I have a specific need for one of these and nearly swapped to one a year ago when PC World had 3 or 4. I see they now list 27 so I assume they're more popular??
We are so tight for desk space where the PC lives and there is no room for our tower anywhere other than on the desk to one side of the monitor where it looks unsightly and takes the space that would otherwise be where our record deck would sit.
The spec of our current PC is... HP dual core pentium 2.2Ghz. 500GB hard drive. 3GB ram. Nvidia GeForce 8500GT (512MB). Vista home premium. We are happy with its performance.
Other advantages of the all-in-ones is they usually have a TV tuner which we want, they save a few leads and we'd pick a slightly larger screen size than our current 19".
Any thoughts??
BTW here are a couple I've thought look OK...
www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-200-5120uk-06318456-pdt.html
www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/acer-aspire-z5700-all-in-one-pc-with-23-touchscreen-07677379-pdt.html
Last edited by: Fenlander on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 12:26
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I suppose I'm bound to mention:
store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_mac/family/imac?mco=MTM3NDc3NjA
Very smart piece of kit, particularly neat cordless and dongle-less mouse and keyboard.
Looks like you can have a 21" for £1,020, which is not so much more than the Windows PCs in the link.
Member Paulb has recently bought one and is delighted with it, but I'm sure he can speak for himself.
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Er...an all in one PC? Isn't that otherwise known as a laptop????
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Not really Richard as I want a big monitor and seperate keyboard... surely too a laptop pound for pound will have a slower performance??
The Apple does look sleek Iffy but I want full easy to understand compatability with all the other files/programs the family uses. I understand if I was a designer one would be essential but it's more nuts, bolts, railway sleepers and corrugated iron here.
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...with all the other files/programs the family uses...
I could say you can get Word for Mac, and most stuff can be made to be compatible one way or another.
But you and the family appear to be a long way down the Windows road, and I suspect turning around now would be very difficult.
Just a small example, my Mac/Firefox combination wouldn't read a sound file which my Windows 7/Firefox netbook read without difficulty.
It turned out the Mac/Safari combination worked, but there's no point in pretending integrating machines from the two platforms would be seamless.
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My girls do so much with the PC related to school work and their school is Microsoft sponsored... they have no friends with Apple machines either. Same goes for Mrs F and any work related stuff. Yep we're too far down the PC road to swap.
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>> Yep we're too far down the PC road to
>> swap.
>>
Member paulb does indeed have one of these things as pointed out above, and is extremely pleased with it. And no, you aren't too far down the PC road to swap. I picked up a copy of Office for Mac 2011 - including Outlook - for £40 from a website called Software4Students or some such. Has a 2-install licence so perfect for us as we have the iMac and the MacBook Air now.
They are apparently a Microsoft partner (and I am guessing that if they were not, the website wouldn't be allowed to say so for very long). Criteria for qualifying for the discount is being a registered student at a university (even the OU counts, apparently) and/or having school-age children.
Having downloaded it and used it heavily, it all appears completely pukka and it is completely compatible with all recent Windows versions of Office. I do extremely fiddly things with Excel these days as part of my work and the workbooks open flawlessly whether on Office 2007/Vista on the work laptop, or Office Mac 2011/OS-X on either of the Macs.
As regards the iMac, one of its best features is that it has one cable, which is the power lead. Losing the snakes' wedding of cables behind the desk was no sorrow at all, and the amount of space it doesn't use is surprising.
Ability to create PDFs from the print menu is very handy, also.
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>> Ability to create PDFs from the print menu is very handy, also.
>>
I'm not trying to start a 'my OS is as good as your OS' war, but Windows users can do that using cutePDF, I'm sure I'm not the only C4Per using it:-
www.cutepdf.com/
Very useful it is too.
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>> I'm not trying to start a 'my OS is as good as your OS' war,
>> but Windows users can do that using cutePDF, I'm sure I'm not the only C4Per
>> using it
Yes, but you had to download a wossname to make it do that (we use Adobe Pro here at work and very handy it is too), whereas I was surprised and pleased that the Mac would do it as part of the standard setup.
Somebody told me (can't remember where/when) that PDF underpins a fair chunk of OSX - no idea if that's so but if it is, it would make the handbag fight between Apple and Adobe even more pointless and regrettable than it is already.
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About six years ago I bought a couple of Asus Pundit-R 'barebones' chassis. They are still doing sterling service, and even for an OAP system still look quite neat. Only a 2.8GHz P4 running XP - but more than adequate for my needs.
I'm sure there's a more modern alternative.
Last edited by: Old Sock on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 13:12
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i looked at these when after a new monitor last month
they did seem dear for what they were and also a bit office like
my main reason for not buying one would be because its like a tv with a dvd player in as one bit down its all out
why not consider a new discreet computer type tower that would fit in a drawer with holes in?
these seem to be coming more popular?
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I'd looked at the compact tower types in PC World but anything other than a PC with the works integral to the screen clutters the desk and more important means that the record deck will remain under the bed for another year.
I've just discovered the HP all-in-one I linked to above is £74 less direct from HP than in PC World... not expected that.
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>> I've just discovered the HP all-in-one I linked to above is £74 less direct from
>> HP than in PC World.
Refurbished an option? £499: tinyurl.com/4e8pupm
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Could also consider a laptop with external display and proper keyboard and mouse. Then it gives you the option to take our with you too.
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>> Could also consider a laptop with external display and proper keyboard and mouse. Then it
>> gives you the option to take our with you too.
Wot he said.
You can use your existing Display and keyboard plugged into a laptop on the thin shelf you just installed under your desk surface.
The problem with all in ones are they are expensive, VERY expensive to fix and when the screen goes you've had it.
Would never recommend an all in one.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 21:06
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BTW HP 200-5020 (haven't checked what the difference is) gets a 5* review and 'best buy' here:
www.expertreviews.co.uk/pcs/278383/hp-all-in-one-200-5020
Last edited by: Focus on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 15:14
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OK all food for thought.
Remember Zero we run Citroens so I have no fear of negative press because sometimes it can unjustly stop you getting what you need.
You say when the screen fails... if surely??
The laptop idea doesn't have initial appeal but I might be able to get rid of one tucked away somewhere... if they will run with the lid closed... our current one shuts off when you close the lid. We already have a nice wireless mouse/keyboard and although I'd like a monitor a couple of ins larger there is nothing wrong with the current one so I could hook that up to a laptop.
But don't laptops suffer all the downsides (and more) of an all-in-one??
HP offer a 2yr warranty on that all-in-one model I mentioned. I guess we'd be done with it by year 4 so what if I factored in an extra 1/2yrs warranty... 3rd party or whatever.
That's a good review for the HP... thanks Focus... still got to be a possibility.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 16:33
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>> of one tucked away somewhere... if they will run with the lid closed... our current
>> one shuts off when you close the lid.
Its a mere mouseclick on a windows setting to change that behaviour.
> But don't laptops suffer all the downsides (and more) of an all-in-one??
Indeed, but you cant take an all in one with you if you want portability. Buying an all in one is buying a laptop, but with none of its versatility.
Just to sum up, I would never recommend one or buy one. And now I will keep my trap shut.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 16:39
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>>>Just to sum up, I would never recommend one or buy one. And now I will keep my trap shut.
Point taken and it's enough to make me look very hard at alternatives so consider your objective met.
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Maybe one of the latest small outline machines that you can hang on the back of the monitor? Still not as much processing power as a proper desktop, but probably enough.
www.ebuyer.com/product/236581
for example
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All-in-one machines are undoubtedly very convenient, but you have to remember that if one area goes kaput the entire machine has to go away for repair.
Also it has always been somewhat puzzling as to why you can buy an all-in-one for the price of, or even considerably less, than that of a dedicated quality photo printer.
My Epson R300 cost two or three times more than an all-in-one at the time I bought it, yet the claims were that the latter were on a par with the R300. I already had a scanner so resisted the cheaper alternative (and not regretted it).
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Stuart - this discussion is about all in one PCs, not printers :-)
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OK great info all.... it's helped the decision no end. I like the all-in-one style and space saving but fully accept they have the potential for maintenance issues... and they are expensive.
I really don't want a laptop for this use either. They are still an all-in-one at the end of the day and compared with a normal PC are expensive for their performance.
Some of those ultra compact PCs are interesting but all have their own drawbacks... like no optical drive on some.
So I spent an hour or so last night working out a furniture shuffle which will just give me the room to add a couple of 6" shelf brackets to the side of our wooden desk to take the PC tower so it is off the floor and easy to reach the front connections/CD tray.
And that leads to a new thread about the old PC!
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>>
>> So I spent an hour or so last night working out a furniture shuffle which
>> will just give me the room to add a couple of 6" shelf brackets to
>> the side of our wooden desk to take the PC tower so it is off
>> the floor and easy to reach the front connections/CD tray.
>>
It's a pity nobody seems to make a combined memory card reader / USB socket and optical drive in one little box, then you could hide the desktop on the floor, but have the bits you need to interface with close at hand. Easy done now using separate USB memory card readers and optical drives, but that's still quite messy
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>> It's a pity nobody seems to make a combined memory card reader / USB socket
>> and optical drive in one little box, then you could hide the desktop on the
>> floor, but have the bits you need to interface with close at hand.
Easy to make one, just buy an empty drive enclosure.
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>> >> It's a pity nobody seems to make a combined memory card reader / USB
>> socket
>> >> and optical drive in one little box, then you could hide the desktop on
>> the
>> >> floor, but have the bits you need to interface with close at hand.
>>
>> Easy to make one, just buy an empty drive enclosure.
>>
Trouble is finding one with enough space in it for the card reader as well as the optical drive. Being Mr. Bodgit I'd stick a card reader on top of an optical drive caddy with some double sided tape, not terribly elegant though.
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>>> combined memory card reader / USB socket and optical drive in one little box, then you could hide the desktop on the floor, but have the bits you need to interface with close at hand.
Yes that would be a great idea but beyond me...
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All-in-One PCs - Iffy
