iFixit disassembles new iMacs, finds spare SSD slot and more
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 has 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-inch 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-inch 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 WiFi, and also features a BCM20702 Bluetooth 4.0 chip.
iFIxit also reports that there's a new slimmer CPU heatsink 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.
