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SFF PC for clueless old lady

K

kilroyc

n00b
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
13
Hey -

My mother in law needs a new PC, and she wants it in her kitchen, so i'm thinking SFF.

She has minimal technology skills (i'm her tech support and i want to minimize this).

So even though i build my own machines myself, i want to get some feedback on whether Dell, HP, Gateway, whoever has put out some quality SFF boxes that are cheap.

I just need WinXP, 256MB ram (512 is fine), a DVD drive, and 80GB hdd. Real basic, she checks email and surfs the web. occassional word doc is open.

THanks
 
come on man live a little, screw dell, i credit them well for making e-commerce what it is today, yet i despise them overall for their practices.

aopen mini pc.......I just built one, great little system, insanely small, great for mounting anywhere you desire, wireless, dvi, get yourself a 10" touchscreen from logicsupply.com and it would be a hot setup.

of course you could always talk her into buying that fridge with the built in LCD for some emailing etc.

best of luck, think small......think independent.
 
I used to do tech support for the old people in my family. After months of calls about the any key, I purchased Dells for them.

Why? 24 hour tech support done by somebody else. This turns out to be very important. Apparently, my old people never sleep.

I even saved Dell a step by giving them a note that says reboot when they have a problem.
 
Wondernerd said:
I used to do tech support for the old people in my family. After months of calls about the any key, I purchased Dells for them.

Why? 24 hour tech support done by somebody else. This turns out to be very important. Apparently, my old people never sleep.

I even saved Dell a step by giving them a note that says reboot when they have a problem.
Click to expand...
i agree, just go with a dell. they provide the tech support, the warranty should make your mother in law feel more comfortable about her purchase, and the costs for budget systems doesn't vary much when comparing oem's vs building your own.
 
Get a Dell. They have some nice slim models.

I agree being tech support for your family gets old real quick.
 
I'm on the bandwagon with everyone else here. Being family tech support made me hate my family so I stopped doing it. Dell makes some really small models and the extended warrenty has in home repair service. I would also suggest making an image of the computer as soon as you set it up for them. That way you can restore it quickly and not have to redo setttings.
 
Fully agree. Tech support for the family gets old real quick.

Thats what 2 and 3 year service contracts are for.

Dell slimline desktop with a 15 or 17" LCD and she will be good to go for under 5 c-notes.
 
I don't have a problem with family support, my family seems clued up abit and only really bother me if its desperate. They prefer my support as well as I use www.logmein.com to remotely administer problems quickly and easily. Very rare I have to do so and had no hardware issues on any of the systems i've brought for family.

Get at least 512MB of ram though as its so cheap, even if it means buying with 256 and adding another from crucial so you don't get stung by dells stupid memory prices
 
um, Mac mini and an LCD?

If all she's doing is email and web surfing. You could put XP on it if you like, but why would you do that on purpose? :D
 
Dell saves lives...atleast the lives of computer smart people who have families.
 
mrweasel said:
um, Mac mini and an LCD?

If all she's doing is email and web surfing. You could put XP on it if you like, but why would you do that on purpose? :D
Click to expand...

Thanks all for the good input.

The whole point of this exercise is to REDUCE my involvement. Teaching somebody an entirely new OS (Mac) is not really going down that road ;)

as awesome as OS X is, it is very different for an older person.

you sir obviously have no clueless old ladies (tm) in your family!

-

anyway last night i made a declaration that i no longer support Windows 98.
 
Dell sells some big ass machines the only SFF they sell starts at $1000 (XPS 200)
I like the idea of building yourself and buying support. Then you can get exactly what you want, Sempron mabey?
 
kilroyc said:
Thanks all for the good input.

The whole point of this exercise is to REDUCE my involvement. Teaching somebody an entirely new OS (Mac) is not really going down that road ;)

as awesome as OS X is, it is very different for an older person.

you sir obviously have no clueless old ladies (tm) in your family!

-

anyway last night i made a declaration that i no longer support Windows 98.
Click to expand...
actually, I do -- MY mother-in-law. Set her up with a mini and a 15" LCD from Wal-Mart. Within five minutes, she was doing everything exactly how she wanted because the OS interface just flows naturally

YMMV, but at least in my case, the old lady had no issues.
 
At times like this I wonder if there is a good non-writable solution to computing... maybe something like xp embedded where it will store configurations and files to a directory and let you hard reset it like a pocket pc to your hearts content.
 
You mean something like the ePods, perhaps? Had expansion slots (PCMCIA) for removeable storage and was just Windows CE
 
A home-built system is not a bad buy with one IMPORTANT caveat:

- Put a DVD burner in it
- Install the OS on a seperate drive from their documents
- BUY NORTON SYSTEM WORKS PREMIER!
- Yes, it's friggin $100, but it will stop them from doing just about *anything* that could break it, and...
- After you get the OS installed, their applications (MS Office, etc), patches and SPs applied...
- GHOST THE OS PARTITION TO DVD BACKUP!!!! (Premier comes with Norton Ghost)

It's $100 more up front, but that's still a HELL of a lot cheaper than buying a Dell - *you* get to pick which components to use - and it's instantly just as reliable a fallback position as Dell would offer. Anything goes wrong with it? Just re-image (and Norton makes it nice and easy to do with a bootable CD and GUI and everything).

It's actually *so* easy, it's what I do for my own system. Who wants to fiddle around trying to get things 'working' again for how many days if something really manages to get horked, when you can be up and running again 15 minutes later with 100% certainty? An OS/application install will *easily* fit on even a single-layer DVD. And you can throw a few of your "must have" games into the backup, too....still on a single disk....if using a dual-layer DVD.
 
Here's one more suggestion that will save you tons of headaches: once you have all the applications set up, create a restricted-rights user for the old woman's use, and make sure that no registry/driver/system file changes can take place from her account. She may not be cruising malware-ridden sites, but there's a very good chance she'll open a nasty email at some point. For her limited needs, no administrative rights of any sort should be necessary.

Oh, and Ghost is a good thing.

Or you could just forget it all and go for a mini...
 
Mohonri said:
Here's one more suggestion that will save you tons of headaches: once you have all the applications set up, create a restricted-rights user for the old woman's use, and make sure that no registry/driver/system file changes can take place from her account. She may not be cruising malware-ridden sites, but there's a very good chance she'll open a nasty email at some point. For her limited needs, no administrative rights of any sort should be necessary.

Oh, and Ghost is a good thing.

Or you could just forget it all and go for a mini...
Click to expand...
'

I tried this on my mom's PC and it was more headache than it was worth. Eventually, she bought a webcam and couldn't install the webcam because she didn't have admin rights. Then, a new version of Firefox came out and she couldn't update because she didn't have admin rights, then WindowsUpdate told her she needed to update to fix a critical exploit, but she couldn't....because she didn't have admin rights.

Sounds good in theory, but MS's gimped up way of handling user permissions gets in the way too much.
 
go to this page and get the semp 3000+/tforce 6100 combo special for $155
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/S...and=1028&Action=search&ExpiredRebate=1&page=5
add 512mb this ram for $30 (i use all the time - have even oc'd it to 255mhz)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820211119

buy this case (white for kitchen) and consider swapping out psu for decent 350watt. $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811153040

floppy, dvd drive, speakers, keyboard/mouse , between $60 and $100 depending on your choices.

newegg had some sony 17" crts on clearance a week or 2 ago, maybe still. around $100 for a great display. i picked up 3.

pc w/o os for around $400. whenever a relative or friend of a friend needs a pc from me, they get something just like this. i usually dont have to fix them. good luck.
 
so it seems like you are going to go with a dell. make sure then that you or your clueless old lady can speak and understand the indonesian tech support people that you will be dealing with from dell.

still better off with DIY....D.I.Y.
 
mrweasel said:
um, Mac mini and an LCD?

If all she's doing is email and web surfing. You could put XP on it if you like, but why would you do that on purpose? :D
Click to expand...

Good thing about Apple is their great tech support. The Mini is a great computer too.
 
i might be the only one thinking this, but if its goin in the kitchen, why not get her a cheap used laptop off of ebay/dell/etc... it would save ALOT of space, and make it light and portable if she wants to move it around ever. if all shes gonna be doin is email and simple net surfing, you dont need anything top of the line really. my old sony pcg-xg500 w/ 256 ram easily does everything i need when it comes to the web. my 2 cents anyway.
 
IffY said:
i might be the only one thinking this, but if its goin in the kitchen, why not get her a cheap used laptop off of ebay/dell/etc... it would save ALOT of space, and make it light and portable if she wants to move it around ever. if all shes gonna be doin is email and simple net surfing, you dont need anything top of the line really. my old sony pcg-xg500 w/ 256 ram easily does everything i need when it comes to the web. my 2 cents anyway.
Click to expand...
that's a really good point, and a really good idea. that's pretty much where I was going when I recommended an ePods
 
OptiPlex GX620 Ultra Small Form Factor.

About 1k with a flat panel. Comes with a burner and DVD combo. Very quiet.
 
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