All in one PCs

[Brisel]

Are these any good? My laptop is getting old and slow & I fancy a nice big screen without the masses of cables from buying a separate tower unit and 27" HD/4K monitor for my man cave while the wife is watching crap on the only TV in the house that I don't like. My desk is in an alcove that will have a bookshelf behind my desk.

I appreciate that good hardware might be offset by a poorer screen and vice versa. My work computer is a Mac which is very compact for what it is. My previous PC had double screens for working with multiple windows open which was really handy, & I do take work home regularly.

I have a reasonable budget for a good processor, SSD etc. My broadband is pretty good.

 

[deleted user 837354]

They are pretty cool but hard to upgrade and the range on offer isn't as vast as a PC so you are paying a premium of sorts.

You can get versions with big touch screen monitors, 4K and the like, all depends on how much you want to spend really. HP used to make some, Lenovo from memory, too.

 

[Storeman]

I would personally avoid them. Usually built to a price.
My other half had one, I built her a new pc for Christmas and I sorted the all-in-one for her teenage daughter. The screen has now died on it and that's it, one dead machine. As ollie mentions above, pretty much no upgrade path.
Spend your hard earned on a laptop or desktop, you have the possibility of upgrading those and extending their useful life.

 

[Tomr10]

I'd go laptop with a monitor myself. Have a all in one and it's ok but there not cheap for not great performance

 

[C.J]

The screen on our HP Touchsmart failed after 2 years. Now using a 15" lap top.

 

[steveR]

I have tried two, both went back as they were noisy and in my view lacked the flexibility of a mix and match setup. You can optimise on screen for your needs then.

Daughter. 1 works with a laptop and 2 big screens with good keyboard, which seems a good option

I have (in theory) 3 screens on mine, but Daughter. 2 stole the big centre screen last year so she could work from home!! So 2 22" screens and a micro box. SSD in the new one that is waiting to be installed.

 

[Bogweevil]

Got my ma a Dell one, she is very pleased, saves desk space, doesn't kill you back like a laptop, but not as portable of course. Good for office tasks but there is much to be said for as whopping a monitor as you have space/cash for. No one bothers with upgrades for business tasks nowadays when you can just add external bits and pieces and use cloud services.

 

[Brisel]

Thanks all. I've been costing it out & I can get a better spec tower unit & monitor for the same money as an all in one unit. Not massively surprising news. I'll see what space I have to play with when the book case I ordered to sit behind my desk turns up.

 

[farmerm]

I've given up on towers. Average laptop with multiple monitors support has more than enough performance for my applications with the convenience of being mobile when required. In my experience some over specked desktops cam actually be slower than less powerful machines when it comes to everyday applications like email and ms office applications!

 

[Cowabunga]

I now have a very high spec Apple iMac and it is certainly not built down to a price. It was built up to my preferred specification at their custom-build factory in Ireland.
It is silent, powerful and versatile and I have three external hard drives attached, one through Thunderbolt and the other USB3. These stack nicely on its base stand. One is a 1GB ultra-fast Sabrent Rocket USB3 solid state drive, very similar to the Mac's internal 2GB SSD's.

This machine has a 27" very high definition screen and it took over early last year from my 2011 21" basic iMac which still works perfectly. These are only switched off during thunderstorms. They are set to sleep after half an hour idle.

These suit me perfectly and before 2011 I had a series of laptops that worked for about 4 years each before needing upgrading. Screens were not great but they did their job, but the regular hassle with Windows upgrades was tiring.
I am far happier with the iMac and iPad Pro for portability with the iPhone when out and about, all synchronising seamlessly.

 

[Cowabunga]

Thanks all. I've been costing it out & I can get a better spec tower unit & monitor for the same money as an all in one unit. Not massively surprising news. I'll see what space I have to play with when the book case I ordered to sit behind my desk turns up.

If cost is a very significant factor then the tower unit will almost always be the more attractive option for the same spec. Not so much with Apple computers though where the iMac has been very competitive with a similarly specified Mac Mini plus monitor or even a MacBook Pro laptop.

 

[steveR]

I've given up on towers. Average laptop with multiple monitors support has more than enough performance for my applications with the convenience of being mobile when required. In my experience some over specked desktops cam actually be slower than less powerful machines when it comes to everyday applications like email and ms office applications!

I am on my 2nd compact desktop, which are in effect a laptop guts in a small box with ports, so nice and compact. if they are a SSD, they will practically go in a bookshelf, but do need a bit of airflow.. About the size of an old VHS cassette case...

 

[Chae1]

Do we need powerful computers now most stuff is cloud based?

 

[Cowabunga]

Do we need powerful computers now most stuff is cloud based?

Some do, some don't. I do but for a whole lot of things I'd consider a Chromebook laptop or even desktop. They don't generally seem like value for money though, depending on what you compare with.

If you think Chromebook is for kids, have a look at this very highest end setup…

 

[J B]

.. About the size of an old VHS cassette case...

Sorry, don't know what you're talking about!

 

[steveR]

Sorry, don't know what you're talking about!

Memory slipping, hey James??? Comes to us all.....

 

[PSQ]

Are these any good? My laptop is getting old and slow & I fancy a nice big screen without the masses of cables from buying a separate tower unit and 27" HD/4K monitor for my man cave

My work computer is a Mac which is very compact for what it is. My previous PC had double screens for working with multiple windows open which was really handy, & I do take work home regularly.

Ive been wondering about a Mac Mini with a 49” curved monitor, which is essentially the size of 2 big monitors side by side.

The only issue with the Mac Mini is deciding between the new M1 chip version and an Intel version, and being able to cope with a limited number of USB ports...

 

[PostHarvest]

A year ago I bought a Dell Optiplex as a replacement for my laptop. It has a small processor unit that sits on the screen mount behind the screen. You can specify any size screen you want or multiple screens. Having used mainly laptops for the past 15 years or so, its the best PC I've used to date.

 

[Cowabunga]

Ive been wondering about a Mac Mini with a 49” curved monitor, which is essentially the size of 2 big monitors side by side.

The only issue with the Mac Mini is deciding between the new M1 chip version and an Intel version, and being able to cope with a limited number of USB ports...

Unless you use very powerful graphics programs there is no contest. Go for the M1 new version. Not only is its performance meant to be between three and six times faster than the old Intel one, but its cheaper and runs cooler and more efficiently. Get a relatively cheap USB hub to increase the number of ports if you need them. Don't forget that you need to buy a keyboard and mouse or trackpad separately. The obvious choice there is the Apple Magic wireless keyboard and mouse.

 

[steveR]

A year ago I bought a Dell Optiplex as a replacement for my laptop. It has a small processor unit that sits on the screen mount behind the screen. You can specify any size screen you want or multiple screens. Having used mainly laptops for the past 15 years or so, its the best PC I've used to date.

THose are the units I was describing. Mine sits on a windowsill with a phone on top of it