While Apple has been running with all-in-one designs since the very beginning of the Macintosh, the PC world has stuck by traditional PC towers and separate monitors for many years. This has started to change in the last few years, and I predict that the trend will only continue going forward.
While more families are just switching to tablets and laptops, a desktop is still popular in some households as a central hub for doing homework, research and playing games. That said, today’s all-in-one designs are extremely skinny and take up very little space, making them an attractive option.
The fact that Windows 8 ushers in an era of touchscreen all-in-ones make them even more appealing. So the ability for some all-in-ones to have touch and taking up little space are leading reasons to get one, but what are the downsides?
The biggest downside is that you are stuck with whatever you buy, there is generally little to no customization with an all-in-one. The only thing you might be able to do is switch out the RAM. The good news is that
CyberPowerPC recognizes this limitation and is doing something about it.
CyberPower Zeus Touch Offers Something Different
CyberPower is known for their boutique PC building lines, particularly the Zeus gaming line. Now they are taking the Zues brand and bringing it over to the all-in-one crowd with the Zeus Touch 1000, 2000 and 3000.
The Zeus Touch line-up have a minimalist design that is supposed to make them feel more like “tablets on stands” than traditional all-in-one computers. All three models have a 21.5-inch display with ten-point touch and a resolution of 1920×1080. As expected, all three also run on the power of Windows 8.
Where things differ are the other specs, such as the processor. All of them run on 3rd-generation Intel processors, with the maximum being an Intel Core i7-3770S. They also feature either HD 2500 or 4000 graphics from Intel.
Zeus Touch 1000 has 8GB of RAM and 1TB HDD, Zeus Touch 2000 has same amount of RAM but 2TB of HDD space. The Touch 3000 has a massive 16GB of RAM and 2TB HDD. Again, all three have USB 3.0, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, built-in media card readers and a 1MP webcam.
Alright, but what makes the Zeus Touch series so special? As you might have already guessed, they are upgradable. You can pop them open and change out HDD/SDD, the optical drive, the memory, processors and even PCI expansion cards. From the sounds of it the slim chassis is too small for a large graphics card, though.
While the limitations on upgrading the graphics make this a poor choice as a gaming machine, it could be wonderful family entertainment and education device. With upgradability on its side, the Zeus Touch all-in-one could work perfectly as your main family rig for years to come.
So what about pricing? All models come with a 3-year warranty (about as long as most would keep a PC), and price at $899, $1099 and $1199, respectively. What do you think of this unique all-in-one series, intrigued or not?
source:hothardware
