We got an iMac in January 2009 to compile Hackers of 2073 for iOS. After finishing the game, we used the Boot Camp feature to set up the machine as a Windows box and set it up in the kitchen for recipes and web browsing. The machine worked well for this use and we really liked that it was nearly silent.
A month or so ago, the hard drive died. Unfortunately it is not included in the list of defective iMac’s which were sold after October 2009, so I wanted to replace the bad drive. This is something that I have done many times on my PCs. I knew that it would be harder on the iMac since it is an all-in-one machine. I imagined that it would be like fixing a laptop.
But no, it seems like they intentionally made the iMac difficult to repair/upgrade. I found instructions online for replacing the hard drive. You need to have suction cups to remove the screen, and a special Torx screwdriver to get the machine open. The drive itself is mounted with special screws and a heat sensor which need to be transferred to the new drive. Here is a photo of the first step:
Of course I could take it in to an Apple store, and I may still do that, but I am expecting that to be a fairly expensive option.
Compared to a PC, even a laptop, this is a very difficult repair. For my PC, it would take longer to shutdown and re-start the machine than it would to actually do the drive replacement (I don’t have the case screwed on).
We also considered using the iMac monitor with our nettop computer
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Unfortunately, Apple decided to not include any video input on the iMac. So its (very nice) monitor is completely useless if anything happens to the computer. Monitors generally last quite a few years and a computer will almost always be obsolete before the monitor goes bad. But with the iMac, it is difficult or impossible to upgrade the computer and there is no way to use the monitor by itself.
This type of planned obsolescence and requirement for professional repairs is just another way that Apple over-charges their customers. They will have to make a lot of changes before I purchase anything else from Apple.