Must Buy New System Within 24 Hours Help Please?

A

Alaska Wolf

Weaksauce
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Dec 28, 2008
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I have a relative in Scottsdale Arizona who is elderly. His 9 year old Gateway has died the final death. He wants me to select a new tower and monitor for him. He ONLY wants to purchase it from Best Buy. My entreaties to look elsewhere have failed.

He will use the system to do basic surfing and e-mail. I'd like the monitor to be 23" or bigger as his eyesight is failing and was hoping a larger screen would allow for larger text, and generally easier reading.

His budget max's out at $750. That must cover the tower, monitor, and perhaps speakers. Keyboard and mouse is already covered.

I would REALLY appreciate it if the brain power here could help me make a god recommendation for him! I prefer Intel chips but would like all feedback!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Computers-PCs/Computer-Monitors/abcat0509000.c?id=abcat0509000

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Desktop-Computers/Desktop-Packages/pcmcat212600050011.c?id=pcmcat212600050011

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Desktop-Computers/Towers+Only/pcmcat212600050008.c?id=pcmcat212600050008


Thank you all very much!
 
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Any of the packages in your second link would be fine.
For simple PC usage I would go with this one
Compaq Presario CQ5814
Modern graphics ability, current technology and low cost. Feel free to decide otherwise :)
 
wtourist said:
Would say Lenovo K330b77471TU and Dell 23 SR2320L $459 and $180
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I second this. Also consider that in store they may have additional packages that aren't reflected on their website. Get whichever 23" is bundled with it. Do you have someone in Scottsdale to help set this up? Windows 7 is just different enough from XP that it can require an adjustment phase (my grandfather begrudgingly made the switch, and while he figured it out, it required some hand holding in the beginning.)

I would also consider Athlon II x4 or Phenom II x4 chips in this price range. Your best bet is going to be calling the store your buyer will purchase at and talk to someone there to figure out exactly what they have. They'll probably even put one on hold for you so it'll be ready to buy.
 
he's not willing to give you the money and have you build it for him? you always end up overpaying at retail stores for something way less quality
 
your elderly person is an idiot. there's a fry's electronics with (somewhat) better prices end a way better selection a short drive away.
 
For basic use, your best bet is a dual or quad-core Athlon build, which can be done for <$300.
 
 
I'm not going to say he got a great deal money wise but he did walk away with a decent computer in terms of specs. Over 9 years the cost difference will be negligible.
 
Thanks! I would have preferred to order the parts and build one for him. But he was impatient. And I'm in Alaska and they are in Arizona...
 
There was nobody closer to you that could do it? I would think there's at least one guy in Alaska qualified.
 
Get a big monitor. Old people have decayed brains (sorry) and so (from my observation) prefer small monitors, and then as a result they're always struggling to see the screen, because they have decayed eyes. Then they want the resolution low and the icons/fonts large, to the point that the computer is difficult to use.

Get a cheap computer. Old people don't do much beyond email. The cheapest desktop at Best Buy is all they need.
 
Stone Cold said:
Get a big monitor. Old people have decayed brains (sorry) and so (from my observation) prefer small monitors, and then as a result they're always struggling to see the screen, because they have decayed eyes. Then they want the resolution low and the icons/fonts large, to the point that the computer is difficult to use.

Get a cheap computer. Old people don't do much beyond email. The cheapest desktop at Best Buy is all they need.
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Actually, that is not the right way to do this: The only big monitors that look good at low resolutions are those huge, electricity-guzzling CRT monitors. Modern LCDs look absolutely HORRIBLE at anything besides their native resolution - some worse than others. And the only LCDs that look anywhere close to acceptable at lower resolutions are those that actually make the image area much, much smaller (as in a tiny image surrounded by a huge black or gray windowbox) when the resolution is reduced. As a result, with an LCD monitor, lower resolutions, if anything, actually cause further deterioration of an elderly person's vision due to their generally piss-poor scaling performance (in fact, I found text even more unreadable than it already was when I lowered the resolution from its native 1920x1200 to 800x600 or 640x480 - at that latter resolution, the text did become enlarged, but it was turned into one big, nearly totally unreadable blob).

That said, Windows 7 does have a provision to magnify everything on the screen by as much as 50 percent over the default size. The screen resolution remains at its native size - but everything else will look as if a 1920x1080 screen were run at 1440x810 without the image-quality-damaging scaling.
 
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Stone Cold said:
Get a big monitor. Old people have decayed brains (sorry) and so (from my observation) prefer small monitors, and then as a result they're always struggling to see the screen, because they have decayed eyes. Then they want the resolution low and the icons/fonts large, to the point that the computer is difficult to use.

Get a cheap computer. Old people don't do much beyond email. The cheapest desktop at Best Buy is all they need.
Click to expand...

I think everyone should get a big monitor, not just old people. I'm also not sure where you're coming from with the decayed brains thing... And my nearly 80 grandfather doesn't need the cheapest desktop at Best Buy. His dual monitor setup that he spends 8 hours a day on and he wants to keep for as long as possible means he can't cheap out (but don't mistake him for being a computer expert, oh the horrors of being his tech support family member *shudders*). I know he's an isolated case, but I would argue that most people should not get the cheapest desktop at Best Buy. Consider all the crapware on it plus how IE runs like a dog. While they could install Firefox or Chrome, a lot won't, and a lot also don't have anyone to take the crapware off it.

E4g1e said:
That said, Windows 7 does have a provision to magnify everything on the screen by as much as 50 percent over the default size. The screen resolution remains at its native size - but everything else will look as if a 1920x1080 screen were run at 1440x810 without the image-quality-damaging scaling.
Click to expand...

+1 to this. Windows needed it a long time ago, but I highly recommend enabling this setting for anyone who complains of text being too small.
 
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