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I own and love my 27inch iMac. It exemplifies the quote from Apple's senior vice president: “iMac continues to be the example that proves how beautiful, fast a

I own and love my 27inch iMac. It exemplifies the quote from Apple's senior vice president: “iMac continues to be the example that proves how beautiful, fast and fun a desktop computer can be,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. " But as someone that doesn't like to mess with hardware too often, I am very disappointed at how difficult it is to change a simple hard drive on this machine, and that they don't figure out how to make it easier. My computer is beautiful, but I have to suction off the glass display to change the hard drive. The other day I upgraded my PS3 to an ssd with almost zero knowledge of what I was doing. There was a tab, a screw, and a lever. Unplug tab, unscrew screw, pull lever, replace hard drive. Took < 5 minutes. I understand aesthetic beautiful designs, but something about the way inside my iMac makes me feel like its a big design flaw. I knew what I was getting into when I bought this computer, but I was hoping in the future, updates to the iMac would make it much easier. I guess in the end, the beauty of the design is in the eye of the beholder. Tough to make everyone happy...

acomjean 13y ago
I never understood why they would make a bulky machine hard to upgarde. I have a 1.1 mac pro tower. So easy to open/add memory and hard drives. Even my polycarb (white) macbook was easy to update the hard drive. Harddrives will fail... It shouldn't be hard to replace them.
- johndevor 13y ago
  What percentage of users upgrade their machines?
- terabytest 13y ago
  They want you to buy a new one.
- numbsafari 13y ago
  This will sound pedantic, but... It isn't hard to replace them. You pull out your iPhone, use the Apple Store App to schedule an appointment, drop off your iMac at the store, go have lunch at Sbarro and then pick it up and go home. If you are buying an iMac, you are buying a sealed solution. If you are the kind of user who wants to replace HDD or upgrade components, the iMac is not the computer you should buy. Bad buyer! A lot has been made of Steve Jobs comments about cars and trucks and the future of computers. I think that is very much how Apple views what they do. The iMac is a family-friendly, automatic sedan or wagon for the kind of person who gets his oil changes done at the dealership because they have a nice waiting room there.
  - kunai 13y ago
    He said Apple would continue to sell trucks and cars, but he expects the cars to cannibalize the truck market. There's no use in a truck with a bed cover that's locked into place and unremovable. There's equally no use in a truck that's not built body-on-frame, and the Mac, one of my favorite computing platforms, is moving away from it.
    - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
      The truck analogy wasn’t about internal upgradability, it was about devices running a mobile OS versus devices with desktop OS (notebooks, desktops, etc.). In Jobs’ analogy, the upcoming Mac Pro is just as much a truck as the current one is. However, Steve Jobs didn’t say that Apple would continue selling trucks, just that companies would. Here’s the full quote: When you did your presentation on the iPad, you described it as a new category of device, says Walt [Mossberg]. But in order for it to succeed, people have to feel that it’s worth carrying around. Do you think the tablet will succeed the laptop, he asks. “When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks, because that’s what you needed on the farm. But as vehicles started to be used in the urban centers, cars got more popular. Innovations like automatic transmission and power steering and things that you didn’t care about in a truck as much started to become paramount in cars. … PCs are going to be like trucks. They’re still going to be around, they’re still going to have a lot of value, but they’re going to be used by one out of X people. … I think that we’re embarked on that. Is the next step the iPad? Who knows? Will it happen next year or five years from now or seven years from now? Who knows? But I think we’re headed in that direction.” http://allthingsd.com/20100601/steve-jobs-session/ http://allthingsd.com/20100601/steve-jobs-session/
    - dntrkv 13y ago
      Your analogy is nothing like what Apple is doing. A more apt analogy would be selling trucks that don't have easily upgradeable engines where you wouldn't be able to access the engine components without a ton of work, which is exactly how they build most trucks nowadays. The sealed bedcover is more like a limitation in software since that's part of the functionality of the truck. Upgrading a Mac isn't part of the functionality, it's something you do to increase the speed at which you work on it. And as for the body-on-frame comparison, I don't really know what you mean there. If you are talking about the actual, physical chassis of the MacPro not being on a conventional computer frame, then again, that is a bad analogy since a body-on-frame chassis on a truck directly affects the towing and load capability of a truck, which is not so with computers. You can have your components scattered across the floor and they would perform just as well as in a conventional chassis.
threeseed 13y ago
It's all pretty simple really. The number of people who want more hard disk space and aren't willing to use an external drive is small. So small in fact that it isn't worth Apple's time to design a computer specifically catered to them.
- Touche 13y ago
  True, but the number of people who want an all-in-one desktop is also very small, and probably intersects with the people who want to replace stuff more than the general population of computer users does.
  - cloverich 13y ago
    Counterpoint - what are the chances Apple hasn't run the numbers on that, and made the (business wise) correct decision?
    - Touche 13y ago
      You're right, we should never question a business's decisions because they have more data than us and cannot possibly be wrong
      - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
        Given that the iMac is the best selling consumer desktop computer ever, I think it’s safe to assume Apple has put some thought into the matter.
        iends 13y ago
        It's likely only the "best selling desktop computer ever" because of the abundance of choice for non-mac users. Not sure how that's relevant to the parent's point though...
        Samuel_Michon 13y ago
mej10 13y ago
I agree. I was glad to find that it is easy to upgrade the RAM, it would be awesome if the hard drive was just as easy. I ended up going the external thunderbolt SSD upgrade route, since I didn't really feel comfortable pulling apart my expensive new computer. It works great, but has obvious down sides.
- gr2020 13y ago
  What obvious downsides are you referring to? In the past it was performance, but that's not an issue with thunderbolt...
  - Qerub 13y ago
    I have the same setup with an external Thunderbolt SSD (from LaCie). I'm aware of the following downsides: * The only Thunderbolt port on my 2011 iMac is occupied. * I can accidentally remove my system disk if I'm clumsy (and crash my system). * I can't hide the disk and can see it if I stand beside the desk. No biggies in other words. Very happy with the setup.
    - nknighthb 13y ago
      > The only Thunderbolt port on my 2011 iMac is occupied. An unfortunate design flaw specifically on LaCie's part. As with FireWire before it, and SCSI before that, Thunderbolt is a daisy-chain interface. Single-port devices in such ecosystems are best considered defective.
      - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
        And even then, if you have one device with only one Thunderbolt port, you can always place it at the end of the chain.
    - mej10 13y ago
      Yep, these are the ones I was referring to. Nothing major, and I do like my setup.
  - 13y ago
antidaily 13y ago
I swapped my HD for an SSD. Took 10 minutes with right tools (suction cups, etc) from OWC. There's a hundred YouTube instructional vids to help you along the way.
- alayne 13y ago
  The new screens are glued.
  - mmagin 13y ago
    Maybe I've been reading too much iFixit propaganda, but isn't this just going to cause the production of more "e-waste"? Or are we counting on third-world child labor to eventually take broken iMacs apart and fix them up for sale in non-first-world markets?
    - PeterisP 13y ago
      Yes it is going to make more "e-waste", but it's clear that we as the whole society prefer slight improvements size/weight/style over issues such as e-waste or possibility for repairs. In words we often say differently, but the our actual actions show this preference very clearly.
terhechte 13y ago
I really like how easy it is to upgrade the RAM. They should make updating harddrives just as easy.
- bestham 13y ago
  Try upgrading the memory in the 21.5" version, you are going to need a soldering iron and a lot of time.
bowlofpetunias 13y ago
Who still upgrades their own machine? I like to tinker with hardware a little, which is why every 3 years or so I put my own home server together even though I could probably buy a cheaper ready-made solution. In the days of my old Apple Powerbook I've pretty much replaced everything from memory, harddisk to optical drive, even though the latter definitely wasn't made to be upgraded by end-uses. But in the last 10 years I've never had to upgrade any hardware, not even the stuff I've put together myself. The days where upgrading was a natural part of the lifecycle of a computer are in the past. Storage and memory has become cheaper so computers are well equipped from the start, and the need for rapid upgrades in order to be able to use the latest software is no longer an issue except in very small niches.
- dntrkv 13y ago
  My 2011 iMac came with a 500gb hdd. I decided to upgrade it to a 256gb ssd. Coming from a Windows PC background, I figured it would be a 15 minute at most installation. I even ordered the $40 hdd replacement kit from OWC, and it took me a good 2-3 hours to carefully disassemble and reassemble. The worst part was sliding the motherboard back down below the bezel. Holy shit I was gonna throw the thing against the wall. But yes, for the most part I agree with you but we still aren't quite there yet. I think it wouldn't be too much to ask to have the ssd located in an easy to access spot like the ram is.
- Miyamoto 13y ago
  > Who still upgrades their own machine? Hardware enthusiasts? PC gamers? Really, what a silly question on a tech oriented website. That's like asking who works on their car over at Jalopnik.
  - bowlofpetunias 13y ago
    Personal computers aren't interesting "tech" anymore, they are commodity consumer products which most of us discard after a few years. Tinkering with your own PC is rapidly becoming a niche similar to model trains. (Or working on your own car, also completely unnecessary and doesn't yield any new insights or advances.) It's not about tech and curiosity anymore, just another hobby. And as such, you'll never see discussions about it on HN, there are other forums for such hobbyists.
politekc 13y ago
One thing that's pretty important to remember here is that it's incredibly easy to boot from any of the peripheral busses on modern computers, especially OS X. If home or professional replacement of a HDD was necessary but unavailable, Thunderbolt could be a viable alternative (and USB 3.0 an inexpensive one). 10gbps would definitely cover your fastest SSD on SATA 6.0gbps and there wouldn't be a need for heat guns, etc. Not exactly SATA but damn close.

acomjean 13y ago

I never understood why they would make a bulky machine hard to upgarde. I have a 1.1 mac pro tower. So easy to open/add memory and hard drives. Even my polycarb (white) macbook was easy to update the hard drive. Harddrives will fail... It shouldn't be hard to replace them.

johndevor 13y ago
What percentage of users upgrade their machines?
terabytest 13y ago
They want you to buy a new one.
numbsafari 13y ago
This will sound pedantic, but... It isn't hard to replace them. You pull out your iPhone, use the Apple Store App to schedule an appointment, drop off your iMac at the store, go have lunch at Sbarro and then pick it up and go home. If you are buying an iMac, you are buying a sealed solution. If you are the kind of user who wants to replace HDD or upgrade components, the iMac is not the computer you should buy. Bad buyer! A lot has been made of Steve Jobs comments about cars and trucks and the future of computers. I think that is very much how Apple views what they do. The iMac is a family-friendly, automatic sedan or wagon for the kind of person who gets his oil changes done at the dealership because they have a nice waiting room there.
- kunai 13y ago
  He said Apple would continue to sell trucks and cars, but he expects the cars to cannibalize the truck market. There's no use in a truck with a bed cover that's locked into place and unremovable. There's equally no use in a truck that's not built body-on-frame, and the Mac, one of my favorite computing platforms, is moving away from it.
  - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
    The truck analogy wasn’t about internal upgradability, it was about devices running a mobile OS versus devices with desktop OS (notebooks, desktops, etc.). In Jobs’ analogy, the upcoming Mac Pro is just as much a truck as the current one is. However, Steve Jobs didn’t say that Apple would continue selling trucks, just that companies would. Here’s the full quote: When you did your presentation on the iPad, you described it as a new category of device, says Walt [Mossberg]. But in order for it to succeed, people have to feel that it’s worth carrying around. Do you think the tablet will succeed the laptop, he asks. “When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks, because that’s what you needed on the farm. But as vehicles started to be used in the urban centers, cars got more popular. Innovations like automatic transmission and power steering and things that you didn’t care about in a truck as much started to become paramount in cars. … PCs are going to be like trucks. They’re still going to be around, they’re still going to have a lot of value, but they’re going to be used by one out of X people. … I think that we’re embarked on that. Is the next step the iPad? Who knows? Will it happen next year or five years from now or seven years from now? Who knows? But I think we’re headed in that direction.” http://allthingsd.com/20100601/steve-jobs-session/ http://allthingsd.com/20100601/steve-jobs-session/
  - dntrkv 13y ago
    Your analogy is nothing like what Apple is doing. A more apt analogy would be selling trucks that don't have easily upgradeable engines where you wouldn't be able to access the engine components without a ton of work, which is exactly how they build most trucks nowadays. The sealed bedcover is more like a limitation in software since that's part of the functionality of the truck. Upgrading a Mac isn't part of the functionality, it's something you do to increase the speed at which you work on it. And as for the body-on-frame comparison, I don't really know what you mean there. If you are talking about the actual, physical chassis of the MacPro not being on a conventional computer frame, then again, that is a bad analogy since a body-on-frame chassis on a truck directly affects the towing and load capability of a truck, which is not so with computers. You can have your components scattered across the floor and they would perform just as well as in a conventional chassis.

threeseed 13y ago

It's all pretty simple really. The number of people who want more hard disk space and aren't willing to use an external drive is small. So small in fact that it isn't worth Apple's time to design a computer specifically catered to them.

Touche 13y ago
True, but the number of people who want an all-in-one desktop is also very small, and probably intersects with the people who want to replace stuff more than the general population of computer users does.
- cloverich 13y ago
  Counterpoint - what are the chances Apple hasn't run the numbers on that, and made the (business wise) correct decision?
  - Touche 13y ago
    You're right, we should never question a business's decisions because they have more data than us and cannot possibly be wrong
    - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
      Given that the iMac is the best selling consumer desktop computer ever, I think it’s safe to assume Apple has put some thought into the matter.
      - iends 13y ago
        It's likely only the "best selling desktop computer ever" because of the abundance of choice for non-mac users. Not sure how that's relevant to the parent's point though...
        Samuel_Michon 13y ago

mej10 13y ago

I agree. I was glad to find that it is easy to upgrade the RAM, it would be awesome if the hard drive was just as easy. I ended up going the external thunderbolt SSD upgrade route, since I didn't really feel comfortable pulling apart my expensive new computer. It works great, but has obvious down sides.

gr2020 13y ago
What obvious downsides are you referring to? In the past it was performance, but that's not an issue with thunderbolt...
- Qerub 13y ago
  I have the same setup with an external Thunderbolt SSD (from LaCie). I'm aware of the following downsides: * The only Thunderbolt port on my 2011 iMac is occupied. * I can accidentally remove my system disk if I'm clumsy (and crash my system). * I can't hide the disk and can see it if I stand beside the desk. No biggies in other words. Very happy with the setup.
  - nknighthb 13y ago
    > The only Thunderbolt port on my 2011 iMac is occupied. An unfortunate design flaw specifically on LaCie's part. As with FireWire before it, and SCSI before that, Thunderbolt is a daisy-chain interface. Single-port devices in such ecosystems are best considered defective.
    - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
      And even then, if you have one device with only one Thunderbolt port, you can always place it at the end of the chain.
  - mej10 13y ago
    Yep, these are the ones I was referring to. Nothing major, and I do like my setup.
- 13y ago

antidaily 13y ago

I swapped my HD for an SSD. Took 10 minutes with right tools (suction cups, etc) from OWC. There's a hundred YouTube instructional vids to help you along the way.

alayne 13y ago
The new screens are glued.
- mmagin 13y ago
  Maybe I've been reading too much iFixit propaganda, but isn't this just going to cause the production of more "e-waste"? Or are we counting on third-world child labor to eventually take broken iMacs apart and fix them up for sale in non-first-world markets?
  - PeterisP 13y ago
    Yes it is going to make more "e-waste", but it's clear that we as the whole society prefer slight improvements size/weight/style over issues such as e-waste or possibility for repairs. In words we often say differently, but the our actual actions show this preference very clearly.

terhechte 13y ago

I really like how easy it is to upgrade the RAM. They should make updating harddrives just as easy.

bestham 13y ago
Try upgrading the memory in the 21.5" version, you are going to need a soldering iron and a lot of time.

bowlofpetunias 13y ago

Who still upgrades their own machine? I like to tinker with hardware a little, which is why every 3 years or so I put my own home server together even though I could probably buy a cheaper ready-made solution. In the days of my old Apple Powerbook I've pretty much replaced everything from memory, harddisk to optical drive, even though the latter definitely wasn't made to be upgraded by end-uses. But in the last 10 years I've never had to upgrade any hardware, not even the stuff I've put together myself. The days where upgrading was a natural part of the lifecycle of a computer are in the past. Storage and memory has become cheaper so computers are well equipped from the start, and the need for rapid upgrades in order to be able to use the latest software is no longer an issue except in very small niches.

dntrkv 13y ago
My 2011 iMac came with a 500gb hdd. I decided to upgrade it to a 256gb ssd. Coming from a Windows PC background, I figured it would be a 15 minute at most installation. I even ordered the $40 hdd replacement kit from OWC, and it took me a good 2-3 hours to carefully disassemble and reassemble. The worst part was sliding the motherboard back down below the bezel. Holy shit I was gonna throw the thing against the wall. But yes, for the most part I agree with you but we still aren't quite there yet. I think it wouldn't be too much to ask to have the ssd located in an easy to access spot like the ram is.
Miyamoto 13y ago
> Who still upgrades their own machine? Hardware enthusiasts? PC gamers? Really, what a silly question on a tech oriented website. That's like asking who works on their car over at Jalopnik.
- bowlofpetunias 13y ago
  Personal computers aren't interesting "tech" anymore, they are commodity consumer products which most of us discard after a few years. Tinkering with your own PC is rapidly becoming a niche similar to model trains. (Or working on your own car, also completely unnecessary and doesn't yield any new insights or advances.) It's not about tech and curiosity anymore, just another hobby. And as such, you'll never see discussions about it on HN, there are other forums for such hobbyists.

politekc 13y ago

One thing that's pretty important to remember here is that it's incredibly easy to boot from any of the peripheral busses on modern computers, especially OS X. If home or professional replacement of a HDD was necessary but unavailable, Thunderbolt could be a viable alternative (and USB 3.0 an inexpensive one). 10gbps would definitely cover your fastest SSD on SATA 6.0gbps and there wouldn't be a need for heat guns, etc. Not exactly SATA but damn close.