All in one PC vs desktop

johncolescarr

It really depends what you want. If you want the best value for money, then an all in one is not for you, however, if you want it to be a bit of a fashion/home interior icon then it could be for you. If you you want to play the latest games, I'm guessing its probably not the best machine for this either

I have seen them in peoples kitchens and I must admit they do look pretty cool, but I personally couldn't stomach the extra cost, my sub £400 dell laptop runs all my programs and is great for managing my ipod, camera, printing photos, home accounting, working from home etc. (Although I would really like to build my own media centre!) Plus I can carry it to the kitchen and catch up with BBC iPlayer while I'm cooking. Enough of laptops though coz I know you are looking at desktops

Also, as far as I understand these machines use more bespoke components so would be a bit like a laptop in terms of components and are not easily replaced (and not as compatible if you don't use windows)

My analogy is do you go for the fancy convertible or the german sports saloon (or the ford fiesta!)

Marty_J

johncolescarr wrote: »

It really depends what you want. If you want the best value for money, then an all in one is not for you, however, if you want it to be a bit of a fashion/home interior icon then it could be for you. If you you want to play the latest games, I'm guessing its probably not the best machine for this either

I have seen them in peoples kitchens and I must admit they do look pretty cool, but I personally couldn't stomach the extra cost, my sub £400 dell laptop runs all my programs and is great for managing my ipod, camera, printing photos, home accounting, working from home etc. (Although I would really like to build my own media centre!) Plus I can carry it to the kitchen and catch up with BBC iPlayer while I'm cooking. Enough of laptops though coz I know you are looking at desktops

Also, as far as I understand these machines use more bespoke components so would be a bit like a laptop in terms of components and are not easily replaced (and not as compatible if you don't use windows)

My analogy is do you go for the fancy convertible or the german sports saloon (or the ford fiesta!)

But which car is the "best value for money"?

I would say none of them, as they're all different, and all target a different market and a different sort of consumer.

There's a lot more to a computer than how big its HDD is. Buying a regular desktop would be a total waste of money for me, as its not what I want. So it wouldn't be better value.

Woby_Tide

NickMidgley wrote: »

They're probably laptop components rather than desktop, but yeah, they should be reasonably readily available.

I'm not a huge fan of all in ones myself, they're too inflexible and modifications, upgrades and repairs are much more of a faff. And you pay more for them.

Thats why you wait for Dell to have a sale. £400 for a Dell XPS One last year was much better value than me speccing a similar case/monitor, plus I get all teh saved space. At full price you pay a premium to save the space. But it's all down to personal choice. I'm techhy enough and upgraded my previous All in one without too much bother. I just chose to replace it as the biggest faff is the processor etc. Stuff like memory/HD are all relatively easy to upgrade as you go along though because as you say they are normally standard parts or at worst, laptop parts.