Chosen Solution
Purchased the new iMac Retina two days ago and spent yesterday finding a good Samsonite hard-shell suitcase to transport it with me on a flight, like i have done with my 2009 iMac 27 for years. Found the perfect case for it, but my heart sank when i inserted an old credit card into the slot above the stand and found that nothing happened. I did a few searches online and found conflicting info, where some say that it will not remove, and others say that like the 2014 non-Retina, it will remove. Which is it, and if it is removable, what am i doing wrong or what has changed?
Sadly, the new ‘Thin Series’ don’t have a means to remove the stand foot without a complete disassembly. While Apple did offer a VESA mount version of the newer iMac after people complained. I don’t know if they offer one for the 5K model. UPDATE You can now buy the iMac 5K with a VESA mount! Here’s the link: iMac with Retina 5K display and Built-in VESA Mount Adapter.
The thin bezel iMac is chocked full of sacrifices… For no logical reason but somebody thought the thin bezel would look cool… The worst part is the glass is taped on… That’s right a freaking Mickey Mouse method… TAPE…. And after you cut the tape you have to go buy new double sticky tape to re-tape the display back on, of course there’s no DVDs slot… Where would you put it? Form is supposed to follow Function, not the other way around…
If you want both, buy an adaptor. I got an adapt ore that attaches to the hole in the stand with a plate above that supports 75 and 100mm VESA mounts. I have my 21.5" 4K I have exclusively for my studio on a fully articulating arm that allows me many position options. Like pulling far off the wall and turning it 45 degrees so it’s like it’s on a non existent desk. Perfect since a zero g chair (the ones that recline all the way until your upside down) with large casters I put on it to roll around and a theater couch are the only things touching the floor in my hybrid theater/man cave/ recording studio (except when I bring in a drummer to record). My guitars hang on the wall across from the Mac with my accessories in pelican cases slid in a shelf I built that doubles as my projector stand in a 3’x3’ closet I added onto the back of the room. Complete with a electromagnetic locked door that is impossible to find when closed. With the Mac mounted to the wall adjacent to a wall that has one of my 85" Sony 4K’s recess mounted so it can give way to my theater screen that comes down when it’s movie time. on a screen that comes down over my tv. All of that was simple. My 7.1 surround system was a little tougher. Ha. Just say my walls are virtually speaker boxes. It’s great seeing people jump when it’s pumping and they are near what they think is an AC return metal grill is actually a 15" sub. Ha. And that’s not getting into the ceiling speakers wired to the tv for casual tv viewing. Any of you need help designing anything A/V? I just finished building a pair of speakers with 8 4" full range neodymium full range and 2 12" eminence Pro Kappa 12"s in each. I bet no one can guess how I wired them so the 8 8ohm speakers ended up with an overall rating of 6.5ohms… That’s above 4ohms and below 16ohms which are the ONLY two possibilities according to ’experts’. I apologize for my verbosity. The part of my brain that allows me to make a living writing music is also leads to this. A stream of consciousness description of my space when I just set out to tell you guys that for $12, you can make any Mac wall, arm, pole, or stand mountable. Of course there’s another solution I came across when I decided to take multiple Mac Minis and ext HDD’s and build a whole home media server. Get the top of the line model and mount it either to the back of your TV(which is the monitor) or to the wall behind your wall mounted TV. I’m a mini fan! Just wish they were record quality. And while they are technically 4K, their fps isn’t up to snuff. If you already have a rarely used flat screen like 90% of us or just want to hook it to your main tv, the top model mini is enough Mac for anyone not wanting audiophile quality digi recordings that are near analog quality or don’t perform Video editing for a living.
This will answer questions for others that like find this post on google after searching for mounting the iMac on a wall or arm To the original travel question: Take the iMac on your lap in the plane. To the vesa mount question : Drill baby drill! 21 or 27 Imac Ergonomic Mount Installation Instructions without a VESA mount
To the travel question, I am transporting mine on a flight. You need to remove the screen then the psu and logic board. There is a row of 9 xT8 screws where the stand attaches, remove these and the stand comes off. the reverse process is needed at the other end or alternatively fit a vesa mount. This is a workaround as the screen needs to come off every time, not ideal but workable for me as I’m only doing one trip and I want to change the PCIe SSD anyway.
You can find the Vesa mount kit online, but it’s effing expensive. I just screwed a block of wood to the back of mine (after disasembly of course) and hang it from the wall. You could equally screw that to a stand - as soon as you’re entering the world of Vesa mounts, the back of the iMac presumably doesn’t need to look too pretty.
