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27 inches and STILL no user upgradable HD?

Cycom

Cycom

Suspended
Original poster
Mar 27, 2007
587
888
Commiefornia
I would have figured that by this point Apple would have made the hard drives in their iMacs user replaceable. Guess not.

What's stopping them from incorporating this into their design? Don't get me wrong, I think the new iMacs are great but without an option to swap HD's then it's a no-go. I'll purchase another iMac when Apple has these things are taken care of:

1. user replaceable HD bay (I'd love to be able to put an SSD into an iMac)

2. an actual video card that will be able to handle games at such an insane resolution. Will the ATi 5870 ever be a possibility?

3. blu ray
 
Go to the store with the machine, tell them to replace the hard drive for you. And buy a god damned blu-ray player, and stop whining about getting one for free with your computer. It has nothing to do in a computer anyway, it should be underneath your TV.

You're 100 % correct on the graphics card, though.
 
tofagerl said:
Go to the store with the machine, tell them to replace the hard drive for you. And buy a god damned blu-ray player, and stop whining about getting one for free with your computer. It has nothing to do in a computer anyway, it should be underneath your TV.

You're 100 % correct on the graphics card, though.
Click to expand...

stop apologising for apple

going to a store to replace a hdd? what if that apple store is hrs away?

getting one for free? what are you talking about? lol

nothing to do with a computer? lol ever heard of films? most camcorders these days shoot in 1080p....which eats up a chuck of data for one
 
tofagerl said:
Go to the store with the machine, tell them to replace the hard drive for you.
Click to expand...

What? Is this possible? What do I do, take an Intel SSD to an Apple retail store along with my iMac and tell them to install it? Will they do it and will it be covered under Apple Care? I've never heard of this being an option.
 
tofagerl said:
Go to the store with the machine, tell them to replace the hard drive for you. And buy a god damned blu-ray player, and stop whining about getting one for free with your computer. It has nothing to do in a computer anyway, it should be underneath your TV.

You're 100 % correct on the graphics card, though.
Click to expand...

lol...what?

As the poster above me said...

1) having to go to their store to have them replace is terrible... some people live hours from a store, other stores have hour long or multi-day waits... awful solution.

2) Blu-Ray belongs under your TV only? Then what the hell is that DVD drive doing in my computer? It should be under my TV too! I mean, who the hell would want to play blu-rays on their computer or have only one device to do everything when they can get 5-6 devices that only do some things!
 
OK, you guys should go check out Dell.com. They have some great machines that you'll probably find much easier to use.
Enjoy!
 
The only reason I'd be mildly interested in a Blu Ray drive is if it were a Blu Ray burner too, and seeing as they're currently $300-400, I don't think they'd be worth it at the added expense.

I'm in agreement with the idea that Blu Ray is best left to movies and PS3 games on your TV for the moment.
 
I too find it sad that a 27" machine doesn't have a removable hard drive! My guess is it's mounted high up or in some odd location.
 
feel your inner geek

Changing out the HD is just hard, not impossible. Some one is bound to take one of the 27" beast apart, and make a guide to replace the HD. I replaced the HD in my late 2006 Imac last year. Was it harder than replacing a HD in a conventional tower, yes. Was it impossible? No.

So feel your inner geek, and replace your own HD.
 
I actually don't see the need be able to swap the HD on a mac (except for switching to a SSD). I've got the older Gen. imac with a 640 GB HD and that's plenty to store every program i'll need. As a photographer I store all my pictures and digital negatives on there too and if I need overflow I use an external drive.
 
While I'm not an apologist for Apple or have anything to do with their industrial design philosophy, I have spent a fair amount of time inside Macs. The "closed box" theme is not new, it goes all the way back to the original Mac, which was a departure from the open Apple II design.

There's a long history of two design elements for the desktop, one that is modular (Mac LC, II, IIfx and all the way to the current Mac Pro) and the other that is a relatively closed box (Mac, Mac Classic, iMac G3 - Present). Perhaps the easiest to work on were the pre iSight equiped G5 iMacs. My only concern about their return to "sealed" boxes is that there is some engineering advantage, whether it's cooling, space saving or costs, which is realized.

Apple's standard drive sizing has always covered the majority of their customer market at the respective price points; Apple has consistently promoted external drives and storage devices by incorporating ever faster connectivity options, which allowed them to manufacture hardware that didn't have to conform to "industry standards" such as AT, baby AT, ATX, etc.

As for Blu Ray . . . I agree with Apple's choice not to cater to yet another optical disc standard when the industry's distribution of digital data and digital media via optical discs (CD, DVD, etc.) is winding down.
 
tofagerl said:
Go to the store with the machine, tell them to replace the hard drive for you. And buy a god damned blu-ray player, and stop whining about getting one for free with your computer. It has nothing to do in a computer anyway, it should be underneath your TV.

You're 100 % correct on the graphics card, though.
Click to expand...

Then why the hell do computers have DVD drives? Of course they belong under a TV. And CD players belong in cars and home stereo systems. So we have no need for CD drives either.

tofagerl said:
OK, you guys should go check out Dell.com. They have some great machines that you'll probably find much easier to use.
Enjoy!
Click to expand...
They're certainly much easier to upgrade.

BoulderBum said:
The only reason I'd be mildly interested in a Blu Ray drive is if it were a Blu Ray burner too, and seeing as they're currently $300-400, I don't think they'd be worth it at the added expense.

I'm in agreement with the idea that Blu Ray is best left to movies and PS3 games on your TV for the moment.
Click to expand...
Blu Ray burners are down to under $200.
 
These are CONSUMER machines. Mac Pro is for people who want to swap hardware around.

The iMac caters to the pro market in terms of it being a powerful machine. Other than that, it's pure consumer.

Plus, with the way the Macbooks are going, it doesn't look like Apple wants people changing ANYTHING in their Macs. Be thankful you can still upgrade the RAM.
 
The Mac Pro is more of a mid-end workstation than it is a 'pro' machine, and that wouldn't make much sense because the plastic MacBooks (both old and new) have rather easily replaceable hard drives. (I know, the new ones are like the pros in that you have to remove the entire bottom panel, but that's about 8 screws.. no big deal really).

The 27" is huge, wouldn't have been too hard to just make a drive sled that slides out the bottom just like the RAM does. I'm guessing it has to do with the drives being 3.5" drives still, they probably would've run into some nasty limitations putting them on the edge.

I'd just stick a 2TB in there and hope it lasts.
 
yg17 said:
Blu Ray burners are down to under $200.
Click to expand...

Where? Even if, my point is that DVD burners are $50, and given that I don't have a really compelling need for Blu Ray outside of my TV as of yet, it wouldn't be worth the extra expense to me at this point in time.

I'm not opposed to having the option for one, mind you, it's just not something I'm going to complain too much about.
 
The images on Apple's website make the glass cover look almost sealed to the iMac. Also, the aluminum seems to be continuous around the entire computer so we can't remove the back anymore. Will it even be possible to get to the hard drive this time?
 
Given that the envelope size hasn't changed that much, it's got the glass covered panel and the air vent at the top edge . . . it might open like the previous generation, with the spring clips at the upper edge, pushed in from the vent strip.

Or, upon closer exam of the web pictures, it could be that all access is from the front since there's not much of a "chin" anymore and there don't appear to be any torx fasteners on the bottom panel where the speaker opening is, like the previous generation.
 
There is some guy on YT who was talking about upgrading a HD in an iMac though it is difficult because of what he described as a "tin-foil sheet" that protects the hardware. What surprises me is Apple not offering an SSD option for the iMac. Maybe they will when prices go down. 1 and 2 TB HDDs imo are nothing to scoff at.

Now the graphics card is suspect, and the only reason I can think of is heat.

What are some games that can take advantage of a the latest graphics card (whatever it may be, I think the Radeon 5870) at 100% top, insane resolution?
 
If one's point of reference is an ATX style PC, then yes, the iMac is a PITA to work on;

however, if your point of reference is past iMacs . . . then the foil barrier only adds about 10 minutes of careful work to lift it off the edges (most just tear/cut it on the bend perforations) of the chassis and fix any tears with tape. Four screws and a couple of wire connections and the LCD panel lifts out and you have full access to the logic board, drives, PS, fans and speakers.
 
Im Just angry there is only 1 hard drive bay, not 2 or even 3 (some laptops actually have 3) Who would want a single 2tb drive? It just means you need to keep a 2tb external to back it all up, clutter clutter. If apple is so big on data backup and all in one design why only one bay?
 
Changing the Hard Drive is simple. Takes 30 minutes from start to finish. There are several videos on the web showing how to perform this simple task.
 
The Final Cut said:
Im Just angry there is only 1 hard drive bay, not 2 or even 3 (some laptops actually have 3) Who would want a single 2tb drive? It just means you need to keep a 2tb external to back it all up, clutter clutter. If apple is so big on data backup and all in one design why only one bay?
Click to expand...

Maybe they should give you the Chief Designer job instead of Johnathan Ive, right? I'm sure you'd be able to pack in 3 hard drives in that iMac case without causing any kind of performance/heat/functional issues! Bravo!

2 tb backup = time capsule. And, uh.. get a 2tb FW or USB drive - back it up and then keep it in a safe place. Nobody's telling you to keep it sticking to the iMac on a daily basis. :rolleyes:
 
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