32" VanGuard II Gamer | PCSPECIALIST

32" VanGuard II Gamer


I've been looking at the two 32" AIO machines, this VanGuard and the Devcon. I have read the positive OC3D review of the Devcon, but I haven't been able to find any information or opinions about the VanGuard and it's a shame because on paper I prefer it. Does anybody have first-hand experience of it that they could share? I'm especially interested in the quality of the screen when viewing off-centre, noise levels, and overall build quality. Thank you!


Multiverse Poster
If it is an option I would suggest a desktop + separate monitor as it would be easier to upgrade, less noisy and depending on the quality of the case cooler.


Multiverse Poster
Not many people seem to get AIOs, or at least if they do they don't often post on the forums. From a specs point of view I wouldn't recommend either of those (no i7s for one thing, or Ryzen options yet). But can't comment on the screen I'm afraid.


New member
I'm curious too, about the 32" Vanguard All In One. A bit surprising there isn't any review here or anywhere else online.


I’ve just ordered the 32” Vanguard- I will certainly give a report back with photos and my first impressions and details of the specs I have ordered. I think that the Vanguard can do with some exposure.

I know there are many in this forum that have strong opposing views with respect to all-in-ones.
ive got an all in one now , but its from 2012 , its served me well but am buying a £3300 package from here , did you pay outright or on finance ?


Multiverse Poster
I usually encourage people considering All-In-Ones to at least consider a desktop with separate monitor, for a number of reasons. But I wouldn't describe myself as existentially opposed to them ;)

Padster, if you want to post up your spec that you've ordered in a separate topic (plus the price and your intended use for the spec), people can always look it over and suggest tweaks that may maximise value. There can often be ways to milk more value out of the configurators.
yes i wouldnt reccommend an all in one , after my experience using them , tough to upgrade , limited components to do so , they get hot , not good airflow at all , that being said my hp touchsmart 520 1190ea has served me well 6 years , only problem is the incredibly loud noise of the fan now sounds like a jumbo jet , cant wait for my monumental upgrade from pc specialist yipeeeeeeeee !
ive been using an all in one for 6 years hp touchsmart 520 1190ea , they get hot , they get noisy , they are hard to upgrade , there is limted choice of upgrade components , im getting a beast from here but honestly man listen , i wouldnt get an all in one , i know they seem convenient but if id known back then when i paid £1000 for this i would have got a standard desktop then been able to upgrade it from time to time , trust me man , get a desktop


I used to have the AIO of the 32" Devcon and I loved it, I must admit, I have since built it into a desktop due to upgrading my GPU and future upgrades. I would however consider a future AIO again ,as I love the clean look it provides.


Hi all :) thank you for updating the thread.

Since I first posted, the 32" Devcon has been removed from the store. Padster, I'll be very interested in your experience with the Vanguard, the lack of reviews in general is surprising. I'm currently looking at the 34" Fusion and saving up pennies, because there's so much more information out there about its Loop chassis.

For those still wondering why anyone would pay a 50% premium over a desktop setup for the same components, it's a packaging issue. Where I have space for a computer, I need something both visibly and practically tidy. I use a laptop now but I very rarely take it out of the house, so the AIO's larger screen and higher performance with the same lack of many cables make it appealing.


Bronze Level Poster
Interesting thread. I too am looking at a replacement laptop having had heat issues with the Defiance V. I tend to game in the dining room (hence the laptop lol), so an all in one i could just lift from a cupboard and put on there, is something I'm just now looking at. 2k screen on the Vanguard though requires more than a 1060 I'd have thought, so maybe the Vega cards? I've not had an none nVidia card for some time though, remember driver issues with my last AMD/ATI cards.


Multiverse Poster
If you don't need to take it out of the house, have you considered just getting a gaming PC and using Steam in home streaming to play the game on another laptop/system? PC can live in another room, and you can stream to the laptop on the kitchen table. Any old laptop will do, more or less.


I am intrigued by this. I have a lab server at home which is powerful from a CPU and RAM perspective but obviously has a very basic GPU. Kind of wondering if I threw in a semi-decent GPU if I could stream using this. Hmm might have to buy a cheapish GPU and give it a try. Might even be able to make it a virtual machine with GPU passthrough.

Edit: I've been toying with flogging the Defiance as I am using it less and less lately due to having a company provided laptop and it seems a shame to have it sat around in the laptop bag doing nothing.


Multiverse Poster
The additional demand on the PC running the game to stream it in-house appear to be trivial. If the PC's powerful enough to run the game, it's going to encode it for streaming on your home network without you noticing a performance difference. The requirements for the client are even more trivial, which is why there are things like Steam Link boxes, and why there are steam link apps for select smart TVs and now even android mobile (and iOS, until Apple pulled it for.. reasons..).

In-home streaming via a gigabit ethernet connection (or at least something not limited to 100mbps) is ideal in my experience, especially for streaming more demanding titles at higher fidelity. Although if you find yourself streaming a game like Witcher 3 at very high quality and uncap the bandwidth that in-home streaming uses, you will start getting a bit of latency to your gameplay. You might even find the latency unmanageable before you hit 100mbps anyway. Without the bandwidth uncapped or set very high, you may notice some loss of fidelity, particularly in darker parts of the image (still talking about very demanding titles like Witcher 3). But in other games like Borderlands you'll be hard pressed to see the difference even if you go looking.

There are options for the host and client to tweak the experience. Here are mine. They are not carefully managed, they're just whatever they were set to the last time I was tinkering, I don't in-home stream on this system these days.


If you're interested you can see what it's like running a game on your Defiance as the host, with your lab server PC running as the client.

It might not be entirely representative of what it will be like running in home streaming with your lab server + beefy GPU running as the host in the future. i.e., if your Defiance has only a 970M this would limit the settings you could run more demanding titles at, and possibly make bandwidth less of an issue. Assuming that running a game at lower settings needs less bandwidth to stream it ofc.

Note that the client system only needs a Steam installation, it does not need to run the game or even be capable of running the game. For instance we used to Steam games from a system rocking an i7 4790k, GTX 970, and Windows 10, to a system with a G3258, GTX 670, and Ubuntu. It wasn't a problem that if the game didn't have Linux support, the client only needed to run Steam.

Eventually we knocked that on the head and used a Steam Link instead as it was easier, but that's not going to be the right solution for everyone.
Last edited: