[keinkampf]

Does anyone know how to open it up? I don't want to destroy my case so I am coming here first.



Unfortunately the whole thing is screwless.

I was thinking perhaps it had something to do with prying up on the ridge in the back:



Can anyone give me any info? If not I'm going to have to ask one of the "geniuses" at the Apple store.
Thanks

[rab777hp]

NO PRYING!! Look for the screws around the edges. Where screws, unscrew, also: why do you need to open your case?

[Alan]

I too have an inquiring mind : ) I read an article somewhere on this site where they said to clean the inside of the Mac periodically.

However I cannot find any screws.

[keinkampf]

Apple released a new graphics card and I want to put that one in because it is twice as good.

The only screw on the entire case is the one for the RAM door. I know some of the older models had screws but the newer ones don't.
They have to come apart somehow- otherwise any repairs at all would be impossible.

Oh and I am very experienced with computers so don't worry I'm not going to break anything

[Grapho]

I don't think your iMac graphic card is upgradable. If I understand it right, it is soldered to the motherboard. Your iMac really does not have a PCI connection for upgrading purposes. You can't simply walk up to a computer store and pick up the part you need for the upgrade.

[rab777hp]

grapho's right, you can't upgrade to the new card.

[keinkampf]

Thats why I want to open it- to make see it is soldered or not and etc. before I do decide to do anything.

[rab777hp]

it is soldered, take my word for it.

[keinkampf]

Well that sucks and is complete BS and this is probably the last time I ever get an iMac
but there are still other things I have in mind- like figuring out how to use the 24" HD screen for other things.

[rab777hp]

What do you want to use the screen for? You can stream and watch TV on it from the internet, cable, and standard broadcast waves, is that what you mean?

[keinkampf]

Well my screen is better than my tv and so eventually I want to eventually be able to play xbox using my screen.

And besides even if that dream is shattered, eventually I will get a new computer and I am sure am not going to go buy a new one when I already have this one.

[rab777hp]

Elgato- makers of EyeTv, offers several products for using you mac as a TV, which includes hardware that lets you plug in an xbox.

www.elgato.com

[keinkampf]

Aha here we go:


Apparently you use a suction cup to lift up the glass and there are screws along the sides.

[mdawson]

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>rab777hp wrote:
>
> ?why do you need to open your case?

>

Quote

keinkampf wrote:

>

Quote

Apple released a new graphics card and I want to put that one in because it is twice as good.

You cannot upgrade the graphics card in the iMac. The GPU runs on a PCIe bus, but it is not a PCIe slot. The graphics card in the iMac is either hard wired to the logic board or on a daughter card; not a single after market GPU is or has ever been offered in a daughter card form-factor.

Quote

keinkampf wrote:

>

Quote

Well that sucks and is complete BS and this is probably the last time I ever get an iMac but there are still other things I have in mind- like figuring out how to use the 24" HD screen for other things.

It is not BS. Apple designs and builds computers from the bottom up instead of purchasing pre-fabricated motherboards throwing them into pre-fabricated cases and slapping their logo on the front. The iMac is designed specifically for the consumer market and the vast majority of people in that market segment never upgrade their hardware. The iMac is not and has never been user-serviceable for that very reason. Outside of adding RAM, you cannot upgrade an iMac?s internals and that has near exclusively been the case since the first iMacs were introduced just over 10 years ago.

As to using your screen for other things, you cannot. It is a dedicated display for an all-in-one computer. Like any computer, the iMac does not have video inputs. You have options such as the Elgato EyeTV that rab777hp mentioned for watching TV on your computer, but ultimately, it I a computer monitor, not a television screen and is therefore not designed for that use.

keinkampf wrote:
>
Well my screen is better than my tv and so eventually I want to eventually be able to play xbox using my screen.

Computer displays have generally always been better than televisions. Standard tube televisions were designed to handle interlaced low-resolution images (< 640 x 480). Dedicated computer displays have almost always been progressive scan devices, so once personal computers could support resolutions of 640 x 480 (ca. 1983), or better, computers gained the ability to display better imagery as a result of design. While computers lacked the graphics muscle for television imagery early on, if you attached an analog computer display to a composite signal source (e.g., a VCR video output), the picture would blow away that of any television sold at that time. Of course with a 15-inch display being considered large and computer displays costing as much or more than televisions with significantly larger screens, using a computer display for television viewing was not a practical solution.

Even now at the dawn of the HD era, computer displays larger than 24-inches have greater resolution than HDTVs. That is a requirement for computer displays because computer displays 1) have static images much of the time and 2) are viewed at a much shorter distance than a television. Regardless of a computer display?s size, the user is always 1.5 to 2 feet away from the screen; therefore the optimal resolution for a computer display is determined by screen size; the larger the screen the more resolution is required to defeat pixelation. For televisions, different screen sizes determine optimal viewing distances and not resolution. With the higher resolution of HDTV, the viewing distance for a television of a given screen size has been reduced when compared to a NTSC television.

In any case, computer displays are not designed to be used as televisions. So while there are means to use standalone computer displays as televisions, the dearth of TV-centric features makes it a wasted effort in most situations.