Question

I am specing out a new Design Technology building for an educational establishment, the current request is for PCs "without a base unit", not sure if these would be described as All-In-One PC's, Monitors integrated into base units, or PC integrated into monitor.

Has anyone had any experience of these PCs? and where can they be sourced?

Analysis

Some of the notes I have made in the course of my investigation.

Advantages

• All-In-One PCs are more aesthetically pleasing.
• The only parts of the computer readily visible are the screen, keyboard and mouse. This may reduce idle vandalism ("out of sight - out of mind" principal).

Disadvantages

• Lack of modularization may lead to increased support and replacement cost:
  • Some components are non-standard and thus expensive to replace.
  • Limited space in Small Form Factor and All-In-One PCs reduce the ability to upgrade, thus reducing the life of the product.
• Limited power of some models means they are unsuitable for CAD/CAM work.
• Some models don't have external VGA connectors for connecting Interactive Whiteboards.

Products

Here are the products we have been looking at:

• Acer Veriton Z280G (18.5"/XP, Vista or Win 7/2GB RAM/Atom 1.6GHz/~£300)
• Sony VAIO L-Series (24"/Win 7/6GB RAM/2.66GHz/~£800)
• ASUS Eee Top ET2002T (20"/Vista or Win 7/2GB RAM/Atom 1.6GHz/~£450)
• ViewSonic VPC100 (19"/XP/1GB RAM/Atom 1.6GHz/~£300)
• HP TouchSpart 600-1050UK (23"/Win 7/4GB RAM/Core 2 2.13GHz/~£1,200)
• HP Pavilion All-in-One MS215UK (18"/Win 7/2GB RAM/X2 1.6GHz/~£500)
• Lenovo ThinkCentre A70z (21.5"/Win 7/2GB RAM/2.1GHz/~£600)
• Dell Studio One (19"/Vista or Win 7/2GB RAM/2.6GHz/~£600)
• Viglen Omnino III (20"/XP or Win 7/2GB RAM/Atom 1.6/~£Varies)
• RM One (19"/XP or Win 7/1GB RAM/2.0GHz/£600)

On balance we are looking at buying the Acer Veriton Z280G as for our price bracket it is the best value for money. Due to the lack of a extra VGA port we are going to be using HP DesktopPCs to connect to Interactive Whiteboards.

You might look at the following PCs:

• HP TouchSmart line
• Sony All in One L series
• Dell Studio One

Besides the aesthetics and space savings of these machines, they do not make much sense from a business standpoint because they are expensive and if they go bad you have to replace the whole thing. It also makes upgrading an expensive proposition.

There are some new Nettops which have VESA mounts so they can be attached to a monitor or TV screen, and they are only about $350. See the Acer Revo 3610 for example. If money is a concern I would highly recommend them (I own one and using it as an HTPC).

Most of the major manufactures are making all-in-one PCs now. Here are a few examples:
Lenovo
HP
Dell

I have not had experience with these systems. But I would imagine they work great, dont take a lot of space, and are energy efficient.