via iFixit
The folks over at iFixit have gotten their hands on one of Apple’s new 27″ Retina iMacs, and, as they are wont to do, immediately opened it up to find out what makes these things tick. Inside they found that most of the internal components are actually somewhat familiar.
The SSD inside the new iMac is the same unit found inside the latest-generation MacBook Pro, while the logic board, Bluetooth controller, and more are identical to that of previous iMacs. In fact, in the case of the logic board, iFixit didn’t even document the dissection, instead referring back to the previous year’s teardown.
Obviously there are new components in play here, especially the processor, GPU, and display hardware. The custom timing controller Apple boasted about during the keynote was present, and iFixit notes that this appears to be a modified version of a Parade Technologies DP665 controller. The display panel itself was built by LG.
You can find more photos along with more specifics like model numbers for every component on iFixit.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
“Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in the USA.”
Awesome.
Wow, you’d think they’d have at least mentioned it the keynote. I like this trend
It’s disingenuous, from a corporation that specialises in boosting profits by offshoring as many jobs as possible to sweat shops with working conditions that would be literally illegal in the US and EU.
You may say “hypocritical” at best but “disingenuous” would be a stretch. beating the Apple uses “slave labor” line to death when all indicators are that Apple alone is the only major tech company doing something to reverse the trend in the industry is a better example of “disingenuous.”
That just means more expensive computers. Not a good sign.
What a truly deplorable attitude. I’m happy to pay more for good manufactured in countries which actually pay their staff a living wage. Ethics actually matter to some of us.
Local assembly isn’t a gimmick. It is a smart strategy that is being pursued by many American companies in order to improve their bottom line.
We are going to see a significant uptick in local assembly in the US, as the advantages are compelling. No, it doesn’t mean more expensive. You just made that up based on the grand assumption that costs are mostly related to the paychecks of assembly labor. That’s a very outdated way of thinking of product costs, and one that has burned many companies.
The vast majority of product costs are related to the procurement of the subcomponents as well as the related cost of international operations.
In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, some corporate leaders wanted to outsource their entire operation to China. Many got burned as they over-focused on China, which (1) increased their international operational costs many times over (2) over-committed themselves to one country that could overpower them (3) incurred sometimes unpredictable and highly damaging regulatory rules, and (4) resulted in an inordinate amount of intellectual property loss.
The cost advantages of local assembly are significant:
– Substantially lower costs of setting up & coordinating with facilities overseas, a frequent activity.
– Substantially higher intellectual property protections.
– Substantially higher quality controls of the final-form product.
– Substantially higher level of regulatory stability.
– Substantially higher ability to broaden suppliers.
@standardpull
> Substantially higher ability to broaden suppliers.
That is just ridiculous. In fact that is the main reason all the assembly is focused around south China. That is where all other components are manufactured, hence you dramatically reduce your warehousing costs.
Apple has done the bare minimum possible in order to be able to make this claim. They don’t sell many iMacs so they can get away with it.
In reality, basically all of the components are made in China and by “assembly” they mean slapping on an Apple sticker.
Really and how do you have all this inside information on how Apple treats there workers versus others? As far as I can tell Apple is the only one in the news that actually goes to there overseas plants and audits them for how they treat there workers and working conditions and pay rates and overtime hours. Do you see any news about HP, Dell, Samsung doing anything to better there working conditions for the very same kind of workers? Nope. Do they manufacture anything in the US? Nope.
Apple is also doing the most for the environment removing as much of the bad stuff out of manufacturing and parts as it can and powering there facilities with Solar and other alternative power sources. Any of these other companies talk of this? Nope. Can you get service at any of there stores if they have them? Nope. Training? Nope. So now who is the bad companies? I think Apple is at the top with nobody even close right now.
I really hope they have increased the SSD component in the Fusion Drive from 128GB to 256GB. In the previous iMac models, Fusion Drive becomes slow once you reach the limit of 128 GB for important and frequently used files.
Over 128gb of frequently used files??
I actually seriously want to know how that’s possible.
I have 120GB left on my 3TB Fusion Drive in my 2013 27″ iMac. I’ve noticed no performance degradation. It still runs as fast as the day I got it.
Pretty expensive for a LG panel, they tend to be one of the more reasonably priced in the market right now you can buy a LG 55″ 4k tv on Amazon for $1500
I guess no we know we could lease a car for what an Apple TV will cost.
I 8 month old components in a $2500 computer you can only upgrade the memory in is still a tough sell. They should updated the design and internals before releasing and updated the chips in all the non retina models.
4K isn’t 5K, and 55″ isn’t 27″. It’s more expensive and complex to produce a panel with more pixels in a smaller area.
so because its more complex, a 27 inch should be more expensive than a 55 inch? you should have stopped at the “4k>5k argument”
the usual whiner…
What I don’t get is how they justify hiding hard drives so deep.
Imagine logic board fries and you need to safely restore and/or destroy the data?
MacBooks have easily accessible and removable storage. Not so much for iMacs.
I guess the advise would be using drive encryption and back up regularly?
throw the damn thing in a wood chipper and buy another one. If you data is that sensitive you should be making decent scratch to pony up for a new machine if you fry your current one. If you want to pretend your data is valuable but your time is not then get out a tool set and dig out the drive.
I always wonder why the cost of technology increasing whereas it should be decreasing and companies should focus more on getting more new users. Apple is making it more elite and exclusive with every new device version they are launching.
Spam. No need to write that you reblog this&that. Irritating to read.
ok feyip, thanks for the answer.
Then people can just avoid approving the comment?
Only apple can make computer so beautiful inside
So what was all the customary hype about?