All in one PC troubles

[blondon6220]

Trying to buy a computer for my wife that is not an apple product because she wants to play sims 4 and interface easily with her Samsung galaxy S4, both of which her macbook will not let her do.  My first go at getting her a computer was a Lonovo 22.5 inch touch screen all in one with a 1.9 GHz i3, 4 gigs of ram.  This computer would play the sims, poorly, but in browsing (shes a tab-hog) it was laggy and couldn't keep up.  So we traded it for an HP Pavilion 23 touch screen with an AMD A8-4610 @ 2.0 GHz and 8 gigs of ram.  In browsing the extra ram helps out a lot and the PC keeps up here no problem but the CPU isn't powerful enough to even play the sims, i did all the updates and nothing seems to work.  Currently I've invested 700-ish USD in this project and would like to stay around there but I will reluctantly go up to 1000 if nothing else will work (HP has an i5 model for 1000 that I think would be fine).  So I am open for any suggestions, a mini-itx case that I could hide well enough and stick my own components in would be nice but I want to satisfy my wife's want of not having a computer like her work computer in the way it appears.  At the bottom of this i'll list other PCs from HP and Asus that probably meet my very specific demands

 

Desires:

Not your typical windows computer experience (i.e. trying to stay away from the monitor paired with a tower concept, leaves me just the all in one as far as i know though I'm open for any and all suggestions!  I'd love to build the PC but I don't know if its doable with the all in ones)

Probably 8 gigs of RAM

CPU that can play sims and handle any normal PC tasks like updates, browsing, MS office.  I'll take an AMD or Intel, I just want it to work

more than 500 GB hd for all the pictures, the two PCs we've tried so far had a 1TB @ 7200 RPM

more than 22 inch monitor but i'm flexible here

 

the HP listed below has a 2.9 GHz i5 which i'm assuming would handle everything fine

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-envy-23-touch-screen-all-in-one-computer-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-silver/5816127.p?id=1219194065866&skuId=5816127

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-23-touch-screen-all-in-one-computer-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black/3052051.p?id=1219086616598&skuId=3052051

 

thank you for any comments!

[Theguywhobea]

Trying to buy a computer for my wife that is not an apple product because she wants to play sims 4 and interface easily with her Samsung galaxy S4, both of which her macbook will not let her do.  My first go at getting her a computer was a Lonovo 22.5 inch touch screen all in one with a 1.9 GHz i3, 4 gigs of ram.  This computer would play the sims, poorly, but in browsing (shes a tab-hog) it was laggy and couldn't keep up.  So we traded it for an HP Pavilion 23 touch screen with an AMD A8-4610 @ 2.0 GHz and 8 gigs of ram.  In browsing the extra ram helps out a lot and the PC keeps up here no problem but the CPU isn't powerful enough to even play the sims, i did all the updates and nothing seems to work.  Currently I've invested 700-ish USD in this project and would like to stay around there but I will reluctantly go up to 1000 if nothing else will work (HP has an i5 model for 1000 that I think would be fine).  So I am open for any suggestions, a mini-itx case that I could hide well enough and stick my own components in would be nice but I want to satisfy my wife's want of not having a computer like her work computer in the way it appears.  At the bottom of this i'll list other PCs from HP and Asus that probably meet my very specific demands

 

Desires:

Not your typical windows computer experience (i.e. trying to stay away from the monitor paired with a tower concept, leaves me just the all in one as far as i know though I'm open for any and all suggestions!  I'd love to build the PC but I don't know if its doable with the all in ones)

Probably 8 gigs of RAM

CPU that can play sims and handle any normal PC tasks like updates, browsing, MS office.  I'll take an AMD or Intel, I just want it to work

more than 500 GB hd for all the pictures, the two PCs we've tried so far had a 1TB @ 7200 RPM

more than 22 inch monitor but i'm flexible here

 

the HP listed below has a 2.9 GHz i5 which i'm assuming would handle everything fine

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-envy-23-touch-screen-all-in-one-computer-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-silver/5816127.p?id=1219194065866&skuId=5816127

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-23-touch-screen-all-in-one-computer-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black/3052051.p?id=1219086616598&skuId=3052051

 

thank you for any comments!

Have you considered using one of Zotac or Gigabytes small form factor PC's paired with a monitor? I personally have a Zotac Zbox EN760 that has an i5 4200U and an 860m (which would be overkill for what your wife needs) but they are relatively cheap. All you have to do is get some laptop RAM and a 2.5in HDD (which maybe you can scavenge from one of the old AiO's you have) and most come with mounts to fit directly on the back of a monitor.

[soaringchicken]

Well I don't like all in ones full stop, what about an SFX tower coupled with a monitor or even a laptop couples with a monitor. Other than that, I'm not to familiar with AIO either, try and find something with like a 840m and an i5.

[blondon6220]

Have you considered using one of Zotac or Gigabytes small form factor PC's paired with a monitor? I personally have a Zotac Zbox EN760 that has an i5 4200U and an 860m (which would be overkill for what your wife needs) but they are relatively cheap. All you have to do is get some laptop RAM and a 2.5in HDD (which maybe you can scavenge from one of the old AiO's you have) and most come with mounts to fit directly on the back of a monitor.

I like this idea, if I could mount it to the back of a touch screen monitor she might never know its not an all in one... I also have an old 760 gig 2.5 hhd laying around I would just need to find ram and a monitor and a copy of windows... but like soaringchicken said, maybe a laptop coupled with a monitor might be the way to go, i'll just have to keep exploring options. thanks again!

[Fgtfv567]

How about one of those crazy custom AIOs with a tower attached to a monitor made by AIO and was reviewed by Linus...

[asim1999]

How about one of the MSI Gaming AIOs with a i7 and 980M?

[blondon6220]

the MSI AIOs would be PERFECT if i had 1500+ to drop on this endeavor, but I don't personally see the sims 4 and internet browsing worth that high of a price tag.  But thank you all for the suggestions, even the AIOs reviewed by Linus would work great but their prices are just too steep for me.  We have a taste for champagne with a bottom shelf beer budget!  I am going to explore the brix idea a little more and see if I can come up with an i5 setup (3Ghz+ w/ integrated graphics) with 8GB ram, including peripherals, windows and somehow a monitor as well but the AIO setups seem to be better and better the more I look especially with my 800ish budget.  I wish she would just let me build her a tower!