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ifixit 27" iMac Teardown

Seems like it's not hard to remove the HD & the DVD drive (blueray..) Ofcourse you'll have to remove the glass first. Where can we get such suction cups?
 
Did anyone notice that the inner display looks matte instead of glossy? It used to be glossy, so that you would have two sets of reflections when you held it up to the light - one from the glass, and one from the glossy surface of the LCD. Looks like they've fixed that?
 
Where are the GPU and CPU part numbers?

It is iFixit, wouldn't think they are too worried about voiding a warranty by destroying some stickers.
 
Looks like there isn't an EMI foil and tape cluster this time under that display.

There's plenty of volume for cooling.
 
idyll said:
honestly, the imac's "glass" comes off so easy you'd be surprised.. any suction cup will do - whatever you can find around the house.
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Very true, I used two little suction cups I borrowed from the mini hockey jerseys I have hanging from the car windows, they must be 1 inch in diameter at most. You really just need to lift the glass enough to get a thumb underneath on each side and after that it lifts off cleanly.

I'm glad it's business as usual in terms of getting into the iMac - First thing I'm doing when I get my 27" Core i7 iMac is get an SSD in there.
 
This is interesting as well:

The Apple logo is not longer just for looks, it now has a job to do. Earlier Aluminum iMacs had an aluminum front and a plastic back. In contrast, this iMac features an all aluminum enclosure, which is great for looks, but terrible for Wi-Fi. The Apple logo is the only plastic area on the back of the iMac, and Apple's integrated an AirPort antenna into that space.
Click to expand...
 
The CPU for the Core 2 Duo is a E7600 and is socketed. There is a warranty sticker though warning any tampering will void warranty. So wait out the warranty then upgrade. :)

Sad part is Core 2 Duo uses a different socket a Core i5 or Core i7. :eek:
 
Good. I'm now glad I just bought the RAM upgrade for two hundred bucks. While I have the mechanical capabilities to tear into that machine and put it together, for the the small $$$ savings and the stress of tearing into a machine you might damage. I'll just let apple do it.....
 
Kronie said:
Good. I'm now glad I just bought the RAM upgrade for two hundred bucks. While I have the mechanical capabilities to tear into that machine and put it together, for the the small $$$ savings and the stress of tearing into a machine you might damage. I'll just let apple do it.....
Click to expand...

Hmmmmm... step three shows that RAM is still easy to be upgraded by the user.... through the bottom slot.
 
Awesome! look at the heat sinks/pipes on the cpu and gpu, This is the difference between a Mac and a pc. You get what you pay for. Amazing engineering at Apple. Wish they would have shown the speakers. Something not talked about much is Apple increasing the quality of them and the wattage to each. Cool!

Next we will here why does a Mac cost more then a crappy little tower?:D

Nice tear down though it would have been better to see a step by step.edit there is a step by step I apologize.
 
Slightly worried that they reported the glass panel was slightly out of alignment after they installed the RAM, implying that the magnets might not be strong enough (if the glass can shift just by flipping the machine over to access the RAM panel).
 
anim8or said:
Hmmmmm... step three shows that RAM is still easy to be upgraded by the user.... through the bottom slot.
Click to expand...

Oh yea, I missed that, but too late now, ,and no regrets. I'm not going to cancel and reorder and have to wait even LONGER
 
Interesting. Never knew it would be SO easy to get inside and swap the hard drive out.

Seeing as it's a piece of pss to swap the superdrive could we in theory whack in a BD drive? I understand that OX wouldn't play the BD disks but would it still read DVD's? Happy to use VMWARE to play BD's if this is an option... any ideas?
 
2,5" Sdd + 2,5" Hdd

It would be great to buy an adapter that fits 2 x 2,5" drives and have one SDD and one HDD.

An 80GB SDD + 500GB HDD would be a pretty good combo and not cost a fortune.

Like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001Q5H8X0


Does anybody know if these would work?

I see no reason why not but I'm seriously considering the new 27" but I really would like a SSD. Ever since I tried a computer with one (a Macbook) and noticed the increase in speed I was instantly sold and decided on the spot that my next computer will be equipped with one!
 
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So, since most parts are generic, we can quite easily update the CPU, the HD (to SSD etc), and even the graphics card.. Can anyone confirm? This makes it the most updateable imac ever if so..
 
Uncle Pinny said:
Interesting. Never knew it would be SO easy to get inside and swap the hard drive out.

Seeing as it's a piece of pss to swap the superdrive could we in theory whack in a BD drive? I understand that OX wouldn't play the BD disks but would it still read DVD's? Happy to use VMWARE to play BD's if this is an option... any ideas?
Click to expand...

Step 14
This may be the most underwhelming component in this iMac, the 8x SuperDrive.
The fact that there is no Blu-ray drive in here is a bag of hurt.
C'mon Apple, iMacs in 2005 had 8x SuperDrives. The SuperDrive just doesn't seem so super anymore.
The good news is, it's a standard 12.5 mm, slimline SATA optical drive. The drive Apple should have included is this Panasonic UJ-135 Blu-ray drive.
Apple lacks software support for playing copy-protected Blu-ray movies, so if you install a Blu-ray drive, you'll have to boot into Windows to enjoy the show.
 
sweet thanks i was more interested in the gutting of the new iMac than the MacBook.

EDIT:
The sheer quantity of labels on the back of the graphic card daughterboard is overwhelming. What were they thinking?
(It's obvious that Apple's engineers didn't design that daughterboard. It's a standard card used in a number of products.)
Click to expand...

The Apple logo is no longer just for looks, it now has a job to do. Earlier aluminum iMacs had an aluminum front and a plastic back. In contrast, this iMac features an all-aluminum enclosure, which is great for looks, but terrible for Wi-Fi. The Apple logo is the only plastic area on the back of the iMac, and Apple has integrated an AirPort antenna into that space.
Click to expand...

pretty much explains Apple.
 
honestly

I think the new imac 27 inch just made the mac pro obsolete. seriously what's the point of having such a expensive machine when the 27 inch looks like it gives you more than enough expandability and power.. The mac pro is way to expensive and i need a new desktop to run logic studio 9 This might be the answer...
 
gdeusthewhizkid said:
does this new imac even come with a isight. i havent read anything about it having one ...
Click to expand...

I hope you're not serious about this--They wouldn't release a product without and iSight in this day and age..

I can't wait to open this up and put an SSD in there. This will be an amazing product with Core i7, 8GB RAM and an SSD...why can't November come sooner..
 
It's great Apple finally made the GPU removable. Maybe this will mean upgradeable GPU's in the future?:rolleyes: Though it is more likely Apple did this in case ATI f***** up like nVidia did, they would not need to replace the whole logicboard.

I was a bit disappointed that they did not remove the heatsinks to see if Apple is still using their standard 20 oz of thermal paste.

I wonder when people will start putting in the 2.93Ghz Core i7-870?

Uncle Pinny said:
Interesting. Never knew it would be SO easy to get inside and swap the hard drive out.

Seeing as it's a piece of pss to swap the superdrive could we in theory whack in a BD drive? I understand that OX wouldn't play the BD disks but would it still read DVD's? Happy to use VMWARE to play BD's if this is an option... any ideas?
Click to expand...

All DVD/CD features of the drive should work in OS X.

As for blu-ray. You can read blu-ray data discs. If the player supports it you can burn blu-ray data discs.

If you get Toast Titanium 10. You would also be able to burn your own movies to blu-ray. I think the Toast player you can even play these non-copy protected discs, though I am not certain on this point. However, no store bought blu-ray will play in OS X until either Apple or some other company brings encrypted blu-ray support.
 
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