Another PC question, going back from laptop to desktop.

Hi all, I want to ditch the laptop as I never use it away from a power source, & I do prefer a normal keyboard without having to circumnavigate the trackpad on a laptop for fear it may destroy the text that has just taken me 20 minutes to write.
But the reason I went to a laptop was to tidy up the desk & the wires trailing all over the place like desktops of old, things have changed with the all in one PC, and also the Imac & mac mini.
So, I can go for an all in one, or a mini or a tower. I would prefer a neat option, but nowadays with all but the monitor being wireless I just don’t know if this would be a problem? Another reason I want to ditch the laptop is the display, it just doesn’t cut it with poor response off anything but the perfect angle. To this end I have a 20″ Sony TV/ monitor sitting around doing nothing, so do I use that & just get a box or a mac mini(no drive so no DVD’s), or go for an all in one or iMac?
To be fair for about 95% of the time I use a computer to browse, email & watch stuff on-line or a DVD, there are very few instances where I need word/office etc & most of what I do need to do can be done in google docs & transferred if need be.

So to the question, if your needs were as above (which do include the odd flash application) what would you get?

Any thoughts/help much appreciated.

Cheers.

A docking station?

I had similar thoughts and built a cheap mini ITX based machine.

I found docking stations tend to be for higher end laptops, and once you’ve added it all up its often cheaper to get a desktop PC and a cheap laptop/iPad.

If you have spare cash then go for iMac 21″ or alternatively custom built a micro-ATX (many to choose from) or mini-ATX desktop (Zotac Z68) …

Go for iMac 21″ if you are not keen on messing around with your PC.

If you have nice monitor and do not have the tendency to fix things go for Mac Mini.

😀

Thanks guys, I should of stated that part of the trade off of yet another new shiny thing is that if I do get to spend some of my money then the laptop gets passed to one of the kids.
So do normal macs play flash, is just the phones & ipads that don’t?
Also would an 4 year old LCD TV with HDMI out perform a modern monitor?

Thanks again.

Have an iMac 24″. Would choose the 27″ in a heartbeat if I were looking at he mo.

you can get the all in one desktop thingies that are popular these days as they don’t have all the wires and pc under the desk. They are basically laptop internals mounted inside a nice big screen with a wireless keyboard and mouse. You will get a nice big screen compared to the similarly priced laptop.

Thanks again, any more thoughts on this from the morning crowd?

Cheers.

Before I went out on a limb and bought a MacBook Air, I’d never have said this, but:

Mac Mini if you want to use your existing monitor you mention, or a full iMac if you’re not fussed and have the cash. I have to say I’m pretty impressed with OSX’s usability, and that’s from a dyed-in-the-wool windows luddite up until now…

plug in a mouse and keyboard?

A tower (or mac mini) with wireless keyboard and mouse can be pretty clutter-free if you set it up right, using cable tidies and the like, though obviously will never be as “clean” as an iMac or Windows all-in-one machines.

TBH I have more problem with the crap on the table next to the machine than the machine itself 🙄

I have a home desktop – with wired mouse and a wired keyboard. Some careful routing with the cables means that it not an issue with ‘clutter’. As I work from home I have a docking station for my laptop – again no issues with the wires.

I have seen some of the all-in-one PC’s/Macs and my only concern is that buy putting all the bits in one box, one failure means that it all needs replacing!

In the interest of balance I’ve not been as impressed as I hoped with my iMac. If I had my time again I would have bought a Windows all-in-one and an iPad for the same money. Most of my criticisms are directed at the buggy and unstable piece of carp that is iPhoto, but in my experience Windows “just works” just as well as OSX. If you’re interested there’s some of my thoughts here[/url]

Thanks again all. stilltortoise I read your blog, very insightful & I already have an iPad so I think it’s time to trot off to pcworld & have a look at a few all in ones.

Cheers.