Cheapest build for my 65 year old aunt to read email

[DannyITR]

I just need a tower with no peripherals. I was considering a refurb from a local store (in Canada btw)


Intel P4 3.0Ghz cpu
1 GB Ram DDR
DVD Rom / CD Burner
40 GB Hard Drive
Sound, Lan, USB Ports
Windows XP Pro (new fresh installation)

$269.99 + tx = $305

Then I went on NCIX and made this, Can you tell me if the parts match and maybe suggest less expensive options?

Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 Dual Core Processor LGA775 2.5GHZ 800FSB 2MB Retail Box $82.86
ASUS P5KPL-CM mATX Intel G31 LGA775 1PCI-16 1PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Video Sound GBLAN Motherboard $56.39
Kingston ValueRAM KVR667D2N5/2G PC2-5300 2GB 1X2GB DDR2-667 240PIN DIMM Memory $30.59
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB 8.9MS Hard Drive OEM 3YR MFR Warranty $58.91
Samsung SH-S222A/BEBE 22X Dual Layer DVD Writer Black IDE OEM $33.57
Powercolor Radeon HD 3450 Fanless 600MHZ 512MB 667MHZ DDR2 PCI-E HDMI Low Profile Video Card $33.99

Total: $296.11
Case with power supply (local) $50
Shipping $16.50
Total: $362.61

So for $55 more I get a Dual Core instead of a P4. Thoughts?

[DannyITR]

Crap I forgot the OS. Vista Home basic OEM is $115

[Alaron]

Skip the video card, that motherboard has onboard video.

Also, go with a SATA burner instead of IDE.

What is the case/psu combo you're planning to get? A quality power supply is important.

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by DannyITR Crap I forgot the OS. Vista Home basic OEM is $115

You can always use some version of linux; ubuntu is pretty good and is very easy to set up and use if it's just for basic things like internet and email. With linux you also don't need to worry about anti-virus and anti-spyware.

[DannyITR]

Thanks guys. I'll keep paying around.

[David M]

Keep it simple for her. If all she needs is email then I would buy a netbook for a few hundred dollars. They start out at about $250. You can buy a good enough one for $300.

She will also have a technical support number to call when she has questions or problems.

For someone who is not a computer savvy, I would stay away from Linux.

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by David M Keep it simple for her. If all she needs is email then I would buy a netbook for a few hundred dollars. They start out at about $250. You can buy a good enough one for $300. She will also have a technical support number to call when she has questions or problems. For someone who is not a computer savvy, I would stay away from Linux.

For most older people, a netbook is too small in both the size of the keyboard and the size of the screen. A notebook can be had for about the same price as a netbook but will have considerably larger screen and keyboard and usually is faster as well. A desktop also is a good option.

Regarding linux (especially ubuntu), it is very easy to use for basic tasks like email as everything will be pre-installed (apps and drivers will all be installed as you install the operating system). The user interface is also quite user friendly, there are less security risks with linux and the installation of the OS is very simple. I'm not very used to linux having used (and still using) primarily windows, however for basic tasks, I found linux to work very well and without difficulty. Windows should be used if there are specific programs (such as games) which are made for windows; it is possible to run windows programs on linux, however the stability and performance is usually significantly lower. If using multi-platform programs such as firefox, openoffice and VLC, linux will handle them very well, sometimes a good amount better than windows.

[systempat]

If it's really for e-mail - and maybe a little inthernet - Go for an AMD build. The Sempron 140 in an AM760 motherboard. I priced out a build for around 250. Run the integrated video and it would only need a 250w power supply, and it can go in a slim micro-atx case.
Still need to add keyboard, mouse, monitor and OS.

[alfie2]

Danny, you forgot to add a case/PSU.($50 or so)

this week and this week only, NCIX has a sale on for

combo of E5200+Gigabyte G41 mobo+2Gb ram for only $149.99 Canadian:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...5&promoid=1055

500GB seagate 7200.12 for $49.99:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...0&promoid=1055


that will go a long way for reducing the price of the system, above.

[brizey]

Monitor? Will add another $100 for an el cheapo.

[DannyITR]

She doesn't need any peripherals. I also think I can get a case + PSU for under $40 locally.

[bucksfanjimj1]

http://www1.ca.dell.com/ca/en/home/d..._dt_cat_en_1~~

Swap out Vista Home Basic for Vista Home Premium/free W7 upgrade. Total $489 Canadian before taxes and shipping.

[DannyITR]

Originally Posted by bucksfanjimj1 http://www1.ca.dell.com/ca/en/home/d..._dt_cat_en_1~~ Swap out Vista Home Basic for Vista Home Premium/free W7 upgrade. Total $489 Canadian before taxes and shipping.

Thats about $200 more than the second hand system I listed.

I was able to put together an AMD dual core system including shipping and Vista homebasic off NCIX for about $400. I may try to find a Vista license off ebay in which case that would put the cost in the mid $300s and only about $50 or so more than the Penium 4.

[bucksfanjimj1]

Do you have your build list finalized? Does it include the monitor and OS? Are you planning on reusing your aunt's old monitor? I haven't seen a final list with prices yet. Just trying to save you some headaches and time that's all.

[DannyITR]

As I mentioned there is no need for any peripherals. I think I've finalized it to my liking:

Kingston ValueRAM KVR667D2N5/2G PC2-5300 2GB 1X2GB DDR2-667 240PIN DIMM Memory $30.59
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB 8.9MS Hard Drive OEM 3YR MFR Warranty $58.91
Samsung SH-S222A/BEBE 22X Dual Layer DVD Writer Black IDE OEM $33.57
AMD Athlon II X2 240 Dual Core Processor Socket AM3 2.8GHZ 2MB Cache 65W Retail Box $77.59
Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 AMD740G mATX AM2+/AM3 1PCI-EX 2PCI SATA2 RAID VGA Sound GLAN DVI Motherboard $65.30

Total with shipping $282.29

Case + PSU (local cheap from store ~$35)
Found a Vista Basic key on ebay for $66.

Total: $383.29.

[systempat]

That looks good. While I don't like Vista Basic it will work. The part prices look a little funny. This is in Canadian$ ? What is the rate nowadays, I think it slipped back under 1.00 a while ago.....

Pat

[DannyITR]

Tower turned out to be $50 and Vista $86 so new total is $418.

[Alaron]

Get a SATA burner, IDE is out of date tech.

What is the power supply in the tower you bought? A low quality unit will just cause problems.

[Prince324]

How about $0 to $30? Then maybe 10 minutes to set it up once you get the hang of it and minimal support thereafter.

Once you stop laughing you might want to check this out.

I do this a lot for retired people here in Florida and they are very happy with what I give them. They see others struggling with their new Dell's, HP's etc while their own computers from me just plain work and much faster than those with Windows! I've already boxed up two new Dells and sent them back for neighbors after they had talked for hours and hours with their tech support.

Get at least this:
Ram: 256mb HD: 2G CD drive These are not hard minumums.
Old laptops work nicely too. If the laptop is missing a hard drive get an IDE to CF adapter and a CF card for a solid state hard drive. I got an 8gb CF and adapter at www.dealextreme.com for under $25 shipped. The laptop, an old Gateway Solo without a hard drive, was $5. It works great, fast, and with many, many fewer problems than WIN machines.

Computer: Pentium II and up work best. Cost $0 to $15
Monitor: Salvage, thrift store, etc. $0 to $15
Operating System with all apps: $0 OK, a dime for a CD!!
Puppy Linux: www.puppylinux.com is the primary source site.

Just go there, download the iso, and burn the iso to a cd. Plop it in the CD drive and boot from it, even with an old Windows OS on the hard drive. It loads into memory. Once booted you will likely have sound and you can get internet connectivity directly, dial-up, wired lan, and wifi. This is called "running via live CD".

You can practice this on your Windows machine safely since it just boots into memory. You can save your session safely too, since its "partition" is just a file that acts like a partition. The "saved partition" just co-exists with Windows as a file.

Now you have two OS's and a recovery disk for when your Windows is messed up. So you get something out of this for yourself too! Puppy can read on fat, ntsc, and linux partitions so you can navigate thru your WIN files.
Dual system: Windows: no CD. Puppy: CD.

Then on the old computer I use Puppy to format the hard drive because I don't want that crappy old OS, and I make a swap partition too (2X ram is a good size). Talk about cheap memory!! Then shut down and on the way down it asks about saving a partition (its actually a file that acts like a partition say like you may have seen with Truecrypt). Just say yes and finish.

You are pretty much done at this point.

From now on just keep the CD in the drive and boot from it. On those old machines, you likely have to go into bios config to set the boot order, i.e. CD then floppy then HD,

They can read email and do all normal computer stuff with the built in apps. It just works and all apps and drivers are there in the 100 mb CD. The Mozilla browser, SeaMonkey (Netscape Navigator open source) is a charm There's a built in firewall and after weeks of my own use on this system all over the internet, there is no malware so forget about ponderous anti-malware and the long burdensome scans. But if you like malware scans, there is one built in too. Burn blue-rays? Rip CD's? Copy CD's? No problem!!! It's way more capability that any aunt of mine would use!

What you need to know is very well documented in the Help and the forum linked from Puppy's home page.

I've tried the popular Linux distros, but this is the one that works pretty much out of the box fitting on a CD at about 100mb. I use it myself and could not care less about new offerings at Dell and Microsoft.

I recommended these Puppy Linux versions at this date:
4.1.2 at <= 400 mhz and 4.2.1 at higher mhz
This is not critical. Just try them out.

Or just do a search for Puppy Linux on www.youtube.com and you can see it. First watch the Puppy Linux Song, then a few others. Then maybe believe it!!

[rwest]

I just got off of work at Walmart, and saw a Dell for S298.00 bucks. Included is a 2.7gig celly with 2g of ram and a 320 hdd. Sounds llike it'd be right up her alley. I didn't have time to look at it further just the quicki specs on the box.

Sure the celeron is a single core, but it's a complete system with a 19" monitor.