Teardown of new iMac, Macbook, Mini & Magic Mouse

  • Posted on: October 25th, 2009
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iFixit has torn down Apple’s new releases which include the new iMac, Macbook and Mgaic Mouse.

They discovered that the new iMacs feature:

  • Use of the 27″ iMac as an external display via its MiniDisplayPort connector requires that the machine be fully powered up, as the signal is routed through the main logic board.
  • The 27″ iMac unsurprisingly carries the biggest power supply ever seen in an iMac, putting out 310 watts.
  • The CPU and GPU are located on opposite sides of the machine and have separate massive heat sinks, allowing Apple to utilize desktop-class processors within the thin iMac’s profile for the first time. In addition to the heat sinks, the iMac carries six temperature sensors and three large fans to aid in heat dissipation.
  • The AirPort antenna is routed to directly behind the Apple logo on the rear of the machine, providing better Wi-Fi performance by placing the antenna next to the only plastic portion of the machine’s back.

For more images of the teardown of the new iMac, please click HERE.

The new unibody Macbook features:

  • There is no external indicator of battery charge state.
  • There is no infrared port, meaning that the new model is incompatible with Apple Remotes.
  • The integrated battery offers only 9% more capacity than on previous models (60 watt-hours vs. 55), but Apple claims an increase in battery life to 7 hours from the previous 5 hours, suggesting that the new model is more energy efficient. The new battery is significantly lighter than in the previous generation, offering a power-to-weight ratio that is 23.5% better.
  • The hard drive is more difficult to replace than on previous models, but certainly can be done.
  • The apparently increased rigidity in the latest model appears to come the use of an aluminum sheet (covered with a rubberized coating on the exterior) for the bottom case and other structural supports within the body of the machine.
  • The Bluetooth antenna is routed into the display housing, likely improving range compared to previous models that placed the antenna in the body of the machine above the optical drive.

For more images of the teardown of the Macbook, please click HERE.

They also torn down the Magic Mouse. It is revealed the Magic Mouse uses a keyboard-and-mouse-specific BCM2042 Bluetooth chip from Broadcom for communication. For more images of the teardown of the Magic Mouse, please click HERE.

Last but not least, macminicolo.net has done a comparative dissection of the new traditional and server Mac minis. The two machines pretty much identical with the exception of swapping in a second hard drive for the optical drive (and a corresponding modification to the exterior case to eliminate the optical drive slot) in the server model.

For more images of the teardown of the Mac Mini, please click HERE.{

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