Anatomy of a Mac
There may be times on your design career when you will have your Mac repaired. This unit will show you "under-the-hood" of your iMac and explain its anatomy and functions so you have an idea what your Mac repair technician is talking about.
I don't recommend opening your Mac. Let the Mac Technicians do that for you—so you don't void your warranty. The only reason i have ever opened a Mac (their warranty has expired) was to do one of these three things:
- Install additional RAM, or upgrade your RAM
(newly purchased RAM will come with install instructions and a grounding tether. You can do this yourself) Most Macs come with plenty of RAM. I bet your software will become obsolete before your RAM volume. - Swap out an internal hard drive
(Again, this will come with install instructions. You can do this yourself too) - Install accelerator cards (back in the 90s—we don't do this any more)
iMac Parts and Functions
Good video: How Stuff Works: Computer Tour
What to learn what your Mac has under the hood without opening it? Click the Apple icon in the upper left corner> About This Mac > More info…
Descriptions of the major components of an iMac:
- Screen
This is the screen you view your work on. - Logic Board
Apple's equivalent of a Mother board. It connects and controls all aspects of your computer. It provides the electrical connections by which the other components of the computer's system communicate. It also connects the central processing unit (CPU) and hosts other subsystems and devices. - Ports
The logic board connects to the array of ports on the back side of the iMac. These ports include USB, Firewire, Ethernet, audio, and additional/external displays. - GPU
A graphics processing unit or GPU (also occasionally called visual processing unit or VPU) is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images/graphics. - RAM
Random-access memory is a form of computer data storage. It holds the data and the software information that is currently running. Adding RAM to your computer is a simple and inexpensive way to speed it up. Booting and opening and running software will be faster. RAM is stored temporarily. When power is lost, or the computer is shut down, RAM memory is erased. - CPU
The Central Processing Unit is the brain of a computer. Pictured above is an Intel i5 processor. It is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program (Photoshop, Illustrator, PowerPoint, etc.), and is the primary element carrying out the functions of the computer (opening programs, shutting down, restarting, etc.) - LED Driver Board
Provides power to the iMac's LED screen - Power Supply
A power supply unit (PSU) converts general-purpose alternating current (AC) electric power (like that from a 110V regular wall outlet) to low-voltage, direct current (DC) power for the internal components in a computer. - Wireless Antenna
Allow you to access WiFi networks and use your computer wirelessly. - Internal Hard Disk Drive
(HDD) This is the main storage area for all you data. The operating system, software, and all of your computer files are stored here. Files are stored permanently, even when power is lost, or the computer is shot down. - Optical Drive (CD/DVD)
An optical disc drive (ODD) is a disk drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves to read or write data to or from optical discs. Recorders are sometimes called burners or writers. Compact discs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs are common types of optical media which can be read and recorded by such drives. - CPU Cooling System, Cooling Fan
Helps cool the CPU and computer so it doesn't overhead. There are lots of calculations and functions going on at once, so a computer works hard and can get very hot.
Under-The-Hood of an iMac
Photo Slideshow: iMac 21.5" Tear-down. (Click Slideshow)
Photo Slideshow: iMac 27" Tear-down. (Click Slideshow)
Sources: Thanks to Wikipedia and ifixit.com