 So two of the main arguments that PC guys will make about Macs is number one, they're really expensive, and number two, they're very difficult to upgrade. So I've actually been using the Mac for over a month now as my daily driver, and quite frankly, from a hardware perspective, the iMac 5K 27-inch Retina blah-de-blah, this thing, actually not that bad, especially if you look at the projected price of other 5K displays and the hardware that's included with it. But that's not the subject of today's video. For today's video, we are going to be cracking this bad boy open and talking about the experience of upgrading the hardware versus the experience of upgrading the hardware on a typical PC, where in theory, although I've never done this before, it is much easier. So I intentionally ordered a Mac that didn't have a ton of storage, didn't have a hard drive so that I could add an SSD for more storage, in our case, a 1TB Class SSD Now V310 from Kingston, and I ordered one with only 8GB of RAM, A, to see how OS X handled a more, you know, down-to-earth configuration, and B, because upgrade RAM is so expensive when you order the Mac in the first place, that I wanted to instead throw in some Mac-compatible RAM. In this case, we're going to be throwing in 32GB of it, also courtesy of Kingston. So, come along for the ride then, guys. We're going to upgrade the iMac. Ensure swift victory with Corsair's highly responsive, lightweight gaming mouse, the Sabre RGB. Click now to learn more. So I want to begin this adventure with a couple of shout-outs to our buddies at Kingston, who provided an SSD for us to use in the hard drive slot of our SSD-only iMac to add some not-quite-PCIe-fast, but still very fast, solid-state storage, and 32GB of their Apple-compatible SODIMM memory, as well as iFixit, whose excellent guide and tools we used throughout the deconstruction process. Speaking of which, the first thing I noticed as I begun this process was the tools required. On a typical PC, I'd expect to be able to do everything I needed with a standard multi-bit screwdriver from the local hardware store, and in most cases, I'd never use anything but the Phillips head. On the Mac, the process starts with a special little pizza cutter tool, and requires credit cards, a spudger, torque screws throughout, and finally, some custom-cut adhesive strips for reassembly. So because you can't just up and decide you're going to open it one day for giggles, the local, you know, store is unlikely to carry all that stuff, and the Mac uses non-standard internals, so you'll need to order any replacement parts you need online anyway, there is a significant time barrier to DIY Mac upgrades and repairs that will deter a great many people from ever attempting something like this, especially if their Mac is the only computer they have, and they need it back up and running quickly. The next thing I noticed was the difficulty level. Compared to a PC, an iMac upgrade is much less friendly to newcomers. There's no remove the side panel, realize you're in over your head, and bail. I mean, once you cut the adhesive strips, it's basically point of no return. Most of the connectors are these thin, fragile ribbon cables with tiny contact pins on the ends that make even SATA's laughable 50 insertion rating look robust, and the internal guts need to be handled with extreme care to avoid damaging them and to avoid damaging yourself. The power supply contacts on the back of the PCB are completely exposed, but should not be touched under any circumstances. This could severely injure or even kill you. Disassembling the iMac was honestly pretty nerve-wracking for me, since I've never done it before, and the only time I've done something even similarly delicate was when I replaced the broken screen on my wife's DRAID DNA phone, which was even then comparatively no big deal, since I was working with something that was already broken in that case. With the iMac, one slip-up could turn into a $3,000 paperweight, and I'm exaggerating a little bit, you could replace the dead components, but still very expensive. So most people, even with an excellent written or video guide, will not be comfortable tackling this. And the final thing I noticed about the process was the actual upgrade or modification possibilities. Frankly, there's just not a lot you can do to the iMac once you've finally got it open. I was only about 30 minutes into my teardown, and almost at the part where I was ready to install my shiny 960GB SSD when I got to the step in the guide that said to remove the hard drive cable from the hard drive. Well, I got an SSD-only iMac instead of a Fusion Drive one, so mine doesn't have a hard drive. Or a hard drive cable. I called up iFixit to find out if we could get our replacement cable overnighted to us, only to have them tell me that because this model is so new, replacement cables are not available yet. The data connection is a standard one, so I actually considered just soldering a standard SATA power lead onto the proprietary header after checking the voltages, but upon further reading online, I discovered that even if we did find one, and put in an add-in drive and solder it together, it's possible that the iMac's fan would spin at full speed all the time, thanks to the hard drive temperature detection not working correctly. So I was defeated as far as the hard drive upgrade was concerned. But I decided to finish the teardown for fun and see what else we can change while we're in here. Removing the power supply, speakers, and logic board was all surprisingly okay, pretty easy, once we'd made it this far. But honestly, even stripping it down that far reveals very few user-swappable components. The hinge at the back could be replaced with a VESA-compatible one if it was available separately, but as it is, Apple requires you to decide at the time of ordering the iMac which version you want. The SSD could be replaced if Apple was allowing third-party vendors to make replacement drives yet. The wireless module could be upgraded if it wasn't already a top-of-the-line 3-spatial-stream AC module. The graphics card could be upgraded if it wasn't a mobile GPU soldered to the motherboard. I mean, I think you're starting to see a pattern here. It basically leaves the CPU, although ours already has a 4790K in there, so there's nothing better to put in that socket, and the RAM, which could just as easily be accessed by pressing the little release on the hatch at the back of the Mac, and doesn't require any sort of teardown in order to swap, at least until our Apple overlords decide that we are worthy of being allowed to upgrade the other things inside. So I guess all that's left is the conclusion at this point. Are the trade-offs that Apple makes on the iMac 5K 27-inch with respect to design, function, cost, and performance right? Or would I prefer they did it differently? As far as performance is concerned, I actually think for most people this is a pretty good sweet spot. It uses a full desktop CPU, although we'll investigate thermal throttling in an upcoming video, and while gamers might bemoan the R9 295M GPU, I will remind them that this is not a gaming machine, and frankly, even a gaming GPU won't be playing AAA titles at 5K anyway. The cost is almost justifiable in my mind for the hardware that you're getting, and if the 5K display could be recycled for another computer afterwards, then that would be a slam dunk for me, and the design is subjectively beautiful. But where the Mac really let me down was in terms of the upgradability, not because it can't be upgraded well enough, it's actually more easily modifiable than many other super slim devices, mostly notebooks and especially tablets, but because Apple locks down what few choices I had for hardware changes, forcing me, other than RAM, to pay far too much for upgrades to what is also a very expensive machine in the first place at the checkout, as a tinkerer and a hardware geek, the iMac 27-inch 5K Retina just doesn't make sense to me, but I can hope that that will change over time as it becomes slightly less shiny and slightly less new and we're allowed to put slightly other more different things inside. Speaking of things that I hope will change over time, the way that mobile carriers operate, I'd love to see more of them work the same way as today's episode sponsor, Ting.com. Ting lets you pay for only the talk, text, and data that you use. They use the Sprint network as their backbone rather than a janky small one, and with the rates that they offer, over 90% of the US customers that they polled would save money by switching to Ting. So to find out if you would save money, just head over to the link in the video description and use their savings calculator. And if you like what you see, until January 5th, 2015, Ting will even pitch in up to 50% of the cost to terminate your current contract up to 150 bucks. Then, starting in February, any GSM compatible devices, that's like 80% of smartphones out there in the US, will be able to be used on the Ting network, including the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Woo-woo! So head over to Ting.com slash Linus to get 25 bucks in device or service credit with a new account today, on top of everything else I said. Good stuff. Thanks for watching, guys. Like this video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it, leave a comment if your feelings are more complicated than this. 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