iFixit

The next logical step was to remove the iMac's logic board.

• We know, we're terrible.

We flip the board over and get our first glimpse of the goodies side, which reveals, well, a lot of goodies.

Good news: The iMac's RAM is "user-replaceable."

Bad news: You have to unglue your screen and remove the logic board in order to do so.

• This is just barely less-terrible than having soldered RAM that's completely non-removable.

Our bargain-basement unit has a solid 8 GB of Hynix PC3-12800 RAM.

Like a young fellow nervous to dance at prom, the AirPort card sits inconspicuously in the corner.

After a short hiatus, Broadcom is back to bring WLAN capabilities to the iMac.

A Broadcom BCM4331 single-chip WLAN solution dominates the tiny AirPort card.

The three Wi-Fi antennas are run by three Skyworks SE5515 Dual-Band frontend chips.

New from last year's model, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are integrated into the same card, with the addition of a BCM20702 single-chip Bluetooth 4.0 processor.

And off comes that honkin' heat sink!

• And along with it…what's this…the CPU???

The new iMac uses a spring-loaded, FCLGA1155 socket to make all those little electrical signals go into, and out of, the CPU.

The Intel Core i5-3330S is clocked at 2.7 GHz, but can stretch its legs up to 3.2 GHz if needed.

This is the bottom rung of the ladder as far as processors in the iMac go. You can max out a 21.5" machine with a 3.1 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 3.9 GHz.

Major players on the front side of the Lo-Bo:

• Nvidia GeForce GT 640M GPU
• Intel E213B384 platform controller hub
• Texas Instruments Stellaris LM4FS1AH microcontroller
• 2x Hynix H5GQ2H24AFR GDDR5 SGRAM
• National Semiconductor VM22AC
• Delta 8904C-F
• Broadcom BCM57765A1KMLG gigabit ethernet controller with integrated SDXC card reader

Sneakily hidden on the backside of the logic board, we find a few more chips:

• Intel DSL3510L Cactus Ridge Thunderbolt controller
• Analog Devices SSM3302 audio amplifier
• Vimicro VC0359 webcam processor
• Intersil ISL6364 multi-phase pulse width modulation (PWM) controller
• Cirrus Logic 4206BCNZ audio controller, the same chip as found in last year's 21.5"

So, ummm...

See these traces on the board here?

See this other hole on the left?

Looks like this is where Apple's proprietary SSD connector should reside.

• Placing the SSD from the 13" MacBook Pro Retina Display confirms this notion. If the shoe fits...

We purchased the "bargain-basement" version of the iMac. We're assuming that the more-expensive version—one that has the built-to-order Fusion drive option—has this connector soldered onto the board, and a 128GB SSD placed into said connector.

Looks like there'll be no love for our awesome dual-drive kit from this iMac generation. :(