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Minch_Yoda · Sep 17, 2004, 06:29 PM

on the iMac G5 Knowledge Base documents there is the iMac G5 parts you can install yourself and it says:
Mid-plane assembly (contains the main logic board, the G5 processor, fans, NVIDIA graphics processor, and so forth).
so i know its possible to install a new graphics card but how would you do it ? and will apple actualy sell Mid-plane assembly's with better graphics cards

chrisutley · Sep 17, 2004, 07:35 PM

The video card cannot be upgraded.

jasonv1 · Sep 17, 2004, 07:41 PM

The term is CRP (customer replaceable part).

You are just as likely to see Apple offer midplane upgrades as you are of seeing Apple offer processor upgrades.

Even third party upgrades would be too costly, given the cost of acquiring Mac system boards.

Jason

Originally posted by Minch_Yoda:
on the iMac G5 Knowledge Base documents there is the iMac G5 parts you can install yourself and it says:
Mid-plane assembly (contains the main logic board, the G5 processor, fans, NVIDIA graphics processor, and so forth).
so i know its possible to install a new graphics card but how would you do it ? and will apple actualy sell Mid-plane assembly's with better graphics cards

Minch_Yoda · Sep 17, 2004, 09:07 PM

why would they say those could be upgraded if there not going to have a upgrade plan has apple ever done this before

jasonv1 · Sep 17, 2004, 09:49 PM

Apple is not (personally) in the upgrade business.

Calling the part user replaceable just means that Apple feels that the consumer can replace it without taking it in for service.

The newest HP/Compaq and Dell PC's are made of ALL user replaceable parts, in most cases requiring no tools.

The reason why Apple can do this is because of the resale value. If you bought an iMac now and sold it in 9 months (a guess as to when the Rev B hits) you could probably get 70-80% of your money back on Ebay, possibly even break even if you used an educational discount. Heck I even made 40 bucks reselling a refurb Emac earlier this year.

I'm sure that most people on this board would back me up in saying that no upgrades will ever be offered directly from Apple, and possibly not even from a third party. If Apple dumps the eMac like many are guessing it is likely that the iMac will drop in price anyway, which will really make a cost-effective upgrade next to impossible.

Jason

Originally posted by Minch_Yoda:
why would they say those could be upgraded if there not going to have a upgrade plan has apple ever done this before

pliny · Sep 17, 2004, 09:50 PM

The iMac g5 doesn't have a video card, altho that term is used quite commonly; if it did have a card, you could swap it out. What it has is a graphics chip (graphical processing unit) that is soldered on to the main board. This is the gpu that is on a card, that then slides into a slot in other computers. The iMac has never had this.

Eriamjh · Sep 17, 2004, 10:45 PM

The mid-plane assembly is essentially the motherboard.

macaddict0001 · Sep 17, 2004, 11:50 PM

Here's the thing, all of the imac's have had this as one part that could be removed. apple never offered an upgrade before this.

Lancer409 · Sep 19, 2004, 11:18 PM

no, why would they sel the mid assembly and who would buy all that "extra' just for a better vidcard. all u want is a vid card, not the extra's in the assembly. what would u do with the old assembly? no one would buy it because they'd have the same assembly if not better..