I miss the iMacs of 2009-2011. Despite their high GPU failure rates they were easy to get in to and upgrade. Specifically upgrading hard drives with SSDs. It is not an impossible task with 2012-2020 iMacs, but its sort of a one-and-done thing. You can really only remove and replace the adhesive tape like twice before the glue build up becomes hard to reassemble. Have a user that needs to upgrade from 250 GB to 500 GB, then 500 GB to 1 TB? Not really feasible. Forget to clip off the excess adhesive near the bottom mic of the 2017+ models? Time to get scraping.
I'm wondering if anyone has tried to create a hardware mod that tries to replicate the magnetic screen removal of the 2009-2011 models? Or even just a sleek looking 'dock' like mechanism that could physically hold the display in place. I wouldn't expect the hardware mod to create a flat surface like it comes from the factory, but as long as it can securely keep the screen held in place despite its weight (especially with the 27-inch models) then I see some real usefulness out of the ability to remove the screen without dealing with adhesive every time. With the popularity of 3D printers I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to design a brace-face to hold the display in-place without adhesive. I would buy one!
I'm wondering if anyone has tried to create a hardware mod that tries to replicate the magnetic screen removal of the 2009-2011 models? Or even just a sleek looking 'dock' like mechanism that could physically hold the display in place. I wouldn't expect the hardware mod to create a flat surface like it comes from the factory, but as long as it can securely keep the screen held in place despite its weight (especially with the 27-inch models) then I see some real usefulness out of the ability to remove the screen without dealing with adhesive every time. With the popularity of 3D printers I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to design a brace-face to hold the display in-place without adhesive. I would buy one!