User Replaceable Hard Drives in the New iMacs

[CHSeifert]

I agree with you.

I'm an experienced PC builder that has decided to go the Mac route - but I just decided to skip the imac totally because of how annoying it is to change HDD in it.

I will venture back to a big self build PC, but will stay with a couple of Macbooks - the MacBook Pro 17 and the MacBook Air 13 - because it's easy to change HDD and ram in them.

It's a bit absurde that HDD replacement is done faster and easier in a Macbook than in an iMac

I know the target 'audience' for the imac is not the typically experienced computer user and they probably don't even know what a HDD is, but I promise you that they care when their imac get smoked and blurred screen after 12 months use, clicking noises from the HDD and a lot of dust inside their precious computer

 

[MacHamster68]

yes its easy to remove the glass , that is really easy and if your fingernails are not just artificial then you dont even need suction cups
its not the glass removing that can cause problems , as some might think we talk about the glass cover

it is the complete lcd panel you got to remove if you want to get inside the iMac to replace the harddrive or to clean it ,you even need to take the lcd panel apart to get the dust which leaves these well known smokey screens out of there and every computer needs to be cleaned inside , but most iMac's look like dustbags inside after month and even worse when they get sold after a year or two , and all people do is to install smc fan control to compensate if the heatsinks are blocked and offer only insufficient cooling due to the dust trapped between the fins of the heatsinks of GPU and CPU and as nobody lives in a absolute dust free environment it does not take years to clock up , and just holding a vacuum cleaner on the bottom and top vents is just not enough

 

[Nermal]

Only the first generation G5 iMacs were like that, which were discontinued in May of 2005. May of 2005 G5 iMacs, and every iMac since then have been more difficult.

Wow, really? I had the one with the removable back but I thought it was newer than a first gen. But you're right, it was a while ago now that I think about it!

 

[Detosx]

I assumed the OP was going to get hammered for this question, so it's nice to see a free flowing discussion.

I agree with MacHamster68 as so much of my job is spent cleaning dust out of PC towers and laptops, the latter often require some strip down rather judicious vacuum cleaning; dust bunches up into thick mats that gets caught in box-grid heatsinks, etc. Looking at the ifixit tear-down made me wince but I have yet to work inside iMacs and can only go on what MacHamster58 and some others say. It makes me angry that computers end up in landfill because of dust/heat but... filters add to cost, reduce airflow, requiring more powerful fans/marginally greater power draw, an already pressed cheapo PSU needs to be able to accommodate that under full load, etc, everything built to cost. Few manufacturers fit them but, hey, it leads to computer sales which stimulate the economy and keeps techs in employment.

Easy access to the hard drive sounds great but that Apple flash their hard drives with their own firmware. With late 2009/mid 2010 models you can't simply replace a pot-luck noisy Seagate with an otherwise identical quiet one; even with the correct temperature cable the fans will ramp up after a few minutes for lack of the Apple firmware. There are some ugly unsatisfactory workarounds that see a lot of people re-opening their 2010 imacs to short the therm cable. If you have watched the 2009/2010 iMac strip downs on ifixit and noted the screen's ribbon cables... not something you want to be doing too often. Easy access would be wonderful but Apple still make it hard on end users they weren't really aiming the iMac at in the first place.