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All-in-one hate

Posted at 2020-08-07

As some of you may know, I have a Lenovo all-in-one pc I bought in 2016. It had pretty lame characteristics but it kinda worked for me 4 years.

Some time ago I decided to upgrade this computer. I tried to find any information on what kind of parts would work with this very device. Turned out it's pretty hard to figure out! The included paper manual is useless, all information is contradictory. In the end, I succeeded to find an official maintenance guide for my model! Good.OK, what SSD would work? M.2 SATA, ok. What RAM can I add? 8 GB DDR4 would work (in the second slot, in addition to existing 4 GB DDR4), ok. Bought everything.

Yesterday I received the parts and started installing them. Oh, it's really hard to disassemble this disaster of a computer! Everything is interwined, everything is dependent on each other. The first disassemble took me a long time. I hoped it would be the last.

RAM plugged in with a nice click. Looking for M.2 SSD slot. Uh, where it is. Ah, there is none! A part of the motherboard is empty, exactly where the SSD slot must be.Nice! Why did Lenovo lie to me in the maintenance guide?

Whatever. Booting back to my boring Antergos setup (I wanted to install a fresh OS on my SSD, I even prepared an installing drive; life is rough). 12 GB, wow! Much power! What can I do with it?

Nothing. Computer just rebooted. I couldn't find any entries related to this in the system journal beside the line --Reboot--. Why?

And it happened several more times. That's not funny anymore!

Later the computer just refused to boot with the new 8 GB RAM board. Only the old 4 GB is ok. What's the point of this stupid upgrade if nothing fitted after all?!

Today I handed both devices to the shop, they said they'll send them to engineer team next week. OK, I'm not in a hurry. Let's wait to learn what the engineers will say. I suspect they'll say that the SSD is ok but I'm not sure about the RAM. Could I have broken it somehow? If could, then how? What if my PC just doesn't support 8 GB RAM boards? I'll just buy an 4 GB one once my money is back (I hope it will back, it depends on the engineers; I'm not sure how is it decided).

The hate part

The hate is mentioned in the title, right. Here it is, I hate all-in-one PCs for home usage.

They are overpriced. I've got bad performance for the priceand had to overpay for Windows 10 license (I haven't really used in since purchase; it was then completely wiped).
They are weak. For obvious reasons. I'm sure I could build a better PC from scratch for the same price.
They come in series. And then it's hard to find information for your particular PC! As it turned out, you can't even trust what you find!
They are hard to maintain. I guess I can do nothing with the integrated processor and video card (whatever these things are). Also, the screen is here forever. And disassembling this nightmare of a computer is not enjoyful (I mastered it though, it doesn't take a lot of time after the first time).
They are not that compact. While I don't have a bulky half-empty PC box, the whole setup is still messy. There is a lot of wires connected to the all-in-one; it's like a swarm of serpents! If I had a bulky half-empty PC box, most of them would be just somewhere there, under the table, not obscuring my view.

I think this is enough for me to not buy a all-in-one next time I'm buying a stationary PC. However, it seems I'm not going to buy any soon as I'm going to be quite mobile next 4 years without a permanent place (you know, university).

Despite all the things I said, there are still good things about the all-in-ones:

They are beautiful. Heck, have you seen those PC system block?! They are DISGUSTING. I think finding a good-looking one will take some time. Meanwhile, most all-in-ones are good-looking by default.
They are really all-in-one. You just buy it, plug it and good to go. Of course, you have to install a proper operating system first.

Also I'm not sure that iMacs are bad. Apple somehow manages to create good PCs with bad specs. My 2013 macbook is good, I still use it sometimes. I wouldn't be surprised if iMacs are awesome.

Conclusion

Hate is bad for your health. I'll write a post where no hate can be found right after I publish this one.