Averatec debuts Atom-based, 18.4-inch All-in-One desktop PC

Well, it looks like Averatec is now fully on board the Atom bandwagon, with it now pushing its Buddy netbook out the door, and also getting official about the US launch for its Atom-based, 18.4-inch All-in-One desktop PC, which was first announced in Europe last month. This one's apparently intended to complement the company's larger, equally unimaginatively-named 22-inch All-in-One PC, and comes loaded with some expectedly more netbook-like specs, including 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP and, of course, that ever-present 1.6GHz N270 Atom processor. You won't find anything like the 1680 x 945, 18.4-inch display on a netbook, however, or on many other desktop PCs with a $550 price tag, for that matter.

[Image courtesy of Laptop]

[Colonel Panic @ Oct 13th 2008 3:43PM]

I wish we had something like this at my school, we just bought Dell Optiplexes with Pentium 4 HTs or AMD Athlons and 512 MB of RAM :(

[From My Cube @ Oct 13th 2008 3:45PM]

your school is cutting edge...bleeding edge at that!

[Kamokazi @ Oct 13th 2008 4:20PM]

Sounds like second-hand or off-lease equipment. P4 HTs aren't even produced anymore, and finding systems with less than 1GB is challenging.

[cmj2405 @ Oct 13th 2008 5:12PM]

Ha!
We can only wish for computers of that spec at our school.
We've got Fujitsus with 2.0gz Celerons and 256mb of RAM and 15" CRT monitors set at 800x600

[A.C. @ Oct 13th 2008 10:16PM]

Every year my school gets about 15 of the new iMacs. It's awesome. But they always keep the old ones.

[ZaxCG2 @ Oct 13th 2008 3:48PM]

Again with the "Mom's Kitchen Computer" concept.

Guess it'd be cool in like a cafe or something.

[Kuroyume @ Oct 13th 2008 3:59PM]

It's a smart concept imo... your average web-browsing, im-ing. solitaire-playing user doesn't need specs bigger than that, and a lot of time they were forced to pay a lot more for stuff they never going to put to full use... with this kind of computers you can put more pcs on the hands of more people for a much lower price...

[ZaxCG2 @ Oct 13th 2008 4:30PM]

I completely agree. Its great to see how low the prices have been getting for average computers... because it means the high end ones are getting lower too. :3

[happy_penguin @ Oct 13th 2008 11:25PM]

I think it looks great from what I can see in the pic. I'm glad there are some all-in-one PC computers which don't imitate the iMac and look good in their own designs. Bring them on!

[bob sakamano @ Oct 13th 2008 3:56PM]

18.4 inch is too big for atom

[bob sakamano @ Oct 13th 2008 3:56PM]

thats what she said

[Itsuru @ Oct 13th 2008 4:00PM]

Up and at them.

[narutogrey @ Oct 13th 2008 4:07PM]

Up and atom!

[Chris @ Oct 13th 2008 4:08PM]

How is it like a 'netbook'? The computer I'm typing this from has:

Intel Pentium 4 CPU 1500 MHZ
and 384 MB RAM.

[Jon Acheson @ Oct 13th 2008 4:18PM]

Especially given that the Averatec has a DVD drive in it, and a fairly big screen.

[PeteC @ Oct 13th 2008 4:47PM]

Well my 901 works pretty well, can be a little underpowered at times but generally works pretty solidly. The main bonus of atom however is the battery life, 5-6 hours in a relatively small package. I like to think I'm fairly energy conscious but I'm sorry, I'm not going to try and save a few watts when I'm plugged into the mains, I'd rather have the much improved performance.

I can't see this being a particularly successful idea unless they really push the green PC idea, make it totally recyclable and from as much recycled material as possible, ensure the monitor energy usage matches the low level of that of the atom processor so the whole unit operates on as few watts as possible and market it as an ecoPC.

[Kenjis9965 @ Oct 13th 2008 6:12PM]

Because its $550 with an 18.4 inch screen

[Looie @ Oct 13th 2008 5:39PM]

This is almost worth looking at from a business standpoint. We're about to replace 100 6-year-old Compaq Ipaqs, and the price on this machine is pretty competitive. If the screen were smaller, and if the price were a bit lower, we might bite.

[Marshall @ Oct 13th 2008 6:41PM]

So what's the advantage of buying this over a $349 Acer Aspire and a $200 19" Monitor? Just the DVD drive?