Let’s talk AIOs

No no, not the water cooling system in higher end PC & servers, I’m talking the All In One PC. You know the one, in fact, your nan probably bought one because its a small little thing you can hide in the corner on the tiny little drawing desk they use for their e-mail machine. But it doesn’t need to be this way and is definitely a case of a little research can reap absolute dividends in your experience. For instance in this piece I’m going to concentrate on this amazing HP ProOne 400 G1 I’ve had in the workshop recently.

Here’s the thing, AIOs, like the PC they “replace” come in all flavours and sizes. I recently reconditioned an atom based Acer AIO for a client, and it was a fine little machine for the basic computing tasks that they would carry out, but even stalled loading any rich content web page. Try to play a video at anything over 480p and it’s game over and you’re better off using one of those old kids viewfinder toys…

But let’s rewind a little, in the case of this HP to 2014 and the 4th gen Intel chipset was taking the world by storm, (An i5 4570T happens to have found it’s way into this one via a Retrodex upgrade!), and even today, the 4th gen is a fine chipset for every day use and even light productivity & content creation! (So much so I’m writing this post on the very machine while running stress tests!)

These mid tier AIOs, which at the time would cost £1200+ can now be found on the market for less that 20% of their original price. So cheap in fact even this reconditioned model when finished will be listed at £210 with upgraded drives, processor and RAM from what was found at stock. For a machine with a gigantic 22in touchscreen and power enough to perform everything the average user will need on a daily basis is ridiculously good value.

Now I know you don’t come here for the sale pitch… bring on the GUTS!

Inside this particular AIO we find an ATX sized motherboard, which here is a replacement as the unit’s was missing when I acquired it originally, a 3.5in drive cage, and a DVD drive slot. Power brick is external, with a barrel jack feeding into the board and all I/O is set up very similar to a flat screen TV. The whole thing in fact sits about as deep as a mid 2000’s LCD, with a VESA mount to boot…

This would make a great Home Assistant on the lower end of the spectrum if you wanted to be really extra!

Our machine was missing the motherboard, CPU, RAM, drive and power brick, but that giant touchscreen is in great condition and working really well under Windows 11. Parts are sourced from my trusted suppliers, and from my own stock of salvaged and tested parts. The manta of my work is to recycle as much as possible to minimise the e-waste generated to ONLY unrepairable parts. Even down to webcams and PSU boards that may never been used again. The aim to to keep everything other than the absolute minimum out of landfill.

Parts fitted, Windows 11 USB loaded and with a cheeky registry edit Windows loaded right on! The touchscreen proved a little tricky to get working reliably due to driver issues so instead of the usual fresh install / brand new experience I like to ship a computer with, this machine will come pre-configured due to the slightly more technical nature of the driver setup. Everything else will be as a fresh install of windows.

So realistically then for my core audience here, the gamer & the creative, would an AIO be useful? Here’s the thing, YES. AIO’s are a great thin client, or even as a non-gaming / production machine in a more public setting away from the office. But even if you want to do more resource intensive tasks… in home streaming has never been better.

I played a few levels of Doom Eternal from my ThreadRipper server on here, and got Mrs Gaming to process some photos from her latest shoot on the machine via RDP over moonlight and the result was seamless. Especially on the last one the touchscreen made for a really pleasant experience once used through Steam Link with it’s translation layer on the “Wordpad” trick to get a remote desktop connection.

That’s a whole blog post in itself however on my setup here and my reasons why, its a mess of over engineering and ridiculous results. AIOs on the other hand, if fitted with a minimum of an i3, make for great machines. Keep an eye for this one hitting the store as they never last long!

See you all soon!

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