CPU for Grandma

[Paperlantern]

you have nostalgic memories of xp i see.
xp on such a slow machine was nothing close to dreamy, it was not good at all, add in antivirus and todays flash ridden webpages and that thing will run like sh*t. esp with someone that isn't knowledgable enough to keep their system clean and well maintained. never mind xp's broken ass gui dpi settings.

ram, is so cheap it doesn't matter, you don't save money there. if gran doesn't ever shut the thing down or doesn't know the difference between shut down and standby it will do fine, even better since caching will improve performance.

anyone suggesting xp for an older person now is out of their mind.

I disagree, my parents are in thier 50's and up until only about 6 months ago, were using a PIII 1GHz machine with 512 MB RAM i built for them eons ago, until one virus slipped by the AV it ran FINE for everything they did. When the virus dropped and tore up the machine, they bought a Vista machine from a friend, 8 times as much memory and easily 4 to 5 times the processor and they hated it. They said it ran slow compared thier old one. To me that said something. Course I could probably have cleaned up the vista install if i lived close, but sadly i only see them once a year and havnt been there since theyve bought it yet. They ha me take an older laptop i had laying around here, load XP on it and ship it to them so they didn't have to deal with the vista machine as often. I told them 7 is better and maybe i'll reload thier vista machine with it when i come out to visit in May, but until then heres the laptop.

Its all about what you do with it, if granny ONLY does skype, e mail and solitaire, then NO, you WILL NOT be out of your mind to prescribe a 1.9GHz single core, with 1.25GB of RAM and an 80GB HDD... it will fit her needs PERFECTLY for several years. Flash doesnt use that much resources. I have a 1.2Ghz PIII laptop that has xp on it that sits on my bench that i use for driver downloads and research when i'm working on a client's machine, never have an issue.

If my parents, the kings of clueless when it comes to computers, can use a PIII into late 2009 i think a 2600+ will be fine for a good while yet to come. Sadly that machine would still be in service if the virus hadnt gotten it.

 

[MrK6]

I'll agree with the OEM suggestion. Grab something like this Zino HD from Dell in her favorite color and be done with it: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...ua1&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&kc=inspiron-zino-hd . Basically, it's damn near impossible to beat the quality, fit and finish of an OEM for bottom-dollar machines. They get bottom-dollar supplier prices, you don't. The other thing you have to keep in mind, as others have mentioned, is most of the hardware available today is complete overkill for what most users need, and you'll waste money getting it (even for parts we consider to be "budget" or "entry-level"). A lot of people that come to me to build a new computer for them because their old one is "slow," I'll end up asking them what they do with their computer and what they're looking to get out of a new one. Most answer "oh internet browsing, the kids type papers, etc." and their 5 year old OEM comp is still more than sufficient for such activities. 9/10 times I just clean house/defrag/remove malware or at most reformat and reinstall Windows and people are "amazed" by the speed increase (especially if I short stroke the HDD). The other 10% of the time I install some extra RAM or a new mid-level video card because "I want to play games," which usually means WoW or the Sims, and again, people are amazed.

To most users, the PC is actually the monitor, and the actual case/tower is a "magic box." If you replace that old "magic box" with a nice, sleek, new one, they'll be very impressed. Guaranteed, if you get one of those Zino HD's (which are really tiny, like 8"x8"), in bright red (let's say Grandma's favorite color is red), she'll be tickled pink. Oh, make sure you pick the dual core CPU though, it comes stock with a single core.

 

[Davidh373]

oh, she'll need that 4 gb after she fills it with malware

Totally... Old people just click on all the flashing lights and pretty buttons...

 

[Pederv]

My mom's a grandma and I set her up with:
Athlon II 620
4GB RAM
4670 ATI Video
Gigabyte 770 motherboard
Win XP

It's a nice jump in speed from a:
2200 Athlon XP
2GB RAM
7500 ATI Video
Win 2K

Is it over-kill for what she uses it for? Sure it is, but I would rather have her system be fast enough so that she'll use it and I don't get stuck scanning all of the family photos to DVD.

 

[Fayd]

atom is slow. nothing more annoying to old people than clicking and nothing happening..they click..and click..and click..
u know its true

atom isnt slow for the listed tasks...

 

[ghouck]

A CPU for Grandma? Sounds like a good trade to me