Ask Slashdot: All-In-One PC For Kitchen? 156
Posted
by
timothy
from the wake-me-when-it's-got-a-robot dept.
from the wake-me-when-it's-got-a-robot dept.
New submitter brabq writes "Now that I have a couple of CableCard tuner devices in the house (including the network-based HDHomeRun Prime), I'm thinking of buying one of those all-in-one touchscreen PCs for our kitchen (yeah, something I've always sworn against for future repair reasons). The idea is that it would be used primarily for (1) watching TV, via the aforementioned Prime and WMC, and (2) light web surfing (recipes, some sort of video chat possibly). Does anyone have any experience with these types of devices in a kitchen-like setting (where I'd like to use a touchscreen over having a keyboard/mouse on a kitchen counter)? I keep hearing that Windows 8 is going to have some added benefits to this type of setup — is it worth waiting for its release? My end goal is it has to have a high WAF ... if my wife doesn't like its appearance on the counter or finds it useless, then the whole thing will be a waste."
Old school (Score:3, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kitchen_computer_ad.jpg
Hate to agree with everyone else (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I know you don't want to here this... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Maybe I'm getting old (Score:5, Interesting)
Nobody needs an All-in-one PC in the kitchen, nobody needs a web-enabled washing machine, nobody needs a beta firmware on its dishwasher, and nobody needs an LCD display on the fridge.
Those stuff just get obsolete after 2 years, and become "broken" even though their main utility would still work perfectly fine without the added useless complexity. I expect my fridge, my dishwasher and my washing machine to still work in 10 years.
Your gadget will wind up in the dump in a few years.
I've had a Mac Mini with a touch screen in my kitchen for 5 years. It acts as a media server for the whole house, shows recipes and email and lets us watch tv shows on iTunes, Netflix or Hulu while we cook. It's totally obsolete - I can't even upgrade the OS anymore - but we don't use it for anything except that "main utility".
I expect your expectations are wrong.
Re:I know you don't want to here this... (Score:5, Interesting)
Nope, too expensive for too small a screen for a kitchen PC. As someone who has actually set a few of these up for customers I would recommend something like the HP or Gateway all-in-ones. You can get them anywhere from 19-24 inches, they have both AMD Fusion and Intel i3 units (Personally I like AMD Fusion as the price is lower while having excellent hardware acceleration for video and very low heat generation) and you can basically choose from units starting at around $350 going all the way to $800 just depending on what features you want.
so I'm sorry but the iPad isn't a good choice in this situation. Not saying there is anything wrong with it, in fact I recommend them myself for doctor's office and warehouse inventory as you can't really beat the size in those applications, but in a kitchen you want something big enough you won't have to go past the stove when you are cooking and with large enough icons you can just pop them with a knuckle in case your hands are a little messy. Just not the right device for this situation IMHO. If he wants to look at them last I checked Tigerdirect had a large selection although with the shortages of Fusion chips most of theirs are Intel i series just as this really nice Gateway for $699 [tigerdirect.com] which would give him a nice 23 inch 1080p with enough hard drive space you could load it with movies (great when you are stuck in the kitchen) and with built in Wifi and webcam it would be easy to integrate into his existing system and do video chat as per TFA.
Re:I know you don't want to here this... (Score:4, Interesting)
Acer A200. Should be able to get a better price, its a solid device and in the box with Android 3.1 with Acer provided 4.0 updates. This is the machine that finally convinced me to drop money on a tablet. The right machine at the right price.