All-in-one PC's anyone got any experience?

[lurkio]

HI Folks,
I have been using a Sony viao all in one PC in my dining room for a while now but it has carped itself
and I am looking for a replacement all in one PC , mainly it is used for Media play back / music etc (using media portal)

Does any one have any recommendations on what to replace it with ?

 

[FloppyPoppy]

Does any one have any recommendations on what to replace it with ?

Is it just media playback. And does it absolutely NEED to be a AIO, if just media you would get a much better deal/experience with something like a rapsberry pi media system and a nice screen! would take up less space too

 

[lurkio]

As long as it can run windows and media portal will run on it

Can a rapsberry pi run windows ?

I have a media portal server with tv tuner cards in it that it would connect to

 

[FloppyPoppy]

As long as it can run windows and media portal will run on it

Can a rapsberry pi run windows ?

I have a media portal server with tv tuner cards in it that it would connect to

Ah no i don't think you can run windows on them!

 

[Andreas.96]

What's your budget?

Would a cheap mini ITX system with a nice screen be too much of an inconvenience?

 

[lurkio]

I am leaning toward an all in one , because it is just one single thing sitting on the table
Don't need a fancy touch screen on it either

With a PC system it would be: base unit + monitor + speakers

Was looking at some of the MSI all in one solutions or possibly one of the Lenovo ones

Amount I am willing to spend , 300 ish ?

The other things I have considered was something like a Zotac Zbox + 20-21" LCD wth decent built in speakers (Does such a thing even exist?)
I have loads of ram and HD's lying around so I wouldn't need to spend on that at least

 

[bledd]

If you used Kodi instead of Media Portal, then you could use Openelec on a Pi2.

 

[lurkio]

Hmm interesting , Kodi supports talking to the media portal backend

 

[bledd]

FYI, Openelec is the the 'boot straight to Kodi' operating system.


http://openelec.tv/

On my Pi2, it boots into a usable state within about 10-15 seconds. Uses around 2 watts of power, so I just leave it on.

You could test Openelec on a spare machine before committing to buying a Pi2, it exists for all types of system.

 

[deano-5]

Get a Vesa mountable pc

 

[Batterz]

its very interesting..

 

[ShivP]

I completely agree with bledd here, I use a Pi2 also for this using the OSMC instead of OpenELEC but still running essentially on Kodi and it's very nice indeed.