All in one pc for gaming?

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Anomaly1964

Platinum Member
Nov 21, 2010
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The one you build yourself will be the best...

SSD drives seem to be really good for online gaming as well...
 

natsfan99

Junior Member
Feb 13, 2011
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The one you build yourself will be the best...

SSD drives seem to be really good for online gaming as well...

I am not to much of a tech guy and somewhat of a newb. I wanted to get a all in one that I could put in the family room and wanted to know are or is there a all in one pc that is a good gaming pc. I tried to google reviews but could not find many good or bad. Thanks for the feedback.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
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What do you mean by "all in one"?

If you just mean a desktop built by someone else, then yes you can buy them from Alienware, Cyberpower, Newegg, even Dell with a graphics card upgrade.

If you mean something special like a tiny PC, or that does other "stuff" then you need to tell us what that other stuff is. There are custom builders that do that too, but you'll pay more.
 

SlitheryDee

Lifer
Feb 2, 2005
17,252
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I think he's talking about those imac style everything-built-into-the-monitor PCs.

Ugh. There's no way I'd buy one of those for gaming. They're not upgradable and you'll be paying a hefty premium for the form-factor, especially if they managed to stuff some decent hardware into it.

I see that the imac itself comes in variants that include an HD 5750 1gb...for $2000.00. That's about as much graphics card as I would expect to find in any all-in-one. The best dell's got is an HD5470 in their inspiron 2305, but at least it's only $1200. Sony's got a Viao all-in-one with an nvidia 330M graphics chip. I'm not as familiar with nvidia's products, but a quick look around the internet seems to indicate that it'll play most games on medium settings. Problem is that the models that include that chip start at $1600. HP doesn't have anything to speak of. That's most of the major players, but I'd imagine you could find more capable all-in-ones from more specialized builders. They would all carry commensurately specialized price as well though.

So that's what you get when you insist on an all-in-one...high end price for mediocre hardware. For the price of any of them you could build a gaming pc that's 3 times as powerful and upgradable to boot. But I guess the all-in-ones look pretty cool. I personally wouldn't go that route for gaming even if I had the money to spare.
 
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mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
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The iMacs are probably the best once you get Windows installed, but they're very expensive. Most of them use mobile GPUs to keep heat down. If size is a concern, there are smaller form factors available apart from full size desktops. A micro-ATX board would work great.
 

Davidh373

Platinum Member
Jun 20, 2009
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Basically, it all comes down to standards. My MacBook Pro can "play" games on it's integrated 8600M, but I wouldn't say it's great for playing anything over 720p on low-medium settings at a normally 20 or below framerate. Most "All in One" pcs have Core 2 Duos or i series dual cores that are clocked to run in a notebook, so they have slow clocks. Ram normally maxes out at 4GB, which isn't bad, but it is expensive laptop memory. So if you want high end gaming at 1080p, no. If you want low-med graphics at 720p, likely yes.
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
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Basically, it all comes down to standards. My MacBook Pro can "play" games on it's integrated 8600M, but I wouldn't say it's great for playing anything over 720p on low-medium settings at a normally 20 or below framerate. Most "All in One" pcs have Core 2 Duos or i series dual cores that are clocked to run in a notebook, so they have slow clocks. Ram normally maxes out at 4GB, which isn't bad, but it is expensive laptop memory. So if you want high end gaming at 1080p, no. If you want low-med graphics at 720p, likely yes.

:thumbsup:
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,788
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Mini Tower, Mobo that fits with onboard HQ Audio, Video Card, 4 Core CPU, 4gb ram, good wireless keyboard/mouse(trackball if on couch).
 

LiuKangBakinPie

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2011
3,903
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GIGABYTE GA-H55N-USB3 LGA 1156
Intel Core i3-540 Clarkdale 3.06GHz LGA 1156 Dual-Core
Radeon HD 5850 1GB
A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 MHz
Western Digital 3.5″ 1TB Caviar Green
ASUS 4X Blu-ray Reader Model BR-04B2T
LIAN LI PC-Q08R Red Aluminum Mini-ITX
SeaSonic 430W 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified
AVerMedia AVerTV Hybrid Volar Max USB 2.0
Rosewill 802.11b/g/n USB2.0 Wireless-N 2.0 Dongle

There you go all in one
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,303
14,715
146
It's not what most of us would consider to be a good gaming rig, but...

MICROSOFT SOLUTIONS Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook

SERVICE PLAN 3 Year Basic Service Plan

SECURITY SOFTWARE McAfee SecurityCenter , 15-Months

PRINTING SOLUTIONS Dell V313W All in One Printer - WiFi, Print, Copy, Scan with 1 Year Warranty (included in package)

DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP DataSafe 2.0 Online Backup 2GB for 1 year (included in package)

My Accessories
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English

PROCESSOR & GRAPHICS Inspiron One 2305, AMD Athlon™ II X4 610e processor(2MB Cache,2.30GHz) + ATI 1GB DDR3

Radeon HD 5470

MEMORY & HARD DRIVE
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 DIMMs +
1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache

KEYBOARD Dell Wireless Desktop Keyboard & Mouse

MOUSE Mouse included with Keyboard purchase

MEDIA REMOTE Hybrid Digital ATSC/QAM analog TV tuner Card

SYSTEM COLOR Chassis with AV-input

OPTICAL DRIVE Blu-ray Combo Drive (BD-R, DVD+/-RW), Write to CD/DVD

SOUND THX® TruStudio PC™

WIRELESS Dell Wireless 1501 (802.11n) WLAN half mini-Card

Remote Control Phillips RC260 Remote

Network Card Integrated 10/1000 Ethernet

Adobe Software Adobe® Reader 9.0

Power Adapter 130W Power Adapter

Power Cord 125V US Power Cord

Market Value1 $1,366.99
Total Savings $98.00
Dell Price $1,268.99

It's far from being a "Gaming PC," but it should play most games with mediocre settings.
 

Bester

Junior Member
Feb 14, 2011
15
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www.klingonacademy.com
My 2009 iMac 21.5" plays everything I throw at it...well games I'm interested in.

Core2duo 3.06ghz, 6gb 1066mhz ram and a Radeon 4670.

Star craft 2 on max, counterstrike at max, portal, c&c3..erm....company of heroes not so good at medium.

So I dare say a brand new iMac with corei3 or i5 and a Radeon 5xxx and 1333mhz ram would be a lot better!

Sometimes some games can look just as good at high as they do at max. As long as its playable and doesn't look like ass then you're good to go :)
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
My 2009 iMac 21.5" plays everything I throw at it...well games I'm interested in.

Core2duo 3.06ghz, 6gb 1066mhz ram and a Radeon 4670.

Star craft 2 on max, counterstrike at max, portal, c&c3..erm....company of heroes not so good at medium.

So I dare say a brand new iMac with corei3 or i5 and a Radeon 5xxx and 1333mhz ram would be a lot better!

Sometimes some games can look just as good at high as they do at max. As long as its playable and doesn't look like ass then you're good to go :)

But once you go Mac you lose out on many of today's popular games.
 

Bester

Junior Member
Feb 14, 2011
15
0
0
www.klingonacademy.com
Install windows, problem solved.

I get the benefit of having a sleek computer that does everything I want/need and still remain faithful Windows. I'll never go "all the way" to only use OSX as I'm not a foolhardy mactard. I use what works for me :)
 

Davidh373

Platinum Member
Jun 20, 2009
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iMacs are really expensive for what you get, and I'm not positive, but I believe the 4670 to be the mobile version, and thusly it will not handle full 1080p HD gaming (maybe even 720p). You also say Company of Heroes doesn't run well... which is by no means as graphics hungry as most modern games... Apple sucks... (honestly, not trolling you, it's the truth).
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
It takes an AMD 6850 with an Intel Core i7-920 @ 3.33GHz to push SC:II at 60FPS on highest settings in 1920x1080, the cheapest iMac at $1,199.00 has 3.06GHz Intel Core i3 and an ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB, there is no way in hell this thing is going to be pushing SC:II at max. If we take $1,200 and build a PC with it however we can probably even fit in a GTX 570 and an SB 2500k if we find stuff on sale. Lacking that we can at least get in a gtx 460 and SB which will push 60FPS at max. (in SC:II)
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
> If we take $1,200 and build a PC with it however we can probably even fit in a GTX 570 and an SB 2500k if we find stuff on sale.

That Cyberpower above is $1,060 with a GTX 460, but no monitor. Prebuilt, legal copy of Windows. Once Sandy Bridge is back in April they'll have a SB quad core 2500K model for about the same price.

Apple makes great hardware, I use a Mini at work for testing our Map apps. If they had one with a blu-ray drive it would be a perfect little playback HTPC.

What Apple does not make are good gaming PCs. A 5670 is not a very good gaming card, especially with what you're paying for that iMac.
 
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Bester

Junior Member
Feb 14, 2011
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www.klingonacademy.com
As long as FPS is above 30 then I'm not bothered. The mobile 4670 handles the games I care about at high to max.
It all depends on what people want. I wanted a clean looking computer with one cable, the power cable. Vie gone off having big hulking boxes and billions of wires.

I am tempted to make myself an itx ivy bridge however next year.

I'm no defender of Apple, however sometimes people forget that the highest graphics cards of a few years ago are now cheapest today, and they can still kick arse. We don't need to have games with 20xAA at 103FPS.
They can still be enjoyable with 4xAA at 32.7FPS on a 5670.
 
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