All-In-One buyer's guide
A class of desktop PCs known as All-In-One systems, these combine the display and components into the same slimline case. This has the major advantage of creating a system that’s far more space-efficient, effectively taking up no more room than a standard desktop PC’s display would do, and generally these are accepted as being far better looking.
All-In-Ones bridge a gap between the power of a normal desktop PC and the space-saving convenience of a laptop, with the flatpanel design enabling them to double as a TV – if equipped with a TV tuner – or play films and internet video.
Similarly to laptops - due to their reduced size - all-in-ones tend to have weaker 3D gaming performance than many full desktops. However look for models with NVIDIA or ATI graphics for reasonable performance.
A wide range of All-In-Ones are available starting with entry-level models that use the Intel Atom processor, suitable for web browsing and basic office work. At the other end of the scale there are high-end models with powerful quad-core and full-desktop specifications that can handle gaming and complex applications.
As a guide here are a few select examples of system specifications for different grades of systems:
Home and business work
Processor: Intel Atom or AMD Sempron
Memory: 1GB+
Hard drive: 160GB+
Graphics: Integrated
Display: 19-inch
Optical drive: None
Mid-range All-In-One
Processor: Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon X2
Memory: 2GB+
Hard drive: 320GB+
Graphics: Integrated ATI or NVIDIA
Display: 19-inch+
Optical drive: DVD rewriter
High-end All-In-One
Processor: Intel Core 2/i5 or AMD Athlon II
Memory: 4GB+
Hard drive: 500GB+
Graphics: Integrated ATI or NVIDIA
Display: 22-inch+
Optical drive: DVD rewriter
All-In-One features & videos
Top 5 things to see at The Gadget Show Live
This year’s The Gadget Show Live is crammed full of tech and gadgets so we’ve been along to pick out our top 5 must-sees…
How to get your news headlines quickly with RSS
Organise how you read the latest news from your favourite sites by taking control with Really Simple Syndication.
Harmon Kardon Sound Sticks III review
Get great style and great sound with Harmon Kardon’s Sound Stick speakers.
Join the Draw Something app craze
With over 20 million downloads the question is: why aren’t you playing already?
Mad Men 8-bit game free on YouTube
Retro show spawns a retro Mad Men ‘choose your own adventure’ game on YouTube.
