Soon to be new first time iMac owner - A couple Questions

[samo1215]

So I am going to be purchasing the 21.5-inch, 2.9GHz iMac in the next few days. I wanted to upgrade the RAM to 16GBs and swap out the hard drive for a solid state drive. My question is with the new iMac's, is the RAM and hard driver replaceable by the end user or does Apple manufacturer in a way that requires one to buy the upgrades through Apple via BTO?

Then assuming I can replace the hard drive and RAM myself, how complicated is it and what kind of cost savings am I looking at?

 

[aznboi91]

So I am going to be purchasing the 21.5-inch, 2.9GHz iMac in the next few days. I wanted to upgrade the RAM to 16GBs and swap out the hard drive for a solid state drive. My question is with the new iMac's, is the RAM and hard driver replaceable by the end user or does Apple manufacturer in a way that requires one to buy the upgrades through Apple via BTO?

Then assuming I can replace the hard drive and RAM myself, how complicated is it and what kind of cost savings am I looking at?

for 21.5" its all going to have to be BTO.

only ram is upgradable for 27"

 

[cledet]

So I am going to be purchasing the 21.5-inch, 2.9GHz iMac in the next few days. I wanted to upgrade the RAM to 16GBs and swap out the hard drive for a solid state drive. My question is with the new iMac's, is the RAM and hard driver replaceable by the end user or does Apple manufacturer in a way that requires one to buy the upgrades through Apple via BTO?

Then assuming I can replace the hard drive and RAM myself, how complicated is it and what kind of cost savings am I looking at?

You're better off just purchasing the RAM and SSD from Apple. Too big of a risk to do those upgrades yourself. Trust me, you'll be happier in the end.

 

[yjchua95]

So I am going to be purchasing the 21.5-inch, 2.9GHz iMac in the next few days. I wanted to upgrade the RAM to 16GBs and swap out the hard drive for a solid state drive. My question is with the new iMac's, is the RAM and hard driver replaceable by the end user or does Apple manufacturer in a way that requires one to buy the upgrades through Apple via BTO?

Then assuming I can replace the hard drive and RAM myself, how complicated is it and what kind of cost savings am I looking at?

Apple states that you can upgrade the RAM on the 21.5" by sending it to an AASP to do it.

But it's not worth the hassle.

Oh and by the way I think you should go for the i7. While the extra 200MHz may not make a difference, the extra threads of the i7 will. i5s only have 4 threads, while i7s have 8 threads.

 

[samo1215]

Thank you all for your help. I'll be using the BTO option to upgrade everything and will definitely be going with the i7. I appreciate all the comments!!!

 

[vitalion]

So I am going to be purchasing the 21.5-inch, 2.9GHz iMac in the next few days. I wanted to upgrade the RAM to 16GBs and swap out the hard drive for a solid state drive. My question is with the new iMac's, is the RAM and hard driver replaceable by the end user or does Apple manufacturer in a way that requires one to buy the upgrades through Apple via BTO?

Then assuming I can replace the hard drive and RAM myself, how complicated is it and what kind of cost savings am I looking at?

it depends if you wanna take the risk. you can have a look at this video/DIY guide: 21.5-inch iMac Late 2012 Memory Installation on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Tuq373wPs

it does not look that easy. Plus you will need the essential tools to do it right.

have a look at this as well

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2638+Teardown/17829

My suggestion: Just don’t take the risk and spend the extra $$ to get what you want for your iMac. unless you are very familiar with the iMac hardware setup and you want to test your skills on that.

either way enjoy your new mac and push it to its limits.


cheers