Found my answer. The CPU is replaceable. Now if I only had a couple thousand $USD and some courage....
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Thunderbolt iMac Torn Down and Benchmarked
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My guess for GPU would be size and heat. If you can see, there is very little wiggle room for anything else in an iMac.
Do you like when your iMac work quiet that you even don't hear it? So, Apple use CPU TDP 65Watt, not the really fast ones and mobile GPU to have TDP as low as possible, so it's won't get hot there. iMac it's a big portable, it's not really a desktop horse. Apple can't install in iMac fast i7 CPU like 2600k 3.4Ghz because it's 95Watt TDP, they go with 2600S 2.8Ghz with 65Watt TDP.
Anyone have a link? My guess is that the optical bus may still be II but I'd be shocked if none of the busses were III considering the last updates of laptop had it.
EDIT: Found it, looks like it's all still II. Wow, that's a major drag for a machine like this, particularly one that is offered with SSD options. They BETTER not botch this on the next update to the Mac Pros (which needs to be sooner rather than later).
http://blog.macsales.com/10002-2011-imacs-no-sata-6gbs-yes-to-multiple-drives
try that on the mac mini. its insane how small they are and what they can do.
Since when does Apple try to lower prices by making something less elegant and appealing to a wide audience? Price is no restrictor (compared to others)!!!
What exactly is so "elegant" about requiring the disassemble of half the computer just to change out the GPU?
What does the screen look like when you remove the front flass panel? Is is still glossy under there? If the glass panel is just stuck on magnetically like that then what prevents companies of making simple bezels to replace it with the screen area cut out?
Yeah a hybrid of laptop/pc parts in a thick LCD monitor case
Now if they used a high end macbook pro logicboard and 2.5 drives that slot loaded into the bottom on a removable carrage they could thin this thing down by half again!
It's not meant to be user serviceable. It's sold as an "appliance". In order to achieve the slim profile and silent performance, the jigsaw construction is very similar to a laptop.
That said, the replaceable GPU is intriguing. The worrying bit is:
I wonder if ThunderBolt is fast enough to allow an external GPU that exceeds the performance of the 6970m? Bus to external GPU. GPU to display via Target Display Mode.
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Good to know, thanks. Im wondering why iFixit is remarking on it then (as if it were new).
Look more closely. This year's Core i5 outperforms last year's Core i7 model, as well as the old 3.6GHz Core i5.
Why won't they just give the cpu sku, it would make it much easier to compare than ghz values, with turbo, ht, vt enabled and what not.
21 inch base = i5-2400S 4cores/4threads turbo=3.3ghz 6mb cache
21 inch high = ?
27 inch base = ?
27 inch high = ?
27 inch bto = ?
any care to fill out the rest?
21 inch base = i5-2400S 4cores/4threads turbo=3.3ghz 6mb cache
21 inch high = ?
27 inch base = ?
27 inch high = ?
27 inch bto = ?
any care to fill out the rest?
Interesting question. If the hardware handled it, don't you think Apple would have enabled the higher speed? And if they chose not to for whatever reason, is it likely they'd change their mind down the road and provide a firmware update (or a third party figure out a way to hack the firmware and enable it)?
You're right, apple doesn't really explain the difference between i5 and i7. Both are quad core now. Is HT only in the i7? Does the i7 have better turbo boost?
Still quite glossy but not as glossy. Not like the anti-glare MBP's at all. Most people who've seen an iMac turned on without the glass panel will say it looks better 'naked'. It looks brighter and sharper. Problem is, it's so fragile without it, scratches incredibly easily, attracts dust like you wouldn't believe and fingerprints take a lot of buffing to get out. It's also probably not great for the airflow.
separate Graphics card in iMac
IMO ... several posters have missed the point about plug in vs integrated Graphics. The design of iMac is for asthestics not servicing. The idea of a separate board in upgrade ease in manufacturing. It would be simple to just drop in a better Graphics card for more demanding performance w/o redesign of the entire motherboard. Packaging and heat control are other issues. FWIW
By the way Thunderbolt is the high speed transfer highway of the future ... not SATA111, USB3.0 or the like. As the Volume of Apple products grow, so will the offerings of Thunderbolt peripherals.
IMO ... several posters have missed the point about plug in vs integrated Graphics. The design of iMac is for asthestics not servicing. The idea of a separate board in upgrade ease in manufacturing. It would be simple to just drop in a better Graphics card for more demanding performance w/o redesign of the entire motherboard. Packaging and heat control are other issues. FWIW
By the way Thunderbolt is the high speed transfer highway of the future ... not SATA111, USB3.0 or the like. As the Volume of Apple products grow, so will the offerings of Thunderbolt peripherals.
I doubt it. I think the bigger issue is the size of the GPU to begin with, and it needing a full sized PCI slot to fit into the iMac . . . otherwise we'd be talking about a custom built GPU for the iMac and higher prices.
All in all, I'd rather have a mobile GPU and an express card slot if we were to ever get more room out of an iMac, or a new 30" iMac.
Geek Bench Numbers?
I wonder what the Geek Bench Numbers are on this iMac.
Does any one know?
http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/
I wonder what the Geek Bench Numbers are on this iMac.
Does any one know?
http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/
But the boot drive still runs off of SATA, not TB. That boot drive can be one that is faster than SATA II can handle. There's really no reason not to update those busses to SATA III, pc's have had it for a while and even the last Macbook update upgraded that.
Mobile DDR3 1.3ghz is the same speed, and will bench the same as Desktop DDR3 1.3ghz. The only difference between desktop ram and mobile ram is that desktop ram can reach speeds higher than 1.3ghz and can be over clocked. While Mobile ram takes awhile to reach higher speeds (It wasn't until 2010 where mobile DDR3 reached 1.3ghz) and the dimms are smaller, and cost more for their smaller size. Speed wise, if they are listed the same speed, both will bench the same.
Apple using mobile GPU's is simply because of heat/speed/power ratio. Even a 27 inch iMac couldn't take the heat generation of a Nvidia 470/570/580, let alone fit a power supply that can provide enough power to feed those beasts. Mobile GPU generally provide excellent performance with less heat output and power requirements. Until high end desktop video cards start becoming single slot solutions again and finally tackle heat generation and power needs, Apple will most likely continue to only put mobile GPU's in iMacs.
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