Opinions on the All-in-One pc computers?

I was wondering what your opinions are on the all-in-one computers? It would really be great to be able to carry the computer for client proofing sessions. I'm going to need a new computer next year and I want to do the proofing sessions at the studio or the clients house. Right now I do the proofing sessions at my house but I don't want to do that anymore. So it would be really easy to bring an All-in-One computer with me to the proofing sessions. I figured with the 23" screen would be good for viewing proofs.

I've read reviews online but I don't really trust the websites because i'm sure the companies are pushing the sell of those type of computers. I wanted to hear real opinions from photographers.

Can you link something for this, not really sure what an all in one is?

Here is a link to the Dell Inspiron 2320 but all the major computer companies have an All-in-ONe computer now. They are all similar to an Apple iMac but these are PC's.

http://www.dell.com …s&cs=19&l=en&s=​dhs&~ck=mn

I wouldn't lug that around, better to have a nice 17'' laptop display. I don't see a weight on the web page.

Why not get a tablet for the proofing? Or just use a laptop?

Get a laptop with docling station. Laptop is nice and portable. When you get home you can dock it, use a 23" monitor, real keyboard, mouse, etc. You can always bring the 23" monitor with you if it was needed.

They look good for casual use if you don't have a lot of spare space. For higher volume processing you want multiple fasts disks, which you can't put into these machines. A single SSD would be ok. Also the screen quality may not be up to scratch for photographers.

So great for email and web, maybe not for image processing, especially in high volumes.

My reasons are because I have to buy a laptop for my wife and a computer for my business next year. So aside from buying my wife a cheapy laptop I need a descent computer. Also, the monitors on the All-in-One computers are pretty good. They are backlit LED screens. I wouldn't think they'd be to bad seems how they're comparable to the iMac's and a TON of photographers use iMac's.

So basically no one here has had experience with them.

ProjectNineFive wrote in post #13476644
My reasons are because I have to buy a laptop for my wife and a computer for my business next year. So aside from buying my wife a cheapy laptop I need a descent computer. Also, the monitors on the All-in-One computers are pretty good. They are backlit LED screens. I wouldn't think they'd be to bad seems how they're comparable to the iMac's and a TON of photographers use iMac's.

So basically no one here has had experience with them.

It is just my personal opinion, but for the money I think you'd be better off building a custom machine and getting a top rate monitor. I tried the iMac and wasn't impressed with the machine or the monitor and ended up building a machine and getting an NEC monitor. Of course, tons of people use iPods too, but I can't stand em so it may just be me.

Unfortunetly, there is no portability in a tower with monitor combo though. This would be a computer I can edit on and show clients proofs. The bigger the screen the better. So it would either be a 17" laptop (which I prefer not to edit pictures on laaptops) or an All-in-One computer with a 23" screen.

You could always hook up a monitor to a laptop. If you dont want to use a docking station. You could aslo plug in a real mouse.

ProjectNineFive wrote in post #13476780
Unfortunetly, there is no portability in a tower with monitor combo though. This would be a computer I can edit on and show clients proofs. The bigger the screen the better. So it would either be a 17" laptop (which I prefer not to edit pictures on laaptops) or an All-in-One computer with a 23" screen.

Why not have a serious machine for editing and a laptop for tethered shooting and displaying to clients? Do you edit and deliver the images right in front of the clients immediately after your shoot? I have LR and DPP on my laptop mainly for shooting tethered but I couldn't imagine doing my primary editing on my laptop.

IMO, you would be better off getting a desktop for editing that will support multiple hard drives and a cheaper laptop for proofing. Really all you would need in a laptop would be a decent display. It won't take much computing power at all to display your proofs to the client.

Carrying a 23" all in one isn't exactly something for the light hearted. They're awkward, heavy, and they have a giant screen that is just waiting to eat anything sharp on you when you're carrying it.

I suggest a laptop.

As for people who say all in ones aren't good options for editing, I have to disagree. I edit on an all in one. The price of an all in one looks high, but it really isn't when you add the cost of the display to the cost of a desktop alone.

tim wrote in post #13476603
They look good for casual use if you don't have a lot of spare space. For higher volume processing you want multiple fasts disks, which you can't put into these machines. A single SSD would be ok. Also the screen quality may not be up to scratch for photographers.


So great for email and web, maybe not for image processing, especially in high volumes.

Pretty sure the HP Touchsmart 610's have an IPS display. It's a NICE screen.

sbattey wrote in post #13478038
Carrying a 23" all in one isn't exactly something for the light hearted. They're awkward, heavy, and they have a giant screen that is just waiting to eat anything sharp on you when you're carrying it.

I suggest a laptop.

As for people who say all in ones aren't good options for editing, I have to disagree. I edit on an all in one. The price of an all in one looks high, but it really isn't when you add the cost of the display to the cost of a desktop alone.

That was my thought as well. They're pretty stout boxes, I'm not sure I'd want to be lugging one around.

BUT...The touchscreen is pretty slick, and you can get some pretty high-speed rigs for a decent price. I think a decked out HP Touchsmart (what I almost bought a few weeks ago due to the way you can slide the screen down to almost flat horizontal), with an i7 2600, 1TB HDD, and 8gb of RAM was around $1,200 US. That's about what you'd spend on an equivalent PC and decent monitor, and about $800 less than an equally powered iMac (that doesn't have a touch screen).

Only reason I didn't buy one is because I tripped and fell and found a $250 U2410 on CL for around 250 bucks and got a HUGE discount on a dang nice tower setup. I'm well under a grand for a super fast rig.