While I normally do not belong in TT ( ), I was hoping for some advice.

Our desktop (gateway fx 6800) just died on us, and we are looking into replacing it with an all-in-one pc, and using the monitor we have in conjunction.

Some background: We both have laptops that we use regularly, and typically use the desktop for general web-browsing, financial organization, and some basic documents. Our music, photo, and movie libraries are stored on an external, and accessed from all three computers, though we don't watch movies on the desktop.

We have looked into HP and Lenovo very seriously, but also Gateway, Acer, Sony, and Asus. I will personally never give Dell any money, ever again, due to some terrible prior experiences. Touchscreen is nice, but not absolutely necessary for our needs. Storage size isn't much of an issue, as we typically store on externals. Also, we would prefer to get something through best buy- because their protection plans have served us well (mostly because we break almost every piece of technology we buy.)

Given all that, does anybody have some suggestions on what brands/models we should lean towards? I would love to hear of any specific experiences you, or people you know, have had with all-in-one's.

2/6/2011 9:14:30 PM

Apple?

2/6/2011 10:13:37 PM

I've been pining for a lenovo A-series all in one since I played with one in a hotel. For me it's the perfect size for a nook or small desk and has enough power for everything I'd do on a day-to-day browsing basis (including 1080p youtube.) But you have to get them through a distributor.

Of course their ideacenter AIO, and the asus AIO's are great choices as well.

Filtering that with the best buy inventory I'd say the ideacenter AIO is all that's left

^great, but SUPER overpriced for just browsing the net. Plus it's often got a boatload of compatibility problems with the cheaper network drives and protocols. This rule also applies to the touchscreen deals. I can't imagine putting my oily fingers all over my monitor I use for daily tasks. I hate cleaning it once/week.

[Edited on February 6, 2011 at 10:39 PM. Reason : touchscreen=overpricing for something you won't use often. That wasn't clear.]

2/6/2011 10:38:27 PM

Quote :

"great, but SUPER overpriced for just browsing the net."

You can't put a price on awesomeness.

2/6/2011 10:44:46 PM

2/6/2011 10:49:37 PM

2/7/2011 12:22:05 AM

Fuck Lenovo and their All in Ones. I ordered one for my grandmother, and they delayed it and delayed it (for four fucking months). Then I get a call one day from Lenovo telling me they never actually manufactured the model at all, but they could ship me a lower specced model for 50 dollars MORE than I paid.

SO basically they took my money for 4 months, my grandmother got no christmas present and then they tried to bait and switch me. I found out afterwards that they keep 0 stock of their All-in-ones and you can often wait 3-4 months for them to build orders before they even go to manufacturing.

So, fuck Lenovo.

2/7/2011 12:37:14 AM

I don't see the point of an all-in-one pc.

If all you're using it for is general web-browsing, finacial organization, and some basic documents, you can use that existing monitor you're fond of and build a cheap desktop with an i3 in it and save some money. A decent all in one PC costs like what, 700+? You can build a cheap desktop that's about as powerful for like half that.

2/7/2011 12:44:54 AM

^Not all do. The one I ordered was 549. And there's no way I could have built one (a year and a half ago) with the same specs. And many people put these in places that dont have room to hide a desktop.

2/7/2011 12:57:33 AM

Quote :

"Apple?"

Nah- I use a macbook pro for work, so it's not an issue with apple itself, but more the overpricing for what we want, like wwwebsurfer mentioned.

The distributor issue might not matter if B can go through work, but we'll see about that. We haven't had the chance to play with any of the lenovo's at all though, which is something I tend to insist on before buying.

Noen - thank you for sharing that. It's those kinds of stories I was specifically hoping to hear. Obviously I don't want people to have had such crappy experiences- but it's nice to get a heads up when they do have that misfortune. This certainly makes me very wary of lenovos.

BigEgo - like noen mentioned, it's partly due to space. The tower that just died on us was not on a good spot in our office, and since we would probably just go spend the same amount on a tower as we would on an AIO, we'd rather get something that is less space-consuming. (While capable of, say, replacing the memory or a hard drive, we are not the computer building types.) And it's been really annoying knocking our knees into that thing over the past year.

2/7/2011 8:14:26 AM

I've used some the Lenovo all-in-ones before. Nothing to complain about. Of course, if you want to order a Lenovo all-in-one, don't order it from their website. They do a horrible job of fulfilling orders and provide ZERO tracking information. I've ordered stuff from Lenovo's website and have had stuff arrive within a week and other times it'd take over a month. Order from a third-party company (i.e. Tiger Direct, CDW, newegg, etc...)


Personally, I'd go with an HP all-in-one. From what I've used, they just are better all around. Better touch screen, better software, better build quality.

2/7/2011 10:43:28 AM

Lenovo had some issues during their transition from IBM->Lenovo. But I've never heard of anything like that. Weird.

Eh, give me a month or so and I can tell you the experience. We're outfitting the network for a church and we'll be installing like 8 of the M90z if they take the high quote. Low quote as ASUS models in it (with atom processors instead of Core2).

2/7/2011 10:44:42 AM

I'm testing out two of the Lenovo A70z in one of my company's locations and I'm impressed so far. It's the perfect form factor for a billing/pos computer. I will probably step it up to the M90Z if these go well because they carry a 3 year warranty over standard 1 year and I believe come packaged with wireless keyboard/mouse. And the 1080p resolution is definitely nice.

A70z (Price drop, I paid 547)
http://www.provantage.com/lenovo-0401a3u~7LEND1U2.htm

M90z
http://www.provantage.com/lenovo-3429a1u~7LEND1VC.htm

2/7/2011 10:57:09 AM

Why not get something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220049

This will let you use your current monitor and costs <$400 and has an incredibly small size.

2/7/2011 12:34:58 PM

Oh the M90Z also has DVI so that was a huge plus regarding the whole TV/VCR "one dies, other is useless" shtick.

2/7/2011 1:30:13 PM

Thanks for all the input! This combined with all the research B is putting in has us leaning towards the HPs and a Lenovo. We've got to look into the possibility of getting an A-series before we can seriously consider it, but they sound great. Unless we find the HP overwhelmingly better, we will probably forgo the best buy route, which is kind of a bummer bc we've needed to use their service/protection plans on everything. newegg is where we are looking now.

Kris- we've seen some similar things, but the ideal situation (at least for him) is to have a two-monitor setup, which is why we started looking at AIOs. He's used to having four monitors at work, and he'd like to have at least two here if we can swing it. If that weren't the case, something like that would probably have worked well.

2/7/2011 6:46:14 PM

Not sure what how big your beef with Dell is, but i'd suggest looking into Dell Inspiron One all-in-ones. They are less expensive with than the HP and Lenovo. I just sold an HP Touchsmart that I have used for the last two years, and although I havent owned the dell INspiron One, i played with one at the store and it was a much better bang for the buck at a similar quality build as my old Touchsmart (the new ones are either really cheap looking, or really expensive for what they are, depending on the model). In fact I ended up going back to
a Dell after a few years of HP machines (although switching back to a full tower for performance reasons) and I am very happy with the build quality and the customer service. Although the last generation TouchSmart still lookes sexier IMO.

2/7/2011 10:59:21 PM

^ I agree with the Dell sentiment. Their customer service has gotten light years better in the past year. I bought a laptop as a gift and had to return it and I was absolutely amazed how smoothly the process went. Someone called ME at each step in the return process and I never spent a second on hold , getting transferred or any of the other bullshit that used to plague dells customer service.

For me, Dell, HP and Sony are all oems I would purchase from directly without a second thought

2/8/2011 12:18:53 AM

Dell's Gold Support is pretty awesome and their regular support is above average, imo.

2/8/2011 6:19:42 AM

my issue with dell stems from them not honoring an extended warranty I had on a laptop back in 2005-2006 (which I spent 3k on). It was a year of battling it out with their overseas tech and customer support, and ultimately they never did a damn thing. I'm fairly bitter about it, and will never buy a dell again, even if they managed to work their way up to a top-rated company for customer service. They screwed me pretty hard, and I am very big on customer service. It's also a big part of why I love best buys protection plans. We have had to replace our ps3 twice, and a macbook pro once- and it was really just a matter of walking in, and the person behind the counter saying "grab another of the shelf". Service from Dell and Apple just doesn't compete imo.

2/8/2011 5:16:41 PM

i've got an imac for sale. i just bought a macbook air to replace it.

2/8/2011 5:28:12 PM

my CS/TS service with Dell has been 95% positive.

i've used the shit out of each warranty and the reps never gave me shit about it

2/8/2011 6:11:10 PM

^^^my guess is you got the basic warranty rather than accident protection.

2/8/2011 6:21:18 PM

>Doesn't have room on desk for desktop computer
>wants dual monitors

mfw

2/8/2011 7:29:01 PM

I donno, I like my dell 17" laptop, which happens to be 4.5 yrs old now. Held up pretty well, service was fast, at my door front when I needed the LCD replaced and another time, gpu replacement. I ended up extending my warrant after the initial 3 yrs by another 2 and I use it every day still. It's been in a motorcycle accident, a few drops and tons of bumps; holds up strong. Short of throwing it against a brick wall, I've been happy.

In terms of service, you just need to be Asian and know how to talk to Indians like me. Plus, if I get any hassles, a few of my friends are dell certified techs so I can get anything replaced under warranty with no issues.

2/8/2011 9:50:57 PM

Quote :

"my guess is you got the basic warranty rather than accident protection."

Nah, I went out of my way (and paid a good deal extra) to get much more protection. Like I've mentioned before, we tend to break things.

Quote :

">Doesn't have room on desk for desktop computer >wants dual monitors"

haha seems odd, I know. But the tower stays under the desk (it is far to big to be on top), and since our monitor is a flat screen, it stays almost flush against the wall. It wouldn't actually take up much more space (read: depth) on our desk if we add another screen (even though the AIOs are a bit thicker).

Quote :

"my CS/TS service with Dell has been 95% positive. i've used the shit out of each warranty and the reps never gave me shit about it"

Yea, my crappy experiences were several years ago. I've heard from others (before this thread began) that they have worked on improving their service in both areas, but the year of arguing with them about whether or not anything was wrong with my laptop (which crashed 2-3 times a month, and eventually stopped turning on altogether), after paying an absurd amount of money for an extra nice warranty and service plan, was enough to put a permanent bad taste in my mouth when it comes to Dell.

I don't hate on those that use their products, especially if their products and services are that much improved; I just have no intention of ever giving them money again.

2/9/2011 9:51:34 PM

not to be a dick, but it sounds like you don't know how to talk to TS reps or demand what you need. that's going to be a problem with any company

2/10/2011 7:22:16 AM

Quote :

"SO basically they took my money for 4 months, my grandmother got no christmas present and then they tried to bait and switch me. I found out afterwards that they keep 0 stock of their All-in-ones and you can often wait 3-4 months for them to build orders before they even go to manufacturing. So, fuck Lenovo."

not that i disagree with lenovo's 20th century ordering and processing times, but do you mean they put a hold on your credit card? i've never been charged by lenovo until after my systems have shipped, and often not until i've already received them.

2/10/2011 9:56:04 AM

ttt

7/31/2011 1:38:11 PM

Thanks

My parents are replacing their computers finally, so I'm picking out a laptop and desktop for them. Got the laptop picked out already but I don't quite know which way to go with the desktop. They aren't gamers or video editors, so I just need something fast enough to surf the web and do decent multimedia stuff.

I'd prefer something between 4 and 600 bucks, and I don't really feel like building it myself.

Anyone tried those touchscreen all-in-ones? Looking at these two right now:
http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-one-2205/pd
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AZ3101-U4062-21-5-Inch-Desktop-Silver/dp/B004H4WNTQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1312134442&sr=1-2

[Edited on July 31, 2011 at 1:48 PM. Reason : ]

7/31/2011 1:44:23 PM

I went with a gateway ZX4951. The touchscreen is cool I guess, but I rarely ever use it. Also, it'd a little over your price range- they do have a couple models that are under 600, but with a different processor.

Overall though, I'd recommend this aio- it works smoothly, has yet to give me any trouble, and wasn't overly expensive for what we got.

9/14/2011 5:51:20 AM

Haven't posted here in a while.

I'm currently posting from my browsing/media storage machine. Thinkcentre a70z. They can be had at the lenovo outlet for about $350. But they honestly need a RAM upgrade (or at least it did when I'm trying to stream media out of it and use it at the same time.)

At work we just purchased 3 of the Dell Inspiron One touchscreen machines. The touchscreen is a total joke - it works fine, but who touches their monitor in any productive manner? But we got them cheaper than the non touchscreen models thanks to some rebates and DPA. Overall they're solid machines. We use them for Vegas10 basic video editing day in and day out.

No problems thus far.

9/14/2011 8:36:42 AM

woot.com woot-off (as of 10:30 EDT on Wednesday.)

$500 dell all in one. We have 3 of those at the office - very solid machines.

9/14/2011 10:31:32 PM

Don't know that I'd ever go touchscreen for a desktop. It's already hard enough to resist the urge to punch people that don't realize you can point to something on my screen without actually having to touch my screen.



[Edited on September 16, 2011 at 3:01 PM. Reason : -]

9/16/2011 2:59:09 PM

Windows 8 son.

9/16/2011 3:22:35 PM

I need to get one of these for my parents at some point. The 'desk' that they use does not have enough space to use a tower . . .

9/20/2011 10:33:41 AM