Teardowns

New 20″ iMac Disassembled

We took apart our first iMac! Here’s a summary of what we learned:

disassembling the glass for the 20
Disassembling the new 20″ iMac
  • The processor is socketed (not permanently mounted), but there’s “Warranty void if removed” sticker covering the current processor.
  • As Apple announced, Firewire 400 is no more. Apple threw in an extra USB port to placate the mournful.
  • The display still uses an older CCFL backlight, rather than a LED backlight used in Apple’s new notebooks.
  • The low-end model that we received only has a 320 GB hard drive; unfortunately, replacing the hard drive is quite involved.
  • The Superdrive is finally SATA, and it’s 12.7mm high instead of the slimmer 9.5mm drives in the MacBook Unibody notebooks.
  • There’s space in the low-end model for an additional heat sink. This is assumedly included if you order the model with a higher end graphics card.
  • The only Phillips screw is a single screw on the RAM access door. All the internal screws are Torx.
Removing the glass on the 20" iMac
Removing the glass