Dust in the wind

[Trusteft]

I never owned an iMac (considering it), but with how much more difficult it is to open the whole thing compared to most PC cases and even laptops (including perhaps Apple's), I was wondering from people who either own iMacs or perhaps repair them. What's the dust/dirt situation with them?

For example, I bought a gaming laptop back in late 2014 and in 2018 when I opened it to clean it and replace it's thermal paste, it was hell inside it. A ton of dust and dirt had accumulated, which I was able to clean just fine (and replaced the thermal paste of the CPU).

The way the iMacs are built, does dust/dirt become and issue after a couple of years? Or is the design such that it helps against it? If you want to clean it, can you do it relatively easily or not?
I have seen opened macbook pros which though impossible to upgrade, it's possible (my guess) to actually clean them inside.
iMacs ? iMac Pro?

I am very curious as I don't want to buy an iMac/Pro which after a couple of years will be overheating like crazy due to dust/dirt accumulation. I am not rich.

 

[ruslan120]

From what I read the 2019's are harder to open, but yeah, dust is definitely a concern. The 2017's and below are more doable, and there are tons of guides online, but you have to worry about buying quality adhesive otherwise you risk the screen falling off, ripping off its cable, and ruining the logic board too.

If you want to avoid opening it yourself at all costs I recommend getting AppleCare+ for 3 years and then taking it in when the 3 years are almost up. $99 for a screen replacement with AppleCare+ and chances are they'll clean the dust as well.

 

[Trusteft]

From what I read the 2019's are harder to open, but yeah, dust is definitely a concern. The 2017's and below are more doable, and there are tons of guides online, but you have to worry about buying quality adhesive otherwise you risk the screen falling off, ripping off its cable, and ruining the logic board too.

If you want to avoid opening it yourself at all costs I recommend getting AppleCare+ for 3 years and then taking it in when the 3 years are almost up. $99 for a screen replacement with AppleCare+ and chances are they'll clean the dust as well.

We don't have AppleCare in Greece. We just have higher cost for everything.
You know the price reductions of SSDs and RAM announced by Apple and applied everywhere? Not here. Frankly if I didn't hate MS so much, I wouldn't even considering going Apple again with the way they are treating us here.