2020 iMac Teardown opens internal changes and agreements

The 2020 27-inch ‌iMac‌ was announced earlier this week featuring 10th-generation Intel Core processors, AMD Radeon Pro 5000 series graphics, up to 128GB of RAM, up to 8TB of storage, a 1080p front-facing FaceTime camera, a True Tone camera display with a nano-textured glass option, higher fidelity speakers, and studio-quality microphones.

MacRumors Forum User TwoH summarizes the changes:

– Camera is attached to the LCD, so take extra care to remove a third cable when opening the ‌iMac‌.
– Lack of mechanical HDD (and SATA connectors on logicboard) – but this was obvious.
– Additional microphone (s) attached to the case, in particular an additional cable made connection to tje logic board near the backlight. Others connect about the same position as the 2017/19 models.
– Sale joints for the 4 & 8TB model iMacs.

The biggest change in the 2020 27-inch ‌iMac‌ is the lack of mechanical hard drive, as all models now come standard with SSDs. OWC notes that disassembly now seems faster for this reason. There are no more SATA connectors in the machine and a small SSD is soldered directly to the motherboard. Instead, there are new soldering forces for an expansion board to hold additional SSDs in the 4TB and 8TB configurations. In the 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB configurations, the expansion board is not present.

The lack of mechanical hard disk has left a large amount of unused free space in the machine. It’s worth noting that Apple has not chosen to implement the extra cooling present in the iMac Pro in this space, probably due to cost.

Another internal change is the extra microphone attached to the bottom of the case, with the other microphone in the same position as previous years. The new 1080p webcam is connected to the LCD, so special care must be taken to remove a third cable when opening the machine.

OWC indicated solder joints and mounts that may be where the 4TB and 8TB models have flash storage expansion boards.

Except for these small changes, the internals are almost the same as previous models, with the same power supply, cooling, CPU with socket and headphone jack. Although the speakers have been upgraded, they do not appear visually different in the machine.

Because of the 2020 ‌iMac‌ parts of almost all of its internal components with earlier models, it will probably not be more expensive or difficult to repair than previous models. Likewise, most parts from previous years should be compatible with this new model.

The only part of the 2020 ‌iMac‌ that is still easily upgraded is the RAM, which is accessible through a small door on the back of the device.