Teardown of 21.5" iMac with 4K Retina display finds new LG LCD, no PCIe SSD slot, soldered-on CPU

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 96
    indyfxindyfx Posts: 321member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by kotatsu View Post





    Well done on spectacularly missing the point of iFixit. Hint: the clue is in the name.



    Apple should at least offer user upgradeable RAM. PCs are not telephones or VCRs. They're supposed to be upgradeable.



    And really telephones are no longer "telephones" they are mini tablet computers. So, by that logic they should have upgradable RAM as well?

  • Reply 42 of 96
    hrguyhrguy Posts: 24member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by torsteino View Post



    One thing that really bothers me with the newer macs in general - not just the imacs - is the hdd/ssd. That is usually the one part that fails before anything else does, and even though you might get a new one on warranty, for a small business to be down for a week because you have to take it to an apple dealer to replace it instead of just swapping for a new one yourself can be real killer.



    There seem to be lots of hardware savvy people here, but this is the one unanswered question: How DO you deal with a failed 5400 rpm drive on a hermetically sealed new iMac? Anyone who does backups knows that hard drives fail. I have replaced the drives on my earlier MacBook and iMac due to failures. I live in a mid-sized Canadian city with one authorized Apple service centre and they take at least a week to turn something like this around.

     

    I think this is a fair question. I don't think I would get much on eBay when trading up my old iMac with a dead drive to subsidize buying a new one.

  • Reply 43 of 96
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AAPLfanboy View Post



    Why the f**jk anyone wants to take a gorgeous iMac apart beats me. Just order it with the right specs to suit you, and enjoy.

     

    Honestly and completely subjective answer to this is because it's fun, but that really is just me and yes, I'm aware that I'm an extreme minority.

     

    I enjoy seeing the internals of electronics, I enjoy ripping apart technology and seeing what's inside, and my job (possibly because I enjoy it) demands that I been extremely good at it.

  • Reply 44 of 96
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by IndyFX View Post

     



    And really telephones are no longer "telephones" they are mini tablet computers. So, by that logic they should have upgradable RAM as well?


     

    No, because the major benefit of non-upgradable RAM is the lack of a socket and power savings, which are both very, very important to smartphone design, important to notebook/laptop design, but not that relevant to desktop design.

     

    Though once again smartphone companies are heinous for charging ludicrous amounts for minor storage bumps and I can see (at least in the android world) it happening with RAM soon.

  • Reply 45 of 96
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by IndyFX View Post

     



    And really telephones are no longer "telephones" they are mini tablet computers. So, by that logic they should have upgradable RAM as well?




    His Xbox lacks upgradable RAM. No complaints there.

  • Reply 46 of 96
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by hrguy View Post

     

    There seem to be lots of hardware savvy people here, but this is the one unanswered question: How DO you deal with a failed 5400 rpm drive on a hermetically sealed new iMac?




    There are these things called warranties that makes it Apple's responsibility to fix a failed 5400 rpm drive on a hermetically sealed new iMac.

  • Reply 47 of 96
    indyfxindyfx Posts: 321member

     

    Originally Posted by MAJANI View Post

     

     

    No, because the major benefit of non-upgradable RAM is the lack of a socket and power savings, which are both very, very important to smartphone design, important to notebook/laptop design, but not that relevant to desktop design.

     

    Not sure how a socket affects power consumption... 

    And when designing a wintel crapbox (kind of an oxymoron, yes?) all you need do is put a socket on the MB, no other thought or compromise is necessary When something is actually tightly designed, allowing user access for RAM cards (DIMMS) begins to really compromise the design. That is true in a smartphone a compactly designed notebook or an amazingly compact desktop design like the iMac

     

    Though once again smartphone companies are heinous for charging ludicrous amounts for minor storage bumps and I can see (at least in the android world) it happening with RAM soon.

     

    Not sure what all that means...

    "smartphone companies are heinous" duuuude.... "heinous"... seriously?


  • Reply 48 of 96
    hrguyhrguy Posts: 24member

    There are these things called warranties that makes it Apple's responsibility to fix a failed 5400 rpm drive on a hermetically sealed new iMac.

    Hey Suddenly...suddenly spewing invective without consideration of what people are trying to say in their posts...give me a break. I'm talking about a computer that's going to have a few years on it that's out of warranty but still fully capable of doing what a family or a sm business needs it for.

    I'd be interested in any more insightful responses to what many think is becoming a serious weakness for Macs.
  • Reply 49 of 96
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AAPLfanboy View Post



    Why the f**jk anyone wants to take a gorgeous iMac apart beats me. Just order it with the right specs to suit you, and enjoy.

    Anyone remotely interested in technology and wants to know how it works or are the least bit curious what their machine looks like inside.

     

    After all, it is just a machine.

  • Reply 50 of 96
    indyfxindyfx Posts: 321member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by staticx57 View Post

     

    Anyone remotely interested in technology and wants to know how it works or are the least bit curious what their machine looks like inside.

     

    After all, it is just a machine.




    Interesting... I have never had the urge to dissemble a perfectly good working machine, for fun. Do you also have a compulsion to do this

    http://viewpoints.iu.edu/iupui-intelligence/files/2015/06/dissembled-car-tumblr_nij56lbHB21qj2o1co1_1280.jpg

    to your car?

  • Reply 51 of 96
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by IndyFX View Post

     



    Interesting... I have never had the urge to dissemble a perfectly good working machine, for fun. Do you also have a compulsion to do this

    http://viewpoints.iu.edu/iupui-intelligence/files/2015/06/dissembled-car-tumblr_nij56lbHB21qj2o1co1_1280.jpg

    to your car?


    Taking the cover off is hardly the same as disassembling everything to the bare transistor so to speak. Have I taken things apart to some degree to see how the work and operate? Plenty of times. 

  • Reply 52 of 96
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by IndyFX View Post

     



    Interesting... I have never had the urge to dissemble a perfectly good working machine, for fun. Do you also have a compulsion to do this

    http://viewpoints.iu.edu/iupui-intelligence/files/2015/06/dissembled-car-tumblr_nij56lbHB21qj2o1co1_1280.jpg

    to your car?






    Don't know about who you quoted, but for me, no, I've got no urge to do that to a car. I love doing it to most computer-related tech, though.

     

    Apart from PS4 controllers. **** PS4 controllers.

  • Reply 53 of 96
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member
    Apple has become just plain greedy.
    They may have had soldered RAM for years, but they also have had socketed ones as well.
    Just look back at the history of the iMac. User replaceable in many of their older models. At one time you could go as high as 32gb.
  • Reply 54 of 96
    hrguy wrote: »
    I'm talking about a computer that's going to have a few years on it that's out of warranty but still fully capable of doing what a family or a sm business needs it for.

    You said "new iMac." New iMacs come with a one year warranty. Now you say you meant "out of warranty iMac." How am I supposed to know you mean the opposite of what you said?
  • Reply 55 of 96
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,732member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by hrguy View Post





    Hey Suddenly...suddenly spewing invective without consideration of what people are trying to say in their posts...give me a break. I'm talking about a computer that's going to have a few years on it that's out of warranty but still fully capable of doing what a family or a sm business needs it for.



    I'd be interested in any more insightful responses to what many think is becoming a serious weakness for Macs.

     

    If you're going for the new 4K iMac, best answer I can give is upgrade to the SSD Drive (size of your choosing) and get an external USB3 / TB2 drive for large amounts of storage.

     

    On a side note, I can not, for the life of me, understand how in 2105 a $1,500 premium computer come standard with a 5400rpm spinning drive? At the very least, this should come standard with a 1TB Fusion Drive, consisting of minimum 64GB SSD storage, not 32GB of storage. I can live without user-upgradeable RAM or storage. But not that. I understand why Apple does it, but I'm not convinced that they can't get decent margins by including the Fusion Drive as standard on the 4K iMac.

     

    On non-retina iMacs, I can understand, simply because non-retina devices are on their way out.

  • Reply 56 of 96
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    kotatsu wrote: »
    Well done on spectacularly missing the point of iFixit. Hint: the clue is in the name.

    Apple should at least offer user upgradeable RAM. PCs are not telephones or VCRs. They're supposed to be upgradeable.

    sounds like you don't understand Apple very well. even back in 1984 their goal was to build appliance computing. exactly like VCRs is the point.
  • Reply 57 of 96
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    hrguy wrote: »
    Hey Suddenly...suddenly spewing invective without consideration of what people are trying to say in their posts...give me a break. I'm talking about a computer that's going to have a few years on it that's out of warranty but still fully capable of doing what a family or a sm business needs it for.

    I'd be interested in any more insightful responses to what many think is becoming a serious weakness for Macs.

    you get it fixed. that's it. what's so difficult for you to envision?
  • Reply 58 of 96
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    staticx57 wrote: »
    Taking the cover off is hardly the same as disassembling everything to the bare transistor so to speak. Have I taken things apart to some degree to see how the work and operate? Plenty of times. 

    how many times have you taken your TV set apart, just to have a look inside? your audio reciever?
  • Reply 59 of 96
    indyfxindyfx Posts: 321member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MAJANI View Post

     





    Don't know about who you quoted, but for me, no, I've got no urge to do that to a car. I love doing it to most computer-related tech, though.

     

    Apart from PS4 controllers. **** PS4 controllers.


     

    I was attempting to get the "builders"here to recognize that it is unusual (in that they likely represent <1% of the PC market and a tenth of that in the apple market (.001%)  ("hackintoshes")

     

    Point is, there are people who swap engines & transmissions, install turbochargers and whatnot, however (like you "builders") they are less than one percent of the market.The iMac is what >95% of the computer market wants.A computer that just works.

     

    Not sure if the PC builder lot here are just being apple haters (and searching desperately for some point to deride the new iMac) or if they really don't understand that they are that unique, and that the overwhelming majority of the market never wants to see the inside of their computer, would prefer it "just ran" and if and when it malfunctions, take it to someone reputable and trusted to make it work again. (like an apple store;-)

     

    Let me put it to you this way, if the automatic trans in your car began to malfunction, would your first instinct be to disassemble and fix it? Well that's the way the general public feels about what you do disassembling  computers; admirable in some respects but bat sh_t crazy nonetheless.

     

    Hope that makes it clearer

  • Reply 60 of 96
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by IndyFX View Post

     

    Let me put it to you this way, if the automatic trans in your car began to malfunction, would your first instinct be to disassemble and fix it? Well that's the way the general public feels about what you do disassembling  computers; admirable in some respects but bat sh_t crazy nonetheless.

     

    Hope that makes it clearer


     

    No, you're right, I don't know how to car and I'd take it to a mechanic. But the car doesn't have purposefully designed parts that force it to have the whole engine replaced because the transmission fails, either. The option is there for me to do it myself if I have the ability to do it.

     

    also

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by IndyFX View Post

     

    automatic trans


     

    eww

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