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Where on earth is the ethernet port located on the M1 iMac?
- Thread starter collin_
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Okay disregard this it's in the power adapter. Who would have guessed
They didn’t mention it, and I doubt they’ll make it available, but that would be very cool.
Power next to data wires eh??
Thats got to be like and water tap next to a hair dryer.
Thats got to be like and water tap next to a hair dryer.
DC power is used to shield data signals all over the place. On one famous chip I worked on, we had entire metal layers dedicated to power and ground, just for that purpose. (So, e.g., you had a couple signal layers, then ground, then signal layers, then VDD).
In the case of this iMac, I’d imagine it would have been cheaper and easier to manufacture with the ethernet port in the chassis next to the USB ports rather than external with the additional shielding required in this external solution. Seems like a last minute after thought.
As an engineer, this seems like the exact opposite of an afterthought. It required extensive engineering, eliminates a cable on the desk, and required a great deal of “before” thought.
So as an engineer, considering this considerable effort, it‘s something you’d consider worth the effort for the purpose of eliminating a cable of the desk? Ok, so ignore the fact that, as an engineer, you’d likely consider more work can translate to more $$ (ie: addition weeks wages etc) consider also the power cable probably isn’t long enough allowing the brick to be placed on the floor under the desk, (in most cases it’d still end up being on the desk anyway), consider also Apple’s history with power bricks, they’re notorious for unreliable power supplies that cost too much and often difficult to obtain in short period of time.
Would you not agree, from a users perspective, an internal power supply using typical IEC C13 connector and ethernet port in the chassis would have been a more practical reliable objective than having an Ethernet cable ’off the desk’?
That’s a lot of questions. I’ve never had a problem with an apple power brick - not even once, and I’ve got many drawers full of them. I’ve definitely had problems with apple power *cables*, but never the brick. And i don’t agree they are “notorious” for being unreliable. I’ve also never found them “difficult to obtain.”
Since wires break more often than bricks, I also cannot agree that having two wires (one for ethernet and one for power) is more reliable than one. And of course, here‘s the ludicrous part of your argument: you say the power brick is unreliable. Then you argue that the machine would be more reliable and more practical if the components inside the power brick were inside the mac, itself. If the components are unreliable, they are also unreliable inside the mac (and worse, because they can’t be cooled from all sides. This also brings A/C circuitry near to DC circuitry, unless there is sufficient isolation, which would mean a bigger mac, but that’s a different issue). And if the AC->DC circuitry is unreliable, you are much better off having it be an external component that is easily replaced, instead of shipping your mac to apple for a week to have it repaired when it fails.
As another point re: “practical,” I guess that depends on things like the cable length. Which happens to be 2 meters, according to apple’s website. Two meters seems long enough to ensure that the brick need not be located on most desks in most situations.
And, of course, if you find this particularly offensive, you’re always free to buy one of the many thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapters that are sold for $15 on Amazon, and then run as many wires as you want all over your desk.
Some good points, however, the above, my comments were based on my real world experiences, so let me highlight some experiences and then you determine where the ‘ludicrous’ comment can be suitably assigned to be relevant:
1x G3 Lombard Adapter cooked
1x G3 Pismo Adapter cooked
2x G4 Titanium Adapters cooked
2x MacBook Pro circa 2008 Adapters cooked
2x MacBook Pro 2010 17” adapters cooked
3x Apple Cinema Display 30” adapters failed, cost over $159 USD, unavailable off the shelf in Australia had to wait 3 weeks to be posted from USA.
*cooked can also apply to failure without probable cause, IOW died for no known reason.
Approximately 10 LCDs I’ve had over the years with internal PSU’s, none have failed.
No and it likely won’t come to the baseline iMac. These iMacs are meant for average everyday consumers. Those types of features are reserved for more pro-level machines instead.
You had the opportunity to sneak in a "1x Tim cooked" and you didnt take it
Given the size of an RJ-45 socket I’m pretty sure this would exceeded the thickness of the iMac (11mm). It’s the same reason why the headphone jack has to be on the side.
It’s not even a first. Even my Google Chromecast Ultra has the Ethernet socket in the power brick.
It’s just Apple being Apple and willing to over-engineer for the sake of elegance and aesthetics. One single cable being used for a desktop computer with keyboard, mouse and wired Ethernet is pretty cool IMO.
There are many practical advantages besides the obvious aesthetic ones:
1: it allows them to remove a major source of heat from the enclosure thus improved thermal management / quieter computer etc
2. it allows the enclosure to be thinner (RJ 45 connector is around 10.7 mm (the port is even deeper). The new iMac is around 11.5 mm. This is the most likely reason why it got removed and also why the headphone jack got moved to the side.
3. power supplies can fail, especially with power spikes / brownouts. Easy to replace an external one
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Have you seriously considered that you may have problems in your electrical installation? Not trying to be snarky or anything, but AFAIK only the Cinema Display adapters were prone to fail, and that's a lot of fried adapters over the course of many years.
I've had only three power supplies fail:
1x MacBook Pro 2015 15.4"
2x PowerMac G5 Dual
And as some posters have said, the circuitry is the same in the power brick as it would be if it were inside the iMac, just non-replaceable, with worse AC/DC isolation and worse cooling.
You mean like every Thunderbolt 3 docking cable?
Or every POE (Power-over-Ethernet) connected device used on networks for years?
Please give a bit more detail of why you think this is bad? In many if not most places the ethernet jack is in the wall pretty close to the power outlet, so putting the port in/with the power adapter seems a fairly clean solution.
Don't believe so, the 10Gb/s is referring to the USB 3 ports speed. The Gigabit Ethernet is brought to the computer via the power brick with a standard Gigabit Ethernet connection, which it seems you have to pay extra for with the base model, there is no direct connection on the iMac. USB3 ports will not magically become 10Gb/s Ethernet ports if back at the power brick is just a standard Gigabit Ethernet port.
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WTF does “cooked” mean? If you cook your adapter, then yes, it will break. What does “posted from USA” mean?
And all of the machines you are talking about above are ancient. So you had bad luck or bought them at a time when apple had problems. Your anecdotes are not statistics.
Your point remains ludicrous.