Can I get some service here? The new 27-inch iMac forgoes replaceable storage for soldered innards
- Reference: 1597156013
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/08/11/the_new_27inch_imac_ditches/
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And while it would be easy to dismiss this as a final iterative upgrade designed to freshen up its product line while it transitions, that isn’t really the case as [2]a new teardown from iFixit shows .
Ripping into the innards of Apple’s latest all-in-one showed few surprises. The upgraded webcam and microphone are slightly more fiddly to excise, but still fairly serviceable. Meanwhile, the machine’s networking card is soldered to the logic board, just as its predecessor from 2019.
As expected, iFixit stumbled upon [3]Apple’s new T2 security chip . This custom-designed coprocessor handles a bunch of mac-specific security tasks, like biometrics and disk encryption. Sadly, positioned next to it were two soldered flash storage modules.
That’s right: if the SSD on your pricey desktop fails, it cannot be replaced without first getting a brand new logic board. Or, as iFixit bleakly put it: “This machine has exactly the same amount of internal storage serviceability as an iPad, which is to say: none.”
Apple will wring out $18bn by upselling NAND to fanbois – analyst [4]READ MORE
That’s hardly surprising, given the trend for Apple to limit repairability, but it’s still somehow disappointing. The 27-inch iMac is a huge beast, and there’s no reason why Apple couldn’t have used standard M.2 drives. As pointed out by iFixit, the T2 chip can happily coexist with removable storage, as demonstrated by the latest iMac Pro and Mac Pro models. Apple just didn’t want to give punters the option.
The base 27-inch iMac (which retails at £1,799) comes with 256GB of internal storage. You can’t actually customise that during purchase — rather, you have to pay an extra £200 for the next model up, which comes with a 512GB SSD and the option to increase that to either 1TB or 2TB. Those options cost an extra £200 and £600 respectively.
Keeping track
If you want your iMac to come with 1TB of internal storage, you’ll have to pay £2,199, or an additional £400 on the base model. For comparison, you can get a 1TB Western Digital M.2 drive for just £95 on Amazon. And if you’re willing to take a risk with your data, you can get a drive from a random Chinese vendor for even less. It boggles the mind.
But this approach from Apple matters because the iMac is no longer a consumer device, like the original technicolour G3 machine. The 27-inch iMac is a work machine. It’s used by developers and designers and filmmakers. And those people tend to need to store lots of stuff: be they codebases, image assets, or b-roll.
More to the point: all SSD drives will eventually fail. Even the best have a finite amount of write cycles. As the findings from iFixit so clearly demonstrate, Apple has given the 27-inch iMac an artificially short lifespan, unless punters are prepared to use inelegant workarounds like booting from an external Thunderbolt drive.
Fortunately, Apple hasn’t (yet) dished out the same treatment to the iMac’s RAM, which remains user-serviceable and uses standard 260-pin DDR4 sticks. As with previous generations, this is hidden behind a shield on the machine’s rear, and can be opened without any proprietary tools.
iFixit ultimately gave the 27-inch iMac a repairability score of just four out of ten. It won points for the use of a socketed (and thus, upgradable) CPU, as well as the user-serviceable RAM. But the soldered internal storage, lack of service manuals, and difficulty in reassembly lost the machine serious points.
Speaking personally as someone with a penchant for repairing retro Apple computers, this news is a bit of a bummer to this hack. One of my hobbies is keeping old Apple kit alive. Computing history is history, after all. The oldest item in my collection is an ancient Powerbook G3 Lombard, which has been cleaned up and upgraded with fresh new components, like an mSATA drive and RAM pilfered from a network printer.
Other people have preserved even older devices, like those from the early Macintosh and [5]Apple II lines. They’ve replaced faulty components, stripped leaking capacitors, and generally kept them in good nick for future generations to enjoy.
And try as we might, we just can’t see that happening with Apple’s latest fare — including the 2020 iMac 27-inch. Ah well, there's always the [6]classic Mac coffee table . ®
Get our [7]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/23/apple_armed_for_x86_rebellion/
[2] https://www.ifixit.com/News/43287/apples-last-dance-with-intel-imac-27-2020-teardown-with-x-rays
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/03/apple_wwdc_macpro_itunes/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/09/apple_set_to_wring_out_18bn_by_upselling_nand_to_fanbois/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/06/the_imac_at_22/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2016/04/29/just_the_right_height_iregi_readers_use_old_tech_to_prop_up_new_tech/
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Thing is, would you even want to buy it?
Given that it has lowered lifespan and any fault is an expensive RTB.
Re: Thing is, would you even want to buy it?
You wouldn't. I wouldn't. Macs make up only around 7% of PC sales and less than 10% of Apple revenues and that's probably the sweet spot for ROI: they really don't want us ruining that.
Re: Thing is, would you even want to buy it?
All true, but it has an Apple logo on it which guarantees millions in sales.
If they bought products based on reliability, self-maintenance and value for the Pound, they wouldn't be buying Apple.
Funnily enough I was looking at the 21.5" iMac earlier today. I'm pondering when I may need to replace my similarly sized iMac from 2014 as this WFH lark isn't ending too soon and for reasons I can only attach one extra screen right now.
The thing is I'm not a great fan of the all-in-one concept. But at the time of purchase the Mac Mini wasn't really going to cut it, and the less said about the wastebin MacPro the better. Previously I had a proper-looking MacPro you could open up and change/repair bits, but I don't think I could really justify a MacPro now (and that's before any mention of wheels!). So I'm stuck with the iMac and its shortcomings when it comes to upgrades/repair etc. And don't get me started on how by default the peripherals are wireless by default...
Couldn't you attach a second display and use an iPad as a third display over SideCar?
[1]This claims that it's possible to connect up to two Thunderbolt displays up to 2560x1600 to that machine (if I've got the right one) and I guess adaptors to convert from Thunderbolt to something else also count.
Or there's a longer list of models and the displays they support [2]here .
[1] https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i5-1.4-21-inch-aluminum-mid-2014-specs.html
[2] https://everymac.com/systems/by_capability/macs-with-secondary-display-support-dual-mirroring.html
The 'wastebin'
The wastebin Mac Pro is surprisingly good and holds its value well. I recently had to upgrade away from mine to... the newest iMac at the time and the specs and prices were on par despite a 5 or 6 year difference. Performance of it was also grand. I was sad to have to give it up. If you're concerned about SSD storage wearing out, buy 1TB of USB 3.1 Samsung T5 storage in a credit-card-sized bundle and stick it into one of the Thunderbolt 3 ports in the back. You won't notice any difference really...
It won points for the use of a socketed (and thus, upgradeable) CPU
So the CPU is upgradeable (which almost nobody does) and the storage and RAM is not upgradeable (which almost everybody wants to do at some time). It really makes you wonder if anyone in Apple cares about user-oriented design beyond getting the right curve on the corners.
Of course Apple cares. A custom CPU package would cost more.
> and RAM is not upgradeable (which almost everybody wants to do at some time).
Did you read the article? "Fortunately, Apple hasn’t (yet) dished out the same treatment to the iMac’s RAM, which remains user-serviceable and uses standard 260-pin DDR4 sticks. ".
In fact, for the hard of thinking, the article mentions the user upgradable RAM twice, the second time being the second half of the sentence you half-quoted: "It won points for the use of a socketed (and thus, upgradable) CPU, as well as the user-serviceable RAM."
Mea culpa
True enough, I misread that, but non-upgradeable storage is still baffling.
RAM IS upgradeable.
Why do people buy this junk, and why do the Reg keep pushing articles about it?
"New Mac out. Slightly less repairable than ever".
Headline done.
But this approach from Apple matters because the iMac is no longer a consumer device, like the original technicolour G3 machine. The 27-inch iMac is a work machine. It’s used by developers and designers and filmmakers. And those people tend to need to store lots of stuff: be they codebases, image assets, or b-roll.
And you've answered the question right there as to why it doesn't necessarily matter if the machine has a non-replaceable SDD. If it's a work machine, then no professional worth their salt will store work data on their local drive without either (a) a backup or (b) likely stored on network or direct to cloud storage.
Thus, the internal storage device is becoming less and less relevant for the storage of data, and more as the home for the installations of executables and the OS.
Are you mad? You want to render or build directly to slow network / cloud storage? Why don't I just go for lunch while I wait. Dozens of times a day.
Presumably professionals want to be able to replace a borked SSD from time to time too.
With a T2 chip that is impossible, and you won't be able to boot from an external drive either because the UEFI is also on the same borked SSD and the T2 chip won't allow any other SSD to work.
That's the lifetime of your shiny over, it's landfill Apple.
Of course the professional users will have a backup. Unless they are only professionals in their field and don't know how to, but most of them will have a backup. The backup is useful in case of drive failure, because you can replace the drive and restore the backup to it. Oh, wait a minute, I meant that the backup is useful in the case that the drive fails and the user has to either boot to the backup disk, probably over USB, or restore the backup to a new drive in something else. Neither is a good approach if you need fast throughput, because you probably didn't buy two machines to do the fast professional work on when you only need one. You could buy a spare iMac, and if your work is really important you might, but it might be easier just to buy something that can take a new disk and put a new disk in.
As for network storage, no, that's not going to work. People who need local processing usually also need local storage so their processing actually helps. If you get a processor that's twice as fast as the old one and put your data on a network connection that slows you down, there's little reason to have bought the faster computer in the first place. Sure, the data gets synced to the network eventually, but it's for a rolling backup and for easier access. When you're doing complex stuff with said data, you want it on the same machine that does the processing, and usually with the fastest access you can get, which is why there's a business for really nice SSDs and in-memory caching.
Making the RAM upgradeable by just using opening a flap and replacing it sounds like the work of a company who's encouraging people to upgrade when they want. Making the CPU upgradeable (albeit a lot more complex than RAM) smacks of a company who cares a little about what people want to do with a computer that costs the best part of £2000 in an age where they shouldn't.
Making the flash storage totally un-replaceable smacks of arrogance and a total and wilful disregard for Apple's customers, let alone the environment. It's a kick in the teeth really. You spend that much money on a computer, knowing that a key part, the one you're most likely to want to upgrade, and the one most likely to fail within 5 or 6 years, is soldered on to the motherboard!
It's put me right off Apple's computers. They're just a plaything for the rich. It might as well be a glorified iPad. And it will be, when the ARM chip models come out. Not only will people be unable to upgrade them, but they'll be unable to install from anything except the apple store. It'll become just an appliance.
Apple is trolling
At every turn, Apple are disappointing people. It's like they are trying to see how far they can go until people stop buying the i-things. On purpose. And amazingly, nothing seems to slow down the masses. Remove this feature here, add this incompatibility chip there, decrease functionality in another place, or remove ports people need to get their expensive equipment to work the other expensive stuff they already have.
"Go on... you'll buy it anyway!"
And darned if they don't. Boggles, really.
Sad
I have upgraded or replaced the storage (bigger HDD, SSD) on every computer I have bought or built in the last 30 years, except for my current build which is only 1 month old. I have never replaced a CPU, and only twice have I upgraded the memory. I wouldn't buy a laptop with no user upgradeable storage option, let allow a desktop. This is Apple greed at its worst.
The thing is, would you even want to preserve it?
Trying to preserve a modern-day Apple computer is like trying to preserve any other unfixable domestic household appliance which is built to fail after a few years.
I'm trying to think of what they've done to the iMac line, but they've not done much after 2007 except use the latest Intel reference design for that particular year and make it harder to upgrade and fix.