My mistake. Thanx for the heads-up. It's a $100 upgrade.
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.
Teardown of New 4K 21.5-inch iMac Reveals Removable RAM and Modular CPU
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
My mistake. Thanx for the heads-up. It's a $100 upgrade.
Spot on observation. I also believe, when talking about the upcoming Mac Pro, this is what they meant by "modular design". Modular for Apple, not modular in the sense Joe Public can stuff anything in the machine.
lol Cook's apple, constant trolling, 1 step forward and leave a mechanic disc.. really? and some consumers defend it, no wonder their penny pinching.. also the macbook gets updated and that POS 480px camera remains intact lol, you can see your embarrassing camera 20% faster now.
I don't understand the 5400RPM inclusion even on a price point basis. It is like offering 1GB ram option for cost reasons - you will only annoy the customer when they buy it and find it runs like a slug, leading to complaints, returns and bad press? I can't see how that is good for Apple.
But the head phone jack had to go
Courage!
But the head phone jack had to go
Courage!
Actually, fusion drive is a $100 upgrade. Bringing the base model (for example) to $1,199.
Last edited:
If you look at some of the Apple videos about iMac Pro you will see that it has two (at least) full size DIMM sockets so not all is lost.
Some customers require 1 TB of storage. And speed is secondary.
Should they be required to pay for that 1 TB SSD if speed isn't important for their needs?
Or maybe Apple should just automatically include the 1 TB SSD and raise the price accordingly?
It's actually quite easy to open the iMac. I did it to my 2012 vintage when the spinning disk failed and I swapped in an SSD. Took about an hour to do and that included replacing the tape that holds it together. I used the kit that OWC sells
Perhaps they will, but comments like this are as predictable as the sun also rising. We get it. You don't like complaints. Move on or go to apple.com, where everyone loves everything Apple.
[doublepost=1496927424][/doublepost]
My biggest issue with the "slim" factor is cooling. iMacs, after a couple of years - at least in my house - are plagued with cooling problems, causing incessant fan noise. They are so thin, and the vents are so small, that it is hard to vacuum them out without opening them up with special tools. Desktops don't need to be thin. You don't carry them around, but just look at them and type on a keyboard, and attach various peripherals. I will likely buy this new iMac this year, as my 2014 model is getting noisy and fussy, but I was so hoping they'd rebox the thing into a more cool-efficient form factor.
Finally!!
Apple's new iMac is upgradable for the first time in years!!
Not meant to be user upgradable. Doing what if Ifixit did voids the warranty and AppleCare.
Exactly.
The non-soldered CPU is simply because Kaby Lake (as the article points out) doesn't have a "solderable" mount yet. What iFixit actually need to do is swap the CPU with a socket-compatible chip, and see if the machine even works.
Plus, as the tear-down shows, you have to disassemble the entire computer just to access the RAM, let alone the CPU, so this is not really an upgrade path for 99% of people.
I'm really very pleasantly surprised. Going back to socketed CPUs and memory is a great step in the right direction. I'm not fussed about the 5400 rpm hard drive as it's a fusion drive - the stuff you need fast access for will load from the flash portion and slower rpm drives are less likely to fail, hence why archive drives are going that route.
I don't think that choice was entirely made on improving margins, I suspect the performance difference between a fusion drive with a 5400rpm drive versus a 7200 rpm drive is marginal and not worth the reduced reliability and cost.
I don't think that choice was entirely made on improving margins, I suspect the performance difference between a fusion drive with a 5400rpm drive versus a 7200 rpm drive is marginal and not worth the reduced reliability and cost.
Not from Apple, they aren't. I have a 1 TB 5400 RPM HDD in my 2014 iMac. To get a 1 TB SSD iMac in the current offering costs an extra $700 over the 5400 HDD. To get an i7 processor rather than the base i5 is an extra $200. To get 16 GB memory rather than the base 8 GB, another $200. Those changes add $1100 to the base iMac. That is the difference we are looking at.
You seem to be embarrassed by the oddest things. Do you ever dream you are shopping in an Apple Store in your underwear?
Why would you want the government to spy on you in full 1080p? /jkIt is absolutely pathetic that in 2017 such supposedly premium high-end devices are not SSD-only. As you said, embarrasing.
Also - from Apple spec page I gather that iMacs still have disgustingly outdated (720p?) facetime cameras. Only the $5K iMac Pro will have 1080p HD facetime camera. Wow, 1080p, so amazing, how did they pull it off? /s
The only two things that are replaceable on the mainboard are the CPU and RAM. CPU's practically never fail. RAM, more so, but even RAM is very reliable nowadays. There are so many other components (fan, hard disk or SSD, GPU, power supply) that are more prone to failure.
I don't understand all the hoopla about this being upgradeable. All the work to get into it, the chances of damaging something during the process...it's not really upgradeable. No one will want to void their warranty the first 1-3 years, so no upgrades during that time...I just don't see this as "upgradeable" except for the brave few that don't care about warranties or those with the skills to do it.
A 1 TB SSD costs $700. Where do you buy your iMacs?
As an upgrade at retail markup from Apple, yes. A standalone 1TB SATA SSD is under $300 at retail price and certainly less for an OEM like Apple. Granted, it would displace the upgrade option and associated revenue, so there's a balance that Apple has certainly calculated.
It just seems like a lot of users are going to buy that low-end model because all they see is price, and think "wow, this Mac isn't that great." There's some logic (to me) that putting a 512GB SATA SSD as standard would improve performance dramatically at very minor cost increase. Make a 1TB PCIe SSD an upgrade option for users who want extra speed and capacity (they are more expensive obviously), and a 2TB spinning drive available for those who want bulk storage at dirt cheap prices.