IFixit iMac teardown reveals dual mics, difficult RAM upgrades and glued-on LCD
9to5mac.com
9to5mac.com
I wonder why they're doing this with desktops. Having a MBA in a upright stand [1] isn't the look to be aiming for with desktops, even all-in-ones. Ram upgrades aside chasing smaller seems to be done entirely reasonably and successfully.
What's the need for spring loaded cpu sockets? Is that to make sure you get soft contact with the bottom?
http://www.accessoryvillage.co.uk/images/products/010500_0.j...
I suppose they're doing it largely for the style but surely Jonathan Ive and co can make a beautiful iMac that's a couple of centimetres thicker.
Apple has recognized this and is using that knowledge to throw away old assumptions and put the resultant "compromise space" into beautiful products that people are proud to display in their home.
Sounds like a smart plan to me, but I can understand why there is a small percentage of the market who still sees their PC as a conglomerate of components. I'm pretty convinced Apple is not the company for people like that.
The display is one of the primary elements I like to have an upgrade path for, something the iMac has never offered. The new model's sealed form factor is the logical conclusion for the product line.
I'm interested to see what they do with the Mac Pro.
(triple negative yay!)
When is a decision of a for-profit corporation in a cut-throat market ever made in the interest of their customers? Sometimes, the corporate and customer interests align, but it is never made "in the interest of their customers" per se.
All previous models.
The line up is shifting downwards towards the Air.
iMac = desktop Air :)
I blow $220 a lot more often than once every three years
You realize that charities exist, right?
The purpose is to have a single point of contact for repair. Not having to personally figure out if the RAM is defective on someone else's machine is a big plus for me. Being able to have the entire thing drop-shipped directly from Apple to the user, also. It depends on the premium -- for a personal Mac Mini, I'd probably do the RAM through Crucial for $50-100 savings or more. If Crucial didn't exist, and I had to go hunting for "good" RAM every time, I'd probably go Apple for $200+. (it is so fun getting a $200k box of RAM for servers, especially left on a porch with no signature required, though. The actual RAM/chip distributor in Fremont that had an 18 person triad armed robbery a few years ago was amusing.)
The annoying part of all of this is that there are some machines where you must pull the drives before any warranty service. The correct thing to do is to have an Apple service rating internal to your company (it costs $200-300 I think, and not much training), but I've never gotten around to it. Lack of swappable externally accessible drives is one of my only complaints about Apple hardware now.
(OTOH, my personal 2010 MBP 17 actually has Crucial RAM, a Crucial SSD 512 in an optical bay adapter, and a 750GB drive in the main bay, all aftermarket. The Crucial drive failed and required repeated disassembly and RMA and firmware loading on another machine, which consumed about 4h of my time, which kind of sucked, and makes me a lot more likely to stay 100% Apple in the future.)
bingo
Other than that, the Apple ram is not so expensive that it's worth dicking around with making sure you have compatible speeds/pins/size imho (unless you are going Mac Pro in which case the difference on, say, 64GB or more would really add up).
Basically I just don't worry about stuff that amortizes out to under $500-1000/year. (e.g. an iMac for me has about a 36-month useful lifespan)
Save the screwdrivers (or heatguns) for people who enjoy spending their limited time dicking about with computer internals. Specialize!
On the other hand, I'm currently dealing with an easier-to-upgrade-than-this-one iMac (late 2006). I'm having an incredibly irritating time sticking plastic cards into odd places, finding multiple different sized Torx screw bits, and prying various pieces off, all to replace a failed HDD.
If only one or two components don't suit your needs, spending money on an entire new computer is just a waste.
Also, being able to upgrade the hard drive vastly improves the performance and capabilities as well. This is especially good when you can then turn around and hand off the laptop to a relative or a non-techy who will benefit from the device.
The resale value is never enough to pay for the upgrade costs, unless you are almost upgrading every time a new model comes out.
Things change.
As time passes and Apple designs more and more sealed enclosures, hopefully your skills and income are similarly increasing and you can stop caring about this stuff and just order it with the ram you want.
Life is short. Do you really want to look back on your deathbed and remember that you know what DIMM pin configurations and signaling speeds were? I sure as fuck don't— I'd much rather spend the time hacking cool stuff.
That's an artificial price increase. It's not that the RAM has gotten cheaper, but that the ease of doing it is no longer there with this iteration.
> Things change.
You say that as if it has meaning or bearing. Things always change. Change does not mean it's better.
> As time passes and Apple designs more and more sealed enclosures
Yes, they make trade-offs. They sacrifice things in one area for things in other areas.
> hopefully your skills and income are similarly increasing and you can stop caring about this stuff and just order it with the ram you want.
An increase in income does not mean I suddenly become stupid with money and am willing to pay more for what amounts to a style change. As for caring, it's precisely because I care that not being able to easily add in RAM is an issue.
> Life is short. Do you really want to look back on your deathbed and remember that you know what DIMM pin configurations and signaling speeds were?
And do you want to look back on your deathbed and know that you spent extra money on something simply to pay for style instead of making sure that your disabled son was taken care of?
Don't starting pretending to know someone else's reasons for wanting things, or that you can offer sound financial advice (you can't). Shit, it's like your applauding their decision to remove valued features of their product for something far fewer people cared about.
The 27" model is supposed to have a little RAM bay so it can be upgraded by the user. I have last year's 27" iMac on my desk at work and it's a great machine. The display is fantastic.
Ifixit seems to be trying to push their retail sales over their content, so thanks 9to5mac...I guess.
Where are the 256 or 512 options?