Maybe a new puta needed - help with bewildering amount of choices please?

**FenceFurniture** · 3rd April 2015, 12:37 PM

Currently I have Dell laptop purchased late 2007 and it has been remarkably reliable with it's small SS HD. Same for the Win XP with Office 2003. The only complaint i have about the Dell is the obvious Chinese sheet metal work, and the appalling sound quality of the built in speakers. Neither is a big deal.

However, XP is no longer supported, I'm having great difficulties with watching videos (as documented in another thread), and even ignoring those two things there will come a time reasonably soon when I should replace the now 8 year old technology. Furthermore, NBN will be here in around 12-15 months and it would probably be wise to have hardware and software capable of utilising it properly.

WHAT I USE IT FOR:
Websurfing
ABC iView and other videos (e.g. Youtube)
Email (Gmail, but also a tiny amount of Outlook)
A big amount of Excel (and some of the sheets can be quite large 500-1000Kb). Many of these have VB macros written into them
Creating PDFs with PDFCreator
A miserably small amount of Word usage (prefer to do documents in Excel anyway)

That's about it.

WHAT I DON'T USE IT FOR:
Gaming of any sort apart from Spider Solitaire

WHAT I MIGHT USE IT FOR:
Largely unknown, but NBN will make some big changes to they way we do things (I hope).
Netflix, online TV etc are all coming or here, so I'd like to be able to take advantage of that.
I have an up to date Blu-Ray player (which has a so far unused wireless connection for Internet) and a stinky big Sony Bravia TV, but maybe they can go online by themselves.

LAPTOP V DESK
I no longer have the need for a Laptop (current one hasn't been outside this room in 5 years), but we get an above average amount of blackouts due to electrical storms up here. Many a time I have been very grateful that only my second monitor goes down and the Laptop keeps running on battery. To that end I will get a $150 UPS that will support a desktop and my partner's Mac for 10-15 minutes so we can do an orderly shutdown.
I guess a lot of people would advocate that I build my own PC, but I have nil experience and even less understanding, so I reckon that wouldn't work for me. I'd rather have the peace of mind of a professional build with warranty and backup service.

I run a second 24" monitor as well as the 17" Laptop, and I really like this set up. On a new Desktop I would still purchase a monitor so that I can have two.

What about an all-in-one - they seem pretty inexpensive?

WHAT BRAND?
I don't have a particular leaning to Dell, except that the current laptop has been very reliable. I don't really know much about other brands but could guess at HP, Compaq. Bit out of touch there, so some suggestions would be great.

**derekcohen** · 3rd April 2015, 01:05 PM

Hi Brett

Get a Mac. I have two 13" MacBook Pros (both i7, late 2011). One is a backup for work - but never needed to be used, and available to the family in the study. The other travels between my office and home.

They have been super reliable. The chances of a virus are extra slim. The construction is top drawer. In the days of Windows I was changing a laptop every three years because, frankly, it was worn out. This one is going on strongly still. My son has a desktop version, and his is a year or so older, and also running strongly (used long hours daily).

When I switched over from Windows I added Parallels, which enables the computer to run Windows alongside the Mac apps quite seamlessly. These days I do not bother with Windows as there is no need.

I cannot say enough good things about Mac, although the single-button mouse did make me wish I had not purchased it at the start. Now it is second-nature and effortless. After a short re-learning curve, what you end up with is a stress-free computer.

Regards from Perth

Derek

**FenceFurniture** · 3rd April 2015, 01:05 PM

MONITOR:
Crikey there's some choice. Do I need a touch screen? With the way I have it set up it's a little too far away for that - stretching means inaccurate touches. Pretty happy with the Wacom Tablet way of doing things.

HARD DRIVE - definitely a Solid State, but doesn't need to be too big. Have survived with only a 32Gb SS HD for 8 years. I never save anything into My Documents - always to an external hard drive (actually much quicker to save to that because my SS is first gen). I'd say I could get by with an SS HD of about 100Gb which will allow plenty of room for programs etc. Funny thing is that on the Dell website there are very few models that have SS, and they are only the expensive ones.

RAM:
4Gb? 8Gb is more dough of course, but I'm not sure that I need that much. Or should I go back to the adage of buy as much as I can to somewhat future proof?

PROCESSOR:
Given that I'm not a gamer, I can't see that I need a top of the wazza. Currently have 2.8Ghz dual core Intel. Looking at Dell, they still have Pentium processors in a lot of their machines, but there are i3, i5 and i7 processors of between 3.2 to 3.5Ghz, and single, dual, quad and 6 cores. Any comments?

OTHER STUFF:
Well, as much wireless/Bluetooth as possible regarding keyboard (don't use a mouse - Wacom tablet), headphones etc. Have a reasonably recent Canon printer which is Bluetooth capable.

SECURITY SOFTWARE:
McAfee or Norton?

WINDOWS:
7, 8.1, 8.1 Pro, or wait for 10?
I seem to remember all sorts of horror stories about 7, so what is 8.1 like for stability? Is 8.1 pro any better or is it more money for stuff I wouldn't use. The dangar of waiting for 10 to come out (in a few months i think) is that it could be another shocker like Vista was. This is the main reason I've stayed with XP - it's never let me down yet.

OFFICE:
What's the vibe on 2013 like? I presume there'll be a 2015 when Win 10 comes out.

One of the things that I am NOT looking forward to is upgrading my vast array of Excel sheets from 2003 to whatever. No doubt changes to the VB code will be required, and i have a stack of my own tool bars. Oh well, suck it up boy!

**FenceFurniture** · 3rd April 2015, 01:14 PM

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Hi Brett

Get a Mac. I have two 13" MacBook Pros (both i7, late 2011). One is a backup for work - but never needed to be used, and available to the family in the study. The other travels between my office and home.

They have been super reliable. The chances of a virus are extra slim. The construction is top drawer. In the days of Windows I was changing a laptop every three years because, frankly, it was worn out. This one is going on strongly still. My son has a desktop version, and his is a year or so older, and also running strongly (used long hours daily).

When I switched over from Windows I added Parallels, which enables the computer to run Windows alongside the Mac apps quite seamlessly. These days I do not bother with Windows as there is no need.

I cannot say enough good things about Mac, although the single-button mouse did make me wish I had not purchased it at the start. Now it is second-nature and effortless. After a short re-learning curve, what you end up with is a stress-free computer.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Hi Derek

'Fraid to say there's not a chance of that. I've used one for long enough to know that I just don't particularly like the way they work (partner has an all in one right next to me, and a Mac Air that floats around the place). I use far too much Excel for it to be viable. One never knows if the Visual Basic option will be there or not for Macs, and it's imperative that I have that.

I agree that their construction and finish are top class, as are the monitors. If i was still a pro-photog then I would have a Mac in a flash, because they handle graphics and images so well.

**rwbuild** · 3rd April 2015, 02:05 PM

HP or Toshiba, min 8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, wireless connectivity is a real bonus, less cables, if a blackout, at least min 1 hr battery life depending on what you are doing, easily recharged from a car, DONT get W8 its a dog, get W7 rock solid reliable hassle free like XP . I use the larger screen models because of extensive CAD work when mobile and extensive excel documents.

Did have an ASUS and Dell, both were @#*^&!+ never again

**Sawdust Maker** · 3rd April 2015, 02:18 PM

work out what you need and get someone to assemble for you
a few years ago I worked out what I wanted and emailed the specs to a number of firms and didn't do too badly

We've also bought from these people in the past
TI Computers

**RoyG** · 3rd April 2015, 03:00 PM

FenceFurniture,

A few answers to your questions ....

MONITOR:

I've never found much use for a touch screen on a laptop or desktop computer - in my view a touch screen is simply a great way of getting smeary fingerprints all over the screen. Touch screens have a valid place on Phones and Tablet computers, but under normal Windows, the large majority of applications have not been written with a touch interface in mind.

RAM:

Get as much as you can when using Windows. 8 or 16 Gbyte is not an excessive configuration on a computer running Windows 8 or newer. The additional memory will ensure that the operating system runs as quickly as the CPU and Hard Drives (or Solid State Drives) will allow. Do a simple cost benefit analysis of the price of the base RAM price, and the RAM upgrade prices. Somewhere in the range between the likely minimum RAM (typically 2 GByte) and the maximum (typically 32 or 64 Gbyte on desktop machines) there will be a sweet spot on that day where the price per GByte is lowest.

Storage:

You didn't ask about storage in your questions, but ........ On a desktop machine, you'll generally have much larger amounts of storage capacity than on a laptop computer. Most desktop machines will still be supplied with a single HDD (mechanical rotating disk hard drive). If they have an SSD installed, it will usually be as a small (e.g. 128 or 256 GByte SSD) to hold Windows, and a second HDD (e.g. 2, 3, or 4 TByte) to hold data in your home directory. The SSD to hold teh operating system can significantly speed up the boot time of Windows, but if the desktop PC is going to be switched on once a day and left on, then the boot-up speed hardly matters.

Processor:

From the sounds of your post, it seems that you do some fancy Excel spreadsheets using VB etc. Depending on the complexity of the calcs you are doing in Excel, you may benefit from an i7. If those calcs normally take an extended time to complete on the old computer, then the i7 architecture is very likely to speed the calcs up dramatically. More likely, an i5 will be adequate for the work you've described. Do a similar cost benefit analysis on the CPU speeds. Unless you really want a supercharged V8 hot rod (i.e. the upper end of the i7 series), go for the i5 series. Again, compare price versus CPU speed to get a comparison.

Other Stuff:

Unlike with Notebook computers, you should note that Bluetooth is usually standard on desktop motherboards - you'll probably have to put in a Bluetooth add-on card. Wireless is not always standard on desktop computers either. There are a few add-on cards that cover both WIFI and Bluetooth.

WIth regard to WIFI, choose 801.11AC if at all possible (future proof yourself). 802.11AC is the latest and fastest WIFI protocol, and one of AC's main advantages is the ability to get better speed, range and connectivity in the presence of interference from lots of other nearby WIFI installations. If you can't get 802.11AC, then the next step down in speed and range is 802.11N. Your present WIFI Router, if it is more than a year or so old, probably doesn't support 802.11AC. But the next WIFI Router you buy will almost certainly support 802.11AC. Depending on how old the Mac computers are, they may already support AC as well.

Security Software:

Either one of those that you mentioned will do the job. If you buy a brand name machine (e.g. Dell, HP, Acer, etc) it will likely come bundled with one of the one that you mentioned.

Which Windows Version:

8.1 and 8.1 Pro is what will be in the shops now. According to the various Tech Gossip web sites (e.g. Tech Radar http://www.techradar.com/au/news/sof...atures-1029245), Windows 10 is still a few months away. Some Microsoft marketing info recently has been discussing the fact that Microsoft plans for teh first time to offer free upgrades to 10 for licensed users of specific recent versions of Windows. Additionally, many brand name PC manufacturers have offers where you'll get Win 10 as a free upgrade via the PC vendor when 10 is eventually released. Hardware spec wise, judging by the technical reviews of Win10 that have been published so far, the PC specifications seem to have dropped from what was required for Win8.

MS Office:

Sorry, I can't offer much advice regarding current versions of MS Office. I migrated from MS Office to using OpenOffice about six years ago, and then swapped to LibreOffice about three years ago. All of the macro'ed spreadsheets that I had from MS Office either worked in OpenOffice, or they were able to be made to work with minor fiddles. That was six years ago. I haven't tried to do the same thing with the current version of LibreOffice. But, as both OpenOffice and LibreOffice are actively out there to take business away from MS Office, especially in the commercial sector, both OpenOffice and LibreOffice have been working hard to ensure maximum file compatibility between MS Office and either OpenOffice or LibreOffice.

A bit of background to those two pieces of software. Both OpenOffice and LibreOffice are "Free and Open Source Software" (FOSS). You don't pay any purchase or license fees, either for private or commercial use. You simply download and install. OpenOffice was the original FOSS competitor to MS Office. OpenOffice was actively developed by a number of different companies, and eventually made it into Sun Computer's hands, where Sun made huge leaps and bounds in capability, and OpenOffice became a serious free competitor to MS Office. A few years ago, Sun was bought by Oracle, who then sidelined development on OpenOffice. There was a lot of angst in the OpenOffice user community about Oracle no longer supporting OpenOffice, so a group of interested software developers then took the FOSS source code for OpenOffice and made a new project naming it LibreOffice, and continued development of the software independent of Oracle. You can still download OpenOffice, but LibreOffice is by far the more advanced software.

LibreOffice can be downloaded from https://www.libreoffice.org/. LibreOffice runs on Windows, Mac OS X (x86_64 10.8 or newer required), and plenty of different versions of Linux.

My suggestion would be to download a copy of LibreOffice and install it on your current computer. Then do some testing with your spreadsheets to see what work, if any, needs to be done to make your Excel spreadsheets work in LibreOffice Calc. You'll find a huge amount of information on the LibreOffice web site, as well as many other web sites, about migrating existing MS Office documents to LibreOffice. In the last few years, many large corporate and government organisations around the world have moved from MS Office to LibreOffice, so most of the issues surrounding migration of various MS Word document types to the equivalent document types in LibreOffice have already been worked out and the solutions published. A few Google searches should find answers to specific VB Macro issues.

Email Client:

LibreOffice does not include an Email client as part of the software suite. I recomend and have been using Mozilla Thunderbird for about ten years. It is a good reliable email client that can easily connect to POP, IMAP, GMAIL, and Exchange mail servers, all at once if necessary. Again, it is a FOSS product, so can be downloaded and used free of charge from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/.

I hope that info is useful.

Regards,

Roy

**FenceFurniture** · 3rd April 2015, 03:12 PM

Wow, Roy, fabulous answer! Thank you so much!

Gonna have a little Good Friday nap right now and absorb more of that later.

**snowyskiesau** · 3rd April 2015, 03:21 PM

About 12 months ago, after my ancient IBM Thinkpad died, I bought a Toshiba laptop, Satellite L850 from Officeworks, about $750 from memory.
Intel i5 2.5GHz CPU, Radeon 7670M graphics, 4GB of memory (upgraded to 8GB), 1TB hard disk, DVD writer.

Construction is plastic but it's held up OK so far. Wireless connection is good, no dropouts even when some distance from the router.
It's often used with an external monitor (Dell) and switches from inbuilt screen to external without a problem.

I run Linux, not windows so have no experience with it running Excel or Word. It's mostly used with FreeCAD and various packages to drive a 3D printer.
While I'd have preferred an IBM/Lenovo laptop, the price difference was not justified. No problems in recommending this brand/model.

**Master Splinter** · 3rd April 2015, 04:29 PM

Don't buy security software - with a bit of common sense, Windows 8.1 with the free Windows Defender is fine. (common sense is also known as Firefox with AdBlock Plus and NoScript.) I'm not exactly a "I only surf highly trustworthy sites" or "I only install software downloaded from Microsoft" type of guy and I've had no virus issues since XP days.

128 gig SSD - the footprint of a W8 install is about 25 gig once you have all your 'must have' software installed. I love how my PC goes from turned off to ready to surf the internet in under 15 seconds. Realistically, a 128 gig drive is only about $30 more than a 64 gig drive. Samsung are probably the best balance of price/quality.

8 gig of RAM is plenty for your needs - it's not like you are using memory hungry 'I need all your RAM and then some more' applications like Photoshop or video editors. I've got 8 gig, typical usage of it hovers around 35%, or double that if I'm playing a game with all the physics calculation options turned right up.

Also make sure that the PC has USB 3 ports, not just USB 2.

Touch screens...let's just say that the product development champion who was so keen on the Windows 8 Metro touch screen interface no longer works for Microsoft. Windows 10 will be a freebie by way of an apology.

Where to buy from - the overall cheapest that I have found is MSY. Note that they are one of those 'visit in person' shops as their business model means they often can't answer the phone as the are too busy with customers, and their website is rubbish. Failing that, I also like Shopping Express. That just about sums up all of my hardware buying places, although I will pick the eyes out of any Hardly Normal sales while making sure I don't buy anything else there!

**FenceFurniture** · 3rd April 2015, 05:09 PM

Thanks MS

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

Don't buy security software - with a bit of common sense, Windows 8.1 with the free Windows Defender is fine. (common sense is also known as Firefox with AdBlock Plus and NoScript.) I'm not exactly a "I only surf highly trustworthy sites" or "I only install software downloaded from Microsoft" type of guy and I've had no virus issues since XP days.

Well i don't have any security now (McAfee expired about 5 years ago) and i don't seem to have any issues with viruses (viri?). Have Firefox with Adblock but not NoScript.

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

128 gig SSD - the footprint of a W8 install is about 25 gig once you have all your 'must have' software installed. I love how my PC goes from turned off to ready to surf the internet in under 15 seconds. Realistically, a 128 gig drive is only about $30 more than a 64 gig drive. Samsung are probably the best balance of price/quality.

Yep, wouldn't mind a larger SSD

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

8 gig of RAM is plenty for your needs - it's not like you are using memory hungry 'I need all your RAM and then some more' applications like Photoshop or video editors. I've got 8 gig, typical usage of it hovers around 35%, or double that if I'm playing a game with all the physics calculation options turned right up.

Yeah I reckon 8Gb will be plenty for me. I do use Photoshop, but not in a hard core sense - mainly for resizing pics to put up here, perhaps a bit of cleaning up sometimes. I'll prolly just get Photoshop elements for a new machine (currently using PS from about 2002).

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

Also make sure that the PC has USB 3 ports, not just USB 2.

Rightio

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

Touch screens...let's just say that the product development champion who was so keen on the Windows 8 Metro touch screen interface no longer works for Microsoft. Windows 10 will be a freebie by way of an apology.

Yeah I'm with you and Roy on Touch screens and fingerprints.

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

Where to buy from - the overall cheapest that I have found is MSY. Note that they are one of those 'visit in person' shops as their business model means they often can't answer the phone as the are too busy with customers, and their website is rubbish. Failing that, I also like Shopping Express. That just about sums up all of my hardware buying places, although I will pick the eyes out of any Hardly Normal sales while making sure I don't buy anything else there!

Cheers, will have a look. WRT to Hardly Normal - I think I'd rather pay someone else 10% more AND drink some of my waste liquids than feed that whinger.

Opinions on W7 / W8.1 / W8.1 Pro? Rwbuild says that 7 is as reliable as XP and 8 is a dog - doesn't sound too encouraging. Very few seem to market with W7 now though....

**FenceFurniture** · 3rd April 2015, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

About 12 months ago, after my ancient IBM Thinkpad died, I bought a Toshiba laptop, Satellite L850 from Officeworks, about $750 from memory.
Intel i5 2.5GHz CPU, Radeon 7670M graphics, 4GB of memory (upgraded to 8GB), 1TB hard disk, DVD writer.

Construction is plastic but it's held up OK so far. Wireless connection is good, no dropouts even when some distance from the router.
It's often used with an external monitor (Dell) and switches from inbuilt screen to external without a problem.

I run Linux, not windows so have no experience with it running Excel or Word. It's mostly used with FreeCAD and various packages to drive a 3D printer.
While I'd have preferred an IBM/Lenovo laptop, the price difference was not justified. No problems in recommending this brand/model.

It's funny Geoff, we all have our own experiences. I had a Toshiba laptop that gave me no end of grief. Rwbuild had a Dell that gave him grief and mine has been great.....

**RoyG** · 3rd April 2015, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Wow, Roy, fabulous answer! Thank you so much!

Gonna have a little Good Friday nap right now and absorb more of that later.

FenceFurnoture,

I hope you had a good snooze......

Sorry, I forgot to address one question that you'd asked.

Build your own, or buy a "brand name" computer (e.g. Dell, HP, Acer, etc), or buy a "Store Built" computer, etc ???

First of all, the computers that are built from scratch in-store by some independent computer retailers are usually built with low cost parts to achieve maximum profit. Some of the build-in-store suppliers (e.g. Computer Alliance in Brisy) have a very good reputation. Some others produce rather dodgy systems. If you plan to buy from an outlet who build in store - look for one with a good reputation, or at least look for one that has been around for quite a few years. If they've been around more than say three years, they must be doing something right, otherwise they'd quickly get a bad reputation and close down.

Next is the buy the bits and built it yourself brigade. That approach is OK if you have the know how, and are prepared to only have warranty on the individual components and not on the whole system. And you're responsible for making sure all the components work together OK. The "making it all work together" part is a lot easier now than it was say ten or fifteen years ago. Components mostly work together OK these days - except you still need to be very careful when choosing CPUs and Memory configurations to match a particular mother board. I usually go the build your own approach when buying for myself. But, if I'm helping someone else, I always recommend that they buy brand name, or bare-bones system build, or in-store-built from scratch, but only after making sure that the store has a good reputation.

There is another option that has become more prevalent in recent years. That is independent computer stores who have started building brand name computers from a "Brand Name Bare Bones System". They add memory, SSD or HDD, etc to the brand name base system to reach your specifications. As desktop PC cases have started to get much smaller, the Bare Bones System build approach has become popular as it allows the independent computer store to easily build a very small case PC. Bare Bones Systems can be sold as build in store, or build yourself.

If you want a desktop PC, and you don't want a build-it-yourself, and you don't want to buy a shop built PC, then a factory built brand name machine might be a good choice. I've had good success with Acer. My first contact with them was to Project Manage the deployment of 3,500 Acer PCs to all the offices in the City Council where I worked. Out of the 3,500 PCs deployed, less than 0.5% were dead on arrival, and of those twenty were dead on arrival due to shipping damage. I went on to be involved with the management of those PCs over their life, and the failure rate was quite low. I don't remember the exact failure rate figures, but I remember thinking that for PCs that were usually hammered 40 hrs per week and left turned on 24/7, the failure rate was quite low. I've also project managed the deployment nearly 5,000 Dell computers in a Qld Govt Department. Those machines turned out to be very good - BUT, Dell machines for bulk sale to large businesses and Government customers are built to a different standard (read much better standard) than Dell's consumer grade retail sale computers.

I've overseen the purchase of three Acer desktop computers for friends when they've asked for my advice and assistance in buying a computer. I provide the support for those machines, and all of those Acer machines are now between 5 and 3 years old, and they have all proven to be very reliable. My recommendation - go with Acer. Harvey Norman often has good deals on factory built Acer desktop units.

The other thing that has changed in the last few years since you probably bought your last desktop PC, is that desktop PC cases have gotten much much smaller. They have also gotten much quieter as laptop technology has been incorporated into them to reduce the size of cooling fans needed, or to sometimes eliminate the fan altogether. To see how small, have a look at the link below.

Intel about two or three years ago came up with a new standard for a small footprint desktop computer called a "NUC" (pronounced Nuk). Intel themselves build "Bare Bones NUC Systems" ranging from low powered Celeron system up to i5 systems. Other manufacturers also build NUC systems that comply with Intel's standards (Acer, MSI, and lots of others).

Teh Intel NUC system computer is roughly 150 mm x 150 mm x 45 mm to 60 mm (the taller NUCS are designed to accomodate i3 and i5 CPUs and their taller cooling fins). NUCs usually comes with an external laptop style power supply (some have the power supply inside the case and only need a 240 volt lead). The usual reason for having an external notebook style power supply is to make room for more or bigger components inside (e.g. to make room for the higher i5 CPU, or to make room for one or two 3 1/2" HDDs which will allow much more storage space than the smaller notebook style SSD or HDD.

The following is a link to one of Computer Alliance's Intel NUC small footprint systems. I know that Computer Alliance is probably not much use to you, but the products (or very similar) should be available from your local computer builder type store (Not Harvey Normans or similar). Some of the NUC machines are complete computers - just add monitor, keyboard and pointing device - others are bare bones, hence the differences.

The one I've linked to seems to require an SSD or HDD and some memory, as well as the monitor, keyboard and a pointing device. The power supply is a 60 watt external laptop style power supply. The Intel NUC computers also come with what is known as a VESA Bracket. This is an industry standard metal bracket that screws to the outside of the NUC Case, and then screws into the four holes that are now standard in the back of most 20 inch and larger monitors. This allows you if you want to, to screw the NUC directly to the back of the monitor, and sort of end up with an all-in-one like machine. In my case, my Intel NUC with an i3 CPU sits on the shelf below the TV and runs Linux based media centre software (MythTV) to deliver videos and recorded TV programs to the TV.

http://www.computeralliance.com.au/i...igabit-network \

As for the all-in-one computers ....... I'm not a fan of them! The main reason being that to fit the computer hardware inside the monitor case without making the case overly large, the manufacturer often has to use specialist (non-standard) hardware and non-standard mounting techniques to get the parts to fit. You can usually upgrade RAM easily enough in an all-in-one by opening a hatch in the back of the case. But when doing SSD or HDD upgrades can be a huge challenge to get the case apart enough to do the job. The cases and/or components are often glued together or plastic welded to the plastic case or chasis to allow the manufacturer to fit all the components into as small a space as possible.

And lastly, most of the all-in-ones have no or very minimal expansion capacity. For example, only one SSD/HDD slot, and no useful card expansion slots. There is sometimes a card expansion slot on the motherboard, but because of the shape of the case, or the overlay of other parts, there is no room to plug anything into the expansion slot.

OK - that's it - I've run out of things to say. You can go and have another snooze now.

Regards,

Roy

**FenceFurniture** · 3rd April 2015, 05:58 PM