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Comment by goodroot | Hacker News Reader

I'd say an external GPU introduces pretty significant upgrade potential.

That was the exact statement made about the Mac Pro when it was released in 2013. Look how well that went.

The mac pro did not feature external GPU, just external storage. The only thing you won't be able to upgrade in this machine is the CPU. The RAM is not soldered on those high end iMacs, and disk and gpu can be external over TB3.

Thunderbolt promised there would be external GPUs, but IIRC there were licensing and corporate disputes that prevented such hardware from ever materializing (after the design and debut of the Mac Pro). But it definitely was the promise of such a compact machine: "external everything!"

Non-soldered RAM is a good start, but what about multiple ethernet ports, what about any standard scientific/medical/experimental PCI card, what about the new SSD/HDs that come out in 3 years? What about upgrading the CPU? What about upgrading the screen! Much less using Apple's "most powerful computer" headless?

External ethernet over TB3 is also a thing. Honestly, all these "what about" things are doable over TB3, with the exception of a CPU upgrade and Optane (I'm assuming TB3 doesn't quite give you that level of latency). So, as far as expandability I don't think it is that bad. The only question is whether you want a carefully designed machine like the iMac surrounded by a sea of dongles and enclosures.

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