RM One 310 review

With its heavy-duty plastic chassis the new RM One doesn’t have much style, but feels like it will take any punishment the classroom can throw at it.

It’s in the childproofing department that the RM One stands out: the screen is covered by a thick coat of plastic; the power button is reinforced; and the base has a number of rollers that allow the unit to easily rotate. Four USB ports, headphone and mic sockets and a volume dial are all provided at the front of the all-in-one PC, so there’s no need for students to reach around the back – and the speakers can be disabled at a flick of a switch.

You’ll find a further six USB ports, a DVI port and a Gigabit Ethernet port hidden behind a small metal panel at the rear. The panel ensures the ports and mice and keyboard plugs are protected from small hands – although one of the USB ports is occupied by the built-in webcam. We’d have liked to have seen USB 3 connectivity and there’s no onboard Wi-Fi, but neither is a deal- breaker for most schools.

The 19in 1,440 x 900 screen isn’t the RM One’s greatest feature. Image quality is passable: colours look washed out and the contrast is poor. On the plus side, it’s height-adjustable so you can easily move it to suit the needs of the user; it can also be locked at a certain height if you so desire.

Our review unit featured a Core i5-2500 processor running at 3.3GHz and 2GB of RAM, but these can both be customised to your requirements. Performance is generally good, but we noticed the RM One struggling with any task that was memory intensive; this was reflected in a benchmark score of 0.82. An upgrade to 4GB of RAM will help to get a more balanced system. Almost uniquely in an all-in-one, the RM One also has three half-height PCI slots for expansion.

In some respects, the RM One 310 is the perfect all-in-one classroom PC – it’s tough, incredibly well thought out, and unlike most rivals includes on-site cover. The price is high and performance and connectivity could be better, but if you want a PC that’s as close as possible to being childproof, this is it.

Author: Jamie Stephens