2919 iFixIt's Director of Technical Communication Miroslav Djuric says that once the iFixIt team heard the news that the new iMacs were out, they knew what they had to do: start sharpening their suction cups!

The suction cup gamble paid off, says Djuric, since they discovered very early on that this latest iMac model opens the same way previous generations did. All you have to do is pull off the magnetically-held display glass with two medium-size suction cups, and then remove the screws holding the LCD in place.

Photo Courtesy iFixIt

But what lay inside?

Djuric reports that the 21.5" iMac scored a very respectable 7 out of 10 Repairability Score, with most of the disassembly pretty straightforward and accomplished using just a T10 Torx screwdriver and the aforementioned suction cups. The verdict is that a casual user can easily replace or add RAM, although it's moderately difficult to access the hard drive and optical drive. However he says that more adventurous users (those wanting to upgrade the CPU/GPU) will be obliged to remove the logic board, which is a tricky processs, and will also in the process void their warranty if they replace the CPU. Another caveat: it's also quite difficult to reassemble the LCD and glass without a dust mite getting stuck in between the two.

iFixIt teardown highlights:

* The LED display is manufactured by LG and is denoted by its model number LM215WF3. This is the same display used in the previous generation 21.5" iMac.

* Similar (but not exactly the same) to the Thunderbolt IC we found in the latest MacBook Pro 15", the new iMac features the Intel L102IA84 EFL Thunderbolt port IC.

* The optional SSD appears to reside beneath the optical drive -- or at least that's the only space the iFixIt investigators could find where something was clearly missing. There's three mounting points under the optical drive that have nothing attached to them in the teardown machine, since this option is only available on 2.7 GHz 21.5" iMacs.

* If you want to remove the logic board, you have to snake it out from the rest of the iMac -- a combination of pulling up, as well as away from the casing. However, after a little bit of jiggling, it comes right out.

Photo Courtesy iFixIt

* In usual Apple fashion, one heat sink is reserved for the CPU, while the other oversees the GPU. And, in usual Apple fashion, you have to void the warranty in order to get a peep at the CPU processing power underneath. "Of course," says, Miroslav Djuric, we'll do *almost anything* in the name of science: http://bit.ly/for_science

* After popping off the CPU heat sink, you can get a good look at the Core i5 processor. The teardown machine is powered by a quad-core 2.5 GHz Core i5-2800S CPU with 6 MB of Intel Smart Cache.

* With a bit of magic, the GPU heat sink detaches from the logic board, exposing the AMD GPU daughtercard board, which means you don't have to replace the entire logic board if your GPU explodes from too much l33t gaming or somesuch. You can just swap out the GPU board for another one.

* The main chips on the GPU board include the AMD Radeon HD 6750M GPU, as well as four Hynix H5GQ1H24AFR T2L 1 Gb GDDR SDRAM chips (totaling a cumulative 512 MB).

* Thankfully, Djuric observes, both the CPU and GPU on this machine have proper amounts of thermal paste applied, a happy departure from the gobs applied to the MacBook Pro iFixIt recently took apart.

* The big winner in the wireless communication area this time around is Atheros. At the heart of the Wi-Fi card is an Atheros AR9388-AL1A 802.11n wireless LAN chip.

* At the heart of the Bluetooth board lies a Broadcom BCM2046 Bluetooth IC, as well as 256 KB of SST 39VF200A CMOS Multi-Purpose Flash (MPF). iFixIt found this same Broadcom chip a long time ago in the first MacBook Air, but If it ain't broke, why fix it?

* Key players on the logic board include:
* 2.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5-2800S CPU with 6 MB of Intel Smart Cache.
* Intel BD82Z68 Platform Controller Hub
* Broadcom BCM57765B0KMLG Integrated Gigabit Ethernet and Memory Card Reader Controller
* Cirrus 4206BCNZ audio controller
* SMSC USX2061 (we believe this a USB 2.0 Hub Controller Family)
* Intersil ISL6364 CRZ Single-Phase Synchronous-Buck PWM voltage regulator for GPU core power applications
* Intel L102IA84 EFL Thunderbolt port IC

And here it is in all its torn-down splendor. Glad I'm not the one who has to put it back together, but I guess I'm not as scientifically inclined as the iFixIt folks.

Photo Courtesy iFixIt

For the full teardown report and gallery of photos, visit:
http://bit.ly/jQqmfB

Tags: Hot Topics ï News ï

Login † or † Register † †