted back into recovery and disk utility tried to fuse the two drives together to create a fusion drive. This is good news for those who what to run the imac with 2 SSDs, my ultimate goal is to install a 512GB Samsung ssd and a 256GB blade ssd.
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So let me get this straight, i ordered the 3TB fusion model and i was planning on swapping out the 3TB HDD with a 512GB Samsung SSD. From what ive read the Apple supplied fusion setups automatically try to fuse the drives back together but if i install an SSD i can keep the drives separate? If so you juts made me very happy 🙂
 
bflowers said:
Even better news, people that want a Fusion drive, but don't want to pay Apple the markup, and are willing to open the iMac, can simply add a blade SSD and the system will try to fuse them automatically.
Click to expand...

But you could also use an tb-ssd. You can do an Fusion Drive with an intern hdd and tb-ssd.
 
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