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iMac Pro Teardown Highlights Modular RAM, CPU and SSD Along With Redesigned Internals (macrumors.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the it's-what's-on-the-inside-that-matters dept.

Popular repair site iFixit has acquired an iMac Pro and opened it up to see what's inside. They tore down the base iMac Pro with an 8-core processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Mac Rumors reports the findings: iFixit found that the RAM, CPU, and SSDs in the iMac Pro are modular and can potentially be replaced following purchase, but most of the key components "require a full disassembly to replace." Standard 27-inch iMacs have a small hatch in the back that allows easy access to the RAM for post-purchase upgrades, but that's missing in the iMac Pro. Apple has said that iMac Pro owners will need to get RAM replaced at an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider. iFixit says that compared to the 5K 27-inch iMac, replacing the RAM in the iMac Pro is indeed "a major undertaking."

Apple is using standard 288-pin DDR4 ECC RAM sticks with standard chips, which iFixit was able to upgrade using its own $2,000 RAM upgrade kit. A CPU upgrade is "theoretically possible," but because Apple uses a custom-made Intel chip, it's not clear if an upgrade is actually feasible. The same goes for the SSDs -- they're modular and removable, but custom made by Apple. Unlike the CPU, the GPU is BGA-soldered into place and cannot be removed. The internals of the iMac Pro are "totally different" from other iMacs, which is unsurprising as Apple said it introduced a new thermal design to accommodate the Xeon-W processors and Radeon Pro Vega GPUs built into the machines. The new thermal design includes an "enormous" dual-fan cooler, what iFixit says is a "ginormous heat sink," and a "big rear vent." Overall, iFixit gave the iMac Pro a repairability score of 3/10 since it's difficult to open and tough to get to internal components that might need to be repaired or replaced.

7 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. You Have To Be An Idiot To Buy Apple by alternative_right · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yesterday's hardware at tomorrow's prices, just so you can claim you like the kindergarten-level operating system with all the useful internals obscured. And then, it's a walled garden, and you have few hardware options. Just lubricate your anus before you walk into the Apple store, because you will be sodomized financially and spiritually by this runaway virus of a company.

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    Alternative Right.
    1. Re: You Have To Be An Idiot To Buy Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      While not so for the lower lines, Apple typically has the latest processors for the Pro lines before competitors (at least, at the time of a refresh).

      Is there really an OS as robust as macOS really Kindergarten-level or is your assessment purely a consequence of your distaste for color and hipsters?

      iOS is a wall gardened, but the macOS isn't. Install whatever shit you'd like.

      Perhaps next time you could offer an adult assessment focused on Apple's push for obsolence, and the inherent greed, anti-environmentalism, etc. involved.

      Crazy thought, I know. Course, it'd require you to go back on the meds. (You may rant now, never offending my eyes again with your Trumpster-like crusade against anything you didn't pick yourself. I won't return to read it.)

  2. Re:CPU and storage probably upgradable, eventually by rtb61 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Looking at the design, I am surprised, that Apple hasn't altered the design. In reality the CPU should be attached to the back plate and then the motherboard fitted over it. This would allow the entire back plate to be the heat sink and heat exchanger, obviating the need for a fan. I am surprised desktops have also not made this change. There is no reason the entire side of a PC tower could be a solid piece of finned aluminium obviating the need for a fan. Simply fit the CPU to the side plate and fit the motherboard on top, so CPU on one side of the motherboard, whilst all other bits on the other side, no fan required, as you have over a square foot of heat sink and a few square feed of heat exchange from the fins.

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    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  3. Re:LCD attachment by crunchygranola · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Non-reparability is a feature not a bug. It is broken by design, at the direction of management at the highest levels.

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    Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
  4. Re:Apple never learns by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Oh yes Apple learned. Selling 20% quality-up 80% more worked well, so far.

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    Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
  5. Re:Once again, why buy one? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am absolutely not impressed with the precision. Their laptops are just as precise. Lately, Apple seem to value thinness above all else (even performance).

    The processors are basically B-spec versions (i.e. clocked down, probably undervolted) of the Xeon W series they are practically clones of and the Vega GPUs are clocked down versions of their desktop counterparts too.

    Most pros I know have performance near the top of their priority list, not thinness. I'd like to run my software as fast as possible, not sit there masturbating to how sexy and thin Apple's machine is.

    Maybe the next Mac Pro will give more room to allow less garbage thermals but given Apple's obsession with thinness right now I'm not holding my breath.

  6. Re: Once again, why buy one? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Last I checked, Ferrari and co didn't buy stock Hyundai engines, drop them into an escort body mod kit and call it a day after jacking the price up.