iFixit has just gotten their hands on the new 2013 iMacs that Apple released earlier this week – and as usual, they couldn’t resist the temptation to rip it open and see what makes it tick! The teardown for the new models reveals some interesting finds.
On the plus side, it offers a glimpse at the new PCIe SSD bay, which is now included by default on all shipping iMacs (previously, it was only included in 21.5-inch models if you paid through the nose for the Fusion Drive upgrade). The fact that the PCIe SSD connector is now standard also means it is possible to add a second hard drive or SSD to the new iMac – although as usual, this is not supported by Apple, and will void the warranty.
Meanwhile, in the bad news department, it seems Apple has now chosen to solder the 21.5-inch iMac CPU directly to the logic board, and the RAM in the 21.5-inch models is still not user replaceable (unless you want to do major surgery on your iMac and void your warranty). The lesson here is that you should definitely err in the side of configuring your 21.5-inch iMac with too much RAM rather than two little, as upgrading latter will be a huge headache.
For it’s relatively painful upgradability and repair options, the new 2013 iMac gets a repairability score of a mere 2 out of 5. The new iMacs might not be quite the upgradeability and repair nightmare as the late-2012 models – but they come pretty close…and the 21.5-inch model is still appallingly closed to any third-party upgrade or repair options. To see the full gallery of gorey teardown images, head on over to the iFixit website.
