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All-in-one p.c. recommendations

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Jonetc15
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All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256838

Postby Jonetc15 » October 9th, 2019, 8:07 pm

I will be mst grateful if anyone, preferably from personal experience, can recommend an All-in-One p.c. costing up to (say) £750. I've looked in local Currys at HP and Lenovo in particular. The choice on-line is difficult without being able to get the physical feel of the product. I'll be really grateful for any suggestions.

Jon

Jonetc15
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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256839

Postby Jonetc15 » October 9th, 2019, 8:11 pm

P.S. I should have said large screen. Memory need only be average as my needs are modest (e.g. no gaming, but watching Netflix and so on).

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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256844

Postby Arborbridge » October 9th, 2019, 8:56 pm

Jonetc15 wrote:I will be mst grateful if anyone, preferably from personal experience, can recommend an All-in-One p.c. costing up to (say) £750. I've looked in local Currys at HP and Lenovo in particular. The choice on-line is difficult without being able to get the physical feel of the product. I'll be really grateful for any suggestions.

Jon


Maybe I can learn something here. What is an All-in-one PC? As far as I can see, it's just what I think of as a PC. What makes it different? and what is the advantage.

Arb.

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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256847

Postby mc2fool » October 9th, 2019, 9:09 pm

Arborbridge wrote:Maybe I can learn something here. What is an All-in-one PC? As far as I can see, it's just what I think of as a PC. What makes it different?

No box. Everything -- motherboard, CPU, memory, disk, etc, etc -- is built into the monitor (which is a bit thicker than normal).

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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256849

Postby gryffron » October 9th, 2019, 9:25 pm

All I can recommend is... Don't touch them with a bargepole. Like laptops they have custom size circuit boards which cost a fortune if anything goes wrong and any part has to be replaced. Can you really not fit a micro case with bog standard, off-the-shelf, easily replaceable components somewhere? Under the desk maybe?

Gryff

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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256855

Postby Maroochydore » October 9th, 2019, 9:46 pm

Jonetc15 wrote:I will be mst grateful if anyone, preferably from personal experience, can recommend an All-in-One p.c. costing up to (say) £750. I've looked in local Currys at HP and Lenovo in particular. The choice on-line is difficult without being able to get the physical feel of the product. I'll be really grateful for any suggestions.Jon

I have a Lenovo IdeaCentre AIO (700-241SH). It was purchased in May 2016. I saw it in CurrysPCWorld at £800. Liked it so checked online and bought same item from SpotBuyer at £650. 2TB hard disk and 8GB RAM.
Recently had a couple of hard disk corruptions necessitating reloading Windows. Not sure what caused them but I think it was driver problems. Used Intel Driver and Support Assistant app to sort out and no problems since. (Note Microsoft said all drivers up to date, Intel disagreed and were correct.) Also had issues with the touchscreen which was easily solved by disabling facility in Device Manager (didn't use it anyway but caused issues on screen).
Apart from that no ongoing problems. I like the lack of leads being AIO. Comes with wireless keyboard and mouse.
I've got my printer operating on wireless so only a power lead coming out of the back.
Only 'complaint' is no warning light when CAPLOCK is on.
It has a 23.8" screen so going back to something smaller would be quite strange.
As already stated, everything is packed into the back of the screen so think of a laptop i.e. very tight in the back.
Overall very pleased with it.

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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256872

Postby servodude » October 10th, 2019, 12:55 am

gryffron wrote:All I can recommend is... Don't touch them with a bargepole. Like laptops they have custom size circuit boards which cost a fortune if anything goes wrong and any part has to be replaced. Can you really not fit a micro case with bog standard, off-the-shelf, easily replaceable components somewhere? Under the desk maybe?

Gryff


I concur with Gryffon here: at least from the Dell, Asus and Acer ones I've seen fall over (iMACs seem decent though)

They appear to die much more readily than "normal" PCs (including laptops)
- and are nigh on impossible to repair so that when they do go it's everything that gets scrapped

I suspect the tendency to fail is to do with the proximity of everything to the screen and how the heat buildup & dissipation is compromised wrt more traditional designs

If you do not have the space for a tower you can get a similar experience to an all in one with a micro PC (NUC?) attached to the VESA mount at the back of a decent monitor
- It will be more reliable, more configurable and with the added benefit that if some part fails it does so independently of the others

good luck
- sd

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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256875

Postby Itsallaguess » October 10th, 2019, 4:34 am

gryffron wrote:
All I can recommend is... Don't touch them with a bargepole.


Totally agree, and I also agree with servodude's comments further down the thread.

All-in-one's tend to have terrible heat-dissipation problems generally, and even if they don't give much trouble in normal usage, I'd imagine the lifespan of the majority of components to be severely compromised due to the long-term effects of those heat-dissipation issues.

As an better suggestion, if a neat solution is really something the OP is looking to achieve, then I'd go for some sort of micro-PC bolted onto the back of a normal monitor, as this would achieve the same result and remove the 'all-in-one-ness' of the solution, and specifically allow the OP to choose a monitor on it's own, to give the best results, and keep the PC itself separate to the purchasing decision.

I posted about my similar set-up here, although it's a few years old now and I'd suggest that more up-to-date options might be available -

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=19704#p254440

https://assets.hardwarezone.com/img/2016/04/asrock-intel-deskmini.jpg

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256882

Postby Arborbridge » October 10th, 2019, 7:37 am

mc2fool wrote:No box. Everything -- motherboard, CPU, memory, disk, etc, etc -- is built into the monitor (which is a bit thicker than normal).


Ah, thanks. I see now. I'm sure there are trade offs,- mentioned by others in the thread - but it seems convenient for those short of space. I keep stubbing my toe on my "box" under a rather cramped desk but I'd rather have that plus reliability than convenience.



Arb.

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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256888

Postby panamagold » October 10th, 2019, 8:29 am

Bought this Lenovo IdeaCentre B310 21.5 inch All-in-One PC (Intel Core i3-550 3.2GHz, 4GB RAM, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, TV Tuner, Windows 7 Home Premium) £486 in 2011 as a spare unit to cover any loss/damage to our main units.

Mrs p. was so impressed with it that after 2 weeks she commandeered it as her primary machine and has been using it daily for the last 8 years without the slightest of issues. As president of an animal charity, here in the south of France, she certainly puts it through its paces with the statistical databases, photos, movies and general work involved with her position and the organisation.

I highly recommend a Lenovo AIO ( this model is obviously no longer available due to its age) and we will certainly replace it with another one as and when it becomes necessary. Go for it and get yourself one.

PhaseThree

Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256889

Postby PhaseThree » October 10th, 2019, 8:49 am

Have you looked at the Intel NUC boxes ?
Not "All -in-One" but a tiny box that can sit at the back of the desk or even be attached to the back of a monitior

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-BOXNUC8I ... XWTQ373D6H

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-BOXNUC8I ... XWTQ373D6H

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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256892

Postby tea42 » October 10th, 2019, 9:15 am

I have an Acer all in one which I purchased in 2010. Its been excellent. A couple of years ago I replaced the Hard Disk with an SSD and that has made it as quick as contemporary machines for my modest purposes. Photoshop and Lightroom are probably the most testing programs. Acer have been making such machines for many years.

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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#256967

Postby Infrasonic » October 10th, 2019, 4:06 pm

https://uk.pcmag.com/desktops/112/the-b ... -computers

Some good points in the above article, especially about an HDMI input so you can use as an external monitor in the event of some future issue with the inbuilt PC.

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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#257022

Postby Jonetc15 » October 10th, 2019, 8:53 pm

Itsallaguess wrote:
gryffron wrote:All I can recommend is... Don't touch them with a bargepole.


Totally agree, and I also agree with servodude's comments further down the thread.
All-in-one's tend to have terrible heat-dissipation problems generally, and even if they don't give much trouble in normal usage, I'd imagine the lifespan of the majority of components to be severely compromised due to the long-term effects of those heat-dissipation issues.
As an better suggestion, if a neat solution is really something the OP is looking to achieve, then I'd go for some sort of micro-PC bolted onto the back of a normal monitor, as this would achieve the same result and remove the 'all-in-one-ness' of the solution, and specifically allow the OP to choose a monitor on it's own, to give the best results, and keep the PC itself separate to the purchasing decision.
I posted about my similar set-up here, although it's a few years old now and I'd suggest that more up-to-date options might be available -
https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=19704#p254440
https://assets.hardwarezone.com/img/2016/04/asrock-intel-deskmini.jpg
Cheers,
Itsallaguess


I am tremendously grateful for all the constructive and exceptionally helpful replies to my post. Gryffon did more than sow the seeds of doubt, and Itsallaguess and others put me off All-in-Ones entirely. Many thanks indeed for the time and troble taken by everyone to help me and for so much information and advice from several angles.

Now I'll try to find a conventional p.c.

All the very best

Jon

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Re: All-in-one p.c. recommendations

#257031

Postby hiriskpaul » October 10th, 2019, 9:57 pm

My wife has an all in 1, a Toshiba QOSMIO:

http://uk.dynabook.com/discontinued-pro ... dx730-10u/

Since new I have replaced the hard drive with an SSD, increased the memory and upgraded to W10. Still works fine, but did pack up after about 4 years (screen back light), necessitating a repair at Toshiba which took a few weeks. I would echo what others have said and would personally not touch all in ones. The only advantage I can see is the touch screen display, should anyone want that. I am not aware of any reasonably priced monitors that come with a touch screen.


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