This iMac is basically a giant 13″ 2017 MacBook Pro but with replaceable RAM and no battery. Kaby Lake was the end of the line for the non-retina iMacs with only a single CPU option, and remained available for purchase all the way through October 29th 2021. The i5-7360U was soldered onto the logic board and it’s unknown what kind of CPU can even be soldered into there in place of the dual core hyper threaded processor. Fortunately, the iMac makes the leap up to DDR4 RAM in the form of 2133 MHz PC4-17000 which can still be user replaceable rather than being soldered. Apple says it can go up to 16GB while the Intel website states the i5 CPU can handle up to 32GB. This iMac doesn’t come with any dedicated graphics chip, only an Intel Iris Plus 640.

You also get a few minor upgrades over the Late 2015 21.5″ non-retina model, too. Namely: a bump up to Bluetooth version 4.2, the addition of 2x USB-C style Thunderbolt 3 ports, which come with USB 3.1. Bluetooth 4.2 introduces better file transfer speeds claimed up to 2.5x over previous versions, and better user privacy through random address generation.

For a performance boost this model continues offering a 1 TB Fusion Drive which is a hard drive combined up with a 32 GB SSD. You could also option it up to a 256GB SSD for best performance results. This is a newer technology that was phased away eventually in favor of a full-on SSD in all Macs, and a failure of either the SSD or HDD inside the Fusion Drive would be catastrophic to the entire drive. The cool part about having a Fusion Drive is it keeps track of your work patterns and will move files, data, and applications to the SSD or back to the hard drive based on that information – with full transparency.

Iris Plus Graphics and shared video memory

The Intel Iris Plus line of Integrated Graphics continue trend of “vampire video” (that’s where the video bites into system memory). The 2006 Mac mini was the first Mac in a long, long time to do this, and more Macs started doing this in the late 2000’s – early 2010’s. Apple Silicon GPUs have unified memory, changing the traditional views on how system memory is used and shared throughout the system.

What You Need to Know

• These iMacs shipped with 8 GB of RAM which is fine for basic tasks, but is increasingly impractical these days. For a serious speed boost, opt for 16 GB of RAM, and an SSD over the Fusion Drive or Hard Drive. The i5 chip supports 32 GB of RAM according to intel, but Apple claims it can only be configured up to 16 GB. Support for 32 GB on Macs have not been confirmed but cannot be denied.
• Since the Video RAM on this model bites into system memory, a user would strongly benefit from having more than just 8 GB of RAM.

Unsupported macOS

Although it is not officially supported, the 21.5″ Non-Retina 2017 iMac can run the latest intel build of macOS via OCLP. This iMac has an Intel Iris Plus 640 GPU which is compatible in later versions of macOS. All Core branded products in the 7th generation have AVX 2, so it shouldn’t have issues with hardware acceleration even if the OS is unsupported when using Polaris/Navi eGPUs.

Details

• Announced June 5th 2017
• Apple model number: A1418 (EMC 3068)
• Model ID: iMac18,1
• Order: MMQA2LL/A (Default)
  • Default for August 4th 2020: MHK03LL/A (256GB SSD)
• Discontinued October 29th 2021

Mac OS

• Requires macOS 10.12.5 (16E2193) Sierra through macOS Ventura 13.7.1 officially.

Core System

The only CPU shipped with this iMac is a Dual-Core, Hyper Threaded, 14nm Kaby Lake i5 CPU.

Legend: L1i = L1 Instruction Cache, L1d = L1 Data cache

• Intel Core i5-7360U ($1099): 2.3 Ghz, 2 Cores, 4 Threads, 3.6 GHz Turbo
  15W TDP, 14nm, Per-Core: 32KB L1i/32KB L1d, 256KB L2, Shared: 4 MB L3
  Comes with: MMX, SSE 4.2, AVX 2, EIST, XD Bit, VT-x, HTT, vPro, SGX

Memory

• All models: 8/16 GB 2133 MHz PC4- 17000 SDRAM ~17 GB/s
  • 16 GB (+$200)
  • Chip supports up to 32GB, according to Intel.

Video

• iGPU: Intel Iris Plus 640, 1536 MB, 300 Mhz Base, 1.00 Ghz Max, 32GB Max VRAM
• 21.5″ IPS TFT LED-backlit LCD Retina display, 1920 x 1080 @102PPI
  • Support for millions of colors
• “Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and”
  • 1x 5120×2880/60Hz Billions of colors, 2x 4K@60Hz 1 Billion colors, 2x 4K60 with millions of colors

Drives

• 1 TB 5400 RPM 2.5″ SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) Rotational Hard Disk Drive
  • Configurable to a 1 TB Fusion Drive (with 32 GB SSD portion)
  • or a 256GB Sata SSD

Expansion/Misc

• Facetime HD Camera
• 2x USB-C Style Thunderbolt 3 ports with USB 3.1
• 4x USB-A style USB 3.0 ports
• Bluetooth 4.2
• 802.11ac (a/b/g/n) Wifi
• Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45 connector
• SDXC SD-Card slot reader
• 3.5mm Headphone Jack with support for Apple iPhone headset with Mic
• Stereo Speakers
• A single Microphone
• Kensington lock slot
• 185W Power Supply, seems to be shared across models

Included Peripherals

• iMac 21.5″ Non Retina
• Magic Mouse 2
  • Configurable with Magic Trackpad 2
• Magic Keyboard 2
  • Configurable to Magic Keyboard 2 with Numeric Keypad
• Power Cord
• Documentation, Apple Stickers

Physical

• Size:H/W/D 17.7 x 20.8 x 6.9 in/45 x 52.8 x 17.5 cm
• Weight: 12 lb./5.44 kg