[Closed] Would you buy an all-in-one PC?

These days I'd have no qualms assuming you're not likely to want to upgrade components.

It's essentially a laptop to be honest and would you buy a laptop?

Assuming it meets your needs now and a bit it should be fine. They're not the PoS they once were.

(assuming you're not paying a significant premium for it being a all in 1 and couldn't just as easily have a base and monitor, I wouldnt choose one over a "proper" pc all being equal)

Does it have video and audio input ports so it can be used as a monitor if the PC part dies? Is the PC part reasonably serviceable - can you replace or upgrade the HDD, memory, CPU at home using just a screwdriver?

Also, is it roughly the same cost as the same desktop system as separates - if you dont have tight space requirements and a standard desktop is cheaper, why waste cash?

Unless you wear a polo neck and it has to be aesthetically pleasing. In which case, why aren't you buying a Mac? 😉

I'd agree with dangeourbrain; a family member has one and loves it, but I had to remind her that it's basically a laptop inside, with all that entails for serviceability, lifespan etc. She's not techy and has no interest in upgrading parts, so it works well for her - or it did right up to the point that its internal power supply fried after 5 years of use. So she went out and bought a replacement 🙂

A decent monitor will last for ages. Seems a bit pointless replacing it after 3 years.

Why not just get a superslim mini PC? There are some that can mount on the back of a monitor, so its not taking up much extra space.

Mate of mine has a big HP Pavilion with B&O etc. Loves it, but likely a different model as he's had it a year or so now. One plug, wireless keyboard and mouse, all very neat. I think I'd still want a CD/DVD drive on at least one PC in the household, but that's doable with USB when needed.

All the disadvantages of a desktop combined with all the disadvantages of a laptop.

If it's a lease it's probably more viable than if it's something you're expecting to get ten years out of, especially if you can get a 3-year warranty on it. Biggest concern for me would be single point of failure, you could be in a position where you'd to buy an entirely new machine because the screen went pop.

As said above, if you have a budget and no specific requirements beyond "doing some work" then you may as well spend the money on a PC that looks good rather than having 7/8 of the cores, the graphics card, and half the ram just idling even if it cost the same. So unless you worry about reliability, why not?

The only part to die in my laptop after I think ~8 years was the battery and the foam filter on the fan. So in general they should last a while! Dunno how, it's only a cheap Acer! My brother on the other hand is one of those people who can reduce a laptop to components in 8 months and claim it was due for replacement anyway!

The other alternative might be something small form factor or ITX sized. ITX means full sized components, but on a motherboard that's 170mm square, which means there are some very cleverly packaged cases and you can build a full on gaming or video editing PC with full sized graphics cards, in a case the size of 2 reams of printer paper (which I have stacked under my monitor anyway to get ti to eye level!)

There is a reason iMacs are so popular.

Have a few PCs at work and home for mainly editing applications.

This is not a simple answer.

Sure you can get better value but that may not be the complete picture.

I have a Dell 27" AIO 5720 Precision - which was quite high-end a couple of years ago. And quite upgradeable to an extent. It's not slow and has two SSDs inside as well a great monitor. And I've upgraded the ram. It was an imac beater for half the price. Sturdy metal swivel frame system too.

It's an excellent set up - has a great monitor and sound system. It's become my go-to workhorse at home - more importantly I managed to make it blend into the kitchen for secondary entertainment / net / office duties.

I love it.

And for home / work duties there only machine out there that improves it - is an HP 32 ENVY -
HP Envy 32 I am tempted but perhaps not currently.

If it's about value then no I wouldn't buy one - if it's about convenience and not wanting a box etc then I would say go for it

There is a reason iMacs are so popular

Because they're pretty and have an apple logo.

And back in the day when black was an outlandish colour for a base unit, they came in colour.

Apple isn't a great illustration of anything but the power of branding and marketing. That's not to say it it's not good kit, but it's certainly not great kit.

(though we do have them to thank for pinch to zoom and GUIs)

And for home / work duties there only machine out there that improves it – is an HP 32 ENVY –
HP Envy 32 I am tempted but perhaps not currently.

Oooh, that's rather nice - not in stock anywhere though 🙁

Not. Have an iMac sitting at the bottom of this desk unloved and unused. I do however have a docking station for my laptop, twin speakers, bluetooth keyboard and mouse and a 22" monitor. Best of both worlds. If I needed the performance, I'd go standalone. If I needed the portability, I'd go laptop and docking station. If standalone, I'd buy something with a tiny footprint and separate peripherals.

There is a reason iMacs are so popular.

Mine's not - wrong dead end CPU and a failed power supply. Mac mini would be my first port of call now.

Apple isn’t a great illustration of anything but the power of branding and marketing. That’s not to say it it’s not good kit, but it’s certainly not great kit.

An actual conversation I had.

TINAS, I need to get my kid an iMac, can you help?

Me: Yea sure, what do they need it for?

Ohh just homework and stuff.

Me: Have you thought about a windows PC, I won;t argue they're better or worse, but they are available at lower price points so if you don't need an expensive PC you don't need a iMac.

Thanks, I'll look into it.

...............

I've bought a s/h iMac for £300.

Me: Ok

Bargain or what?

..........

This thing is older then the kid! And someone saw them coming at £300. But it works, it runs word, excel, the internet etc and the kid has a shiny apple logo to keep up appearances with their friends. So I'm not sure what the point of that little story is beyond there being multiple ways to be both wrong and right at the same time!

being multiple ways to be both wrong and right at the same time

Get married for one

My mum has a similar but slightly older HP all-in-one. She likes it, and likes not having a tower on the floor and all the cabling.

I had a 27” iMac for years and that was fine too.

As said, regard it as a single unit like a laptop with the same limitations around upgrades, repairs, etc and it’s all good.

There is a reason iMacs are so popular.

Yeah and it isn't the all-in-one form factor in most cases. I'd find an all-in-one offputting unless it was very similarly-priced to a normal desktop. I certainly wouldn't pay a premium. We have some older versions of those HPs at work and they're just a bit annoying - the screen won't sit in the right place. Not the same as the one's you're looking at but the same idea of an all-in-one windows-based PC.

Well for that price, circa £1300, you could get the same monitor and a desktop for considerably less. I recently bought an intel NUC machine. It probably has the same "limitations" regarding upgrades but it certainly suits my needs very well and the small form factor means that it barely takes up any additional room.

On the HP machine it looks like it comes with 2TB of ssd storage which is just bonkers in my mind. buya a smaller hard drive and buy some cloud storage, especially when it comes to a desktop and a web connection is pretty much guaranteed.

I have a 1st gen HP Envy 34. 2015 I guess. Signature edition from the Microsoft store running ssd's, discrete mobile graphics, i7 etc. Yes it's a laptop in a 34" monitor but it's never skipped a beat.
I've always built Shuttles before but I needed a new monitor at the time and it looked so neat and a passively cooled shuttle was stretching my time/budget.
Struggles a bit when I dabble in the current fps games but does everything else I need for now.
Would absolutely buy one again...and downcycle the current one to the kids.

On a lease you've nothing to lose. The thing that is almost certain to be the first thing to fail will be the spinning disc - mean time to failure on those is only 5 years. Everything else in a well made computer is at least intended to last a lot longer than that but a spinning disc hard drive *will* fail at some point.

Yes, I'd buy an all-in-one again. Currently working on a nearly 7 year old iMac that would have been bottom of the range at the time (except for the upgrade to a Fusion Drive). I paid Apple £200 to replace the disc last year.

still not sure whether it's better to run one with an SSD and a USB disc for extra storage or a fusion drive and just accept the repair cost after c5 years. Cost is about the same and having all storage in the case is more convenient.

Yeah and it isn’t the all-in-one form factor in most cases

That was part of it when I bought my iMac 10 years ago (still going strong)

The screen is great, it does all I need (I don't play games) and for a computer it still looks better than anything else available 10 years later. Yes it is important how it looks at it lives in the lounge.

My laptops are both windows so I am no Apple fanboy.

We have an all in one sitting on the desk right now being used as a second monitor (via spacedesk).

Standard mATX form factor mobo with a standard AMD CPU and integrated APU, standard RAM, standard HDD and standard SATA DVD drive. The only thing proprietary is the PSU but even then I think that's just a different form factor.

Don't write one off until you've done the research. Some might be glorified laptops but not all are. Ours had a horrific heat problem until I replaced the sink on the APU. If it's a lease then go with what works.

Oooh, that’s rather nice – not in stock anywhere though

Looks like it got delayed. Was showing stock in John Lewis / Currys at one point...

I would got for the high spec model though it's got an HDMI input and upgraded everything else.

Looks like it got delayed. Was showing stock in John Lewis / Currys at one point…

Can't even check it out on the HP website. There is an advert for it, click on find out more and it just takes you to a sales page for other stuff. Guessing the virus has halted production

I’ve bought a s/h iMac for £300.
This thing is older then the kid! And someone saw them coming at £300

The other reason people buy Macs. It will either last you a good long time OR it will still be worth good money if and when you come to sell it.

Have an iMac sitting at the bottom of this desk unloved and unused

which is probably worth a few hundred if it's working. Sell and buy bike bits.