If you were to spend $5,000 on a computer what would you want it to be?
When it comes to the iMac Pro, Apple says it just needs to be pretty, quiet and
have a ton of professional processing power. But if you're looking for upgrade
ability and expandability this device might not be the one that you're looking
for, but it is the first pro level Mac since 2013. So today we're gonna tear
down the new iMac Pro. The higher price tag hasn't changed the opening procedure
on this iMac, I'm gonna pull out my pizza cutter aka our iMac opening tool to cut
away the adhesive around the display and that'll grab some heavy suction cups to
help me lift the display off. The iMac Pro's display uses the same panel we
found on the iMac 5k an LG made 27 inch display with a resolution of 5120 by
2880. But you won't be able to swap the displays between the Pro and the 5k as
the cabling arrangement and web cam hardware have been moved around.
Before we get any further let's take a moment to appreciate this interior. For a
company that does whatever they can do to discourage people from opening their
devices, Apple never fails to design some beautiful interiors. Now let's start
taking the pieces out first up the fan. This enormous dual fan cooler is held in
place by just a few screws, and is part of Apple's new thermal management design.
While it provides an 80% increase in cooling capacity, we lose the external
RAM access hatch in favor of a giant rear vent. The logic board comes out next
and while the airport card functions have been consolidated into the board, we
still get a removable SSD in the form of these two pcie-based 512 gigabyte SSDs.
We've also got some standard 288 pin DDR4 ECC RAM sticks which means
expanding your RAM is possible, but getting to them is a major undertaking.
But for those brave fixers out there who want to max out their RAM you can use
our iMac Pro Memory Maxxer kit to boost your RAM up to 128 gigs. Underneath the
enormous heatsink we find the GPU which is sadly soldered in place, and on the
other side a workstation class Xeon processor which can be removed.
Whether or not CPU upgrades are possible remains to be seen since this does seem to be a
custom-made for Apple by Intel processor. But theoretically it is
possible. Lastly we're left with the 500 watt power supply and the enhanced stereo
speakers which according to some early reports live up to the hype of being the
best sounding speaker you can get on a Mac. With everything out of the iMac
it's time to talk repairability. The iMac Pro scored a 3 out of 10.
On the upside the RAM and CPU are both modular, meaning repairs and upgrades are a go.
The dual SSDs are modular but they're custom made by Apple. Cutting the tape to open
the iMac isn't too hard with the right tools, but it must then be replaced to
complete any repair. And on the downside: Key replaceable components are buried
behind the logic board requiring a ton of disassembly for access. The loss of
the external Ram access hatch makes for much more challenging upgrades compared
to the 27-inch iMac 5k. And lastly, the GPU is BGA soldered in place potentially
a major drawback on a pro workstation. No easy upgrades here so choose your
configuration wisely. That's all for this huge teardown be sure to hit that
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