However, like thin clients, these PCs all ship with ethernet capability and are not intended to stand alone. Some models can sit upright, flat or even be mounted on a wall. Most do not even have serial or parallel ports. The idea is to reduce the total cost of ownership by offering simplified designs that are easy for IT departments to implement and maintain. Dividing the PC into easily replaceable parts, such as an external power supply and a hard drive inserted under a hatch in a box containing the motherboard, means that if one of these three components fails, support staff can easily come along and replace it.
Upgrades work the same way and downtime is minimal.
There are also some new security features. For example, HP's e-Vectra features a physical lock to prevent unauthorised users booting the PC and allows network administrators to monitor which devices are plugged into the system. Apart from simplifying inventories, this can also reduce theft. They are best combined with LCD monitors, the high price of which defeats the purpose of a simplified, cheaper design. Like the iMac, none of these new designs feature a floppy disk drive, but as they are intended to be part of large networks, this isn't really a handicap.