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This teardown is not a repair guide. To repair your iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display, use our service manual.

  1. iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown, iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 1, image 1 of 2 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown, iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 1, image 2 of 2
    • How do you herd together 14.7 million pixels? You can ask nicely, or you can brandish some heavy-duty hardware. Inside the Retina 5K iMac:

    • 3.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, with Turbo Boost up to 3.9 GHz

    • 8 GB (2x4 GB) of 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM

    • AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics processor with 2 GB of GDDR5 video memory

    • 802.11ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.0

    • PCIe-based SSD storage and SATA hard drive

  2. iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 2, image 1 of 2 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 2, image 2 of 2
    • Not one to waste a good model number on just a single device, Apple again recycles A1419.

    • For a unique identifier, this is EMC 2806.

    • At the rear of the iMac, we find a plethora of I/O ports and a lone SDXC card slot:

    • Headphone jack / Optical digital audio output

    • SDXC card slot

    • Four USB 3.0 ports

    • Two Thunderbolt 2.0 ports

    • Gigabit ethernet port

  3. iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 3, image 1 of 2 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 3, image 2 of 2
    • Fixers rejoice! The iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display retains the familiar, easily accessible RAM upgrade slot from iMacs of yore.

    • For those who require assistance replacing their RAM modules, Apple has attempted to provide some direction—that you get to see after you're halfway through the process.

    • For anyone who would rather be guided by glorious high-resolution images and lovingly crafted text, that's also available.

  4. iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 4, image 1 of 3 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 4, image 2 of 3 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 4, image 3 of 3
    Tool used on this step:
    iMac Opening Wheel
    $7.99
    Buy
    • We're pretty adept at slicing open iMacs with our ever-so-fancy pizza cutter iMac Opening Tool and our noble Plastic Card.

    • While the procedure still requires a steady hand and a willingness to replace the custom-cut, two-sided adhesive tape when you're done, it's otherwise pretty straightforward, and unchanged from previous models.

    • With the adhesive tape gone, we get our first peek at the hardware inside the Retina 5K iMac.

  5. iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 5, image 1 of 3 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 5, image 2 of 3 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 5, image 3 of 3
    • The first order of business is finding out whether this 5K display runs on actual magic, or something more susceptible to dissection.

    • This particular display was manufactured by LG Display. (So, magic is looking less likely.)

    • With a few twists of our screwdriver, a very long, very thin display board is revealed.

  6. iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 6, image 1 of 3 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 6, image 2 of 3 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 6, image 3 of 3
    • Let's take a look at the hardware that allows 14.7 million pixels with a resolution of 5120 x 2880 on a 27-inch display:

    • Texas Instruments NH245 8-Bit Dual-Supply Bus Transceiver

    • Texas Instruments BUF16821 Programmable Gamma-Voltage Generator and Vcom Calibrator

    • Parade Technologies DP665 LCD Timing Controller

    • We assume this is an Apple modified version of the DP663 LCD Timing Controller

    • Texas Instruments TPS65270 Monolithic Dual Synchronous Buck Regulator

    • Texas Instruments TPS65168 High Resolution Fully Programmable LCD Bias IC for TV

  7. iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 7, image 1 of 3 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 7, image 2 of 3 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 7, image 3 of 3
    • Barring the new display, the hardware inside the iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display looks much the same as last year's 27" iMac.

    • In fact, as we dive in deeper, we realize it is very nearly exactly the same.

    • We would have documented the logic board removal, but we already have! We'll be following last year's logic board guide—check it out and head back here while we skip ahead.

    • And after following the guide to the letter, we've got our findings on the differences inside:

    • The Retina 5K's display data cable is slightly wider—to support those extra pixels.

  8. iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 8, image 1 of 1
    • Let's see what ICs this unsurprisingly familiar logic board is packing:

    • AMD Radeon R9 M290X GPU

    • Intel Core i5-4690 Processor

    • Just like last year, the CPU is not soldered to the logic board, and can be easily replaced (we just left it in the socket for the picture).

    • SK Hynix H5GC2H24BFR 256 MB GDDR5 SGRAM (256 MB x 8 modules = 2 GB total)

    • Delta Electronics 8904CF 143003

    • Intel DH82Z87 (Z87) Platform Controller Hub

    • Fairchild Semiconductor DE32GV

  9. iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 9, image 1 of 1
    • Front side of logic board:

    • Broadcom BCM5776 Gigabit Ethernet Controller

    • Cirrus Logic 4206BCNZ Audio Controller

    • Intel DSL5520 Thunderbolt 2 Controller

    • LMF4S1EH 5BBCIG 47A6HPW

    • Microchip Technology 1428-7 420BE5A BMY System Management Bus (SMBus) Temperature Sensor

    • Intersil ISL6327 Enhanced 6-Phase PWM Controller

  10. iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 10, image 1 of 2 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 10, image 2 of 2
    • This looks to be the exact same SanDisk PCIe SSD as the one found in the MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Late 2013.

    • Unsurprisingly, we find the exact same ICs:

    • SanDisk 05131 016G 16 GB NAND Flash (four on each side, total of 8 x 16 GB = 128 GB)

    • SK Hynix H5TQ2G63DFR 2 GB DDR3 SDRAM

    • Marvell 88SS91383 PCIe SSD Controller

  11. iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 11, image 1 of 3 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 11, image 2 of 3 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 11, image 3 of 3
    • The AirPort/Bluetooth card, identified by its model number BCM94360CD, is exactly the same as the one we encountered in last year's iMac Intel 27 inch:

    • Broadcom BCM4360KML1G 5G WiFi 3-Stream 802.11ac Gigabit Transceiver

    • Skyworks SE5516 Dual-Band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN Front-End Module

    • Broadcom BCM20702 Single-Chip Bluetooth 4.0 HCI Solution with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Support

  12. iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 12, image 1 of 2 iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Teardown: step 12, image 2 of 2
    • iMac 27" Retina 5K Display Repairability Score: 5 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)

    • RAM is user-replaceable without opening the case, thanks to the rear access door.

    • You can still replace the hard drive and CPU inside this machine, albeit with some adhesive cutting.

    • Components are modular and fairly easy to remove.

    • The glass and LCD are fused together, and there are no more magnets holding the glass in place.

    • You'll have to masterfully peel off the old double-sided sticky tape and apply new tape in order to reseal this iMac into original condition.

47 Comments

This site is way cool! Is it easy to upgrade the CPU once inside?

Matt - Reply

Absolutely! Same procedure as last year's model: iMac Intel 27" EMC 2639 CPU Replacement.

Andrew Optimus Goldheart -

Looks like you can upgrade to a new cpu (Haswell refresh probably) since it doesn't appear to be soldiered on

Daniel - Reply

Thats unlikely, it depends on the mobo, i have not heard any confirmations of this so far.

adriandatriguiran -

Any idea what the part number is for the 8GB modules? This shows 4x2GB which is the standard. I ordered that memory configuration, expecting I can source new 8GB modules for less than Apple's price.

timothyweaver - Reply

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