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All-in-Ones Finally Grow Up, With Fast Graphics, SSDs, and CPUs

Posted by timothy on from the ok-now-switch-graphics-cards dept.

MojoKid writes "Historically, all-in-one desktop systems like the iMac, HP's TouchSmart and similar designs that incorporate a full system on the backside of a monitor, haven't offered performance that was competitive to their full-sized desktop counterparts. Part of the reason is that many of these systems are comprised of low power notebook platform PC components inside thin chassis designs with minimal airflow. However, as mobile platforms have become more powerful, so has the all-in-one PC. Dell's recently launched XPS 27 Touch, with Intel's Haswell mobile processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M on board, is an example of a new breed of AIO hitting the market now. The system is based on a 27-inch panel with 2TB of storage, a 32GB SSD cache drive, 8GB of RAM and performance in the benchmarks that keeps pace with average midrange full-sized desktops. You can even game on the machine with frame rates at the panel's 1080p native resolution with medium to high image quality. It's almost like the all-in-one finally grew up."

11 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. What fud by Billly+Gates · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The imac had decent specs for years.

    The fact is most pcs sold have value oriented junk as only workstations and alienware bother with nice components. Most enthusiasts and gamers build their systens as a result.

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
    1. Re: What fud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      true, but as this post is obviously a dell commercial, truth doesn't matter too much

    2. Re:What fud by Immerman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As a rule, yes. Basically bigger system = better cooling. Airflow, heat exchangers, etc are all very much volume dependent.

      Generally speaking (and oversimplified) if you can halve the power consumption (=heat generation) of the CPU, GPU, etc. then you have two options:
      1) Smaller - halve the capacity of the cooling system, roughly halving the minimum volume of the device.
      2) Faster - double the number or power of chips, roughly doubling the performance at the same minimum device volume.

      Of course if your desktop system uses a standard full-sized case and motherboard then there's probably lots of "wasted" space that can be trimmed - basically trading expandability and ease of maintenance for a more compact form factor. Once you're down to an compact motherboard and case though you can't really get much smaller without sacrificing cooling capacity. You could push things a little farther by doing away with upgradable, standards-compliant components in favor of custom-engineered solutions, but that increases costs and probably isn't worth it in most applications - once the cooling system becomes a major portion of the volume your options for further size reductions start being severely limited.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    3. Re: What fud by MojoKid · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ummm... FUD? You're using that term incorrectly. So where's the fail? If I was trying to create fear uncertainty and doubt it must have been with you.

      And we've seen AIOs from many manufacturers for years, which couldn't get out of their own way, in terms of what power users need performance-wise. iMac are a minor exception. They've had somewhat better specs but not SSD caches and 2GB GGDR5 enabled, seriously strong graphics like the new GeForce GT 750M. In fact, as I look at Apple's iMac load-out page now, I see last gen graphics mostly with 512MB configs.

    4. Re: What fud by tverbeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Considering that the iMacs have been far and away the best-selling AIOs on the market pretty much since the first iMac was introduced, calling it a "minor exception" seems like a bit of tunnel vision. While they've never been the cutting-edge powerhouses that the Power Mac/Mac Pro have usually been, the iMac line has always included configurations with very respectable "desktop-grade" specs, especially as of the dates when new models are released. (The current line-up is about a year old, which might explain why it seems so "last year".) I know plenty of visual-arts professionals who've used iMacs as their primary work machines for years, a phenomenon that has contributed to the persistent (but evidently incorrect) rumors that Apple was abandoning the Mac Pro line as superfluous.

      --
      http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  2. Advertisement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess that lab full of 2 year old existing Dell AOIs we have running liquid dynamics simulation software with tons of RAM and high-end Core i7s is just my imagination. This is a Dell advertisement in disguise under the cover of linking to a third party review. Products like this come out every week, why aren't they here? They're just as relevant as this thing.

  3. Best buys? by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The submission and linked "story" read like ad copy from Dell. That said, all in ones and midrange laptops have long been best buys in the computing world because all the peripherals that you would otherwise have to pay extra for (and cable to your PC) are built in. It's been the case for years that high-end graphics cards are only worth the money for gamers, video composers, crackers and more recently, gene sequencers.

  4. Re:Usage Enforcer Time by craigminah · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It seems not spelling words correctly, misusing words, and poor grammar are so common our language will be forever changed. I see this on TV shows, magazines, newspapers, etc. The other day they were talking on a news show about how teachers in a school district won't correct mistakes on student's homework so long as they explain why they answered the way they did. I for one am sick of this culture of "nobody's wrong, we're all right, we're all winners." It's not going to help our society and will destroy us in the long run.

  5. Not a story. by redback · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is an advert.

  6. Glossy touchscreen? No VESA mount? by Ptur · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No thanks...

  7. Re:Hole betwen Mac mini and Mac Pro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How much of iMac's sales are due to this?

    Very few. if the only reason you were buying a mac was "to develop ios or mac os applications," chances are you'd go with a mini + kvm switch (or headless mini with vnc). It's cheaper, it's plenty powerful for running xcode & associated tools, and you don't need all the other "stuff" if you've got an existing monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. etc. - you'll save space, and money. The "huge hole" you seem to think exists is largely covered by the mini if you don't need the kvm stuff.

    other PC makers haven't really tried AIO until Windows 8 brought an expectation of multitouch input to desktop operating systems.

    Funny, in Mojokid's response, he asserted that, "And we've seen AIOs from many manufacturers for years, which couldn't get out of their own way, in terms of what power users need performance-wise. iMac are a minor exception."

    So... iMacs are a minor exception to all of the the poorly-performing AIO PCs "from many manufacturers" over the years, but then you claim there haven't been any AIO PCs over the years, since Apple killed competition by suing somebody for making a complete ripoff of the iMac. This would mean they're the only real AIO game in town until recently, and they've had good performance, giving the lie to the "AIO's have never performed well" claim?

    Jesus, you fucks really will tie yourself in knots before you admit that Apple has ever done anything well.