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I've been waiting to buy an iMac for my house/kids but I held off until I saw a teardown and how hard it would be upgrade the RAM / HD. Glad I did, having to un

by DIVx0 14y ago

I've been waiting to buy an iMac for my house/kids but I held off until I saw a teardown and how hard it would be upgrade the RAM / HD. Glad I did, having to unglue the screen just to get to these components is a non-starter for me.

sneak 14y ago
Just buy it with adequate RAM and HDD from Apple. If you need to upgrade later, buy a bigger one and dump the old one on Craigslist or eBay. Save the screwdrivers (or heatguns) for people who enjoy spending their limited time dicking about with computer internals. Specialize!
- CrazedGeek 14y ago
  Installing more RAM or a new HDD is hardly an intensive or complex process on a system designed to be upgradeable. On pretty much any tower and certain laptops, it would take three minutes, tops. On the other hand, I'm currently dealing with an easier-to-upgrade-than-this-one iMac (late 2006). I'm having an incredibly irritating time sticking plastic cards into odd places, finding multiple different sized Torx screw bits, and prying various pieces off, all to replace a failed HDD. If only one or two components don't suit your needs, spending money on an entire new computer is just a waste.
  - rayiner 14y ago
    The practicality of piecemeal upgrades is overstated, especially with external storage. I've never wanted to upgrade my GPU without also upgrading the CPU (so its not CPU-bottlenecked), which usually necessitates a new motherboard anyway and these days usually new RAM too (DDR-XYZ).
    - jasonlotito 14y ago
      Upgrading RAM is something I've always done. The cost difference between getting it from Apple and getting it from New Egg or a local shop was always dramatically different. Also, being able to upgrade the hard drive vastly improves the performance and capabilities as well. This is especially good when you can then turn around and hand off the laptop to a relative or a non-techy who will benefit from the device. The resale value is never enough to pay for the upgrade costs, unless you are almost upgrading every time a new model comes out.
      - sneak 14y ago
        Except that now with the new design it means it's cheaper to just buy the RAM from Apple once you factor in the value of your own time spent heatgunning off the front glass and removing the logic board to get to the RAM slots. Things change. As time passes and Apple designs more and more sealed enclosures, hopefully your skills and income are similarly increasing and you can stop caring about this stuff and just order it with the ram you want. Life is short. Do you really want to look back on your deathbed and remember that you know what DIMM pin configurations and signaling speeds were? I sure as fuck don't— I'd much rather spend the time hacking cool stuff.
        jasonlotito 14y ago
        > Except that now with the new design it means it's cheaper to just buy the RAM from Apple That's an artificial price increase. It's not that the RAM has gotten cheaper, but that the ease of doing it is no longer there with this iteration. > Things change. You say that as if it has meaning or bearing. Things always change. Change does not mean it's better. > As time passes and Apple designs more and more sealed enclosures Yes, they make trade-offs. They sacrifice things in one area for things in other areas. > hopefully your skills and income are similarly increasing and you can stop caring about this stuff and just order it with the ram you want. An increase in income does not mean I suddenly become stupid with money and am willing to pay more for what amounts to a style change. As for caring, it's precisely because I care that not being able to easily add in RAM is an issue. > Life is short. Do you really want to look back on your deathbed and remember that you know what DIMM pin configurations and signaling speeds were? And do you want to look back on your deathbed and know that you spent extra money on something simply to pay for style instead of making sure that your disabled son was taken care of? Don't starting pretending to know someone else's reasons for wanting things, or that you can offer sound financial advice (you can't). Shit, it's like your applauding their decision to remove valued features of their product for something far fewer people cared about.
MBCook 14y ago
RAM is something you definitely want to buy enough of, but hard drive space isn't a big issue on a desktop. Unlike a portable machine, there is no problem with buying an external drive and just leaving it attached all the time. There is also the option of some kind of network attached storage. The 27" model is supposed to have a little RAM bay so it can be upgraded by the user. I have last year's 27" iMac on my desk at work and it's a great machine. The display is fantastic.

by DIVx0 14y ago

sneak 14y ago

Just buy it with adequate RAM and HDD from Apple. If you need to upgrade later, buy a bigger one and dump the old one on Craigslist or eBay. Save the screwdrivers (or heatguns) for people who enjoy spending their limited time dicking about with computer internals. Specialize!

CrazedGeek 14y ago
Installing more RAM or a new HDD is hardly an intensive or complex process on a system designed to be upgradeable. On pretty much any tower and certain laptops, it would take three minutes, tops. On the other hand, I'm currently dealing with an easier-to-upgrade-than-this-one iMac (late 2006). I'm having an incredibly irritating time sticking plastic cards into odd places, finding multiple different sized Torx screw bits, and prying various pieces off, all to replace a failed HDD. If only one or two components don't suit your needs, spending money on an entire new computer is just a waste.
- rayiner 14y ago
  The practicality of piecemeal upgrades is overstated, especially with external storage. I've never wanted to upgrade my GPU without also upgrading the CPU (so its not CPU-bottlenecked), which usually necessitates a new motherboard anyway and these days usually new RAM too (DDR-XYZ).
  - jasonlotito 14y ago
    Upgrading RAM is something I've always done. The cost difference between getting it from Apple and getting it from New Egg or a local shop was always dramatically different. Also, being able to upgrade the hard drive vastly improves the performance and capabilities as well. This is especially good when you can then turn around and hand off the laptop to a relative or a non-techy who will benefit from the device. The resale value is never enough to pay for the upgrade costs, unless you are almost upgrading every time a new model comes out.
    - sneak 14y ago
      Except that now with the new design it means it's cheaper to just buy the RAM from Apple once you factor in the value of your own time spent heatgunning off the front glass and removing the logic board to get to the RAM slots. Things change. As time passes and Apple designs more and more sealed enclosures, hopefully your skills and income are similarly increasing and you can stop caring about this stuff and just order it with the ram you want. Life is short. Do you really want to look back on your deathbed and remember that you know what DIMM pin configurations and signaling speeds were? I sure as fuck don't— I'd much rather spend the time hacking cool stuff.
      - jasonlotito 14y ago
        > Except that now with the new design it means it's cheaper to just buy the RAM from Apple That's an artificial price increase. It's not that the RAM has gotten cheaper, but that the ease of doing it is no longer there with this iteration. > Things change. You say that as if it has meaning or bearing. Things always change. Change does not mean it's better. > As time passes and Apple designs more and more sealed enclosures Yes, they make trade-offs. They sacrifice things in one area for things in other areas. > hopefully your skills and income are similarly increasing and you can stop caring about this stuff and just order it with the ram you want. An increase in income does not mean I suddenly become stupid with money and am willing to pay more for what amounts to a style change. As for caring, it's precisely because I care that not being able to easily add in RAM is an issue. > Life is short. Do you really want to look back on your deathbed and remember that you know what DIMM pin configurations and signaling speeds were? And do you want to look back on your deathbed and know that you spent extra money on something simply to pay for style instead of making sure that your disabled son was taken care of? Don't starting pretending to know someone else's reasons for wanting things, or that you can offer sound financial advice (you can't). Shit, it's like your applauding their decision to remove valued features of their product for something far fewer people cared about.

MBCook 14y ago

RAM is something you definitely want to buy enough of, but hard drive space isn't a big issue on a desktop. Unlike a portable machine, there is no problem with buying an external drive and just leaving it attached all the time. There is also the option of some kind of network attached storage. The 27" model is supposed to have a little RAM bay so it can be upgraded by the user. I have last year's 27" iMac on my desk at work and it's a great machine. The display is fantastic.