Striking looks and great hardware, all from a single monitor chassis
The all-in-one machines we’ve tested in the past have been ARM-based, Android-driven systems, which although good are a somewhat limited when compared to ‘proper’ PCs. Plus they’re really nothing more than giant, glorified tablets.
We were therefore looking forward to getting our hands on the latest Mono all-in-one unit from Quiet PC, a system that boasts proper PC innards without compromising on style or functionality.
The Mono AIO is an exceptionally neat system built around the Mono chassis, into which you can fit conventional PC components, including high-end graphics cards. The chassis comes in three sizes (21", 23.6" and 27"), with each having a 1080 HD TN panel with a dynamic contrast ratio of 20,000,000:1 and a contrast ratio of 1000:1, with a response time of 5ms for the 21" and 23.6" models and 3.4ms for the 27" version.
The rear of the screen, however, is where the magic takes place. Behind the panel you’ll find a vented plastic cover, where you can fit a mini-ITX motherboard complete with PSU, storage and graphics card. The 23.6" model we have to test featured a Gigabyte GA-H97NWIFI motherboard, with an Intel Core i3-4360 3.7GHz processor, and 8GB of Crucial memory driving a choice of operating systems from Ubuntu to Windows 8.1 Pro.
As well as that, Quiet PC has also included a Sapphire AMD R7 250 Ultimate Edition fanless 1GB GDDR5 graphics card, a 250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, and an FSP 500W 80+ PSU. The result is a perfectly capable system, which scores 2,097 in the 3DMark benchmark and 4,106 in PCMark 8.
The performance of the machine is certainly more than adequate for everyday computing and, to some extent, a spot of gaming. But it’s the quality of this system that makes it stand out from the crowd.
The design is very Apple-like in its approach, with a highquality screen mounted on a stark white bezel that cunningly hides the controls for brightness, PC power and a pair of 3W stereo speakers. There’s even an extra USB port tucked into one corner of the screen and room for a slimline optical drive. The stand has minimal tilt and no height adjustment unfortunately, but it’s raised enough to be comfortable when sat in front of you on your desk.
The PC components around the back of the screen are whisper quiet. Even with your ear pressed firmly against the plastic housing, you can barely hear anything from inside the well ventilated area. Speaking of which, it’s also a remarkably cool running PC. After running through the various benchmarks, there was very little heat being pushed out from the rear of the unit – unlike some all-in-one machines we’ve tested in the past, which felt like there was a hairdryer running behind the screen.
The quality of the screen is excellent, displaying a rich blend of deep colours and enough brightness to distinguish images and text clearly with a higher than average level of clarity. However, should you require more monitor coverage, then the beauty of this setup is that you can easily add another one or two screens through the graphics card’s connections. In most cases the HDMI port is fed through to the screen, leaving the other connections, extra HDMI or DisplayPort free to hook up to an extra monitor.
Using the Mono AIO makes you forget that underneath everything is still a traditional PC, so it can be upgraded and tweaked. As long as a new graphics card or extra hard drive can fit into the housing without compromising the cooling, then you can expand the system.
It’s a stylish setup, and if you include the Microsoft Wireless 3000 keyboard and mouse kit as well, then you’ll have a matching set of black-and-white peripherals with the Mono AIO. Naturally, you can opt to configure different components from the Quiet PC Mono all-in-one site. With prices starting from just £689 and rising to well over £2,000 with virtually every option added, the Mono AIO system can cover a vast range of user’s needs.
We liked the Quiet PC Mono all-in-one. There’s enough power from the base system to enjoy gaming, as well as contend with everyday duties, and it’s an excellent looking machine as well. An interesting and well-designed system that’s worth every penny. David Hayward
Stylish and capable, with a great screen and exceptional design.