I’ve a 10 year old laptop at the moment that is driving me insane as it has Windows Vista and is mind numbingly slow compared to modern computers. I’d like to get something to compliment it in that the laptop can still be used for browsing and word processing but something with a better spec is needed for basic CAD and photoshop etc..

We’ve a small office space set up on our landing which basically consists of a desk and a chair which is why the space saving characteristics of an all in one PC appeal but are they any good compared to a standard desktop setup? I’d probably be looking at something in the range of £500-750 and would want it to last another 5-10 years at a stretch.

Any advice gratefully received.

Mac Mini and cheap monitor? Not sure if it could handle CAD and Photoshop, but ours has been faultless in the years we’ve had it.

Edit: No Mac Mini’s on Apple Refurbished, but they have 21.5″ iMac’s in budget, again, not sure if they’ll do what you want.

http://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/FF883B/A/refurbished-215-inch-imac-14ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5

No help really but you could stick linux on the laptop and use GIMP & OnShape?

10 year old laptop – put Ubuntu on it for surfing (and yes I know I advised against it on another thread, but that was a different context).

All-in-ones have positives (space saving, nice design) but also disadvantages (more expensive, perhaps lower performance, and you can’t replace parts if they go wrong you have to ditch the whole thing).

I would suggest if you want it to last try and squeeze in a small PC. There are lots of options for space saving – you can sling the PC under the desk, use a wireless keyboard etc etc.

What about a better laptop with a keyboard, mouse and monitor? With HDMI and a USB hub its easy plonk the laptop down and plug everything in. Gives you maximum flexibility. £500 will get you a decent laptop and a 24″ monitor. You can make or buy a little shelf for the monitor that the laptop slides under so minimal space usage.

Thanks for the advice. I think I tried Ubuntu previously but can’t remember why I got rid of it. Will have to reinvestigate that one.

No Mac for me. Haven’t found anything that a Mac can do that can’t be done as well or better by something much cheaper…. yet.

You can make or buy a little shelf for the monitor that the laptop slides under so minimal space usage.

Or wall-mount.

Ubuntu or CenOS are great things to do to an old laptop with a creaking install of Vista, just in case. If not, you could buy a copy of 7 and get the free 10 upgrade (can you still buy 7?). 10 is a lot lighter than Vista ever was.

Haven’t found anything that a Mac can do that can’t be done as well or better by something much cheaper…. yet.

It is better at looking nicer. My 5 year old iMac still looks more modern and cleaner than any alternative.
They are unquestionably expensive though but worth it to me as I prefer using it (and I use it a lot and have it for 6 or 7 years)

An alternative to Ubuntu is Kubuntu, basically a KDE UI to Ubuntu if you don’t like the Ubuntu interface. Installation is quick if you are putting it on the whole disk and not partitioning.

Macs are expensive up front but I’ve been running mine (with four OS upgrades) for nearly 7 years and it’s still fine – based on previous PC/windows experience I’d be on my third PC about now.

The only real downside to all-in-ones is limited upgradeability (although you can usually do RAM and maybe storage) and that with the display & computing bits together, the failure of one may write off the other.

You can get some brilliant mini-PCs (Intel NUC, Gigabyte Brix, etc) these days that are perfect as long as you don’t need huge amounts of storage built in. My NUC came with a plate that allows it to be mounted on the back of a monitor.

Before that, I tended to use a Macbook hooked up to a big monitor. They happily run lid-closed (as many PC laptops will these days) so it could sit on a little stand behind the monitor out of the way. Then if I needed to take it with me, just unplug and stick it in a bag.

Was going to get an Intel NUC (bit pricey though, once you add in a M2 sata stick, a 2nd HDD/SSD and some RAM) or another Zotac Zbox type thing next time. Mini pc for day to day mostly surfing etc, and save the gaming PC for just that.
Depends what you use it for, and what things you can re-use (monitor, etc.). At least with a mini-pc you have more options for swapping out monitor later, or upgrading. All-in-one is restricted to being just that.

We don’t like them in work, they’re:

Expensive relative to their spec.
Bulkier than a standard monitor.
Perform poorly compared to a similar spec desktop as they’re construction-wise far closer to laptops than desktops.
Surprisingly easy to “write off”.

If you want a ‘really’ small PC you’d be better off with a mini-pc, you can get them with i5 processors (admittedly slower laptop spec ones) and you can mount them to the rear of a monitor using the wall-mount points. They still have the draw-backs of all-in-ones but at least you separate the screen from the PC so it’s more maintainable.

Personally as so many others have said, get a SFF PC, stick it on the floor / shelf so it’s out the way, get a wireless keyboard and a decent monitor and that’s about the most robust set-up.

Acer did a revo. It could be attached using the VESA bracket, so with wireless keyboard would feel very all-in-one.

That had different specs.

Lenovo do a very small NUC -type PC too. (smaller than a paperback).

I’d buy a laptop, wireless mouse (and maybe a keyboard) then an external monitor too. Depends how you use it mind. If i’m sitting in the living room, I can just attach a long hdmi cable to the laptop and I can go dual screen using my 42in. Which is useful for many things! 🙂

I was running vista on my PC and couldn’t find a legit copy of Win7, so I just bought a new copy of Win10 for £100.
My PC has a new lease of life and is much faster than it ever was on vista