Seven years ago, I bought a bunch of Windows NT machines called Gateway Profiles. Imagine the display of a laptop computer, stuck on a deskstand, and thickened with a CD-ROM drive, CPU board, and hard disk. You plugged a keyboard into the back and had yourself a very compact machine that yet had (1) the screen at the right height for desktop use, and (2) the full-size keyboard of your choice.
What is the 2007 equivalent of the Gateway Profile? I’m looking for something to stick in a corner of the helicopter hangar, to use Firefox/gmail in between flights. The closest thing that I could find was the Apple iMac, and it seems like a very poor value (a clunky Dell desktop with 1 GB of RAM and 22″ LCD monitor is $520; an iMac with 1GB of RAM and 24″ display is 4X the price at $2000).
Well, the Gateway Profile still exists; looks like an equivalent configuration would be about $1400.
In the corporate world, PCs are replaced every three years and monitors every six. I think that’s why you’ll never see someone integrate the two, except as a custom item, and of course the price will shoot up, because people who care about good design are willing to pay for it. Example: http://www.hoojum.com/new/html/home.htm
Dell hardly has a great reputation for quality. All my friends in charge of running offices full of Dells find themselves motivated to come up with very insulting things to say about their quality. Apple occupies a very, very different niche. Intel keeps floating concept PC’s that wander into Apple’s territory, but for some reason, nobody ever actually ships one.
Not many options on the PC side. Dell makes an Optiplex SFF that sits on the back of a custom display stand. It is fairly compact and uses an external power brick to keep noise and size down. It has a standard VESA mount, so you can attach almost any sized panel to it. Problem is that the Opti line is business focused and carries a much stiffer price tag than the consumer series.
The biggest problem I have with all-in-ones is tying your entire desktop to any single piece of hardware failure. None of them use standard parts. You would think in 2007 that it shouldn’t be a problem, but I deal with more failures of PC parts from top tier manufacturers today than I did in 2004.
The Sony VAIO® All-in-One Desktop have similar aesthetics, small foorprints, and pricing akin to iMacs.
Along those lines you could drive a Hyundai Azera for half the price of the Lexus and get from 0-60 quicker than your new wheels or you can buy a clunky looking Dell for half the iMac cost and potentially have a faster machine. But style and image count for something when one has enough discretionary income to have a choice.
Sony makes one, the VAIO® All-in-One Desktop PC.
Their website links suck, but it’s pretty easy to find on their site.
http://www.cybernetman.com
computer built into the keyboard or into a 17″ lcd
David: Whoa. The new Profile has been whacked with the ugly stick. No wonder I didn’t see it linked from the Gateway home page (I did look before posting). The old one was a lot more attractive/clean.
Folks recommending the Sony VAIO: I don’t want to pay huge $$ for a computer that is essentially just a Web browser and wireless client.
The profile price seems higher than the iMac. $999 for a 17″ iMac. The Profile comes either 17″ or 19″, so a direct comparison to the 20″ iMac is not possible. The 17″ Profile, equalizing processor speed, RAM, and hard drive, is $1,149, if I’ve done it right. You can go for the home edition of Vista and get it down to $1,049. Oh, wait, if you put iWork on the Mac (the Gateway has Works), it takes it to 1,078. So yeah, the Mac is more expensive if you go for Vista Home. Better not buy a Mac if you’re concerned about financial solvency. 😉
Why not just stick a wireless router in the corner and buy yourself a nice tablet that you can load up with flight-planning software? When you’re in the hangar, just stick it in a dock on the desk.