The iMac Pro comes in at a price of $4,999 and gets terrific all-around hardware for the aforementioned price. However, when you decide that you need just a little more storage, RAM, or processing cores because the work that you’re doing is a little more intensive than you thought, what is the upgradability potential of the machine? Looks like this teardown holds the answer to that question.
At This Point, the RAM, Storage, and Maybe the CPU Are Upgradable but Tearing Down the iMac Pro Is Not for the Faint of Hear
Here are a couple of interesting things that we want to detail in the latest iMac Pro teardown. For simplicity and the convenience of reading, we have provided these details in bullet form.
- The base model iMac Pro features 32GB of RAM in a 4 x 8GB configuration. There are a total of four DIMM sockets, and the 4 x 8GB configuration allows it to take advantage of its quad-channel memory capability.
- The 1TB SSD features two 512GB SSDs in a RAID configuration. Each SSD features a tamper-proof sticker on top of the screw housing. Luckily for you, both drives are easily removable thanks to a simple unscrew.
- Apple does allow RAM upgrades via authorized service providers, but that will also mean that the personnel will have to get through the $5,000 machine. Authorized or not, you would have to be really gutsy to get to unscrew the machine and check out the innards afterward. The plus side is that the components will be upgradable.
- According to the teardown from OWC, the Intel Xeon processor is held with a generous amount of thermal component and certainly looks upgradable but more tests are going to have to take place to confirm this.
OWC also provides its own recommendation on upgrading the memory.
“That being said, with consideration to the relatively limited trade-in value of the lowest base 32GB option, the current cost of a full 64GB or 128GB kit and the labor involved with the upgrade – we currently recommend purchasing an iMac Pro with the amount of memory you believe will be needed. While it is huge benefit to have the option in the future, at present the financial benefit is relatively small vs. the factory cost differences to upgrade from that base 32GB. Over time this difference will likely grow and a real benefit will come to be, but for now we do feel the knowledge that an upgrade is possible is of more benefit than choosing to upgrade aftermarket at this time.”
The teardown is not as extensive as the one that we will eventually see from iFixit but at least you have a small idea of which components are potentially upgradable.
News Source: 9to5Mac
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
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