• We should now be fully online following an overnight outage. Apologies for any inconvenience, we do not expect there to be any further issues.

All in one pc for gaming?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Davidh373

Platinum Member
Jun 20, 2009
2,428
0
71
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.

Fair enough, but most of the time when people talk about gaming they want to play something younger than 3 years old.
 

Sephire

Golden Member
Feb 9, 2011
1,689
3
76
haha I did not see that crappy videocard. Maybe he only plays Angry Birds?
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
22,400
5
71
www.mfenn.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.

It really depends on perspective. Your "good enough" is somebody else's "OMFG this looks like ass and is soooo laggy".

Bottom line, your iMac will be brought to its knees by an intense game like BFBC2 or Metro 2033.
 

Bester

Junior Member
Feb 14, 2011
15
0
0
www.klingonacademy.com
True. However like I said, many games I play I can put to high-max and still enjoy a smooth game at 30+ FPS.
CoH doesnt play so nice as its a terribly coded game, the latest version faired better.
So if I'm getting good results on a core2duo with a 4670 them im sure a core-i5 with a 5670 would be better yes?
They arent that badly priced when you consider you are getting a high-end 27" IPS screen with a core-i3/5/7 bunged in it with a radeon 5xxx, 1TB HDD and wireless-n 5ghz + bluetooth. The screen alone on the 27" is worth £700-£1000 when comparing to equivalent Dell monitors.

Perhaps the OP should enlighten us as to which "online games" they want to play on an all-in-one? They might only be able to have an all-in-one in say the living room therefore it needs to be neat and tidy.

Maybe they only play WoW and CounterStrike?
 
Last edited:

natsfan99

Junior Member
Feb 13, 2011
24
0
0
Wow. More feedback then I could have imagined so thanks :). I would like to stick to a non mac if possible. The online games I play are heavy on the graphics and would like it to be able to handle games of the immediate future. Games played are the latest fps and rpgs. example of specs for a game...

• Windows XP / Vista / W7 (with latest service packs installed)
• 2GB System RAM or more
• Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core processor E2180 (2.0GHz) or faster
• 512 MB video card with Direct3D and Shader 2.0b (512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT or better) - NOTE: most 512 MB video cards meet this requirement.
• 10 GB of free hard drive space
• DirectX 9.0c (installed during setup if needed)
• DirectX 8.1 Compliant Sound Card - NOTE: Every sound card made since release of Windows XP meets this requirement
• Keyboard, mouse, speakers (optional)
• Broadband Internet Connection (Internet Connection using DSL, Cable Modem or other high-speed connection)


The reason for the all in one is I love the idea of just having to see the monitor out in the open. Especially in the family room. Being on the couch with a wireless keyboard and mouse with no tower is nice. I would also like to pay these types of games without lag.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,291
14,712
146
Wow. More feedback then I could have imagined so thanks :). I would like to stick to a non mac if possible. The online games I play are heavy on the graphics and would like it to be able to handle games of the immediate future. Games played are the latest fps and rpgs. example of specs for a game...

• Windows XP / Vista / W7 (with latest service packs installed)
• 2GB System RAM or more
• Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core processor E2180 (2.0GHz) or faster
• 512 MB video card with Direct3D and Shader 2.0b (512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT or better) - NOTE: most 512 MB video cards meet this requirement.
• 10 GB of free hard drive space
• DirectX 9.0c (installed during setup if needed)
• DirectX 8.1 Compliant Sound Card - NOTE: Every sound card made since release of Windows XP meets this requirement
• Keyboard, mouse, speakers (optional)
• Broadband Internet Connection (Internet Connection using DSL, Cable Modem or other high-speed connection)


The reason for the all in one is I love the idea of just having to see the monitor out in the open. Especially in the family room. Being on the couch with a wireless keyboard and mouse with no tower is nice. I would also like to pay these types of games without lag.

You could easily build a nice gaming computer for the family room that doesn't have a huge, obtrusive tower...but instead, a small attractive mid-tower case and use wireless keyboard/mouse.
That'd open up a ton of better options for your build.

Sony builds a very nice looking AIO, but the performance will be lacking for a gaming rig...although it does offer the option of an i5 or i7 processor...
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921644772003

Dell's models don't have as nice/fast of processor:
http://www.dell.com/us/p/desktops#facets=153558~0~8739390&p=1
Coming instead with Athlon II X2 or X4 processors.

In the opinion of most of us here, you'll get far more bang for your buck if you build a decent mid-tower based PC than you will with an AIO.
 

natsfan99

Junior Member
Feb 13, 2011
24
0
0
You could easily build a nice gaming computer for the family room that doesn't have a huge, obtrusive tower...but instead, a small attractive mid-tower case and use wireless keyboard/mouse.
That'd open up a ton of better options for your build.

Sony builds a very nice looking AIO, but the performance will be lacking for a gaming rig...although it does offer the option of an i5 or i7 processor...
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921644772003

Dell's models don't have as nice/fast of processor:
http://www.dell.com/us/p/desktops#facets=153558~0~8739390&p=1
Coming instead with Athlon II X2 or X4 processors.

In the opinion of most of us here, you'll get far more bang for your buck if you build a decent mid-tower based PC than you will with an AIO.

Do they make towers small enough to fit under a large couch? or in a small area? Its been 8 years since my last tower.
 
Last edited:

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,291
14,712
146
UNDER a couch? I doubt it...and with modern video cards getting bigger and bigger, the cases tend to be larger and larger in order to fit them.
Of course, there are lots of micro-ATX cases available...made for HTPC use, but I don't think they'll fit a gamer's card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...atedMark=False
(if you go this way, I recommend you avoid the Apevia cases...their PSU's are terrible quality)

Keep in mind...you'll still need to run a cable from case to monitor...so putting it under the couch probably won't work anyway.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
Do they make towers small enough to fit under a large couch? or in a small area? Its been 8 years since my last tower.

HTPC, a tiny bit more expensive then a tower case, but it is small, and if you find the right one it will fit a full sized graphics card and a full sized PSU, these things are about the size of a home theater receiver.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
UNDER a couch? I doubt it...and with modern video cards getting bigger and bigger, the cases tend to be larger and larger in order to fit them.
Of course, there are lots of micro-ATX cases available...made for HTPC use, but I don't think they'll fit a gamer's card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...atedMark=False
(if you go this way, I recommend you avoid the Apevia cases...their PSU's are terrible quality)

Keep in mind...you'll still need to run a cable from case to monitor...so putting it under the couch probably won't work anyway.


what do you need to run cables for? o_O
 

simonizor

Golden Member
Feb 8, 2010
1,312
0
0
Depends on how much you want to spend. I don't think there are any traditional "all in one" pcs like you're looking for that are targeted for gaming, but for ~$1300 you could get a laptop that would play pretty much all games on highest settings.
 

natsfan99

Junior Member
Feb 13, 2011
24
0
0
Depends on how much you want to spend. I don't think there are any traditional "all in one" pcs like you're looking for that are targeted for gaming, but for ~$1300 you could get a laptop that would play pretty much all games on highest settings.

$ is not that much of an issue. I am playing now with a 2 year old 20inch hp laptop on my coffee table and like it. I want a nice big screen that can run the latest online games while taking up as little space (not including the monitor) as possible. Spending 2k on it would be ok. You can do stuff like that when you are old and have no kids :)
 

simonizor

Golden Member
Feb 8, 2010
1,312
0
0
$ is not that much of an issue. I am playing now with a 2 year old 20inch hp laptop on my coffee table and like it. I want a nice big screen that can run the latest online games while taking up as little space (not including the monitor) as possible. Spending 2k on it would be ok. You can do stuff like that when you are old and have no kids :)
Check out the laptops on xoticpc.com. Look at the Sager ones with a sandy bridge CPU and a 460M for the GPU. For $2k, you will be able to get a really nice one. The max screen size is 17.3", though. You could buy an external monitor if you wanted, but that would kind of be against the whole point of the all in one...
 

natsfan99

Junior Member
Feb 13, 2011
24
0
0
Check out the laptops on xoticpc.com. Look at the Sager ones with a sandy bridge CPU and a 460M for the GPU. For $2k, you will be able to get a really nice one. The max screen size is 17.3", though. You could buy an external monitor if you wanted, but that would kind of be against the whole point of the all in one...

Yea I was hoping for a 22 or 23" screen which is what led me to the aio
 

Away

Diamond Member
May 1, 2005
4,430
1
71
Take a look at the Lenovo Ideacentre B510. They have a deal on one at the Lenovo site for $1399. Includes a Core I7, 8GB memory, 2TB drive, Radeon 5570, and a 23" 1080p screen.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.