iFixit did their patented (well, the process should be patented) teardowns of a pair of brand new iMacs and as usual, the team of technicians have found some unexpected surprises.
In a quest to find out just how repairable the new iMacs are, iFixit opened up both the 21.5- and 27-inch models to see what makes them tick. Both new iMacs sport a way to add a second hard drive through the Fusion Drive SSD port. The port features a PCIe connection, so it will just be up to third-party vendors to come up with adapters to allow a simple drive installation.
The 21.5″ model no longer has a replaceable CPU, with the previously socketed processor now soldered directly to the logic board. Fortunately for power users, they can still replace the CPU in the 27″ model.
Both new iMacs have a new AirPort/Bluetooth card that is on the back of the logic board. The card uses a Broadcom BCM4360 802.11ac transceiver and three Skyworks SE5516 WLAN front-end modules for ultra-fast Wi-Fi, and also features a BCM20702 Bluetooth 4.0 chip.
iFIxit also reports that there’s a new slimmer CPU heat sink and an update to the hard drive SATA power/data cables. The full teardown for the 21.5-inch model is available here, while the 27-inch is here.
iFixit disassembles new iMacs, finds spare SSD slot and more originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 25 Sep 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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