Costco is having the base iMac 27in on sale for Black Friday and I’m wondering if I bought one could I go right to an Apple store and have them upgrade the CPU? I will upgrade the ssd and ram on my own but I don’t want to lose the warranty by switching out the CPU myself.
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Will Apple store upgrade a new iMac base model if I buy it somewhere else?
- Thread starter Ripcitykj
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...because it’s not upgradable. OP, you couldn’t upgrade the CPU yourself no matter how much you want to.
RAM is the only user upgradable component. You cannot upgrade the SSD either without voiding the warranty.
For the record, the 5K iMac CPU is socketed, not soldered, so it can be "field upgraded". However, such a procedure is not something an Apple Store Genius Bar is authorized to do and I imagine any Apple Certified repair shop is prohibited from doing so, as well.
So you could do it yourself or find a general repair shop that could do it, however as noted this would void your warranty if that replacement CPU was present when you filed a claim and I expect there are ways for Apple to identify the machine was opened which in itself may void the warranty if there is not documentation the opening was done by Apple or Apple-certified shop.
Also, as ridiculous as most Apple upgrade prices are, I think the i5 to i7 (or base i5 to better i5) upgrade prices are likely less than what you would pay for the CPU at retail (factoring in the resale), much less pay for the CPU and the upgrade labor from a shop.
So you could do it yourself or find a general repair shop that could do it, however as noted this would void your warranty if that replacement CPU was present when you filed a claim and I expect there are ways for Apple to identify the machine was opened which in itself may void the warranty if there is not documentation the opening was done by Apple or Apple-certified shop.
Also, as ridiculous as most Apple upgrade prices are, I think the i5 to i7 (or base i5 to better i5) upgrade prices are likely less than what you would pay for the CPU at retail (factoring in the resale), much less pay for the CPU and the upgrade labor from a shop.