Illiterate old mom trying to buy Christmas Present for 12yo... Help!

essenbe said:

Marybabs73, how old is your Daughter and what games is she into. I think you could find a decent computer without going Ailenware. My personal opinion is Alienware make some good computers, but they are overpriced.

BTW, you are smart enough to build you own and it is not that difficult, especially if you or your daughter have friends that know how.

Totally agree with essenbe here

I can't tell you how thankful I am for your replies. I cancelled my order. I think I'll be better off getting a separate tower that I can upgrade later after talking to you all. It seems this AIO system is going to be too hard to work on when I do have time to figure out a little more of what I'm doing... :)
A million thanks!

edobson said:

- something like this HP Pavilion 500-504na Desktop PC

Stay clear of those. They are not upgradeable, They use a laptop powersupply for power.

Marybabs73 said:

I can't tell you how thankful I am for your replies. I cancelled my order. I think I'll be better off getting a separate tower that I can upgrade later after talking to you all. It seems this AIO system is going to be too hard to work on when I do have time to figure out a little more of what I'm doing... :)
A million thanks!

No problem!

Porthos said:

Stay clear of those. They are not upgradeable, They use a laptop powersupply for power.

What do you mean by 'not upgradeable'? If you're referring to the power supply being 180w then I can understand the concern that it may not be enough after buying an aftermarket GPU. To be fair, that was just an example of the sort of spec that would suit and how much cheaper it was than an Alienware.

You all have been an awesome help. HP is giving me a run around but I'm going to be vigilant in this return!

Porthos said:

Stay clear of those. They are not upgradeable, They use a laptop powersupply for power.

Look inside one before you think about upgrades.

I'm not a fan of all-in-one anything. They tend to have far too many compromises for me. Not to mention if one part breaks it affects everything. And as been said Alienware is too pricy for what you get. I'm a big fan of using local shops when I can. Almost every town of any size will have one or two. They can help you pick out something in your price range and can help you out in the future if you have a problem or want to upgrade. I'd at least check it out before I spent any money.