Morning,
Replacing an ageing laptop and defunct pc. Only really need to run office, t’internet and autocad lt. Browsing is pretty basic and needs wifi and ideally wireless peripherals.

Thinking that an all in one is best, dell seem pretty good any recommendations from the collective?

Ta
Scott

Dunno about a specific PC, but you’ve basically started describing an iMac

All in one PCs can be nice and tidy looking, but be aware that in 4-5 years when it no longer quite cuts the mustard you’ll be throwing the entire thing out rather than simply upgrading components.

Really, do ppl still bother upgrading 4/5 year old pc’s? Stuff like memory is well past it’s low point price wise and is on the way back up as it ‘rare’, you’d still be able to replace the HDD like any other PC/mac (ok, it’s a ball ache but possible) and again what the point in putting stuff like a newer graphic’s card in 4/5 yr old pc?

Note: My PC is at least 4/5 years old, and other than upgrading the memory much earlier in it’s life to a reasonable amount, it’ll stay like this till it dies or I get another cast off.

PS: OP I’d still be tempted to buy a laptop (assuming you can afford an i5 or above), external screen & docking station. More useful and two screens, which I love.

Dell, check out the outlet. Personally I like towers and screens. Laptop and screen and docking station is a good idea

We had the same dilema last year. As the girls were getting older and not needing them for school we decided to do away with two, with all the cables and space they took up, and go to one all in one. Main criteria for us was music and photo storage and to be able to process and store the Gopro stuff.
Opted for a Lenovo one, C470 with upgradded GB, as we don’t have any problems with the Lenovo stuff at work.
So far its doing what we want it to, it certainly looks a lot neater and tidier.

For what you’re doing with it, would a laptop not be better?

Laptop and an external keyboard?

Dunno about a specific PC, but you’ve basically started describing an iMac

No point buying an iMac if you’ve got to hamper it by running Windoze (The OP needs to run AutoCAD)…

My opinion of “All in One’s” (as an iMac owner and user) is not good I’m afraid. These days they make them as difficult to replace components on as they possibly can, and in the case of my iMac, virtually impossible. PC’s will play up, components will need replacing or upgrading, and with that in mind, most laptops are a lot easier to work on, let alone a conventional tower PC. It’s not so much about needing to replace the processor in a 5yo computer with the latest one, more that a HD might die, or it might get full of dust and require a clean out etc.

The other thing is that All In One’s generally pack laptop processors, memory and HD’s into their chassis, which just don’t perform as well as desktop components on a performence per £ ratio.

Dell would be my call.

I’d save your money and buy a proper pc or laptop

As said they are a pain in the hole to work on, expensive and from experience can be poorly designed in terms of cooling and air flow (Packard Bell Onetwo).

As for graphics, RAM and such, max RAM at purchase, replace graphics as needed. Replacing bits really isn’t that difficult or much hassle if you do it properly.

Sadly from the spec you give Autocad will demand resources and as such money spent.

how about a mac mini and a seperate screen ? the mac mini is tiny and should do everything you want – you can even run windows natively after running boot camp

works really well for me

Ive spent the whole day fawning over the lenovo a740. What a great piece of kit that is. Bonkers money though.

Imac for that sort of money if it was me

HP are doing some very small box ones that aren’t highly powered but are quite cheap running Windows 8.1, that are upgradable for memory/disk. They’re called ‘Pavilion Mini’, and the cheapest (although Pentium class CPU) is here.

I own a 2009 27″ iMac and while I do like it I don’t like the idea of getting rid of a gorgeous screen like that when the internals go pop. And also for the newer iMacs they’re all full of glue so even less chance of fixing stuff. I was thinking about replacing my internal hard disk but realised I’d have to do a lot of careful fiddly work to get into it to replace it, so my next machine will either be a laptop, an Intel NUC or a mac mini with a separate screen (though that’s less likely due to the fact you can’t get into them either now).

Why spend all that money on a mac that is for all intents and purposes untouchable internally and then even more on a Windows licence to run in parallel (or new Autocad for mac licence) when you could just spend the money on a more capable PC in the first place? Plus, as said with an all in one once it or the screen dies you’re left with a half useless computer.

Been down this road already, PITA

Well, thanks for all the advice, went for an hp mini tower with upgraded screen in the end. It’s great. The spec on the all in ones seems a bit limited for the price and a tower is way better bang for buck.

Those lenovo all in ones are gid looking though!